Polar vs Whop
We give Polar a 2.6 GPA and Whop a 3.4, out of 4.0. Whop grades higher on value for money, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Polar
Open-source billing and merchant of record for software sellers
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAPolarGood | 3.4GPAWhopVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStarter is free and keeps 5% + 50¢ a transaction, so $1,000 costs $50 plus 50¢ a sale, with no separate card fee listed since Polar is the merchant of record. Pro at $20 only pays off above about $1,379 a month. Non-US cards add 1.5%. | BNo monthly fee: 2.7% + 30¢ a domestic card sale, so $1,000 costs $27 plus 30¢ a sale, and that is the card processing, with nothing on top. Cheaper than anything else here at this size, but not an A: tax handling adds 2% and faster payouts cost extra. |
| Free plan and trial | AStarter costs nothing a month and includes every selling feature, with standard support. You pay 5% + 50¢ a sale instead, and the value grade counts that. | ANothing to pay until you sell, with no monthly fee and no plan to upgrade to. Each sale's card fee is the only charge, and the value grade counts that. |
| Features | CSubscriptions, seats, usage meters and credits, plus files, license keys, GitHub repo invites and Discord roles delivered automatically. It does billing for software fully, but nothing in the listing covers a store page, email or affiliates. | BStorefront and checkout in 195 countries, plus chat, courses with quizzes, forums, paid events, files and bookings for each product, license keys, a marketplace and affiliates. It covers the whole job. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. It's built for developers: the listing leads with an API, a Python SDK and webhooks, so expect some setting up. | A4.82 from about 58,000 App Store ratings, among the best here. Building a product means picking apps such as chat or courses to add to it, rather than designing pages. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Stripe, GitHub, Discord and Slack, an API, a Python SDK and an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT. No phone or desktop app is listed. | BWeb and iPhone, with Klarna, Afterpay, Splitit, SeQura and Venmo, an embeddable checkout and SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Ruby. No Android or desktop app is listed. |
| Best for | developers selling software and usage plans | selling access to paid communities |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Polar and Whop. How we grade
Price against what you get
Polar starts at $20 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Whop has no paid plan and scores 3.3.
Whop scores higher and starts $20 a month lower. Of the other tools for selling digital products on the chart, 6 score higher than Polar for less, and none scores higher than Whop for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Polar starts at $20 per month, with a lower fee on each sale. Whop is free.
- Only Whop lists an iOS app.
- Polar is open source, according to its own site.
- Polar also covers merchant of record.
- Whop also covers online courses, community and affiliate tracking.
At a glance
| Polar | Whop | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $20 per month, with a lower fee on each sale | Free |
| Free plan | Starter is free with all selling features and standard support; Polar takes 5% + 50¢ of each transaction, plus 1.5% for non-US cards. | No monthly fee is listed. Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 per domestic card sale, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% for currency conversion. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Made by | Polar Software, Inc. | Whop |
| Price read from | polar.sh | docs.whop.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Polar
- Developers selling software, licenses or SaaS subscriptions worldwide
- AI products that bill by tokens, credits or other usage
- Open-source maintainers granting paid access to repos or Discord
Whop
- Creators selling paid community access with courses and chat
- Sellers who want marketplace exposure through affiliates
- Developers embedding checkout and payouts in their own app
Worth knowing
Polar
- Starter keeps 5% + 50¢ of each transaction, and non-US cards add 1.5%; the paid plans only lower that fee once sales are high enough.
- Each dispute costs $15 whatever the outcome, and Polar may suspend accounts whose chargeback rate gets too high.
- Payouts through Stripe cost $2 a month plus 0.25% + $0.25 per payout, and currency conversion adds 0.25% to 1%.
- Organizations created before May 27, 2026 keep an Early Member rate of 4% + 40¢ until they move to a paid plan.
Whop
- Optional extras stack on the 2.7% + $0.30 card fee: payment routing 0.8%, billing 0.5%, tax collection 2%, or 6% + $0.30 with all on.
- Products listed on Discover are promoted by affiliates at a default 30% commission unless you change the rate.
- Purchases under $700 made in Whop's iOS app go through Apple, which takes 30%; subscriptions and web checkout avoid that fee.
- Fast payouts cost extra: instant bank deposit 4% + $2.50, crypto 5% + $1 and Venmo 5% + $2.50 per payout.
Key features
Polar
- Merchant of record
- Polar resells your product in over 100 markets and is responsible for payments, sales tax and VAT, fraud, refunds and chargebacks.
- Subscriptions and usage billing
- Subscriptions, seat-based and unit-based pricing, prepaid credits and metered usage from live event meters, combined on one invoice.
- Automated benefits
- Deliver file downloads up to 10GB each, license keys, private GitHub repository invites, Discord roles, feature flags or a shared Slack channel.
- Cost and margin insights
- Attach inference or other costs to usage events to see gross margin per customer beside revenue.
- Checkout options
- Custom checkout fields, discounts, free trials and tax-inclusive pricing, with a Python SDK, webhooks and an API for developers.
- Open source and MCP
- Polar's code is open source, and its MCP server lets Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT query customers and revenue or create products and refunds.
Whop
- Apps for each product
- Add chat, courses with quizzes, forums, events with paid tickets, file sharing, rich content pages and calendar bookings to what you sell.
- Checkout and payment methods
- Checkout in 195 countries and 135+ currencies with 100+ payment methods, ACH debit, and Klarna or Afterpay financing.
- Discover marketplace and affiliates
- List products on Whop's marketplace, where global affiliates can promote them for a default 30% commission; custom affiliates are also supported.
- Payouts
- Withdraw by next-day ACH, instant bank deposit, crypto, Venmo, wire or local bank transfer, each with its own fee.
- Tax options
- Whop handles tax on Discover sales; for direct sales it can collect tax for you, or collect and remit it in the US, EU and UK, for 2%.
- Developer tools
- Embeddable checkout, wallet and chat components, license keys for downloadable software, and SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Ruby.
Plans
Polar
Starter$0
All features to sell, standard support. Polar keeps 5% + 50¢ of each transaction, plus 1.5% for international cards.
Pro$20
per month
Fee drops to 3.8% + 40¢ a transaction, with prioritized support and preview access to new features. Pays off above about $1,379 a month in sales.
Growth$100
per month
Fee drops to 3.6% + 35¢ a transaction, with prioritized support. Pays off above about $5,634 a month in sales.
Scale$400
per month
Fee drops to 3.4% + 30¢ a transaction, with a shared Slack channel, P1 support and single sign-on.
Whop
Payments$0
Per-sale pricing: 2.7% + $0.30 for domestic cards, +1.5% international, +1% currency conversion; ACH 1.5% up to $5; financing 15%.
Ways to pay less
Polar
- Startups
Scale plan free for a year for AI startups
Polar's Startup Program gives early-stage AI startups the Scale plan free for twelve months, with its 3.4% + 30¢ fee, by application.
Whop
No public discounts listed.
