What is Polar?
Polar is a Merchant of Record (MoR) and monetization platform specifically built for developers and open source projects. It simplifies selling digital products, SaaS subscriptions, and receiving sponsorships, while handling tax compliance and invoicing automatically.
As a Merchant of Record, Polar becomes the legal seller of your product to end customers. This means they handle all tax obligations, fraud prevention, and payment processing while you focus on building your product. With deep GitHub integration and a developer-first approach, Polar is ideal for SaaS boilerplates and open source monetization.
Polar Boilerplates List
Supastarter
$349SupaStarter is a top-quality, full-featured SaaS boilerplate designed to accelerate web application development by providing a robust, production-ready foundation. Frequently updated to stay aligned with the latest technologies, SupaStarter is trusted by many successful projects and hundreds of developers worldwide. It seamlessly integrates authentication, role-based access control, team and multi-tenant management, and secure payment and subscription handling with popular providers like Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, and Polar. Supporting modern frontend frameworks such as Next.js and Nuxt 3, with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Radix UI components, it delivers a responsive, customizable interface including dark mode. The backend features fully typed APIs, ORM integration with Prisma or Drizzle, background job support, cron automation, and built-in internationalization (i18n). SupaStarter also includes prebuilt landing pages, marketing pages, legal templates, and email templates, enabling developers to focus on core business logic rather than repetitive setup. With a one-time purchase and scalable architecture, SupaStarter ensures fast, maintainable, and reliable SaaS deployments for MVPs or full-scale applications.
ShipAhead
$99The NuxtJS boilerplate to ship your SaaS, AI tool, or your next big app. ShipAhead is a Nuxt boilerplate designed to accelerate the development of AI SaaS applications. It provides pre-built features like authentication, payments, internationalization, and security, allowing developers to focus on core product functionality rather than repetitive setup tasks. Key Features: - Authentication: Email/password, magic links, and OAuth (Google, GitHub) support. - Backend: Drizzle ORM, Postgres, Cloudflare R2/AWS S3 storage, admin dashboard, user management, and cron jobs. - Payments: Stripe/Polar/Dodo Payments integration with checkout flows, subscriptions, and multi-currency support. - Frontend & UI: Nuxt, Vue, Tailwind CSS, and daisyUI for responsive design and pre-built UI components. - Internationalization: Multi-language support with Vue i18n. - Security: Cloudflare Turnstile for captcha and Redis for rate limiting. - Email: Transactional emails with pre-built templates using Resend. - SEO: Optimized SEO setup with Nuxt SEO. - PWA: Progressive Web App support for installable apps. - AI Integration: OpenRouter integration for AI features. - Customer Support: Built-in live chat and support widget. - Others: Code templates, tutorials, legal page prompts, and Cursor/Windsurf integration. Use Cases: - Rapid prototyping of SaaS applications. - Building AI-powered tools and services. - Creating platforms with user authentication and subscription models. - Developing internationalized applications with multi-language support.
Why Use Polar for Your SaaS?
Polar offers a modern, developer-first approach to monetization. As the Merchant of Record, they automatically manage:
- Global Tax Compliance: Automatically calculates, collects, and remits VAT and sales tax in multiple countries. No need to register for tax IDs in different jurisdictions.
- Developer-First Experience: Built by developers for developers, with clean APIs, webhooks, and deep GitHub integration.
- Open Source Friendly: Unique features for monetizing open source projects, including sponsorships and paid tiers while keeping core features free.
- Flexible Monetization: Support for subscriptions, one-time products, sponsorships, and custom pricing models.
Key Features for SaaS Boilerplates
When using a Next.js boilerplate or other starter kit integrated with Polar, you get access to powerful features out of the box:
- Subscription Management: Native support for recurring billing, trials, and flexible pricing without custom development.
- GitHub Integration: Deep integration with GitHub for authentication, repository access control, and sponsorships.
- Customer Portal: A self-serve portal where your users can manage their subscriptions, invoices, and payment methods.
- Webhook System: Robust webhook system for real-time updates on subscriptions, payments, and customer events.
Polar vs Stripe
While Stripe is a payment processor, Polar is a Merchant of Record. The main difference is liability and target audience:
| Feature | Stripe | Polar |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Payment Processor | Merchant of Record |
| Tax Liability | You handle it | Polar handles it |
| GitHub Integration | Limited | Deep integration |
| Best For | General purpose, high volume | Developers, open source |
With Stripe, you are responsible for calculating and remitting taxes in every jurisdiction where you have customers. With Polar, they handle all tax liability for you. Polar is specifically designed for developers and open source projects, making it an excellent choice for technical founders who want a modern, developer-friendly monetization platform.
