Odoo Community
by bista-adminOdoo Community
Odoo, also known as On-Demand Open Object, is an enterprise resource planning that combines a suite of business management software tools that can be used company-wide. Though often used by small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), this ERP can work for all larger businesses and caters to almost all the industries across the globe.
Equipped with 30 enterprise apps (licensed) and over 18,000 Community apps (free and open-source), Odoo is the holy grail of all business management tools. Each app helps facilitate an integral component of a working business.
In fact, there are specific apps for specific issues. For example, the Sales team may require an app that helps boost sales, while an Accounting team may require an app that helps manage finances. Likewise, there are apps that amplify marketing, build a website, among many other things.
Additionally, Odoo apps are also segregated by company departments in order to ease the search (i.e. Human Resources apps include applications created to facilitate recruitment, to manage employees work hours, and such).
Needless to say, Odoo is known for its suite of business management applications. However, let’s backtrack to its two distinct editions: Odoo Community and Odoo Enterprise. This blog will cover Odoo Community – what it is, what that means and how it can serve your business.
What Is Odoo Community?
As mentioned earlier, this edition provides users with over 18,00 free apps that are completely open-sourced. Odoo actually began its journey with this version. It wasn’t until 2015 did the enterprise version appear.
What does that mean?
In a nutshell, with Odoo Community, developers can easily tweak and tailor an app within this edition to best fit your company’s specific needs and requirements.
So with how great the Community edition sounds, you might be wondering why the Enterprise edition is even an option?
Well – since Odoo Community is marketed as the basic version, it also only provides a fraction of what Odoo Enterprise provides. Essentially, Odoo Enterprise offers what Odoo Community provides in addition to a set of extra modules.
Four Distinct Characteristics:
Modules / Features
One of the most notable differences between Odoo Community and Enterprise is their functionality. As we established earlier, Odoo Community came first. Enterprise, on the other hand, is built on top of the open source Community layer and has many additional modules & features.
Support, Bug Fixes, and Upgrades
Another major difference is support. Many businesses place importance on being able to get support when they need it, as it is a crucial component in case of emergencies. While Odoo offers support for the Enterprise edition, it does not do so for Community.
Odoo also offers upgrade assistance as long as it is into an Enterprise version (i.e. from Community to Enterprise or Enterprise to Enterprise).
Hosting Options
Community and Enterprise also differ in their hosting. With Odoo Community, you handle hosting yourself, regardless of whether you are using your own on premise servers or hosted servers. Given this is your own open-source instance, you can customize it to your heart’s content.
With Enterprise, you have both these options, but you have an additional cloud hosting option using Odoo.sh.
| Odoo Community Hosting | Odoo Enterprise Hosting |
| On-premise hosting | On-premise Hosting |
| Cloud hosting (AWS, Digital Ocean, Google Cloud, etc.) | Cloud hosting (AWS, Digital Ocean, Google Cloud, etc.) |
| Cloud Hosting (Odoo.sh) | |
| SaaS (non-customizable) |
Pricing
Since Odoo Enterprise is a licensed version of Odoo, it adds yearly expenses in licensing fees. This means that Community is often less expensive for companies.
The “better option” simply depends on what you are looking for, or need.
Odoo Enterprise has many modules and out-of-the-box features that Odoo Community lacks. So if you choose Odoo Community, and want to ‘add-on’ to it by incorporating these features, the price will drastically increase with each addition.
Even though licenses raise the cost of Odoo Enterprise, customization and development can raise the cost of Odoo Community. Simply put, which option ends up being more affordable depends on the particular features and extent of customization/development you’re looking for.
Odoo Community Applications
Throughout this piece, we’ve mentioned that Odoo Community doesn’t include everything Odoo has to offer. So which apps does it contain?
Sales, Invoicing, CRM, Website, Inventory, Purchase, Point of Sale, Project, eCommerce, Manufacturing, Email Marketing, Expenses, Time Off, Recruitment, Employees, Maintenance, eLearning, Events, Discuss, Contacts, Calendar, Fleet, Blogs, Live Chat, Surveys, Dashboards, Repairs, Attendances, SMS Marketing, Notes, Forum, Skills Management, Lunch, Online Jobs, Employee Contracts, and such are what is included in Odoo Community.
