Description

n8n-nodes-polar

This is an n8n community node for Polar.sh – a modern payment infrastructure platform for SaaS and digital products. Polar is an open-source alternative to Stripe, designed specifically for developers selling software.

n8n is a fair-code licensed workflow automation platform.

Features

• 💳 Checkout Management – Create and manage checkout sessions with flexible pricing
• 📦 Product Catalog – Manage products with one-time and recurring pricing models
• 👥 Customer Management – Track and manage your customers with billing addresses
• 🪝 Webhooks – React to payment events in real-time with secure webhook validation
• 🧪 Sandbox Support – Test everything safely before going live
• 🔒 Secure Authentication – Built-in webhook signature validation for security

Installation

Community Node (Recommended)

1. Go to Settings > Community Nodes
2. Select Install
3. Enter n8n-nodes-polar in the package name field
4. Click Install

Manual Installation

# Navigate to your n8n installation directory
cd ~/.n8n

# Install the node
npm install n8n-nodes-polar

Authentication

1. Create a Polar account at polar.sh
2. Go to your organization settings
3. Navigate to Settings > Access Tokens
4. Click Create Token
5. Copy the token (you'll only see it once!)
6. In n8n, create new Polar credentials:
   • Access Token: Your token from step 5
   • Environment: Choose between Production or Sandbox

Supported Operations

Products

• Create – Create products with flexible pricing (one-time, recurring, custom, free)
• Get – Retrieve product details by ID
• Get Many – List all your products with pagination and filtering
• Update – Modify product information
• Archive – Archive products you no longer sell

Checkouts

• Create – Generate checkout sessions for customers with pre-filled data
• Get – Retrieve checkout details and status
• Update – Modify checkout parameters before completion

Customers

• Create – Add new customers with billing information
• Get – Retrieve customer information by ID
• Get Many – List all customers with filtering options
• Update – Update customer details and billing addresses
• Delete – Remove customer records

Webhook Trigger

• Listen for real-time events with signature validation:
  • Checkout created/updated
  • Order created/updated
  • Subscription created/updated/canceled
  • Customer created/updated
  • Benefit granted/revoked
  • Product created/updated

Example Workflows

1. Simple Product Checkout Flow

HTTP Request Trigger → 
Polar: Create Product → 
Polar: Create Checkout → 
Send Email with checkout link

2. Complete SaaS Onboarding

Typeform Trigger → 
Polar: Create/Update Customer → 
Polar: Create Checkout → 
Gmail: Send checkout link → 
Polar Webhook: order.created → 
Postgres: Add user to database → 
SendGrid: Send welcome email → 
Slack: Notify team

3. Subscription Management

Polar Webhook: subscription.created → 
Grant access in your app → 
Send welcome email

Polar Webhook: subscription.updated → 
If: Plan changed → Update user permissions
If: Payment failed → Send dunning email

Polar Webhook: subscription.canceled → 
Revoke access → 
Send win-back email → 
Update CRM

4. Customer Management

Polar Webhook: customer.created → 
Airtable: Add to customer database → 
Slack: Notify sales team → 
HubSpot: Create contact

Webhook Security

This node implements secure webhook validation using Polar.sh's webhook keys:

1. Signature Validation: All webhooks are validated using HMAC-SHA256 signatures
2. Automatic Setup: Webhook endpoints are automatically created and cleaned up
3. Event Filtering: Only receive events you've subscribed to
4. Error Handling: Graceful handling of invalid signatures and malformed requests

Sandbox Testing

Polar provides a sandbox environment for safe testing:

1. Set environment to "Sandbox" in credentials
2. Use test credit card: 4242 4242 4242 4242
3. Any future expiration date and 3-digit CVC
4. Webhooks work in sandbox mode for complete testing

Common Use Cases

SaaS Business

• Monthly/annual subscriptions with trials
• One-time payments for lifetime deals
• Tiered pricing with different features
• Usage-based billing for API calls

Digital Products

• One-time purchases for courses/ebooks
• Early access for supporters
• Bundle deals and discounts
• Downloadable content delivery

Open Source Monetization

• GitHub Sponsors alternative
• Private repository access
• Priority support tiers
• Commercial license sales

API Integration Patterns

This node follows n8n's modern routing patterns:

• Automatic Pagination: Get Many operations handle large datasets automatically
• Dynamic URLs: Product and customer IDs are dynamically inserted into API calls
• Request Validation: Input validation happens before API calls
• Error Handling: Comprehensive error handling with detailed messages

Tips & Best Practices

1. Use Metadata: Attach metadata to products, checkouts, and customers for easy reconciliation
2. External IDs: Use your own user IDs as external_customer_id for linking
3. Webhook Validation: Always keep signature validation enabled for security
4. Test in Sandbox: Always test payment flows in sandbox before going live
5. Amount Handling: Amounts are automatically converted between dollars and cents

Pricing Features

• One-time Payments: Perfect for lifetime deals and single purchases
• Recurring Subscriptions: Monthly and yearly billing cycles
• Custom Pricing: Let customers set their own amount
• Free Products: Useful for trials and lead magnets
• Multiple Currencies: Support for USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, SEK, NOK, DKK

Resources

• Polar Documentation
• Polar API Reference
• n8n Documentation
• n8n Community

Support

• Polar Support: Discord | Email
• Node Issues: GitHub Issues
• n8n Community: Forum

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License – see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to the Polar team for building an amazing platform
• Thanks to the n8n community for the excellent automation platform
• Built with ❤️ for the developer community

⚡ Webhook Setup (Polar Trigger)

The Polar Trigger node handles webhook events from Polar.sh using the Standard Webhooks specification. Webhooks are automatically created and managed via the Polar.sh API.

Automatic Webhook Configuration

1. Add webhook secret to credentials:

   • Go to your Polar dashboard: https://polar.sh/dashboard
   • Navigate to: Settings → Webhooks
   • Create a webhook (or use an existing one)
   • Copy the webhook secret
   • Add the webhook secret to your Polar webhook node in n8n

2. Configure the trigger node:

   • Create a Polar Trigger node in your n8n workflow
   • Select the events you want to listen to
   • Choose your Polar API credentials (with webhook secret)
   • Activate the workflow

3. Webhook is automatically created:

   • n8n will automatically create a webhook in your Polar dashboard
   • The webhook URL will be generated automatically
   • Selected events will be subscribed
   • When you deactivate the workflow, the webhook is automatically deleted

Webhook Events

The Polar Trigger supports these webhook events:

• benefit_grant.created – When a benefit is granted
• benefit_grant.revoked – When a benefit is revoked
• checkout.created – When a checkout session is created
• checkout.updated – When a checkout session is updated
• customer.created – When a customer is created
• customer.updated – When a customer is updated
• order.created – When an order is created
• order.updated – When an order is updated
• product.created – When a product is created
• product.updated – When a product is updated
• subscription.canceled – When a subscription is canceled
• subscription.created – When a subscription is created
• subscription.updated – When a subscription is updated

Security Features

Webhooks are validated using the Standard Webhooks specification:

• Signature validation: Uses HMAC-SHA256 with your webhook secret
• Timestamp validation: Prevents replay attacks (configurable tolerance)
• Required headers: webhook-id, webhook-timestamp, webhook-signature
• Event filtering: Only subscribed events are processed

Configuration Options

• Validate Signature: Toggle webhook signature validation (enabled by default)
• Timestamp Tolerance: Configure how many seconds tolerance for timestamp validation (default: 300 seconds)