Odoo Community VS Enterprise editions

Once we enter into researching Odoo, either to select suitable editions for business or to enhance our knowledge on the Odoo side, We need to answer the questions which arise in our mind. Among these, one of the relevant questions is “Why do we have two editions in Odoo, what is the purpose of that?”. If you ponder this question, you are precisely where you should be.

Odoo is an open-source ERP with inbuilt modules that make work easier in business fields and track the day-to-day activities of the business. It was released in two separate versions those are community and enterprise editions. before getting into that, let's get into the depth of Odoo and its editions…

About Odoo

Odoo is an open-source ERP software suite. In general, it is an Enterprise resource planning software contains a wide range of applications and modules that are needed to manage business functions. Odoo has its own inbuilt apps that are interlinked with one another and provide seamless functions collectively. It has apps based on various domains that are necessary to run the business.

Odoo offers various business-required modules in a single place, and it is collectively known as OdooERP. With the help of Odoo, We can forecast sales and purchases and start to invest based on our accounting reports. Odoo provides good visual representation reports that will be automatically calculated based on various factors. It’s a SAAS service which helps to manage a whole online business.

Odoo community edition 

The Odoo community edition is the free edition of open-source ERP software. It's freely available for anyone to download and they can modify it based on their business needs. Here also they provide a wide range of modules, which would be sufficient for basic business needs. we can customize the code based on business needs. 

Note that, if you are looking for complex business needs then we are suggesting you go for the Odoo enterprise edition. So there is no doubt before going to the enterprise edition one can try their business with open source platform, In the future you want to expand your business then you can flexibly move to the paid version without erasing the current data.

Odoo Enterprise edition

The Odoo enterprise edition is a paid version  where we need to pay to download the SAAS software. It has various additional modules with extended features to satisfy various functional needs in business. It covers all the modules in the community edition and also has additional modules with great features even users can download and use some paid modules either from the Odoo community or a third party. Here also users can modify the feature according to their business needs.

Here users can enjoy one of the coolest features - Odoo Studio, With this users can create a new custom module without implementing any backend code. As for hosting, Users can choose whether they need a public or private cloud platform to manage their server configuration.

Difference between community and enterprise version

In general, the Enterprise edition is a paid edition. It has most of the advanced modules which are greatly adaptable to the various business environments whereas in the community edition, we get basic modules to run the business needs. Also, the inclusion of hosting in the Enterprise Edition is one of the reasons why business people give more priority over the Community Edition. In the Community Edition, we would need to manage the hosting by ourselves or find a third-party provider.

Sales:

Regarding the sales part, Both editions commonly have CRM, Sales and POS modules to track the progress of sales however the enterprise edition provides additional features with a loyalty program which is very great advantage for an online eCommerce website and additional modules like subscriptions, rentals and Amazon connector to meet the advanced needs in the business industries.

Modules	Community	Enterprise
Hosting
Version upgrades
CRM
Sales
Contacts
Purchase
Point of Sale
invoice
Subscription
Rental
Amazon Connector

Website & Accounting:

Both the paid and free versions have the same exact features and modules because the website is a crucial part of attracting customers in online business. With Accounting module user can manage their financial related activities in their business.

Modules	Community	Enterprise
Website
Accounting

Inventory & MRP:

Inventory management is one which manages incomings and outgoings in businesses. MRP is the one which is predominant for maintaining, and scheduling the inventory in a proper way. Therefore Odoo provides the same common modules and features in both editions but in the enterprise edition, they provide more sophisticated features like barcode, PLM and quality …which makes it easy for customers.

Modules	Community	Enterprise
Manufacturing
Inventory
PLM
Consolidation
Quality

Human Resources:

Employees are the ones who make the resources as valuable for sales. So Odoo provided with most modules common in both editions, which were recruitment, time off, fleet and employees but in the employee module, the departmental dashboard feature is an additional feature in the enterprise version. Also, some of the additional modules are referrals which show your referral candidate's status in the interviews and also another module appraisal which is for providing satisfaction to employees by giving recognition for their performance in the work.

Modules	Community	Enterprise
Employees
Recruitment
Appraisals
Referrals
Time off
Fleet

Marketing:

For expanding the business to the next level then Marketing is the place which turns it into reality. Email marketing, SMS marketing, Events and surveys are the standard modules in both the community and enterprise editions which are greatly in need for communication purposes with customers. In the paid version, we have extra modules like Social marketing, marketing automation, and additional mail templates feature in the email marketing module.

Modules	Community	Enterprise
Email Marketing	(Excluding mail templates)
SMS marketing	​
Social marketing
Marketing automation
Events
Surveys

Studio:

This module is available only in the enterprise edition. It has features like creating new modules in Odoo and also we can create some additional features in the existing modules. We customize the background in Odoo. Here, specialty is we don’t need any code to create or develop create our own custom module.

Modules	Community	Enterprise
Studio

Productivity and services:

Productivity and services modules are there to boost progress of business by planning and assigning projects according to the time plan to each employee. In productivity and services modules like Discuss, notes, calendars and projects, and timesheets are common in both editions. In the enterprise edition, we have additional modules in the field service, help desk, planning, appointments, approvals, IOT, VOIP phone integration also additional features in the timesheet .

Module	Community	Enterprise
Discuss
Notes
eLearning
Lunch
Test & Data cleaning
IOT
Project
Timesheet
Approvals
Field service
Helpdesk
Planning

Select the edition based on your business requirement:

There is no such correct answer which we can give but we can guide you to the right way in the selection process. Foremost things list the motives of the company and your budget. Select which will give you profit for your business.

Community edition:

Research shows that the Odoo community edition is good for a startup and small type business that need to know the features and also for a person who needs to learn the workings of ERP modules and customize them.

1. Community edition is free and open source where you have direct access to the source code. 
2. It has base features in ERP which is a must need to run the business.
3. It also has most of the modules that help to track the day-to-day activities of business .
4. If you have a good internal team then you can also modify and customize the module via source code. 
5. In the community edition, Odoo will not give any support like fixing bugs even in the Odoo base code itself But having a strong technical team in your business helps to fix this kind of issue.
6. As for hosting, you can manage that within your business or make use of third-party services.

Enterprise edition:

A business that has complex functionality and tracks a large number of sales, can go for the enterprise(paid) edition. In the paid version where user can enjoy most of the advanced features like a barcode to automate the warehouse, loyalty programs and so on…

1. The enterprise edition has the new extra features and provides free upgrades only to the Odoo base code
2. Here you have payroll to manage the payments related to your company inefficient way but that is not in the community edition 
3. The Odoo team will greatly support solving any bug in the base code of Odoo and also provide security 
4. They are providing hosting services where users can elect whatever they want.
5. It has better performance and high-security features
6. Based on a selection of the hosting type you can download and use third-party apps or else Odoo certified apps

Conclusion:

Both community and enterprise editions have the features to run the business in an efficient way. In simple words, the Community edition has the base of ERP features and the Enterprise edition has advanced features and additional modules. The Major difference is Enterprise edition has Free upgrades of each version and also in each version Odoo releases, some advanced features to run the business in a more flexible way but that option is not available in the community edition. Also, we need to note that Odoo supports three types of hosting to manage the server, So selecting the hosting type based on various criteria in your business will be suitable for Odoo. Odoo has great adaptability to run various online businesses.