Polar
Polar handles payments, subscriptions, and usage-based billing as the Merchant of Record, with global tax compliance and real-time cost insights for AI-era software companies.
Polar is an open-source alternative to:
Polar
Polar is the Merchant of Record for developers building AI-era software, providing payments, subscriptions, and usage-based billing with global tax handled automatically.
Key Features
- Usage-based billing: Meter tokens, API calls, compute, and storage down to the event level
- Subscriptions: Recurring plans with trials, upgrades, and proration built in
- Seats management: Add, remove, and prorate seats automatically
- Credits system: Prepaid balances that drain as usage flows
- Global tax compliance: Automatic sales tax collection and remittance across 100+ markets
- Real-time cost insights: Track gross margins per customer with live usage and cost data
- Automated payouts: Revenue settles to your bank account on your schedule
- Fraud protection: Chargeback and refund handling managed by Polar
Tech / Self-Hosting
Polar is a fully managed SaaS platform with no self-hosting option. The service handles all infrastructure, compliance, and payment processing requirements. Developers integrate via API or SDK to start billing customers immediately.
Pricing starts free for validation, with paid plans scaling from $20/month for early teams to enterprise solutions with custom pricing.