Odoo Review: Are Odoo Software Features Worth System Prices?

Odoo ERP (formerly known as OpenERP) is a comprehensive suite of business applications that cover all aspects of business operations. With over 5 million users worldwide, Odoo has established itself as a leading open-source ERP system.

Welcome to our Odoo review, where we will review the features and benefits of Odoo ERP, and evaluate how it can help your business streamline their operations and boost productivity.

Odoo review 2023: Is the Odoo ERP system any good?

This Odoo ERP review makes the claim that Odoo is a great system for enterprise resource planning. Odoo is open source, and you can start using its tools for free. Any Odoo 16 review will praise the free version as well as the highly-specific focus of each of the individual Odoo apps.

Many Odoo users and online reviews consider Odoo among the best bookkeeping software. It is true that you can do your accounting and bookkeeping with Odoo, but also so much more. For example, you can use Odoo if you want some of the best insurance CRM tools, or just in general if you need the best open-source CRM.

Odoo pricing plans

First of all, how much does Odoo cost? Let’s first review Odoo price points:

How much does Odoo cost for nonprofits?

Odoo does not have any special prices for nonprofits or charitable organizations. However, since the basic apps start off as a free version, Odoo is a good option for nonprofits. Odoo can help nonprofits manage donor lists, fundraising, memberships, expenses and tax deductions. 
 

Odoo free vs paid: what’s the difference?

Here is how the pricing works: Even though every Odoo app has a price tag, your first app section will be free. When viewing the Odoo pricing page you will notice some apps require other apps as core elements in this toolkit. So when you choose one of the bundles, you actually get more than one app for free. 

Only when you start requiring a number of apps do the costs start to add up. If, for example, you choose two apps that are not connected, your fee will be the price tag of the more expensive app.

Other reasons you will have to leave the Odoo free version behind and begin paying is if you require hosting services. Self hosting is free, as is standard cloud hosting. For the Odoo.sh cloud platform, you must begin to pay, starting at $57.80 per month billed annually and that gets you 1 seat, 0.2 GBs of storage, shared hosting but zero staging environments.
 

Are there any Odoo coupon codes or promo discount vouchers?

We did the research, and it seems there are no Odoo coupon codes or discount vouchers at this time.

Odoo overview: what is Odoo & what is Odoo used for?

Odoo is an open-source collection of business apps. It is mostly considered an enterprise resource planning platform, although it can be used on a smaller scale for simpler things like CRM or customer relationship management, marketing, HR or inventory tracking. Of course, when you begin combining all these various separate business optimization SaaS, you are basically looking at a fully-stacked ERP.

Odoo can really let companies cut down on the number of individual software systems they use by bringing everything together into a single platform solution. Now, this does not mean that Odoo does not integrate well with other apps you may already be using and do not want to give up. With connectors like Zapier, you can integrate Odoo with anything from Facebook Lead Ads to Google Sheets or Google Ads to Microsoft Outlook and MailChimp.

Odoo features list 

The main features of Odoo are:

• Odoo CRM

• Odoo Sales

• Odoo Marketing Automation

• Odoo Project

• Odoo Website

• Odoo Invoicing

• Odoo eCommerce

• Odoo Point of Sale with Odoo Wireless Support

• Odoo Accounting

• Odoo Employees

• Odoo Inventory

• Odoo Manufacturing

• Odoo Documents

• Odoo Spreadsheets

• Odoo Partners
   

1. Odoo CRM

One of the main apps that is part of the Odoo buffet of apps is the CRM, or customer relationship management tool. A CRM can be a standalone software system or be a module in a larger enterprise business management software. 

CRM is the way small businesses keep track of all your contacts in your network with the aim of turning them into satisfied customers. With Odoo CRM you can nurture these leads into your sales pipeline and track their progress through the funnel. 

Odoo CRM can also offer intelligent predictions on the likelihood of an opportunity to become a won deal, as well as tips on how to best engage with each lead at various stages in the sales business process. 

You can use Odoo’s open-source software CRM functionalities to create wireframes of scheduled activities, like when to call a lead, schedule a demo, create an estimate, and send invoice reminders. 

CRMs like Odoo’s also make it easy to have total contact profiles, full engagement histories, and real-time overview of how your performance is meeting targets, and you get it all in neat user interfaces and intuitive dashboards. Odoo’s CRM gets particularly good marks for its ease of use.
 

2. Odoo Sales

Sales is a business application that works closely with CRM and other ERP software, and for Odoo these apps are streamlined with aligned functionalities. First off, with Odoo Sales you get Odoo Invoicing automatically. 

This lets you create nice quotations and invoices using templates and customization. From there it’s easy to send the quote, close the deal, do the work, send the invoice and get paid efficiently. Quotations then feed directly into sales orders and contract management features to get things going.  

