pinky07

Open Source is more a development model than a business model. It helps to evolve faster, but it's not a value for the end-user.

Today, we have way more free trials on the saas, than download of the open source version.

Our clients (entrepreneurs, CFO, logistic, HR ...) don't care that we are open source: they just want the best product, at a good price.

But it helped us grow our partner network of IT companies. For them, open source is a real value.

Yes, you get access to the github repo if you pay Odoo Enterprise

The Odoo support is free, you can test it here https://odoo.com/help

Gmail, Docs, Slides...

Odoo is not an alternative to Gmail. (We have a spreadsheet app, but more for reporting purposes)

We have done a few exceptions (e.g. Defense departments), but we usually refuse if not really justified.

2 reasons:

1/ Upgrade are super complex: requires a service, not just a script

2/ We used it to monetize Odoo Enterprise

Upgrade: Even after 1000+ upgrades, we still run into issues regularly as every environment is different (set of modules, customizations, community apps, ...). So we need to test the database, and fix scripts when necessary. If we would just provide scripts, it would cost us a lot in support for issues... and a bad customer experience. At least, by having the control we can ensure a smooth customer experience; it just works - and you don't see everything we do behind. (most of the time)

Monetization: The open core business model is hard, when your goal is to do a maximum open source. Our main competitor being Odoo Community, we charge 5x less than competitors for a better software. (25€ vs 180€)

So, we had to pick a few apps and services to monetize Odoo Enterprise, like the accounting app, or the upgrade service.

Fortunetally, there is OpenUpgrade (scripts from the community) so that there is no lock-in on the upgrade. (you spend time with open-upgrade or go to Enterprise and we do it)

Imagine we develop: Shopify + Wix + Quickbooks (accounting in 140 countries) + Netsuite + Asana + Discord + SAP + DocuSign + Payroll + ... 30 other apps.

On the service side, we onboard 14.000 new clients per month. (need a lot of sales too for that). Projects varies from a 5 users company (4 hours of service), to 5000 users. (1 year implementation for a team of 5)

The spread in people is more or less: 30% developers, 30% consultants, 30% sales.

In addition to our 6700 employees, we also have a large partner network: 200k FTE working on Odoo (selling, developing, doing services). They developed 50k apps, and onboard tens of thousands of companies per month.

Use the /doc url on your database. To test: https://demo.odoo.com/doc

You can crypt the data before sending to the upgrade platform. Before it was an external script, and since Odoo 16 you can use the `oboo-bin obfuscate` command, before running the upgrade script.

See `./odoo-bin obfuscate --help` to check how to crypt your custom data and uncrypt after upgrade.

It's not perfect (crypt specific columns rather than full DB) but, unfortunatelly, to operate our upgrade service, we need access to the database. Upgrades are complex and requires testing, fine tuning scripts to your specific use cases, etc.

The other alternative is to not use our services, but do it yourself using upgrade scripts from the community: https://github.com/OCA/OpenUpgrade

> you end up paying more money for "open source" ERP than normal ERP

That's not what I see on the market. Even the paying version of Odoo is way more affordable than traditional ERP:

- licenses are 5x lower than competition: https://www.odoo.com/pricing (avg 25€/user/month vs 180€ for Netsuite - Odoo has a "no-extra" / transparent pricing policy)

- On implementation service fees, Odoo is usually from 30% to 75% cheaper: more capabilities and easier to implement or customize.

As a result of capabilities + affordable, Odoo became the most used ERP in the world: 16m users (incl free ones), 200k+ clients. (Netsuite is 43k clients, Dynamics BC is 40k clients)

Disclaimer: I am the founder of Odoo.

Just an example: when I send an email marketing campaign with Odoo, I have all the stats attached: the usual # clicks, open rate, ... but also # Leads, # Orders, Revenues.

Because Odoo as it all:

- You send an email with link tracker (Email Marketing App)

- The visitor goes on website (Website App)

- He fills a form that creates an opportunity (CRM App)

- 4 weeks later a sales make a quotation (Sales App)

- After Delivery (Inventory App)

- We send the invoice to the customer that books revenue (Accounting App)

So, you get the revenue for every email sent. Imagine that power for everything. (eg. stock is common between eCommerce, CRM, POS - Wommunication on whatsapp, SMS, chat, emails are centralized for helpdesk, ...)

But the main advantage is convenience. Once you use Odoo, everytime you have a need, you can install an app in one click that fully integrates with your stack. No need for developers to integrate, to call vendor to buy software, ...

