Polar
Open-source billing platform for selling software -- subscriptions, one-time purchases and usage-based pricing, with Polar acting as merchant of record for global sales tax.
- Actively maintained
- Well documented
- Permissive license
Overview
Polar is a billing and payments platform aimed at developers selling digital products and SaaS. It handles checkout, subscriptions, one-time purchases, license keys, file downloads and usage-based billing, and it acts as the merchant of record, so international sales tax and VAT are handled for you instead of being your problem.
The platform itself is open source (Python backend, TypeScript frontend) and comes with SDKs and framework adapters for adding checkout and customer portals to an app in a few lines. A good fit for indie developers and small teams who want Stripe-level billing features without building tax compliance and subscription logic themselves.
Why it's in this catalog
Catalog rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Open-source billing platform acting as merchant of record for software sales; a distinct option next to Lago and Kill Bill in a thin payments category.
- Emerging
- Vendor-backed
- Categories
- Payments
- Languages
- Python, TypeScript
- License
- Apache-2.0
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