head to head · open source
Polar vs django-ledger
Polar has 10,454 GitHub stars, 811 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. django-ledger has 1,398 stars, 331 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Polar leads on adoption by 648% (10,454 vs 1,398 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; django-ledger is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, django-ledger 24%. 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 | django-ledger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 811 | ⑂ 331 |
| 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 django-ledger if
- You want the django-ledger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and django-ledger fits your workflow better
About Polar
Website • Docs • API Reference Polar: A billing platform for the intelligence era Turn usage into revenue. Polar is the financial layer for a new generation of intelligent software, built for AI startups that need to charge for tokens, agents, and compute without building billing infrastructure from scratch. Ship any pricing model in an afternoon. Usage billing, subscriptions, seats, credits, trials, and discounts. Compose them however your product charges. Meter what matters. Bill tokens, API calls, agent runs, GPU seconds, and storage with precision down to the event. Checkouts that convert , realtime metrics…
read the full Polar overview →
About django-ledger
Django Ledger A Double Entry Accounting Engine for Django Django Ledger is a powerful financial management system built on the Django Web Framework. It offers a simplified API for handling complex accounting tasks in financially driven applications. Created and developed by Miguel Sanda. FREE Get Started Guide Join our Discord Documentation QuickStart Notebook Key Features High level API Double entry accounting Hierarchical Chart of Accounts Financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Bills, and Invoices Financial ratio calculations Multi tenancy support…
read the full django-ledger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or django-ledger more popular?
Polar has 10,454 GitHub stars and django-ledger has 1,398. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and django-ledger free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and django-ledger under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and django-ledger?
Polar is written in Python and django-ledger in Python. 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 django-ledger?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,454 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose django-ledger if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.