The Showdown
Polybarvslain
Why pay monthly fees for Polybar when you can self-host lain for free? Let's look at the facts.
VS
Polybar
The Expensive Option
- Closed Source (Black box)
- Expensive monthly fees per user
- Data stored on their servers
WINNER
lain
The Freedom Choice
- 100% Open Source Code
- Free forever (Self-hosted)
- You own your data completely
Interactive Calculator
Calculate Your "SaaS Tax"
SaaS pricing is designed to scale with your success.
See how much wealth transfers from your bank account to Polybar's shareholders.
10 people
150100200+
$
*Estimated standard pricing for Polybar. Adjust if needed.
Estimated Annual Waste
$1,440
Monthly Burn Rate$120
5-Year Projection$7,200
Cost with Self-Hosted$0
Calculations based on 10 users at $12/mo.
Detailed Breakdown
0
External process
Native Lua API
1
Config file limits
Full script control
2
Moderate overhead
Extremely low RAM