Odoo Enterprise Applications
Odoo Enterprise contained everything mentioned above, as well as Accounting, Timesheets, Studio, Documents, Sign, Helpdesk, Subscriptions, Quality, Planning, Data Cleaning, Product Life Cycle Management, Rental, Field Service, Social Marketing, Appraisal, Approvals, Marketing Automation, Consolidation, Appointments, Employee Referral, Internet of Things, Barcode, VOIP, and Payroll.
Odoo 15: Community vs Enterprise
If you want to dive deeper into what is offered versus not offered, let’s take Odoo 15 into consideration and compare both editions.
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| GENERAL | ||
| Unlimited Functional Support | x | ✓ |
| Version Upgrades | x | ✓ |
| Hosting | x | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| USER INTERFACE | ||
| Desktop + Web Browser | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile + Android & iOS | x | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| FINANCE | ||
| Accounting | x | ✓ |
| Comprehensive Accounting | x | ✓ |
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Invoicing: Payments | ✓ | ✓ |
| Invoicing: AI | x | ✓ |
| Expenses | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payroll | x | ✓ |
| Payroll: Expense Digitization (OCR) | x | ✓ |
| Payroll: Reimbursement in Pay slip | x | ✓ |
| Documents | x | ✓ |
| Document: Spreadsheet | x | ✓ |
| Sign | x | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| SALES | ||
| CRM | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sales | ✓ | ✓ |
| Point of sale (POS) | ✓ | ✓ |
| POS (Loyalty Programs and Gift Cards) | x | ✓ |
| Subscription | x | ✓ |
| Rental | x | ✓ |
| Amazon Connector | x | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| WEBSITES | ||
| Website Builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| eCommerce | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blog | ✓ | ✓ |
| Forum | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live Chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| eLearning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| INVENTORY & MRP | ||
| Inventory | x | ✓ |
| Inventory: Barcode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Manufacturing (MRP) | x | ✓ |
| MRP: Work center, Control Panel, Scheduling | x | ✓ |
| PLM | x | ✓ |
| Purchase | ✓ | ✓ |
| Maintenance | ✓ | ✓ |
| Quality | ✓ | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| HUMAN RESOURCES | ||
| Employees | ✓ | ✓ |
| Employees: Departmental Dashboard | x | ✓ |
| Recruitment | ✓ | ✓ |
| Time Off | ✓ | ✓ |
| Referrals | x | ✓ |
| Appraisals | x | ✓ |
| Fleet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| MARKETING | ||
| Social Marketing | x | ✓ |
| Email Marketing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email Marketing: Mailing Templates | x | ✓ |
| SMS Marketing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Events | ✓ | ✓ |
| Marketing Automation | x | ✓ |
| Surveys | ✓ | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| SERVICES | ||
| Project | ✓ | ✓ |
| Timesheet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Timesheet: Grid view, timer, reminders, timesheet validation | x | ✓ |
| Timesheet: Awesome timesheet (Mobile App) | x | ✓ |
| Field Service | x | ✓ |
| Helpdesk | x | ✓ |
| Planning | x | ✓ |
| Appointments | x | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| PRODUCTIVITY | ||
| Discuss | ✓ | ✓ |
| Approval | x | ✓ |
| Notes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Digital Phone (VOIP) integration | x | ✓ |
| IOT | x | ✓ |
| Odoo Community | Odoo Enterprise | |
| CUSTOMIZATION | ||
| Studio | x | ✓ |
Odoo ERP & Bista Solutions
If you are unsure whether your company will benefit more from Odoo Community or Odoo Enterprise, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Odoo ERP consultants. They possess the knowledge, experience and certifications to connect you with your best fit.
Bista Solutions is an Odoo Gold Partner and recently won the Odoo Best Partner award across North America 2021. This is our fourth win since our partnership with Odoo. Additionally, we have nearly two decades of experience implementing ERP solutions across various industries.
So you can rest assured, our team has credentials necessary to help you reach your goals.
Take a look at our client video testimonials to see the value our team can add to your company. If you would like more information or a free consultation / demo, connect with us via the Contact Form on our website, or give our ERP consultants a call at 1 (858) 401 2332.
