head to head · open source
Polar vs Autumn
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Autumn has 2,679 stars, 246 forks, 149 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Polar leads on adoption by 283% (10,270 vs 2,679 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Autumn is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Autumn 9%. Polar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Polar | Autumn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 246 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Polar if
- You weight community size — 10K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Autumn if
- You want the Autumn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Autumn fits your workflow better
About Polar
Polar is an open source billing platform and payment infrastructure project for digital products, SaaS applications, and AI workloads. It is written in Python, licensed under Apache 2.0, and built around FastAPI, Next.js, React, and Turborepo. The project positions itself as a financial layer for software that needs to charge for tokens, agents, compute, subscriptions, and usage based models.
read the full Polar overview →
About Autumn
Autumn is an open source pricing and billing platform written in TypeScript under the Apache 2.0 license, and it lives in the Stripe payments ecosystem. It is a layer between Stripe and an application, letting teams create subscriptions, credit systems and top ups, usage based models with overages, and custom plans without directly handling webhooks, upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, or failed payments.
read the full Autumn overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or Autumn more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and Autumn has 2,679. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and Autumn free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Autumn under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and Autumn?
Polar is written in Python and Autumn in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Polar or Autumn?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Autumn if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.