Polar

Polar is a monetization platform built for developers and open-source maintainers. It provides tools for accepting payments, managing subscriptions, and selling digital products — all with a developer-friendly API and dashboard. Polar handles billing, taxes, and payouts so you can focus on building your product.

Why Polar?

• Developer-first: Built specifically for developers and digital products
• Simple pricing: Straightforward fee structure with no hidden costs
• Subscriptions and one-time payments: Support for recurring billing and single purchases
• Digital product sales: Sell access to APIs, courses, templates, and tools
• Open-source friendly: Special features for monetizing open-source projects
• Global tax handling: Automatic VAT/sales tax collection and remittance

Getting Started

1. Create an Account

Sign up at polar.sh and set up your organization.

2. Create a Product

In the Polar dashboard, create a product with pricing tiers for your SaaS or digital product.

3. Integrate with Your Application

// Using Polar's checkout
const response = await fetch('https://api.polar.sh/v1/checkouts', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.POLAR_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    product_id: 'your-product-id',
    success_url: 'https://yourapp.com/success',
  }),
});

const { url } = await response.json();
// Redirect user to checkout URL

Key Features

• Checkout sessions: Create hosted checkout pages for your products
• Webhooks: Get notified when payments and subscriptions change
• Customer portal: Let users manage their own subscriptions
• Usage-based billing: Charge based on API calls or resource usage
• License keys: Generate and validate license keys for software

Polar vs Stripe

Best Practices

• Use webhooks to sync subscription status with your database
• Implement the customer portal link so users can self-manage subscriptions
• Test with Polar's sandbox environment before going live
• Set up proper error handling for failed payments and expired subscriptions

Resources

• Polar Documentation
• Polar API Reference
• Polar Dashboard