Polar

KEEP IT

The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.

Selling digital products and subscriptions for developers, acting as merchant of record so sales tax and VAT are handled on your behalf.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is

Understand what you would be taking on before replacing this.

THE ONE THING THAT MATTERS
- Polar is the seller of record. Move to Stripe directly and VAT registration, collection and filing become yours
- That is a tax decision, not an engineering one

IF YOU PROCEED

STACK
- Stripe Checkout and Billing, Stripe Tax, S3-compatible storage, your own webhook handler

ENTITLEMENT
- Read from the Stripe subscription status by webhook; never from a local flag
- One idempotent handler, safe to replay

DELIVERY
- Download tokens tied to the order, presigned URLs valid for minutes, a download cap per token

WHAT TO WRITE DOWN
- Your registration threshold in each country and who watches it
- Without that, the saving is borrowed from a future tax bill

Include the webhook, the token flow and the threshold register.

What you lose

Tax liability sitting with them rather than with you, in every country you sell into
Licence keys, file delivery and subscription management already built
Payouts, refunds and chargebacks handled

If you would rather not build

Lemon Squeezy or Paddle, other merchants of record
Stripe with Stripe Tax, if you take the liability
Gumroad, for the simplest version

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

Killbill

Open subscription billing; handles invoicing, not tax liability.

killbill/killbillfree · open source

Medusa

Commerce backend with digital delivery through plugins.

medusajs/medusafree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

34/100

Verdict no at 34. The software is a weekend; the merchant-of-record position is the product and cannot be rebuilt.

History

tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 days

Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.

Questions about Polar

answered from the record above

Is Polar free?

No — the plan we track is $0 a month. No monthly fee; Polar acts as merchant of record and takes 4% plus 40 cents per transaction.

Can you replace Polar by building your own?

KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 34 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does Polar cost?

$0 a month on Free to use — $0 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing Polar?

Tax liability sitting with them rather than with you, in every country you sell into; Licence keys, file delivery and subscription management already built; Payouts, refunds and chargebacks handled. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Polar?

Yes: Killbill, Medusa. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.

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All 21 in Commerce & contracts

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