Odoo is an open-source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform that covers the core operational software needs of a business in a single system: sales, CRM, purchasing, inventory, manufacturing, accounting, HR, payroll, project management, e-commerce, and more. Instead of running five or six separate tools that don’t talk to each other, Odoo connects all departments under one platform with a shared database. It is available in two editions: Community (free, open-source) and Enterprise (paid subscription with additional modules and official support).

Odoo Community is free and open-source. It covers the core functional areas but lacks several important modules, including full accounting, advanced manufacturing (MRP), sign, marketing automation, and the Odoo Studio no-code builder. It also has no official Odoo support.

Odoo Enterprise requires a per-user annual licence fee. It includes all Community modules plus a significantly broader set of Enterprise-only modules, official Odoo bug fix support, and access to Odoo.sh (their managed hosting platform). For most businesses with more than 5–10 users and multi-department requirements, Enterprise is the recommended edition. Community is better suited for businesses with a strong technical team and simpler operational needs.

Odoo scales from very small businesses (5–10 users) up to large enterprises with hundreds of users across multiple countries. Its modular structure means you can start with just the modules you need, for example Sales, Invoicing, and Inventory, and expand over time. For very small businesses with simple needs, the implementation investment may not be justified immediately. We are honest about this during the initial scoping call. Odoo tends to deliver its best ROI for businesses that are growing beyond their current tools and dealing with manual reconciliation between multiple systems.

Always the current major release. As of 2026, that is Odoo 17. We never recommend implementing an older version for new projects. The cost of upgrading later outweighs any short-term compatibility reasons. Odoo releases a new major version roughly every year, and each version is supported for approximately three years. Starting on the current version gives you the longest runway before an upgrade is necessary.

Odoo’s partner programme has tiers: Ready, Silver, and Gold. Gold Partners have met the highest requirements: a minimum number of certified Odoo developers and functional consultants, a proven track record of successful implementations, and ongoing revenue targets. In practice, working with a Gold Partner means you are less likely to encounter a team that is learning the platform on your project. It does not guarantee a successful implementation on its own. Execution and communication matter equally, but it is a meaningful baseline quality signal.

Odoo Enterprise is licensed per user per month, billed annually. Pricing varies by region. In Europe, the per-user cost typically sits in the range of €20–€35 per user per month, depending on the number of users and any applicable partner discounts. Odoo also offers a flat monthly rate for unlimited users in certain plans. Pricing changes periodically, so we always verify current rates during scoping.

Important: licence cost is only one component of the total cost of ownership. Implementation, customisation, hosting, and ongoing support are typically larger costs than the licence itself, particularly in the first year. We provide a full TCO model as part of any consultancy or implementation proposal.

Implementation costs vary significantly based on scope: the number of modules, degree of customisation, data migration complexity, number of integrations, and your team’s availability. As a realistic guide:

▸Small implementation (2–4 modules, minimal customisation): €8,000–€20,000
▸Mid-size implementation (5–8 modules, some custom work): €20,000–€60,000
▸Complex implementation (multi-module, custom development, integrations): €60,000+
These are indicative ranges, not quotes. The only way to get an accurate number is through a discovery and scoping process. We provide a fixed or capped-budget proposal after discovery, so you know exactly what you’re committing to before signing.

Not necessarily. Odoo distinguishes between internal users (who need a licence) and portal users (who access Odoo through a customer or vendor portal and do not require a paid licence). For example, customers who log in to view their invoices or track orders are portal users and are free. Only your internal team members who log into the backend and actively work within Odoo modules require a paid user licence. This distinction can meaningfully reduce your licence cost if you have large numbers of external stakeholders.

Yes. Odoo offers three deployment options:

▸Odoo Online: hosted by Odoo, no customisation or custom modules allowed, entry-level pricing, very limited flexibility.
▸Odoo.sh: Odoo’s developer-focused cloud platform, allows custom modules and full code access, higher price point, infrastructure shared between clients.
▸On-premise or third-party managed hosting: hosted on your own infrastructure or with a partner like us. Full control, custom modules allowed, EU data residency guaranteed, typically more cost-effective at scale.
For businesses that need custom modules, integrations, or specific data residency requirements, which is most of our clients, Odoo Online is not a viable option. We recommend managed hosting on EU-based servers as the best balance of control, performance, and cost.

Timeline depends directly on scope. A realistic guide:

▸ Simple implementation (2–4 modules, standard configuration): 6–10 weeks
▸ Mid-size implementation (5–8 modules, some customisation): 10–18 weeks
▸ Complex implementation (multi-department, custom dev, integrations): 18–28 weeks
Timeline is also affected by client-side availability, specifically how quickly your team can attend workshops, review documents, and complete UAT testing. Delays on the client side are the most common cause of timeline overruns, and we plan for this honestly during scoping.

