head to head · open source
Polar vs OpenBudgeteer
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenBudgeteer has 973 stars, 62 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Polar leads on adoption by 955% (10,270 vs 973 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; OpenBudgeteer is written in C# under AGPL-3.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, OpenBudgeteer 6%. 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 | OpenBudgeteer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 973 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-01-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 62 |
| 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 OpenBudgeteer if
- You want the OpenBudgeteer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OpenBudgeteer 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 OpenBudgeteer
OpenBudgeteer is a self hosted budgeting web application built on the Bucket Budgeting Principle, aimed at people who want to run their own budget planning software in Docker rather than pay for a hosted service.
read the full OpenBudgeteer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or OpenBudgeteer more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and OpenBudgeteer has 973. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and OpenBudgeteer free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenBudgeteer under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and OpenBudgeteer?
Polar is written in Python and OpenBudgeteer in C#. 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 OpenBudgeteer?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenBudgeteer if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.