# Odoo ERP

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Odoo ERP and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Open-source ERP that people find cheaper and more customizable than traditional ERP, with a solid Community edition. Main caveat: many important modules are enterprise-only, and customization can drive up costs.

## Why people recommend it

- Community edition covers basic needs (4 comments): "Odoo Community CRM works fine at small scale, but the risk is customization creep." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46933224)) "it's solid for nonprofits if you have the technical resources to maintain it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46939205)) "the Community edition does check the boxes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46539206))
- Cheaper than traditional ERP (2 comments): "Odoo is usually from 30% to 75% cheaper: more capabilities and easier to implement or customize." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487486)) "Even the paying version of Odoo is way more affordable than traditional ERP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486004))
- Open source, freedom from vendor roadmap (2 comments): "Having enterprise as open source gives additional freedom and cost savings in terms of technology roadmap." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46538751)) "no other major ERP software comes with the engine 100% opensource, in the kind of market" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47921061))
- Highly customizable, install on-premise (2 comments): "It works for hundred thkusand clients, and you can install Odoo on premise as you like." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904719)) "Everything could be changed. Which is basically an advantage and a disadvantage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486056))

## What people warn about

- Painful upgrades and breaking changes (5 comments): "I can't wrap my head around why an on-prem customer cannot be allowed to run the upgrade scripts on-prem." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486350)) "Yearly breaking changes but impossible to know what version any example code you find is related to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47843852)) "they're suddenly planning to remove both in the next major version with very little advance notice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485661))
- Customization raises costs and partner dependence (2 comments): "Once you need real customization, you start depending on the partner for every small change, and costs slowly creep up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46947795)) "Odoo Community CRM works fine at small scale, but the risk is customization creep." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46933224))
- Important modules are enterprise-only (2 comments): "The majority of the important modules are enterprise only." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485425)) "most powerfull features/addons are enterprise only" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485570))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [SAP ERP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sap.md): 30 recommend
- [ERPNext](https://hackerapproved.com/p/erpnext.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Odoo ERP", https://hackerapproved.com/p/odoo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).