The most common causes of ERP failure are: unclear scope agreed too quickly, data migration planned too late, insufficient user training, partners who disappear after go-live, and clients who cannot commit adequate internal time during the project. The technology itself is rarely the primary cause.

We address each of these specifically: scope is formally signed off before any build begins; data migration is scoped and dry-run before go-live; training is role-specific, not a single generic session; every project includes a hypercare period; and we are explicit during scoping about what we need from your team and when.

Yes, and for many businesses, a phased approach is the right one. Phase 1 typically covers the highest-priority modules (for example, Sales, Inventory, and Invoicing), gets the team live and confident, and then Phase 2 adds additional modules (HR, Manufacturing, advanced reporting). This reduces risk, shortens time to value, and spreads the implementation investment over time. We plan phased rollouts with future phases in mind from the start, so module connections and data structures are designed correctly upfront.

We plan go-live windows to minimise business disruption, typically a low-traffic day or weekend. The final data migration runs in the go-live window, the system switches from staging to production, and your team begins working in the live environment. Our standard practice is to have a technical team member on-call throughout go-live day and for at least 48 hours afterwards for immediate issue resolution. A complete operational shutdown is almost never required with proper planning.

Yes, for well-defined scopes. Fixed-price works when requirements are clear and stable after the discovery phase. We also offer time-and-materials with a capped budget, useful when some flexibility is needed but you still want cost certainty. The right model depends on how well-defined your requirements are at the start. We discuss both options during the proposal phase and are transparent about the trade-offs of each.

Yes. We have migrated data from SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and 365, QuickBooks, Exact, Sage, custom-built Access databases, and several industry-specific ERP systems. The process involves extracting data from the source system, mapping and transforming it to Odoo’s data model, cleaning any quality issues, loading it into a staging environment, validating it with your team, and then running the final migration to production. We always complete a full dry-run before go-live to catch issues under controlled conditions.

Odoo releases a new major version approximately once per year. Each version receives official support (bug fixes and security patches) for roughly three years. You are not forced to upgrade immediately, but remaining on an unsupported version means you will no longer receive security patches, which is a significant risk for a business-critical system. We recommend planning a major version upgrade every 2–3 years. The cost and effort of upgrades is significantly lower when your system has been built to OCA standards and your customisations are well-documented.

Upgrade cost depends primarily on how many custom modules you have, how well they were written, and how much Odoo’s core APIs changed between versions. For a standard implementation with few or no custom modules, an upgrade can be relatively affordable, primarily covering testing and data migration validation. For systems with significant custom development, the cost rises proportionally. Odoo provides a migration tool that handles the database structure upgrade automatically. The manual effort lies in porting custom code and re-testing business processes. We scope upgrades as standalone projects with a fixed or estimated cost after reviewing your current setup.

Yes. We regularly work on Odoo instances implemented by other partners. Before starting, we do a brief configuration review to understand how the system was set up and whether there are any existing customisations that could conflict with our work. This typically takes half a day and is included in the scoping process.

Often yes, and a full re-implementation is usually not necessary. We start with a system audit covering your current configuration, data quality, custom code (if any), module usage, and user adoption levels. From that audit we produce a prioritised remediation plan. Common fixes include reconfiguring incorrectly set-up modules, cleaning and restructuring data, removing unused or conflicting customisations, rebuilding reports, and delivering targeted training. We are honest about cases where the system is in such poor shape that a targeted fix is more expensive than a fresh start.

Our Odoo managed hosting is on servers located in Germany and within the EU. This ensures GDPR compliance for data residency, meaning your business data never leaves the EU. For clients with specific regulatory requirements around data sovereignty, we can confirm the exact data centre location in writing as part of the hosting agreement.

We guarantee 99.9% uptime on our managed hosting plans. In the event of unplanned downtime, we have a defined incident response process: immediate detection via monitoring, root cause assessment within 30 minutes, and active resolution with updates communicated to you throughout. Planned maintenance windows are always scheduled outside business hours and communicated in advance. The 99.9% SLA translates to a maximum of approximately 8.7 hours of unplanned downtime per year.

Backups run automatically every day. We retain daily backups for 30 days as standard. Backups include both the database and the Odoo filestore (uploaded documents, attachments, images). In the event of a recovery request, we can restore to any backup point within the retention window. Backups are stored in a separate location from the primary server, so a single server failure does not affect backup availability. We test backup restoration periodically as part of our hosting maintenance process.

