Polar vs Lemon Squeezy Fees Compared in Full
Polar and Lemon Squeezy both start at 5% + 50¢, but Polar's paid plans drop to 3.4% + 30¢. Compare surcharges, payout fees, and the volume break-even point.
Polar.sh breakdown
- Base fee (5% + 50¢) $5.50
Lemon Squeezy breakdown
- Base fee (5% + 50¢) $5.50
| Platform | Fee | Effective rate | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 | |
 Polar.shMoR Starter (free) | $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 |
The ranking counts per-transaction cost only. Monthly plan fees, payout fees, and dispute fees are listed separately on each platform page. Rates are verified against official pricing pages, and the sources list the dates.
Every Polar.sh vs Lemon Squeezy fee side by side
| Polar.sh | Lemon Squeezy | |
|---|---|---|
| Base transaction fee | Starter (free) 5% + 50¢ Pro ($20/mo) 3.8% + 40¢ Growth ($100/mo) 3.6% + 35¢ Scale ($400/mo) 3.4% + 30¢ | 5% + 50¢ |
| International cards | +1.5% | +1.5% |
| Currency conversion | No surcharge | No surcharge |
| Subscription billing | Included | +0.5% |
| PayPal | Not offered | +1.5% |
| Monthly fee | Varies by plan ($0–$400/mo) | None |
| Payout fees | $2/month with payouts + 0.25% + 25¢ per payout (0.25–1% FX on non-USD payouts) | US bank free, non-US bank 1%, PayPal 50¢ (US) or 3% capped at $30 (international) ($50 minimum payout balance) |
| Dispute / chargeback fee | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Sales tax / VAT handling | MoR Polar handles global sales tax and VAT as the legal seller | MoR Lemon Squeezy handles global sales tax and VAT as the legal seller |
| Source | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 (Plans introduced May 2026. Grandfathered Early Member orgs pay 4% + 40¢ + 0.5% on subscriptions) | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 (Acquired by Stripe. Merchants are being migrated to Stripe Managed Payments) |
| Platform | $10 sale | $50 sale | $500 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polar.sh | $1.00 | $3.00 | $25.50 |
| Lemon Squeezy | $1.00 | $3.00 | $25.50 |
The plan ladder Lemon Squeezy doesn’t have
Polar’s free Starter tier charges 5% + 50¢, the same rate Lemon Squeezy charges everyone. The difference is what sits above it. Pro ($20/month) drops the take to 3.8% + 40¢, Growth ($100/month) to 3.6% + 35¢, and Scale ($400/month) to 3.4% + 30¢. Lemon Squeezy publishes one price with no tiers and no volume path. The rate you pay in month one is the rate you pay forever.
One platform stacks surcharges, the other doesn’t
Both add 1.5% for international cards, on every plan. Beyond that they diverge. Lemon Squeezy charges an extra 0.5% on each subscription renewal and 1.5% on PayPal transactions, while Polar charges neither, on any tier.
The effect shows up even at the supposedly identical free level. A $49 international subscription costs $3.69 on Polar Starter but $3.93 on Lemon Squeezy, the 0.5% subscription surcharge at work. On Polar Pro the same renewal costs $3.00.
A worked example at $2,000 a month, 100 sales at $20
- Polar Starter runs $150 in fees
- Lemon Squeezy on one-time sales matches it at $150
- Lemon Squeezy on subscriptions reaches $160 (the +0.5% renewal surcharge)
- Polar Pro takes $116 in fees + $20 plan = $136 all-in
Pro’s break-even against Starter lands near $1,180/month at a $20 average order, where each transaction saves 1.2% + 10¢, so about 59 sales pay for the plan. At a $50 average order the break-even is roughly $1,430. Growth’s extra $80 over Pro takes far longer to justify (around $18,000 a month at small order sizes), so most merchants step up one tier at a time.
Payouts run the other direction
This is Lemon Squeezy’s one structural fee advantage. It pays US bank accounts free (non-US banks 1%, PayPal 50¢-3%) once your balance passes $50. Polar charges $2 a month plus 0.25% and 25¢ per payout, which is $7.25 on a single $2,000 monthly payout, about 0.36% of volume. For US merchants that’s a small drag on Polar’s side. For non-US merchants the comparison flips, since Polar’s 0.25% beats Lemon Squeezy’s 1% international bank fee.
Why comparisons written before May 2026 mislead
Until May 2026, Polar’s only price was 5% + 50¢, and older posts reasonably called these two platforms fee-identical. Two things changed since. Polar’s paid tiers cut its rate by up to 1.6 points and 20¢, and Stripe’s acquisition of Lemon Squeezy put its merchants on a migration path to Stripe Managed Payments, previewed at roughly 6.4% + 30¢ in February 2026. One platform’s price fell while the other’s is scheduled to rise, which is exactly why Polar has become a leading destination for departing Lemon Squeezy merchants, and why the calculator above uses current rates rather than the numbers both platforms launched with.
Verdict
At day-one volume with a US bank account, the two are near-identical, with 5% + 50¢ on both, free payouts on Lemon Squeezy versus a few dollars of payout fees on Polar, and an extra 0.5% on Lemon Squeezy if you sell subscriptions. From roughly $1,200 a month in sales, Polar Pro becomes cheaper outright ($136 all-in versus $150-160 on a $2,000 month), and the gap compounds through Growth and Scale until Polar charges 3.4% + 30¢ against Lemon Squeezy’s unchanging 5.5% + 50¢ on subscription renewals. Choose Polar for anything you expect to grow, for subscription products, and for open-source alignment. Choose Lemon Squeezy if free US payouts and its established store tooling outweigh rate, while accepting that its published pricing carries an expiration date in the form of the Stripe Managed Payments migration.What’s the best alternative?
Polar.sh and Lemon Squeezy aren’t the only two options for this kind of selling. Kelviq, a newer merchant of record, charges 3.5% + 40¢ per sale with no monthly fee (2.9% + 40¢ on your first $5,000). On a $100 domestic sale that works out to $3.90, next to $5.50 on Polar.sh and $5.50 on Lemon Squeezy, and the fee includes usage metering and entitlements that SaaS and AI products otherwise build separately. Run your own numbers in the Kelviq fee calculator, or see the direct matchups in Kelviq vs Polar.sh and Kelviq vs Lemon Squeezy.