Moving from Stripe to Polar
A cost comparison and planning checklist. These are assessment steps, not vendor-specific migration instructions.
Stripe
The financial infrastructure platform for developer-driven custom payment experiences.
$820.00 / month
Integrated Payments
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-06
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Domestic card processing (2.9%): $580.00
- Per-transaction fixed fee: $150.00
- International card fee (+1.5%): $90.00
- Stripe is a payment gateway, NOT a Merchant of Record. You remain liable for international VAT/sales tax registration and remittance.
- Stripe Tax (0.5% fee), Radar for Fraud Teams ($0.02/tx), dispute protection, and Stripe Billing tiers.
Polar
Developer-first Merchant of Record built for modern SaaS products, digital downloads, and subscriptions.
$1,340.00 / month
Starter
Official pricing · Checked 2026-10-08
Cost breakdown and exclusions
- Monthly subscription: $0
- Platform & card processing (5.0%): $1,000.00
- Per-transaction fee: $250.00
- International cards (1.5%): $90.00
- Starter for organizations created on or after May 27, 2026. Volume includes tax; international share means non-US cards. No separate subscription payment fee.
- Payout fees, currency conversion, disputes, refunds, optional paid plans and grandfathered Early Member pricing.
Recurring cost difference
$6,240.00 higher over twelve months at unchanged usage.
Not calculated. Estimate migration labor, overlapping subscriptions, transfer charges and contract obligations before dividing those costs by any monthly savings.
What this comparison covers
Commercial online payments for SaaS and digital goods. Card processing, fraud protection, and currency handling. Custom negotiated enterprise volume discounts, chargeback dispute defense fees, and local banking payout fees are excluded.
Evaluating 2 products from 4 published in this category. USD monthly equivalents, before tax. Features and service compatibility need separate evaluation.
- Gross transaction volume
- 20,000 USD / month
- Successful transactions
- 500 transactions / month
- International volume
- 30 % of volume
Before you move
- This is a readiness assessment, not a verified vendor migration procedure.
- Use the source pricing and plan documentation: https://stripe.com/pricing
- Use the target pricing and plan documentation: https://polar.sh/docs/merchant-of-record/fees
- Obtain the account permissions, data-owner approvals and tested backups needed for your chosen transfer method.
Modeled recurring cost
Stripe: $820.00/month
Polar: $1,340.00/month
Stripe costs $520.00 less per month than Polar at this workload. This compares modeled charges, not overall product quality.
Requirements
Integrated Payments
Starter
Ask both providers about supported account and payment-data transfers, subscription continuity, refunds, disputes and required approvals; do not assume payment credentials are portable.
Your migration readiness checklist
Check items as you review them. Progress is kept only while this page is open.
Questions before you decide
Does a lower monthly estimate mean the migration pays for itself?
Not calculated. Estimate migration labor, overlapping subscriptions, transfer charges and contract obligations before dividing those costs by any monthly savings.
Is this a guaranteed migration procedure?
No. This assessment identifies decisions to verify with official provider documentation. It does not establish interoperability, data portability, zero downtime or a rollback guarantee.