You can set up a sales portal, which allows your customers to get access to their quotations, sales and delivery orders. Combined with Odoo Sign, you can manage your signatures digitally. 

Odoo Sales has automated alerts when customers update their orders and also auto updates your records. Finally, Odoo Sales has features to help with your business needs when it comes to cross-selling and up-selling. 
 

3. Odoo Marketing Automation

The next of our Odoo apps is marketing automation, which is more common with CRMs than with ERP solutions. While Odoo has many marketing apps, for example for social marketing, email marketing, direct marketing and events, it is marketing automation which stands out as a great feature. 

You can use Odoo Marketing Automation to create marketing campaigns for lead generation that are relevant to your audience and targeted at specific groups based on demographics, interests or past purchases.

From there, marketing campaign workflow automation can control the customer journey as they get prepped to be handed off to salespeople with lead qualification and lead nurturing. There are templates for beautiful email campaigns and a drag and drop functionality makes them easy to make your own.
 

4. Odoo Project

For project management within an enterprise resource planning solution, there is the app Odoo Project which covers the key PM features. Odoo’s project management benefits are aimed at teams who use agile methodologies, meaning they often plan lightly, work in short bursts called sprints, and are ready to change and adapt easily. 

With Odoo Project, you can quickly and simply make changes to the scope or deadline or cost if unforeseen issues arise, as well as have many plan Bs as part of risk management. You can also plan scheduling, budgets and break down the work into stages, tasks and subtasks. It can show you worker availability, and give you access to a Kanban board for task management. 

Odoo Project is also necessary for team communication and collaboration. Team members can add notes, mention one another, use live chat, and even share a real-time pad or whiteboard. Any Odoo enterprise SaaS package will do well to include project management in their bundle.  
 

5.Odoo Website

For a website builder app, you got the very user-friendly Odoo Website. Any Odoo user can manage this app with a lot of ease of use. You can build and manage your website on your computer or from your mobile app. It uses drag and drop building blocks for the creation and design.

Websites are built with a modern app stack including Python. With Odoo you can build and manage multiple websites, write and publish blog articles, and have social media integration.

Various tools in the Odoo Website builder include a live chat feature that helps you convert visitors into opportunities. There is a customer portal option for your contacts to do things like update their shopping carts. 

Odoo handles SEO optimization for your website as well to maximize hits. You can have your website be in multiple languages which include more than just English and Spanish. You can also get a Google Font add-on. 

There are copyright-free photos in a library and you can get branded illustrations. For customer support there is a helpdesk ticket management system.
 

6. Odoo Invoicing

Odoo invoicing is sort of one of the core tools that many other apps require. These include ecommerce, point of sale, Odoo Purchase, Odoo Expenses, Odoo Accounting and Odoo Subscriptions. 

You got your standard set of features here, including being able to create and manage your sales contracts. When you create invoices, they can be automatically recurring. Also, you can create invoices directly from quotes.

You can use the invoicing app for bill management as well. Both can be sent to clients and customers by email as a PDF as well as by snail mail. Payments can be accepted via many payment processing tools like Paypal, Buckaroo, Stripe, Authorize.net, or Adyen. 

What’s more, Odoo Invoicing data enriches your overall sales analytics. For this you can set up dynamic and customizable sales reporting dashboards. 
 

7. Odoo eCommerce

The Odoo eCommerce app is a bundle that also includes the website builder and Odoo Invoicing. These apps, like many others, are free so long as you don’t take additional apps or need more hosting services. 

Like with the website builder, it’s a snap to create custom ecommerce sites with drag and drop tools. You don’t need to know any backend programming to do things like adjust colors, sizes and styles. 

The Odoo eCommerce also gets you simple inventory tracking to automatically connect sales to notifications about restocking. You can create customer portals so they can track orders and claims. 

Odoo eCommerce also takes over a lot of your marketing needs. Odoo is fully integrated with payment processing apps like PayPal and Stripe, as well as order fulfillment management integrations with shipping companies like USPS, UPS and FedEx.
 

8. Odoo Point of Sale with Odoo Wireless Support

When you select Odoo Point of Sale, it automatically includes inventory management and invoicing. This is to streamline the process from the moment a purchase gets made to the filing away of the paperwork and the fulfillment of the order. 

It’s a very user friendly system that you can use in a brick and mortar business like a shop. You can run the Odoo PoS on a computer, laptop, tablet or an industrial machine. Capabilities of this app include customer history, inventory tracking, wireless support, receipt and label printing, and automated ordering.

One great advantage of Odoo Point of Sale is that it works both online as well as offline. But you will need an internet connection to set things up, afterward, however, you are good to go even sans signal. 

