Polar

Overview

Polar is a billing stack for software products, combining subscriptions, usage charges, credits, invoicing and merchant-of-record services. It suits teams selling digital products or AI services that need metered billing and tax handling in one system. Its broad billing toolkit is balanced by transaction fees and an important constraint: quota enforcement remains your product’s responsibility.

Key features

Polar turns submitted events into customer meters and adds metered-price line items to the next invoice. Meters can count or sum events, calculate averages and minimums or maximums, and track unique values. Ingestion strategies cover LLM usage, streaming responses, S3-compatible storage, elapsed time and manual event submission; LLM support includes the Vercel AI SDK and compatible models that return usage data. This gives teams several ways to bill for consumption, but metering does not itself stop service when a customer exceeds a quota. Your product must enforce limits separately.

As merchant of record, Polar says it resells products in over 100 markets and handles payments, sales tax, fraud, refunds and chargebacks. Hosted checkout includes localized currencies and sales tax. Automated benefits can deliver usage credits, software license keys, downloads up to 10GB, private GitHub repository invitations, and Discord invitations and roles. That combination is useful for products selling both access and digital goods, rather than billing alone.

Stripe processes payments; Polar says it does not store full card numbers or sensitive payment credentials. Its data processing addendum specifies encryption in transit and at rest, vulnerability scanning, access controls and security logging. Apps are available for iOS and Android, with plugins for Raycast and Framer.

Pricing

Starter is free, charges 5% + 50¢ per transaction, and includes all features to sell with standard support. It is the natural way to start, though its per-transaction rate is higher than the paid tiers.

Pro costs $20/month and charges 3.80% + 40¢ per transaction, with preview access to new features and prioritized support. It fits sellers who value a lower transaction rate and faster support enough to take on a monthly fee. Growth costs $100/month, lowers the rate to 3.60% + 35¢, and includes the same preview access and prioritized support; its economics depend on transaction volume offsetting the higher subscription.

Scale costs $400/month and charges 3.40% + 30¢ per transaction. It adds a shared Slack channel, P1 support and Single Sign-On, making it the tier for teams that need those support and access controls. Across paid plans, the subscription is only part of the cost: compare both the monthly fee and transaction rate against expected sales.

Platforms

Polar supports Android, iOS, web, API and extension platforms. That breadth suits products with app, web or custom integration needs, while the listed mobile apps and Raycast and Framer plugins add entry points beyond a checkout page.

Who it's for

Polar is strongest for AI and other digital-product teams that need subscriptions alongside event-based usage billing, merchant-of-record tax handling and automated delivery of digital benefits. It is less suitable when billing quotas must automatically block usage, or when a seller wants to avoid both transaction fees and a recurring plan charge.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Flexible meter aggregations and ingestion strategies support several consumption-based billing patterns.
• Pro: Merchant-of-record services, localized checkout and automated digital benefits combine commerce and delivery in one stack.
• Pro: Paid tiers reduce transaction rates and Scale adds P1 support, a shared Slack channel and Single Sign-On.
• Con: Quotas do not block usage automatically, so the product must implement enforcement.
• Con: The free tier’s 5% + 50¢ transaction charge can weigh on sellers who do not move to a paid plan.

Alternatives

For a broader category comparison, see Merchant of Record Software.

Choose Gumroad if its direct-sales or marketplace selling model suits you; its stated fees are 10% + $0.50 for profile or direct-link sales and 30% through Discover. Whop may fit high-volume businesses seeking tailored rates and a dedicated account manager. Tebex is worth considering for game sales: its free Starter plan has no monthly fee and charges 5% for most games or 15% for FiveM.

Fungies offers a free-forever plan with no monthly fee, 5% + 50¢ per sale and no per-seat charge, a straightforward alternative for sellers prioritizing those terms. Xsolla suits teams seeking hosted payment processing for standard purchase flows, with no monthly fee or minimum volume and a 5% transaction fee. Creem is another pay-as-you-go option, with no monthly or setup fees and a stated 3.94 USD per successful transaction.

Lemon Squeezy may suit web-only sellers who want ecommerce without a monthly charge; its stated fee is 5% + $0.50 per transaction. Zotlo is a paid alternative with no setup or monthly fees and a stated $20 chargeback fee when a dispute occurs.

Verdict

Polar is a strong fit for digital-product and AI teams that want metered billing, subscription sales, merchant-of-record tax handling and digital delivery under one roof. Its combination is the main reason to choose it; the main reason to look elsewhere is that quota enforcement is left to your product, while transaction fees remain material even on the free plan.