head to head · open source
Polar vs UniBee
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. UniBee has 229 stars, 39 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Polar leads on adoption by 4,385% (10,270 vs 229 stars). Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0; UniBee is written in various languages under AGPL-3.0. Polar has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, UniBee 17%. 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 | UniBee | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 229 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-02-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 787 | ⑂ 39 |
| 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 UniBee if
- You want the UniBee feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and UniBee 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 UniBee
UniBee is an open source billing platform built for SaaS businesses. It lives in the Business Software category, under Finance and Accounting, and is distributed under the AGPL 3.0 license. The project describes itself as a universal billing software that is open source, with both a community version and an enterprise version. It is designed specifically for subscription based software companies, and it presents itself as an alternative to closed source commercial platforms such as Recurly, Chargebee, and Paddle.
read the full UniBee overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Polar or UniBee more popular?
Polar has 10,270 GitHub stars and UniBee has 229. Polar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Polar and UniBee free?
Both are open source. Polar is licensed under Apache-2.0 and UniBee under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Polar and UniBee?
Polar is written in Python and UniBee in various languages. 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 UniBee?
Choose Polar if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose UniBee if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.