head to head · open source
Polar vs rotki
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rotki has 4,027 stars, 759 forks, 395 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Polar leads on adoption by 155% (10,270 vs 4,027 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; rotki is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, rotki 19%. 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 | rotki | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 759 |
| 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 rotki if
- You want the rotki feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and rotki 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 rotki
rotki is an open source, self hosted portfolio tracking, analytics, accounting, and management application written in Python and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the cryptocurrency and personal finance ecosystem, with topics covering bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency portfolio tracking, accounting, analytics, and management systems. The project is distributed through GitHub releases and a Docker image, and it is categorized as business software and finance accounting.
read the full rotki overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or rotki more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and rotki has 4,027. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and rotki free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rotki under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and rotki?
Polar is written in Python and rotki 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 rotki?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rotki if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.