The verdict
If you sell software, subscriptions or usage-based services to customers in many countries and do not want to run tax compliance, pick Polar. If you run an agency, consultancy or similar firm and your real question is whether a client or project makes money, pick Productive.
If you do both, for example an agency that also sells a software product, they can sit side by side. Polar would handle the product revenue and Productive the client work. I would not try to make one tool do the other's job. Polar has no project budgets or resourcing, and Productive does not act as a seller of record for your customers.
Side by side
| 5 points compared | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $20/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | |
| Dunning & churn recovery | Yes | Yes |
| Links |
Plans and pricing
Polar
- StarterFree
- Pro$20/mo
- Growth$100/mo
- Scale$400/mo
Productive
- Essential$12/mo/seat
- Professional$300/yr/seat
Who each is for
Choose Polar if…
Pick Polar if you are a developer or a small software team selling a product to customers abroad. Subscriptions, licences and usage-based pricing are what it was built for, and it can meter things like API calls or tokens.
It also helps if you want to skip the finance project before your first sale. Polar handles checkout, tax, invoicing and payouts, and it has an official MCP server that signs in with OAuth. You can start on the free plan. Do not pick it if you want to be the seller of record yourself, or if your billing is simple and local.
Choose Productive if…
Pick Productive if you run an agency, a consultancy or an IT services firm and you sell time. It brings resource planning, time tracking, budgets, invoicing and profitability into one system, so profit per project is a report you can open.
It connects to accounting tools such as QuickBooks and Xero, and to Slack and HubSpot, rather than replacing them. It is priced per user and has no free plan, so test it with a real project on the trial. Skip it if you only need a task tracker or your team is so small that a spreadsheet still works.
Other options worth a look
Handle global subscriptions, payments and tax compliance without managing VAT registration across 300+ markets.
Acts as merchant of record for software and digital product sales, handling global tax compliance.
Manages subscription billing, invoicing and revenue recognition for recurring businesses with your own payment gateways.
Send invoices, track expenses, reconcile banks and prepare VAT returns for Dutch small businesses.