Yes. Migrating from Odoo.sh to our managed hosting is a standard process we perform regularly. We handle the full migration: database export, filestore transfer, environment configuration, custom module deployment, and DNS cutover. We plan the migration window to minimise your downtime. The typical migration window is a few hours outside business hours. After migration, your Odoo functions identically from a user perspective, with improved performance and EU-guaranteed data residency.

Yes. All our support, including hosting support, incident communication, and technical assistance, is available in both English and German. For German-speaking clients, you can communicate with us entirely in German throughout the project and during ongoing support. This applies to email support, calls, and written documentation.

This is the first question we ask. A large number of requirements that appear to need custom development can be solved through configuration, field customisation, Odoo Studio, or an existing OCA community module. We always look for the standard or community solution first. It is cheaper, more upgrade-safe, and faster to implement. Custom development is only recommended when no adequate standard solution exists. We will always tell you which category your requirement falls into before any work is scoped.

The Odoo Community Association (OCA) maintains a set of coding standards for Odoo modules covering file structure, naming conventions, model design, security definitions, and code quality. Modules built to OCA standards are significantly easier to maintain, port to new Odoo versions, and hand over to other developers. When a developer ignores these standards, even if the module works today, you end up with code that is harder to upgrade, harder to debug, and harder to extend. All custom development we deliver follows OCA standards, and we include automated tests and full technical documentation with every module.

You do. Custom modules developed specifically for your business are fully yours upon project completion and final payment. You receive the complete Git repository, source code, and technical documentation. You are free to modify it, deploy it anywhere, or hand it to another developer. We do not impose licensing restrictions on bespoke client work.

Yes, and this is the most common model for e-commerce businesses. Your Shopware, Magento, Shopify, or WooCommerce store remains your customer-facing front end. Odoo handles the back-end operations: inventory, purchasing, invoicing, fulfilment, and CRM. Our integration platform keeps both systems in sync in real time. Orders flow from the store to Odoo, stock levels and fulfilment status flow back. You do not need to replace your storefront with Odoo’s native e-commerce unless you specifically want to.

Many Odoo e-commerce connectors are one-directional, batch-based (syncing every hour rather than in real time), and break when the e-commerce platform releases a major update. Our platform is bidirectional, event-driven (changes trigger immediately, not on a schedule), includes full error handling with automatic retry logic, maintains a complete audit log, and is actively maintained as the supported platforms evolve. We built it in-house specifically for Odoo integrations and maintain it continuously.

Yes, provided the system has a usable interface: a REST or SOAP API, a database we can access, or even a well-structured file export. We build custom integration bridges that handle data transformation, error management, and logging. We review the technical documentation of the target system during scoping to assess feasibility and provide an accurate effort estimate. The absence of a pre-built connector does not make integration impossible. It simply means a custom build is required.

Yes. While many of our clients are based in Germany and the DACH region, we work with businesses across the EU and internationally. All project delivery, including workshops, documentation, support, and communication, is available in both English and German. For international clients, the majority of our work is delivered remotely via video call and shared project tools, with on-site visits available for clients in Europe where the project scope justifies it.

A 30–60 minute call with one of our senior consultants. We ask questions about your current setup, your main pain points, and what you are hoping to achieve. We share honest feedback on whether Odoo is the right fit for your situation, what a realistic project would look like, and what it would likely cost in broad terms. If it is clearly not the right fit for you, we will say so. There is no sales pressure and no commitment required. We follow the call with a written summary of our assessment and proposed next steps.

Yes, this is one of the most common starting points for new client relationships. We begin with a system audit to understand how the system was built, what exists, what is working, and what is not. From there we produce a remediation or takeover plan. We are experienced at inheriting systems from other partners, including those with poorly documented custom code or non-standard configurations. We do not charge for inherited problems that are not your fault. We scope remediation separately and transparently.

Disagreements are almost always about scope, specifically whether something is or is not in the agreed specification. This is why we invest significantly in the scoping phase and require written sign-off before any work begins. When a dispute arises, we return to the signed scope document as the reference point. If the disputed item is genuinely in scope, we deliver it at no extra charge. If it is new, we raise a formal change request. We do not use scope disputes as a billing mechanism. Our goal is a working system and a long-term relationship, not a one-off project.

Yes, for implementation and custom development projects. The overhead of scoping, project management, staging environments, UAT, and deployment applies regardless of project size, so very small requests are better handled through our Managed Services retainer (for existing clients) or as a standalone customisation engagement. The strategy call is the right starting point. We can tell you within the first conversation whether your requirement fits a standalone project or is better handled another way.