Odoo ERP
Ranked 2 of 3 ERP software by recommenders
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.
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.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Community edition covers basic needs
“Odoo Community CRM works fine at small scale, but the risk is customization creep.”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Non-profit, volunteers run org needs CRM. Is Odoo Community a good sol.?” “it's solid for nonprofits if you have the technical resources to maintain it”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Non-profit, volunteers run org needs CRM. Is Odoo Community a good sol.?” “the Community edition does check the boxes”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” - Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP”
Cheaper than traditional ERP
“Odoo is usually from 30% to 75% cheaper: more capabilities and easier to implement or customize.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” “Even the paying version of Odoo is way more affordable than traditional ERP”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” Open source, freedom from vendor roadmap
“Having enterprise as open source gives additional freedom and cost savings in terms of technology roadmap.”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” “no other major ERP software comes with the engine 100% opensource, in the kind of market”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Do I belong in tech anymore?” Highly customizable, install on-premise
“It works for hundred thkusand clients, and you can install Odoo on premise as you like.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Do I belong in tech anymore?” “Everything could be changed. Which is basically an advantage and a disadvantage.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Painful upgrades and breaking changes
“I can't wrap my head around why an on-prem customer cannot be allowed to run the upgrade scripts on-prem.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” “Yearly breaking changes but impossible to know what version any example code you find is related to”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Qwen3.6-Max-Preview: Smarter, Sharper, Still Evolving” “they're suddenly planning to remove both in the next major version with very little advance notice”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” - Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP”
- Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Do I belong in tech anymore?”
Customization raises costs and partner dependence
“Once you need real customization, you start depending on the partner for every small change, and costs slowly creep up.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Non-profit, volunteers run org needs CRM. Is Odoo Community a good sol.?” “Odoo Community CRM works fine at small scale, but the risk is customization creep.”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Non-profit, volunteers run org needs CRM. Is Odoo Community a good sol.?” Important modules are enterprise-only
“The majority of the important modules are enterprise only.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP” “most powerfull features/addons are enterprise only”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Odoo: Open-Source ERP”
Other ERP software people recommend
The two most recommended other ERP software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 ERP software, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 45 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It seems to me that it's a good foundation for this kind of experiment and doesn't involve too much reinventing the wheel.”
“shamelessly asking for passport pictures for a job application”
“older OS ERPs really shifted towards acting like their closed contemporaries”
“Why are you collecting scans of the passports of applicants who don't hold EU citizenship?”
“Odoo builds open-source business apps used by millions.”
“no other major ERP software comes with the engine 100% opensource, in the kind of market”
“The upgrade path (with the OpenUpgrade fork) was awful”
“It works for hundred thkusand clients, and you can install Odoo on premise as you like.”
“the mix of inline Python 2 Flask + XML was basically tech debt-as-a-service”
“Not very AI pilled, even if AI is considered and used somehow”
“Yearly breaking changes but impossible to know what version any example code you find is related to”
“powerful but a lot to configure”
“use standard configurations only to reduce technical dependency”
“Once you need real customization, you start depending on the partner for every small change, and costs slowly creep up.”
“it's solid for nonprofits if you have the technical resources to maintain it”
“Odoo Community CRM works fine at small scale, but the risk is customization creep.”
“the important thing is the trajectory it is on”
“Enterprise modules are a good value too, as long as business processes and geography do match the regions it is developed for.”
“the Community edition does check the boxes”
“Having enterprise as open source gives additional freedom and cost savings in terms of technology roadmap.”
“OpenERP/Odoo specifically mentioned”
“traditional ERP has significantly more depth in functionality”
“Odoo is usually from 30% to 75% cheaper: more capabilities and easier to implement or customize.”
“Community can be a solid ERP foundation”
“the Enterprise version is poor value”
“the product looks very mature”
“I can't wrap my head around why an on-prem customer cannot be allowed to run the upgrade scripts on-prem.”
“It's not perfect (crypt specific columns rather than full DB)”
“The upgrade path for third-party and custom addons was not defined.”
“Everything could be changed. Which is basically an advantage and a disadvantage.”
“Even the paying version of Odoo is way more affordable than traditional ERP”
“a typical seat based install runs average enterprises 25+k usd per year”
“But the main advantage is convenience.”
“It's a poor description of an object model, it barely explains how things interact or what their significance is.”
“There are some bright ideas based on strong fundamentals.”
“they're suddenly planning to remove both in the next major version with very little advance notice”
“absolutely blasting tons of podcasts with the stupidest commercials I've ever heard”
“most powerfull features/addons are enterprise only”
“The majority of the important modules are enterprise only.”
“it's more accurately desribed as open core”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.