head to head · open source
Polar vs TaxHacker
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TaxHacker has 6,706 stars, 1,092 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Polar leads on adoption by 53% (10,270 vs 6,706 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; TaxHacker is written in TypeScript under MIT. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, TaxHacker 16%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Polar | TaxHacker | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 TaxHacker if
- You want the TaxHacker feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and TaxHacker 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 TaxHacker
TaxHacker is a self hosted, MIT licensed AI accounting application written in TypeScript that reads receipts, invoices and PDFs and turns them into structured expense and income records for freelancers, indie hackers and small businesses.
read the full TaxHacker overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Finance & Accounting projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Finance & Accounting field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or TaxHacker more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and TaxHacker has 6,706. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and TaxHacker free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and TaxHacker under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and TaxHacker?
Polar is written in Python and TaxHacker 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 TaxHacker?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose TaxHacker if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.