Polar vs Xsolla

Polar is a billing stack for AI products, combining subscriptions, usage billing, credits, invoicing, and merchant-of-record services. It collects usage events into customer meters and adds metered charges to the next invoice. Meters can count, sum, average, find minimums or maximums, and track unique values. Usage collection options cover LLM activity, streaming responses, S3-compatible storage, elapsed time, and manually submitted events; LLM integrations include the Vercel AI SDK and compatible models that return usage data. As merchant of record, Polar says it resells products in over 100 markets and handles payments, sales tax, fraud, refunds, and chargebacks. Its hosted checkout supports localized currencies and includes sales tax. Automated benefits include usage credits, license keys, file downloads up to 10GB, and invitations to private GitHub repositories and Discord. Polar lists apps for iOS and Android and plugins for Raycast and Framer. The Starter plan is free; Pro is $20/month, Growth is $100/month, and Scale is $400/month, with transaction fees on each plan. Usage meters do not block activity when a quota is exceeded; the product using Polar must enforce limits.

Xsolla provides tools and services for video game businesses to sell, monetize, distribute, and grow games. It serves developers, publishers, creators, resellers, payment providers, and advertisers. Its merchant of record offering covers 200+ countries and regions, 1,000+ payment methods, and 130+ currencies. Web Shop combines direct-to-player sales with payments, LiveOps, analytics, and first-party player data; merchants can offer in-game items, currency packs, bundles, and subscriptions with regional pricing and restrictions. Xsolla SDK 3 lists iOS, Android, Unity, Epic Games Store, and standalone PC builds as targets, and describes a four-call purchase flow from authentication through finalization. Its SDK price is 5% per transaction, with no monthly fees or minimum volume; general pricing inquiries go through a contact form. Xsolla describes fraud screening using cross-game analytics, machine learning, transaction checks, and manual review. It says it is SOC and PCI DSS certified, encrypts sensitive data with TLS and PFS, and provides DDoS protection. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Los Angeles.