Hasura vs Polar
Instant GraphQL + REST on your data sources — with permissions
vs. Merchant of Record for devs — usage-based billing, MoR, 4% + 40¢
Pricing tiers
Hasura
OSS (Community)
Free forever (Apache-2.0). Self-host GraphQL Engine v2.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud Free
$0. 1 project. 60 req/min. Community support.
Free
Professional
$99/mo (starts). Usage-based compute + data pass-through. Production SLAs.
$99/mo
Advanced
Custom. Multi-region, dedicated, observability, SSO.
Custom
Enterprise
Custom. On-prem / air-gap / advanced security.
Custom
Polar
Pay-as-you-go
4% + 40¢ per transaction. Cheapest Merchant-of-Record. No monthly or setup fees.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Custom. Volume discounts for high-growth teams.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Hasura vs payg on Polar.
| Metric | Hasura | Polar |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Hasura · 14 features
- Actions — Custom resolvers via HTTP.
- Data Connector Hub — Build connectors to any source.
- Event Triggers — DB changes → webhook.
- GraphQL API — Auto GraphQL over relational + NoSQL.
- Hasura DDN (v3) — Multi-source supergraph with OpenDD.
- JWT Auth — Pluggable JWT verification.
- Metadata Migrations — Git-versioned Hasura config.
- Permissions — Row + column + session-based.
- Query Caching — Edge caching with cache-control directive.
- Remote Schemas — Merge external GraphQL into supergraph.
- REST Endpoints — Turn any GraphQL op into REST.
- Scheduled Triggers — Cron + one-off webhook triggers.
- Subscriptions — Live queries via WS.
- Webhook Auth — Custom auth via webhook.
Polar · 15 features
- Customer Portal — Self-serve subscription management.
- Feature Flags — Simple flag mgmt tied to subscription tiers.
- Framework Adapters — Next.js, BetterAuth, TS, Python, Laravel, Ruby, 11+ more.
- Fraud Protection — Chargeback + fraud handling included.
- GitHub Sponsors Import — Import existing sponsors to Polar.
- Global Tax Compliance — VAT/GST/sales tax filed by Polar.
- Hosted Checkout — Polar-hosted + embeddable checkout.
- License Keys — Generate + validate license keys for software.
- Metering — Track API calls, tokens, custom units.
- One-off Purchases — Single purchases + digital downloads.
- Open-Source Backend — Full platform code on GitHub.
- Sandbox Environment — Test transactions without charging.
- Subscriptions — Tiered plans with upgrades/downgrades.
- Usage-Based Billing — Event ingestion → meter → invoice.
- Webhooks — Resource events with HMAC signatures.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Hasura | Polar |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | ddn CLI (v3), hasura CLI | — |
| SDK | — | polar-sdk-python, @polar-sh/better-auth, @polar-sh/nextjs, @polar-sh/sdk |
| REST | Hasura REST Endpoints, Metadata API | Polar REST API |
| GRAPHQL | Hasura GraphQL Engine | — |
| MCP | — | Polar MCP |
| OTHER | Data Connectors, Hasura Console | Polar Checkout, Polar Webhooks |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Hasura and Polar are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.