Odoo

Odoo is the only vendor in this category where walking away from the supplier does not mean walking away from the software. The core is published under LGPLv3, so you can run it on your own servers, keep the version you have, and pay Odoo S.A. in Belgium for hosting and paid apps only as long as that arrangement makes sense. For an ERP — a system you will still be running in ten years — that is a materially different bargain from a licence that expires when the contract does.

The product itself is modular to a degree that is both its strength and its trap. Accounting, inventory, manufacturing, CRM, e-commerce, HR and point of sale are all separate apps that share one data model, so a company can start with one and grow into the rest without a second system. The trap is that the demo looks effortless and the implementation is not: the standard apps assume a way of working, and moulding them to a business that does things differently is real project work, usually through a partner. Budget for that, not just for the per-user price.

What Odoo does well

• Open-source core under LGPLv3, fully self-hostable
• One data model across accounting, stock, manufacturing, CRM and e-commerce
• Belgian company, with EU hosting or your own servers
• Free plan for a single app, then per-user monthly pricing
• Large partner and module ecosystem

Where Odoo falls short

• Implementation is a project, not a signup, once you go past the standard flows
• The gap between the free community edition and paid Enterprise features catches people out
• Module quality across the ecosystem is uneven

Standout feature. The exit is built in: LGPLv3 on your own hardware means the software outlives the contract, which is not true of anything else in this category.