What Polar does

Polar is an open-source billing infrastructure platform and Merchant of Record serving AI and SaaS software companies. Founded as Polar Software, Inc. and incorporated in Delaware with a remote-first team across Europe and headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, the company operates polar.sh as a single unified platform that ingests raw usage events, aggregates them via configurable meters, and converts them into invoices — internally described as "billing = fn(events)." The core technology runs on Stripe payment rails and Stripe Tax, is published under Apache 2.0, and ships Python and TypeScript SDKs with framework adapters for Next.js, the Vercel AI SDK, BetterAuth, and Laravel. Feature modules span usage-based billing, subscriptions, per-seat pricing, prepaid credits, trials, discounts, Cost Insights (per-customer revenue, cost, profit, and LTV), a hosted Finance ledger with multi-currency payouts via Stripe Connect Express, and a hosted Checkout supporting cards, PayPal, and ACH.

Polar monetizes primarily through per-transaction fees ranging from 5% + $0.50 on the free Starter tier down to 3.4% + $0.30 on the $400/month Scale tier, plus fixed monthly subscriptions on the Pro ($20), Growth ($100), and Scale ($400) plans. As a Merchant of Record, Polar absorbs international sales tax liability (EU OSS VAT/Ireland, UK VAT, US state registrations) and EU B2B reverse charge on behalf of its suppliers. Its target customers are indie developers, early-stage SaaS startups, AI and usage-based product companies, and open-source maintainers; a Startup Program offers a free year on the Scale tier to qualifying early-stage companies as a land-and-expand lever. Distribution is product-led via self-serve signup and a public, fixed-rate pricing model, supplemented by marketplace listings (Raycast, Framer), mobile companion apps (iOS, Android), and high-touch inside sales reserved for Scale and Enterprise customers. The company has raised a $10M Seed round led by Accel (June 2025) with a syndicate of 25+ strategic angels and was reported to be processing "millions of dollars per month" in digital-goods resale at the time of announcement.

Name

Polar

Legal name

Polar Software, Inc.

Website

https://polar.sh

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Polar is an open-source, event-driven billing platform and Merchant of Record serving AI and SaaS companies, founded by Birk Nilson, with Stripe-based payment infrastructure and a remote-first European team.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Transaction Fees (Take Rate): Variable per-transaction fee charged on every sale processed through Polar Checkout. Tiered rate by plan: Starter 5% + 50¢, Pro 3.8% + 40¢, Growth 3.6% + 35¢, Scale 3.4% + 30¢. Plus +1.5% pass-through for non-US international cards. Primary revenue stream.
2. Subscription Fees for Paid Plans: Fixed monthly fees for Pro ($20/mo), Growth ($100/mo), and Scale ($400/mo) plans that lower the per-transaction rate and unlock prioritized support and a shared Slack channel on Scale.
3. Merchant of Record Reseller Margin: Embedded in the per-transaction fee: Polar acts as reseller of the supplier's digital product and assumes international tax liability (VAT, GST, US sales tax), in exchange for the percentage component of the take rate.
4. Startup Program (Waived / Free): Free year on the Scale plan for qualifying early-stage startups; applied as a discount on what would otherwise be the highest-fee revenue stream, used as a land-and-expand growth lever.
5. Dispute / Chargeback Pass-Through: $15 per dispute deducted from the supplier's balance (passed through from card networks / Stripe, not a Polar profit line). Card-network cross-border fees (0.25%-1%) and Stripe payout fees also passed through at cost.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion5 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Polar provides an open-source, event-driven billing platform that ingests usage events, aggregates them into meters, and produces invoices for SaaS and AI products across subscription, seat-based, credit, and usage-based pricing models. Layered on top, Polar acts as a Merchant of Record, handling international tax compliance (VAT, GST, US sales tax), invoicing, refunds, and payouts to merchants via Stripe payment rails.

Product overview

Polar Software, Inc. operates a single unified open-source billing platform (polar.sh) packaged as a Merchant of Record service. The core platform (Polar Platform) ingests raw events and turns them into metered, billed revenue, and around it Polar offers discrete feature modules — Usage Billing, Subscriptions, Seats, Credits, Trials, Discounts, Cost Insights, and Finance (ledger/payouts) — plus the hosted Polar Checkout buyers interact with at purchase time. Distribution layers include the Polar for iOS and Polar for Android mobile companion apps and plugins for Raycast and Framer, while the Polar Startup Program packages a free year of the Scale tier for early-stage startups. Internal tooling such as the Orbit design system supports Polar's own LLM-assisted UI development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Polar Platform (Open-Source Billing Engine) Event-driven billing engine offered as open-source software that ingests usage events, aggregates them into meters, and produces invoices for SaaS and AI products. Available for self-hosting and as the foundation for Polar Cloud.
• Merchant of Record Service Managed service in which Polar becomes the legal seller of a merchant's product, assuming responsibility for tax calculation/remittance, invoicing, chargebacks, and global payouts to the underlying merchant.
• Polar Checkout Hosted checkout front-end for Polar merchants, enabling customers to purchase subscriptions, seats, credits, or usage packs directly.
• Polar Mobile Apps (iOS and Android) Native iOS and Android applications that allow merchants to monitor sales, customers, and billing activity from mobile devices.