The complexity of an IT stack grows with the square of the number of software components it contains. Most Odoo clients run everything on Odoo, eliminating the need for integrations and significantly reducing overall complexity.

Odoo SA (my company) has 6700 employees: we only use 2 software to run everything: Odoo and Google Workplace.

It's not a fork of Django, even thought the stack has similarities: Python, ORM on top of Postgresql, Modules. We use werkzeug (it's been a long time I checked Django, not sure they are on it too), but the rest of the stack is Odoo's own framework: ORM, Templating (QWeb), API, etc.

But it's not comparable to Django:

- Odoo is built for management application: think CRM, Accounting, Project Management, ... a strong backend

- Django is often used as a framework, Odoo for end-users apps (even though our framework is super advanced)

- Odoo has a CMS (website builder) too but with a focus on being end-user friendly, like Wix, or Squarespace but for businesses (eCommerce, Jobs, Events, ...)

- the javascript client of Odoo is huge whereas Django is minimal

- Odoo has it's own ORM optimized for speed and complexity of an ERP

- templating engine based on XML rather than inline python instructions

Here is a 2 minutes overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbso3NVz3p8

I am the founder of Odoo: ask me anything. Happy to see Odoo on HN.

No, all the apps above are part of Odoo Community. (So, open source)

You mentioned Odoo in CRM, but Odoo has apps in a lot of extra categories (that are not yet listed): - ERP: https://odoo.com (alternative to Ms. Dynamics, SAP) - Website Builder: https://www.odoo.com/app/website (alternative to Wix, SquareSpace) - POS: https://www.odoo.com/app/point-of-sale-shop (alternative to VendHQ, LightSpeed) - Kanban & Project: https://www.odoo.com/app/project - Human Resources / HR: https://www.odoo.com/app/employees (alternative to SuccessFactors, BambooHR) - Manufacturing - MES: https://www.odoo.com/app/manufacturing - Invoicing: https://www.odoo.com/app/invoicing (alternative to bill.com)

As Squarespace released it's S-1, I wanted to show our new version of the Odoo Website Builder, an open source alternative.

In addition to the website builder, Odoo does all business features: eCommerce, appointment, jobs offer, subscriptions, elearning, forum, ...

Odoo's open source website builder released a new version last month: https://odoo.com/page/website-builder

It's quite impressive.

I wrote a memento / summary of the book, for anyone interested to discover it at a glance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F8_p3bkzugTvkBd1Ja6bHLR2...

The invoicing standard in France and Germany (factur-x) embed the XML inside the PDF, which is very convenient.

Here is a python lib that does it: https://pypi.org/project/factur-x/

Odoo, an open source invoicing software, produces factur-x invoices systematically (whatever the country): very convenient as it's parsed automatically.

Have a look at Odoo, you can test our engine here: https://www.odoo.com/page/invoice-automation

We will open our API next week at last.

Very curious to test it and compare it with other solutions.

FWIW, one can test the AI of Odoo here: https://www.odoo.com/page/invoice-automation

It's closer to 90k lines of JS if you exclude data and external libs, those directories: data locale demoData expendPlugins/chart plugins

Another good, and dynamic, introduction to accounting, with examples of entries for all documents: https://www.odoo.com/documentation/functional/accounting.htm...

We are witnessing this since weeks at Odoo. (https://odoo.com)

Last month, we lost a big project against SAP (budget 5m€): the company choosed SAP because their holding was willing to pay for the project. Last week, the same prospect came back to Odoo: as the holding could not afford such a project anymore, the company has to pay from its own budget. So, they choose Odoo (<1m€ budget)

I believe the next wave is a replacement of proprietary expensive business applications: ERP, SAS, BI...

Odoo: Open Source Business Apps https://Odoo.com We recruit developers in Belgium and business advisors (US, Belgium, Hong Kong). We have a full remote process for the interview, in less than 5 days.

Https://odoo.com/jobs

Odoo has a full CMS with advanced page builder: https://www.odoo.com/page/website-builder

We do both SMEs, and large corporate, with 5.5M users in total.

I would say we sign a 1000+ employee corporationn every month. Example, in Portugal we replaced 150 legacy proprietary software in 3 years: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observato...

More case studies here:

We made a business game, scale-up, to teach ERP differently in universities. It's a role play game based on Odoo.

It's free for teachers (and students), you can get boxes here: https://odoo.com/scaleup

My company is doing an open source alternative to SAP (and replace several SAP implementations already): https://www.odoo.com