Lemon Squeezy vs Polar

At a Glance

Lemon Squeezy

Polar

Lemon Squeezy

Polar

Lemon Squeezy

Pros

Setup takes literally under an hour for a digital product or SaaS subscription — the simplest checkout experience I've found+163
Acts as merchant of record like Paddle, so all VAT and global tax compliance is handled without extra work+148
The built-in affiliate program lets customers refer others and earn commission without any external tool+127
License key generation for software products is built in and works great for desktop apps and plugins+109

Cons

Limited customization for the checkout flow — you can't deeply brand the experience the way Stripe Elements allows

Payments

Stripe vs Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy

Payments

Stripe vs Lemon Squeezy

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Polar

Pros

Zero fees on the free tier for open source projects — finally a payments tool designed with OSS maintainers in mind+154
The GitHub integration lets backers sponsor your repo directly from the README which lowers the friction for OSS donations+138
Fully open source, so you can self-host or audit the code — no black box in your payment infrastructure+112
Issue funding lets users back specific bugs or features, which is a creative way to prioritize work based on community demand+97

Cons

Payout availability is still limited to certain countries and US-based founders have fewer friction issues than international ones+109
Product is still maturing — you'll hit rough edges in the dashboard that require a workaround or a support ticket+83
Brand recognition is low and some customers may hesitate to enter payment details on an unfamiliar checkout page+74