Point of sale systems can embed rewards programs for loyal customers, track customer buying habits, and register tax information. This app is fully compatible with the ecommerce app, so you don’t need to manage two inventory databases. 
 

9. Odoo Accounting

When you get Odoo Accounting, it requires Odoo Invoicing, as mentioned above. The foundational accounting tools you get with Odoo begin with being able to sync up all your bank accounts into a single interface. From there you can get a clear picture of all your bills and expenses and manage them. This will also give you forecasting on your future financial health. 

Odoo Accounting can help you manage bank reconciliation, making sure the numbers match and resolving issues when they do not. When it comes to profit and loss statements, Odoo has dynamic reports that are very clear to understand. Accounting integrates well with the sales, expenses, inventory, and point of sale apps.
 

10. Odoo Employees

You can use Odoo for many human resources purposes. It begins with Odoo’s employee profiles, which get all the pertinent employee and job position information in one dashboard. HR tools then go on to include employee management, recruitment, time off, appraisals, employee referrals and a fleet tool to manage your company motor pool. 

You can use Odoo to create and manage employee contracts. It is also a beneficial tool for doing timesheets, which can be weekly, monthly or by project. Employee attendance and absenteeism gets tracked by Odoo for HR departments, and they can also take care of employees taking time off for holidays, sick days and legal leave. 

HR and managers can do all this from an intuitive interface. Odfoo can also help you set up an enterprise social network for your employees, as well as introduce gamification practices to the team for extra motivation.
 

11. Odoo Inventory

Odoo Inventory can handle your warehouse management business needs. This is a standalone Odoo app meaning you do not need other apps as part of this module, but Odoo PoS and Odoo Manufacturing include Inventory. With this app you can also manage your MRP, or materials requirement planning process. 

There is an intelligent double entry process to better keep your stock well organized. This includes data on stock input, stock output and stock transformation. Automation also takes care of inventory replenishment so you never are lacking what you need and you save on the paperwork. 

More advanced features include drop shipping tools, cross docking features and multi-warehouse management. You get full transparency on inventory movement from warehouse to sales order, and great inventory reporting and analytics.
 

12. Odoo Manufacturing

Odoo Manufacturing comes with Odoo Inventory management as stated in the previous section. It also integrates with the apps for maintenance, quality assurance and PLM, or product lifecycle management.

You can organize your manufacturing orders with a Kanban-like board, with columns for: confirmed, planned, done and canceled. You can save on manual time tracking when planning manufacturing projects with real-time trackers. Team communication is synchronized via shared worksheets and quality alerts.

An Odoo API can be set up to run shop floor automation processes. This will capture real-time data directly off the equipment. There is a workcenter control panel that processes alerts, records serial numbers and lot numbers, registers production and tracks time. You can also get out-of-the-box barcode tools for more efficient picking and packing. 
 

13. Odoo Documents

Document management is an important part of ERP software. Odoo documents is a great tool for organizing documents and collaborating on shared docs. You can preview docs like PDFs but also images and videos. Team members can communicate using docs by pinging one another and tracking each other’s activity. Documents can also be assigned owners.

Document management is structured with folders, tags, filters and archives. You can perform batch tasks with documents, split PDFs into multiple documents, add links to docs and set up roles and access rights. 

Workflows are also useful in Odoo Documents. They can be arranged by custom actions and triggers, and they can perform tasks like new document creation, bill processing, signatures, file organization and more. You can also do document requests and validation processing.
 

14. Odoo Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are more than just documents with Odoo, but part of their larger business intelligence, or BI, set of tools. With Odoo Spreadsheets you can do forecasting on a variety of metrics, like making projections, calculating earnings and commissions, and process powerful real-time data analysis using info from sales revenue, purchases, subscriptions and budgets. Charts can show you insights that are historic, current or predictive.

The spreadsheet functions with automation and workflows. When you do any kind of activity in your Odoo platform, the spreadsheet automatically updates itself without extra work. Setting up your own spreadsheet formulas and rules is easy with conditional formatting. Spreadsheet filters are very effective for quick data searching, and spreadsheet data is easily converted into nice-looking graphs. 
 

15. Odoo Partners

There are many Odoo partners out there to help you leverage your ERP apps to the max. Such Odoo partners can aid you in deploying, installing, integrating, configuring and customizing your Odoo platform. They can also assist with data migration and security, and do training sessions with the team. For example, there are 88 Odoo partners in the USA, 62 in Belgium and 27 in Canada. Odoo partners are also listed by their ratings, with 6 gold-rated Odoo partners and 3 silver-rated Odoo partners.

