## What is Polar?

Turn your software into a business with Polar. Sell digital products, subscriptions, and more without the hassle of traditional payment systems.

## Beyond Payment Processing

Unlike Stripe that only handles transactions, we provide complete billing infrastructure with tax compliance, product management, and automated access & delivery.

## Merchant of Record

We handle all international tax compliance, so you can sell globally without worrying about VAT, GST, or sales tax regulations.

## Problems We Solve

### Tax Compliance Nightmare

**The Problem**: Selling digital products globally means dealing with VAT, GST, and sales tax in dozens of jurisdictions, each with different rates, rules, and filing requirements. Most developers either ignore this (risky) or avoid international sales entirely.  
**Polar’s Solution**: As your Merchant of Record, we handle all international tax compliance. We calculate, collect, and remit taxes worldwide. You focus on building; we handle the paperwork.

### Complex Billing Infrastructure

**The Problem**: Building subscription billing, product catalogs, customer portals, and payment flows from scratch takes months of development time and ongoing maintenance.  
**Polar’s Solution**: Complete billing infrastructure out-of-the-box with APIs that let you integrate in minutes. No need to build customer portals, handle subscription lifecycle, or manage failed payments.

### Manual Access & Delivery Overhead

**The Problem**: Manually sending license keys, granting repository access, or managing Discord invites for every purchase doesn’t scale and creates delays for customers.  
**Polar’s Solution**: Automated benefit delivery for common developer needs - license keys, file downloads, GitHub repo access, Discord roles, and more. Customers get instant access.

### High Processing Costs

**The Problem**: Traditional MoR solutions charge 5-8% per transaction plus monthly fees, eating into your profits before you even start.  
**Polar’s Solution**: Transparent fee structure starting at 5% + 50¢ per transaction on the free Starter plan, with optional paid plans that lower your rate. We earn when you earn.

## Core Features

### Flexible Product Management

#### One-time Purchases

Sell digital products, courses, templates, or software licenses with instant delivery.

#### Subscriptions

Recurring billing with automatic renewals and dunning management.

#### Flexible Pricing

Fixed price, pay-what-you-want, or free products with optional minimums.

### Powerful Checkout Experience

### Automated Benefits (Entitlements)

**Set it and forget it**: Configure once, and customers get instant access to their benefits automatically. No manual work required.

#### License Keys  
Generate and deliver software licenses automatically with custom formats.

#### File Downloads  
Secure delivery of digital assets up to 10GB with download tracking.

#### GitHub Access  
Auto-invite customers to private repositories and manage permissions.

#### Discord Access  
Automatic role assignment and server invites for community access.

### Global Merchant of Record

- **Worldwide Tax Compliance** - We handle VAT, GST, and sales tax in all jurisdictions.
- **EU VAT Handling** - Proper B2B reverse charge and B2C tax collection.
- **Automatic Tax Calculation** - Real-time tax rates for every transaction.

## Quick Start Guide

1. **Create Your Account**  
Sign up for Polar using GitHub, Google, or email. Create an organization to manage your products and customers.

2. **Create Your First Product**  
Set up a digital product in minutes:
   
- Choose between one-time purchase or subscription
- Set your pricing (fixed, pay-what-you-want, or free)
- Configure automated benefits for instant delivery

3. **Choose Your Integration**  
Pick the approach that fits your needs:
   
- No-Code (Fastest)
- Embedded
- Full API (Maximum Control)

4. **Set Up Webhooks**  
Stay synchronized with customer events:
   
- Configure webhook endpoints in your dashboard
- React to purchases, subscription changes, and customer events
- Keep your database in sync automatically.

## Integration Options

### Framework Adapters (Recommended)

**Browse framework adapters** - Drop-in adapters that wire Polar checkouts and webhooks into your stack, including Next.js, Nuxt, TanStack Start, Laravel, and BetterAuth.

### Native SDKs

- **JS/TS** - For web and Node.js applications.
- **Python** - For Django, Flask, FastAPI frameworks.

## Why Choose Polar?

- Ship Faster
- Global Reach
- Automated Delivery
- Transparent Pricing
- No Engineering Overhead
- Scalable Pricing
- Team Collaboration
- Professional Checkout
- Enterprise Features
- API Flexibility
- Webhook Reliability

## Transparent Pricing

### 5% + 50¢ or lower

**Per successful transaction** Optional paid plans to get even lower transaction fees

**Additional fees may apply**: Some transactions may incur additional fees. Payout fees are charged by payment providers. See our detailed fees page for complete information.

## Open Source & Community

Polar is built in the open with full transparency and a growing community of contributors.

- **Open Source Codebase** - Apache 2.0 license with 36+ contributors and growing  
- **Public Development** - Feature requests, roadmap, and issues - all developed in public.