Recommended Premium Boilerplates
While Polar boilerplates are great for getting started with Merchant of Record support, sometimes it's worth investing in a premium solution. One good paid boilerplate can fully repay itself by saving weeks of development time, providing better documentation, and offering features that would take months to build. Here are some of the best premium boilerplates we recommend:
Shipfast
$199ShipFast is a full‑stack SaaS and AI boilerplate built on Next.js, designed to help developers launch web applications and subscription-based products quickly. Trusted by over 135,000 users worldwide, it has been used to generate significant revenue and has proven itself as a reliable foundation for building production-ready SaaS products. The boilerplate includes authentication, payment and subscription management via Stripe or LemonSqueezy, database integration, email workflows, multi-tenant support, and prebuilt responsive UI components, along with templates for landing pages, blogs, and marketing content. ShipFast was created by Marc Lou, a renowned indie hacker and Product Hunt award winner, who actively uses the boilerplate to build and scale his own products. Its fully structured architecture, pre-wired SaaS flows, and ready-to-deploy setup allow developers to skip repetitive boilerplate work and focus on their product’s unique features. While it is highly effective for rapid launches, one limitation is that updates are not extremely frequent, which may require manual maintenance to keep dependencies up to date. Overall, ShipFast offers a trusted, widely adopted solution for indie founders, solo developers, and small teams seeking a fast, scalable, and feature-complete boilerplate for launching SaaS or AI-powered web applications.
Supastarter
$349SupaStarter is a top-quality, full-featured SaaS boilerplate designed to accelerate web application development by providing a robust, production-ready foundation. Frequently updated to stay aligned with the latest technologies, SupaStarter is trusted by many successful projects and hundreds of developers worldwide. It seamlessly integrates authentication, role-based access control, team and multi-tenant management, and secure payment and subscription handling with popular providers like Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, and Polar. Supporting modern frontend frameworks such as Next.js and Nuxt 3, with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Radix UI components, it delivers a responsive, customizable interface including dark mode. The backend features fully typed APIs, ORM integration with Prisma or Drizzle, background job support, cron automation, and built-in internationalization (i18n). SupaStarter also includes prebuilt landing pages, marketing pages, legal templates, and email templates, enabling developers to focus on core business logic rather than repetitive setup. With a one-time purchase and scalable architecture, SupaStarter ensures fast, maintainable, and reliable SaaS deployments for MVPs or full-scale applications.
How to Choose a Polar Boilerplate
Selecting the right Polar boilerplate requires careful evaluation. Consider these factors:
1. Framework Compatibility
Ensure the boilerplate uses a framework you're comfortable with. Most Polar boilerplates support Next.js, React, or Vue. Choose one that matches your tech stack to minimize learning curve.
2. Integration Depth
Check how deeply Polar is integrated. The best boilerplates include webhook handlers, subscription management, GitHub authentication, and customer portal links pre-configured, saving you weeks of development time.
3. Open Source Features
If you're monetizing an open source project, look for boilerplates that support Polar's sponsorship features and repository access control. These features are unique to Polar and can be powerful for open source monetization.
4. Documentation Quality
Good documentation is crucial. Look for boilerplates with comprehensive setup guides, API documentation, and examples of common use cases like handling subscription upgrades and GitHub integration.
Polar Boilerplates FAQ
What is Polar and how does it work?
Polar is a Merchant of Record (MoR) platform built specifically for developers and open source projects. As an MoR, Polar becomes the legal seller of your product, handling all global tax compliance, VAT collection, and payment processing. It's designed with a developer-first approach, making it easy to monetize SaaS, digital products, and open source tools.
How does Polar compare to Stripe?
Stripe is a payment processor where you remain the merchant of record and are responsible for tax compliance. Polar is an MoR that handles all tax obligations for you. Polar is specifically built for developers and open source, with features like GitHub integration, sponsorships, and a modern developer experience.
Which boilerplates support Polar integration?
Many modern SaaS boilerplates include Polar integration out of the box. Look for boilerplates that specifically mention Polar or Merchant of Record support in their features. This saves weeks of development time compared to building payment logic from scratch.
Is Polar suitable for open source monetization?
Yes! Polar is uniquely positioned for open source monetization. It supports sponsorships, paid tiers for open source tools, and has deep GitHub integration. Many open source maintainers use Polar to monetize their projects while keeping the core open source.
Can I switch from Stripe to Polar later?
Yes, but it requires careful planning. You'll need to run both systems in parallel during the transition, similar to any payment provider migration. Most founders choose their payment provider carefully upfront to avoid this complexity.
