What is Odoo?

Odoo is a suite of business applications built on one database and one data model. Sales, CRM, invoicing, accounting, inventory, purchasing, manufacturing, projects, human resources, a website builder and an online shop are separate apps, but a customer, a product or an invoice is the same record in every one of them. You install the apps you need and add more later without integration work between them.

The software is developed by Odoo S.A., a Belgian company, and by a community of contributors. It has been in development since 2005, first under the name TinyERP, then OpenERP, and as Odoo since 2014.

Two editions

Odoo Community is open source under the LGPL licence. It can be downloaded, installed and modified without a licence fee. It includes the core applications: CRM, sales, invoicing, inventory, purchasing, manufacturing, project, website, eCommerce, point of sale and the basic HR apps.

Odoo Enterprise is licensed per user and adds applications and features on top of Community: full accounting with bank synchronisation and statutory reports, Studio for no code customisation, Helpdesk, Quality, PLM, Field Service, Planning, Documents, Sign, Subscriptions, Rental, Payroll for supported countries, the mobile apps and access to Odoo's hosting and upgrade services.

Which edition is right for you depends on the apps you need, how much you want to customise and how you want to host. Our guide on Community versus Enterprise works through the decision in detail.

Three ways to host it

• Odoo Online is Odoo's own software as a service. It is the simplest option and the most restricted: standard apps only, no custom code, and upgrades happen on Odoo's schedule.
• Odoo.sh is Odoo's platform as a service. It runs Enterprise with your custom and community modules, gives you staging environments and a git based deployment process, and Odoo manages the servers.
• On premise or on your own cloud means you run the software yourself, either edition, with complete control and complete responsibility for hosting, backups, security and upgrades.

How releases work

Odoo publishes a major version each year, normally in the autumn, and supports the three most recent major versions. Each release changes features and sometimes data structures, so an upgrade is a project rather than a click. Companies that stay current pay for a small upgrade each year or a moderate one every second or third year. Companies that fall several versions behind face something closer to a re implementation.

Why companies choose it

The reasons we hear most often are these. One database removes the integration work between departments. The licensing is transparent and, for most companies, far lower than the established ERP vendors. The software is modular, so a business can start with two apps and grow into twenty. The standard functionality covers a wide range of processes, and where it does not, the source code is open and the platform is designed to be extended.

Where it needs care

Odoo is flexible, and flexibility is where projects go wrong. The same system can be configured in many ways, and the difference between a configuration that fits the business and one that fights it is the quality of the analysis done before set up. Custom development is easy to start and hard to unwind at upgrade time. Master data quality, especially products and the chart of accounts, determines whether reports mean anything.

That is the work we do. If you want an independent view on whether Odoo fits your business, the first conversation is free.