Payments · working at 10,000 users · rates as read 26 Sept 2026
On free tier, Stripe is $0/month: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge and Polar is Starter Free 5% + 50¢. On cheapest paid plan, Stripe does not publish it and Polar is Pro $20 /mo 3.8% + 40¢. On rate above what's included, Stripe is +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is required, +0.5% for manually entered cards and Polar is Growth $100 /mo at 3.6% + 35¢; Scale $400 /mo at 3.4% + 30¢. StackTab sells neither of these and takes no referral fee on either: it scores them. Every figure was read off the named company's own page on or since 2026-09-18; the URLs and the dates are at the foot of this page, and a job re-fetches each one on a schedule and fails when a figure is no longer on the page it came from.
2 compared · 3 criteria, identical for every column · every competitor figure read off that company's own page · last verified 2026-09-18
| Service | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| StripeThe default PSP. You stay the merchant, so sales tax and VAT stay yours.verified 25 Sept 2026stripe.com/pricing | $ | $ | $ |
| PolarMerchant of record built for developers, with paid tiers that cut the rate.verified 25 Sept 2026polar.sh/docs/merchant-of-record/fees | $ | $ | $ |
- Sorted by the total at
- The default PSP. You stay the merchant, so sales tax and VAT stay yours.verified 25 Sept 2026stripe.com/pricing
- 1,000 users
- $
2121 Standard - 10,000 users
- $
214214 Standard - 100,000 users
- $
2,1402,140 Standard
- Merchant of record built for developers, with paid tiers that cut the rate.verified 25 Sept 2026polar.sh/docs/merchant-of-record/fees
- 1,000 users
- $
3232 Starter - 10,000 users
- $
270270 Pro - 100,000 users
- $
2,4202,420 Growth
| Criterion | Stripe | Polar |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0/month: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge"No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees." The cost is entirely in the rate. | Starter Free 5% + 50¢No monthly fee on the Starter plan; the whole cost is the transaction rate. |
| Cheapest paid plan | Not publishedStripe publishes one standard rate rather than a ladder of paid tiers; the page offers "Custom: design a custom package" for businesses with large payments volume, without a figure. | Pro $20 /mo 3.8% + 40¢Polar publishes the crossover itself: Pro pays for itself at about $1,379/mo in sales. |
| Rate above what's included | +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is required, +0.5% for manually entered cardsThe headline 2.9% + 30¢ is the domestic-card floor. Every one of these surcharges is published as a number, which is the reason the arithmetic on this page works at all. | Growth $100 /mo at 3.6% + 35¢; Scale $400 /mo at 3.4% + 30¢Each paid tier trades a fixed monthly fee for a lower variable rate, and Polar publishes the break-even for each: about $5,634/mo for Growth and $19,048/mo for Scale. |
“Not published” means that company does not state the figure on the page cited at the foot of this page. It is not a claim that no such figure exists. A company that publishes no limit most likely has none, but “most likely” is not a fact, and this table prints what was read rather than what was inferred.
- Free tier: what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words
- Rate above what's included: the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one
Stripe: $0/month: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge. "No setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees." The cost is entirely in the rate. Polar: Starter Free 5% + 50¢. No monthly fee on the Starter plan; the whole cost is the transaction rate. Read from stripe.com and polar.sh on 2026-09-18. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.
Stripe does not state it on stripe.com. Stripe publishes one standard rate rather than a ladder of paid tiers; the page offers "Custom: design a custom package" for businesses with large payments volume, without a figure. Polar: Pro $20 /mo 3.8% + 40¢. Polar publishes the crossover itself: Pro pays for itself at about $1,379/mo in sales. Read from stripe.com and polar.sh on 2026-09-18.
Stripe: +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is required, +0.5% for manually entered cards. The headline 2.9% + 30¢ is the domestic-card floor. Every one of these surcharges is published as a number, which is the reason the arithmetic on this page works at all. Polar: Growth $100 /mo at 3.6% + 35¢; Scale $400 /mo at 3.4% + 30¢. Each paid tier trades a fixed monthly fee for a lower variable rate, and Polar publishes the break-even for each: about $5,634/mo for Growth and $19,048/mo for Scale. Read from stripe.com and polar.sh on 2026-09-18. Rate above what's included here means the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one.
Stripe: Your customers are in the United States and will be for a while. Sales tax in a handful of states is a much smaller job than global VAT, Stripe is two points cheaper than every merchant of record here, and two points on real revenue is real money. Polar: You are past a few thousand a month in sales and you would rather pay a fixed fee than a percentage. Polar is the only merchant of record here that publishes a tier ladder that lowers your variable rate, and it publishes the exact revenue at which each tier starts saving you money, which is a thing a vendor has no commercial reason to tell you.
StackTab does not sell any of these and has nothing to gain from which one you choose: it scores them. Each case below is the one that option genuinely wins.
- Stripe: Your customers are in the United States and will be for a while. Sales tax in a handful of states is a much smaller job than global VAT, Stripe is two points cheaper than every merchant of record here, and two points on real revenue is real money.
- Polar: You are past a few thousand a month in sales and you would rather pay a fixed fee than a percentage. Polar is the only merchant of record here that publishes a tier ladder that lowers your variable rate, and it publishes the exact revenue at which each tier starts saving you money, which is a thing a vendor has no commercial reason to tell you.
Prices and limits move, and a page quoting a stale one is worth less than a page quoting none. Every source is printed here so a reader can check it against the day they are reading this, and a job re-fetches each of these URLs on a schedule and fails when a figure above no longer appears on the page it came from.
- Stripe: stripe.com/pricing: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-18.
- Polar: polar.sh/docs/merchant-of-record/fees: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-18.
Last verified 2026-09-18. https://stacktab.thecompound.tech/compare/stripe-vs-polar