Quantifiable outcome

• Customer revenue growing 120%+ month-over-month on average over the six months preceding the seed announcement
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

AI capability7 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• LovablecoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 13 March 2026Co-hosted the "Prompt a Startup" hackathon at Yasuragi Spa in the Stockholm archipelago on March 13, 2026, with 40 in-person builders plus a virtual track. Anton Osika (Lovable founder) is also a Polar angel investor. The hackathon challenge was to build with Lovable and monetize with Polar over 24 hours.
• Mitchell Hashimoto / GhosttycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 April 2024Joined Polar as a formal advisor on April 2, 2024. Previously built HashiCorp into a public company and is now building Ghostty; cited as a personal inspiration for Polar's open-source monetization mission. He signed up for Polar "one day out of the blue" for his Ghostty project before being invited to advise.
• Stripe, Inc.flagshipTechnology or IntegrationPolar uses Stripe rails for payment processing and Stripe Connect Express for payouts. Stripe Tax is the underlying tax-capture service Polar relies on for Merchant of Record. Stripe is named as the payment-processing partner in the Privacy Policy and on the Payment Processor Partners legal page.
• OpenAI / AnthropiccoreTechnology or IntegrationPolar's LLM ingestion strategy wraps OpenAI-compatible model clients to count prompt and completion tokens automatically. Compatible with the Vercel AI SDK and any model that returns a usage block, including Anthropic and OpenAI.
• Stilla AIcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCustomer and design partner. Polar built nested customer support (organization with member customers) on a rapid timeline for Stilla AI, plus granular customer portal customization. Stilla's founders (Kaj Drobin and Siavash Ghorbani) are also angel investors in Polar.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Broad incumbents

• Stripe: Polar's underlying payment processor and the dominant competitor. Stripe offers Stripe Billing, Stripe Tax, and Stripe Connect — together a superset of Polar's core functionality. Polar is explicitly built 'Stripe on the inside' and competes for the same indie-developer / SaaS billing wallet share.
• Chargebee: Subscription billing management platform for SaaS companies, with strong seat-based pricing and revenue recognition tooling. Polar's Subscriptions and Seats modules target a similar B2B SaaS buyer but at the developer-led, lower-touch end of the segment.
• Recurly: Established subscription billing platform serving mid-market and enterprise SaaS. Polar's Subscriptions and Seats modules compete for the same SaaS-subscription use case with a more developer-first and open-source architecture.

Direct peers

• Paddle: Polar's closest direct peer: a Merchant of Record for SaaS and digital-product sellers, offering global tax compliance, subscriptions, and usage-based billing. Paddle is the established incumbent in the SaaS MoR niche Polar targets, with materially more customers and revenue.
• Lemon Squeezy: Merchant of Record focused on creators and indie developers selling digital products, subscriptions, and license keys. Closely matches Polar's indie/creator positioning and pricing-tier structure; named by Polar itself in comparison pages.
• Gumroad: Long-standing platform for creators and indie developers to sell digital products and subscriptions with built-in tax handling. Overlaps with Polar on indie monetization and is a frequent comparison point in Polar's marketing materials.
• Orb: Usage-based billing platform for AI and API companies, with metering, pricing plans, and invoicing built for token and event workloads. Polar's Usage Billing + LLM Strategy modules target the same AI startup cohort.
• Metronome: Usage-based billing platform designed for high-volume AI and infrastructure products. Polar's event-driven billing and real-time meters compete with Metronome's streaming-usage approach for AI startup customers.
• Lago: Open-source usage-based billing engine targeting the same developer-led, self-hostable positioning as Polar. Strong overlap on pricing flexibility (subscriptions, usage, seats) and on the OSS community angle.
• FastSpring: Merchant of Record for SaaS and digital goods sellers, with global tax and compliance handling. Comparable to Polar on the MoR layer for software products sold globally.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/polar_sh
• GitHubgithub.com/polarsource
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/polar-sh

Compliance6 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Polar