ERPNext vs Odoo
Both are broad open source ERPs that support Indian GST. Where they really differ is the licence, how the price grows as you add users, and which edition you end up on.
By Asif Mulani, who built Frappe Sheets · Published
The short answer
Which one fits your business.
Pick Odoo if
You want one vendor-hosted product covering website, eCommerce, marketing and ERP, and your user count is modest.
Pick ERPNext if
User numbers will grow, you want the whole system under one open source licence with no paid edition, or you want to own and extend the code.
Side by side
Prices and features as published by each vendor, checked on 20 October 2026. Sources are listed at the end.
| Aspect | ERPNext | Odoo |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Open source, GPL v3. The Frappe Framework under it is MIT. No licence fee per user or per module. | Community is LGPL v3. Enterprise is proprietary and can only be run with a valid Odoo subscription. |
| Pricing | No licence cost. You pay for hosting and for implementation. | Per user per month. One App Free is ₹0 for a single app. Standard is ₹580 to ₹725 and Custom ₹1,080 to ₹1,350, depending on yearly or monthly billing. The listed discount runs for 12 months. |
| Hosting | Self-host on any Linux server, or Frappe Cloud from ₹410 a month for a shared site and ₹3,600 a month for a server. Not priced per user. | Standard runs on Odoo Online only. Custom adds Odoo.sh (hosting billed extra) or on-premise. |
| Modules | Accounts, stock, buying, selling, manufacturing, subcontracting, projects, assets, quality, support. CRM and HR run as separate Frappe apps on the same framework. | A large app catalogue across ERP, website, eCommerce, marketing and productivity. Some features are Enterprise only. |
| Customisation | Custom fields, forms, reports and workflows from the desk. Bigger changes go into a separate Frappe app of your own, so nobody edits the ERPNext core. | Odoo Studio for no-code changes and the external API come with the Custom plan. Deeper changes are written as custom modules. |
| GST, e-invoice, e-way bill | Through the India Compliance app (GPL v3): e-invoice and e-way bill with the NIC portal, GSTR-1 preparation, purchase reconciliation against GSTR-2A and 2B. The GST API features need a paid India Compliance account. | Indian localisation supports GST e-invoice, e-way bill, sending GSTR-1 and receiving GSTR-2B, through a third-party GST Suvidha Provider. |
| Payroll | Frappe HR, a separate GPL v3 app. PF, ESI and professional tax are set up as salary components, and we check them against figures worked out by hand before the first real payroll month. | There's a Payroll app in the catalogue, but we haven't checked how well it covers Indian statutory rules. Ask an Odoo partner about the states you pay staff in. |
| Data ownership and export | Your own database. Any list exports to Excel or CSV, and every record is reachable over a REST API. | Community and your self-hosted database are yours. Enterprise features stop working without a subscription. |
| Implementation effort | Four to eight weeks for a focused CRM or HR build. Three to six months for a full ERP with migration. | Comparable for a similar scope. Usually done by an Odoo partner. |
When Odoo is the better choice
- You want website, eCommerce, email marketing and ERP from one vendor, sold and hosted as one product.
- Your team is small and stays small, so a per-user price is a small number.
- You like that Odoo Studio lets business users make their own changes.
- You're already on Odoo and it works. A migration costs money, so it's only worth doing if it fixes a real problem.
When ERPNext is the better choice
- You expect to add users. ERPNext has no per-user fee, so your twentieth user costs nothing extra.
- You want everything under one open source licence, with no paid edition holding back features.
- You run discrete manufacturing with multi-level BOMs and subcontracting.
- You want CRM, HR and helpdesk on the same framework as the ERP, built and upgraded together.
- You want your customisations kept in your own app, where any Frappe partner who takes over later can read them.
Moving from Odoo to ERPNext
How the move worksIt's a fresh implementation plus a data migration. Custom Odoo modules get rebuilt, so list them first.
Moving from Odoo to ERPNext means a fresh implementation plus a data migration. Masters, open balances and open documents come across. Custom Odoo modules don't, so whatever they do has to be rebuilt as configuration or as a Frappe app.
Start with a list of every customisation in your Odoo database and decide which ones you still need. That list is usually shorter than people expect, and it's what really sets the scope of the project.
Cut over at the start of a period, and reconcile the trial balance in both systems before you go live.
Next step
Sources
All checked on 20 October 2026. Vendor pages change, so confirm prices before you buy.
7 sourcesVendor pricing pages, help docs and licence files.
Questions buyers actually ask.
Partly. Odoo Community is LGPL v3. Odoo Enterprise is proprietary and needs a subscription. ERPNext is GPL v3 throughout, with no paid edition.
On licences, ERPNext, because it has none. Odoo's Standard plan is listed at ₹580 to ₹725 per user per month. Both still need hosting and an implementation, which are often the larger costs.
Yes. Odoo's Indian localisation covers e-invoice and e-way bill through a GST Suvidha Provider. ERPNext does it through the open source India Compliance app, whose GST API features need a paid account.
Yes, on the Custom plan. Standard runs on Odoo Online only.
Yes, as a new implementation with data migration. Masters and balances move. Custom Odoo modules have to be rebuilt, so list them first.
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