Odoo pros and cons

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Odoo:
 

Odoo advantages

The first Odoo pro is the price. It’s great that you get your first app free, especially as this includes a few free bundle options, like the eCommerce app which has the website builder and invoicing, or the marketing automation app which comes with the email marketing tool.

Another benefit to Odoo is the way that this app buffett is structured. It can be really useful to pick and choose just the tools you need, master them, and slowly build up your app stack and skill set.

An advantage to Odoo is that it is great for any company size. Whether you are self employed, a tiny startup or small company, or you have a massive company size like a large business or enterprise operation, Odoo is very efficient.

One nice thing to mention here is that Odoo has a very effective Amazon connector. You can run your ecommerce through Amazon orders. This is a convenient way to handle your sales, deliveries and stock, especially for drop shippers and other businesses running as FBM operations, that is, fulfilled by merchants.

Being an open-source ERP is another benefit to Odoo. The idea of open source SaaS appeals to many people. For software developers, this means that they can modify the code and build new tools on top of the Odoo apps. Also, for those who like their software on-premise, this is a great choice, though there are cloud-based options as well.
 

Odoo disadvantages

The first drawback we will need to discuss is sort of the counterpoint to one of its benefits. Sure, Odoo is free for your first app or app bundle, however, if you need more than one app, the price can start getting up to there. Especially if you need 3 or 4 apps. For example, if you want sales, email marketing and CRM you're looking at about $84 per month billed annually. If you want a package of ecommerce and accounting, that will add up to $96 per month billed annually.

The next Odoo con is that this might not be the easiest set of apps in general for the average user. There could be a bit of a learning curve, so be prepared to let your team take the time to properly figure out all the tools.

Next, Odoo does have a mobile app for Android and iPhone app stores. However, it is not the best mobile ERP app out there. It is not that bad, it does get the job done, and users do get used to its layout and functionalities. However, compared to other ERP mobile apps, Odoo’s will not win first place.

Odoo complaints & praise (from real Odoo user reviews)

Going online to check out the reviews of Odoo is quite the experience. We mix up our summary of reviews by looking at user experience, as well as other tech and software professional review websites to see what the experts and the amateurs are all saying about Odoo.

Positive online Odoo reviews generally begin by praising the open-source software aspect of this ERP business process management tool, as well as its open API. Small business owners in particular are very happy with the degree of ERP capabilities you can get with Odoo if you only need the one app.

As an ERP system, Odoo users are pleased with some of the apps more than others. The Odoo eCommerce app is a huge favorite for running online businesses. Likewise, for companies with more manufacturing, warehouse management and Odoo Inventory get a lot of compliments.

Negative Odoo reviews tend to be more cautious when slinging shade at this ERP software. It’s true that some Odoo users claim that this is user friendly while others say that this open-source ERP is not as easy as they were expecting. We take this criticism with a grain of salt.

Other online Odoo negative reviews have discussed the aesthetics and design of the interface and dashboards. Today, there is a lot of competition with hip software systems that have a cute or sleek look and feel, and Odoo does not really try too hard in this regard.
 

Review of Odoo support

You can always submit a customer support ticket through Odoo’s website. There you can submit issues relating to subscription and billing, how to configure Odoo, bugs or bad software behavior, upgrade questions and more.

If you have an account, you can contact support by phone, where service is mainly in English but they also do Spanish, Dutch and French. The customer service agents helping you are located in several offices, one in San Francisco, one somewhere in Belgium, and a third somewhere in India. Odoo subscribers get 24 hours of service 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday.

Finally, there is also an Odoo community. There you can get access to tutorials, see all the Odoo documentation, and you can connect with a community forum there too.

Is Odoo worth it? Our conclusion

And so we approach the finale of this illuminating Odoo review. The question arises: Is Odoo worth it? Is it worth it to have an open-source ERP as opposed to one of the big fancy branded ERP systems like SAP or NetSuite? The answer is, probably yes, especially a tool versatile like Odoo. It even ranks on our list of best open source accounting software.

However, your ultimate decision should depend on some factors. 

Firstly, make sure ERP is exactly what you need, and not just some lighter accounting tool like Quickbooks.

It’s always a good idea to really think about what you want out of an ERP system like Odoo, talk to everyone on your team who will be using the SaaS and hear out their expectations and pain points. And, it’s not a bad idea to test out a few Odoo alternatives with free versions or free trials, so that you might compare them with Odoo. Then you might discover that Odoo is indeed perfect for you.
 

Our final Odoo software rating

We love bestowing ratings on things; it’s just in our human nature, we guess. Whether ranking lists or giving stars, it’s what we were born to do.

In the spirit of ratings and rankings, we give Odoo open-course ERP software a 4.8/5.