head to head · open source
Polar vs Bigcapital
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bigcapital has 3,898 stars, 524 forks, 214 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Polar leads on adoption by 163% (10,270 vs 3,898 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Bigcapital is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Bigcapital 13%. Polar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (payments), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Bigcapital | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 524 |
| 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 Bigcapital if
- You want the Bigcapital feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Bigcapital 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 Bigcapital
Bigcapital is an open source accounting and inventory software project for small and medium businesses. It belongs to the business software category and the finance and accounting ecosystem, is written in TypeScript, and is released under the AGPL 3.0 license. The project describes itself as independent financial accounting with intelligent reporting, and it positions itself as an alternative to Quickbooks, Xero, and Wave.
read the full Bigcapital overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or Bigcapital more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and Bigcapital has 3,898. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and Bigcapital free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Bigcapital under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and Bigcapital?
Polar is written in Python and Bigcapital 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 Bigcapital?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Bigcapital if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.