head to head · open source
Polar vs itflow
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. itflow has 1,004 stars, 260 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Polar leads on adoption by 923% (10,270 vs 1,004 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; itflow is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, itflow 26%. 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 | itflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 260 |
| 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 itflow if
- You want the itflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and itflow 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 itflow
ITFlow is a free, open source, self hosted all in one PSA for small managed service providers that unifies client, contact, vendor, asset, license, domain, SSL certificate, password, documentation, file, network, and location management with ticketing, billing, and a client portal.
read the full itflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or itflow more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and itflow has 1,004. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and itflow free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and itflow under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and itflow?
Polar is written in Python and itflow in PHP. 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 itflow?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose itflow if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.