Two ERPs, each with an open-source edition, and different economics. Compared on licence, pricing, hosting, customisation, ecosystem and exit, including where Odoo is the better call.
If you only read one paragraph.
Odoo's Standard and Custom plans are priced per user per month, and in our view Odoo has the larger module catalogue and the more finished interface. ERPNext is a single GPL v3 product on an MIT framework, with no per-user fee, customised through that framework, and in our experience it rewards having someone technical build around your process. The choice turns on who will shape and run the system, and how many people will touch it.
Worth saying before the differences.
Both are full ERPs. Odoo's editions page groups its apps under finance, sales, websites, supply chain, HR, marketing, services and productivity; ERPNext covers accounting, sales, procurement, stock, manufacturing, projects, point of sale and support. Both have an open-source edition you can download and run, and both are maintained by their vendors. Nobody choosing either is picking a toy.
Licence, money, hosting, shaping, ecosystem, exit. Opinions are labelled.
Odoo Community is LGPL v3. Odoo Enterprise is a separate licence (Odoo Enterprise Edition License v1.0) that requires an active subscription covering your user count and forbids redistributing the code. ERPNext itself is GPL v3 as a single product, on a framework (Frappe) that is MIT. There is no second edition of ERPNext to upgrade into.
Odoo's Standard and Custom plans are priced per user per month. ERPNext has no per-user fee; hosting is priced by compute, so cost follows load, and the rest of what you pay is implementation and whoever runs it.
Odoo Community can be downloaded and self-hosted under LGPL v3. For the subscription product, on-premise hosting and external API access sit on the Custom plan. ERPNext can be self-hosted or run on Frappe Cloud, and the Frappe framework generates a REST API for every record type out of the box.
Odoo lists Studio, its customisation tool, on the Custom plan, alongside what is in our view a wide catalogue of modules. In our experience ERPNext is shaped through the Frappe framework: record types, fields and workflows are defined as data, and a custom app is installed beside the core, kept apart from it.
In our view Odoo has the wider catalogue of ready-made modules and the more finished interface, and ERPNext's ecosystem is smaller and more technical; we have not counted either. In our view, if you want to buy a module for most needs, Odoo has more shelves.
Odoo Enterprise use requires an active subscription for your user count. ERPNext has no licence subscription to lapse; what you keep when you part with an implementer depends on the hosting and the contract you agreed, so ask that question of anyone you hire.
Sources, so you can check: Odoo's legal page names the licences; Odoo's pricing page names the plans and what sits on each; the ERPNext and Frappe licence files and the Frappe pages state the GPL v3, the MIT framework and the absence of a per-user fee. Exact prices are deliberately not repeated here because they change; read them on the vendors' pages.
Both lists are true. Which one describes you is the comparison.
Where System Studio comes in, and why it sits on one of these two.
System Studio builds business systems for firms that run on projects, materials and site work: the people on the system are storekeepers, site engineers and crew leads. We build on ERPNext for the reasons under "Choose ERPNext if". The product is a single open-source edition, the bill does not climb with every new login, and the build is kept apart from a standard core. The method is the same each time: write down how the business actually runs, then make those procedures execute. The platform is the part we do not have to invent.
Two limits, stated plainly. We build for firms that run on projects, materials and site work; if that is not your industry, the comparison above still applies and we do not. And hosting with us means depending on us to run it; what you keep is your data, which leaves usable if you stop. If your business is close to standard and you have an Odoo partner you trust, use them.
Straight answers, including the ones that do not favour us.
The software is free under the GNU GPL v3 and there is no per-user licence fee. What costs money is hosting, implementation and whoever keeps it running. Frappe Cloud prices hosting by compute.
Yes. Odoo Community is released under the LGPL v3 and can be downloaded and self-hosted. Odoo Enterprise is a separate licence that requires an active subscription priced per user per month.
They are easy in different ways. Odoo offers Studio, its customisation tool, on the Custom plan, plus what is in our view a wide module catalogue. In our experience ERPNext's framework lets a technical person shape it deeply, with the changes kept in a separate app. In our view, if nobody technical is involved, Odoo is more forgiving; if someone is building around your process, ERPNext gives them more room.
In our experience the answer depends entirely on how customised the Odoo instance is, and that cannot be known from the outside. Ask anyone quoting a migration to look at your data first.
Neither on its own. The question that decides it is who will shape and run the system. In our view, if the answer is a partner and standard modules, Odoo is a strong default. If the answer is someone building around how your jobs actually move, with staff on the system who do not sit at desks, ERPNext's licence and pricing model fit that shape better.
Tell us how your business actually runs. A conversation about where the work gets stuck, who holds the knowledge, and which of these two fits the shape of it.
