Odoo pricing 2026: Community vs Standard vs Custom, and what self-hosting really costs

Every Odoo price and rule here comes from odoo.com, odoo.sh, Odoo's docs or its GitHub repository, read on 3 October 2026. Odoo changes plans often, so check the page before you buy.

aliteq is a US company, and we have not installed or run Odoo. This is a docs and price read, plus our own arithmetic. Where a number is our assumption, we say so. If you are choosing between open-source CRMs, our self-hosted CRM cost breakdown prices Twenty, SuiteCRM and EspoCRM on the same server model.

One note on currency. odoo.com showed euros when we read it, so the plan prices below are euros, converted to dollars at the European Central Bank rate of 25 September 2026 (EUR 1 = USD 1.1403). The page may show dollars to US visitors, so check the number on your screen. Odoo.sh showed dollars natively.

The three Odoo Online plans and what they cost

Odoo Online has three plans: One App Free, Standard and Custom. Prices are per user per month, and the Standard and Custom first-year prices are discounts.

The discount has a catch. Odoo's footnote says the discount "is valid for 12 months, for initial users ordered". Users you add later should be priced at the regular rate. Our three-year totals below assume a constant headcount, so a growing team costs more than our tables.

A paying user is wider than "someone who logs in daily". Odoo defines it as anyone with backend access to create, view or edit documents, or an employee record with no linked user. Portal customers and suppliers are free. A third-party accountant who works in your Odoo counts as a paying user. A separate Light User tier exists at €7.90 a user a month for narrow roles like time off and expense reports, but you get it through an Odoo advisor quote.

Everything Online includes. Odoo says all plans include hosting, maintenance, upgrades and unlimited email support (Monday to Friday, 24/5), daily incremental backups on two continents, and unmetered storage up to 100 GB on Odoo Online.

What is not included. Odoo lists four exclusions: hosting on Odoo.sh for custom developments, implementation services and expert help, In-App-Purchase credits (SMS, lead generation, AI scanning of vendor bills), and maintenance of custom code.

One App Free: what "free forever" covers

One App Free is a real free plan for unlimited users, with one catch: it covers one app. Odoo's FAQ says that if your app depends on others, you get those free too. Its example is eCommerce, which depends on Website and Invoicing. So you can start with CRM, and Odoo says its use "is free for unlimited users, forever".

The free plan allows multiple companies, and you can pick Odoo Studio as your one app. The moment you install a second, unrelated app, you move to Standard. If you install Studio or add companies on top of another app, you switch to Custom automatically. That upgrade rule is the one to read before you click Install.

For a team that only needs a CRM, this is the cheapest hosted option in our research. It is a different product from the paid plans, though: you cannot mix a free CRM with a paid accounting app on the same database.

Standard vs Custom: what the extra €16 buys

Custom costs 80 percent more than Standard on yearly billing in year one (€35.90 against €19.90). The extra money buys four things: Studio, multi-company, the external API and custom code.

Odoo describes the split plainly. Standard runs on Odoo Online, "to host databases without custom modules". Custom is "for companies that want to manage multiple companies on a single database and that need to customize Odoo through Odoo Studio, agentic AI, custom developments or through the API."

Custom is also the only plan that lets you leave Odoo Online. Under Custom you can host on Odoo Online at no extra cost, "download Odoo Enterprise and host it yourself", or use Odoo.sh. Odoo says Online and Enterprise are "the same software. Only the hosting and infrastructure are different."

"External API" has a narrow meaning. It is outside software calling Odoo's JSON-RPC or XML-RPC API to read or update data. Odoo calling out to Stripe, PayPal, shipping carriers or bank sync is part of the standard plan.

Two practical rules from the FAQ. You can download a backup of an Online database at any time, so your data is portable. And on-premise users "must use the latest stable version of Odoo", so self-hosting Enterprise does not let you stay on an old release.

Community vs Enterprise: where the gates are

Odoo Community is the free open-source core. Odoo Enterprise is the licensed edition built on top of it. Odoo's editions page says Community "is the core upon which Odoo Enterprise is built" and that you can switch versions at any time.

Both editions include CRM, Sales, Invoicing, Point of Sale, Website and eCommerce, Inventory, Manufacturing, Purchase, Project, Timesheet, Employees, Recruitment and Email Marketing. That means a small team can run a CRM and quoting on Community.

The compare table shows these as Enterprise only:

• Finance and documents: comprehensive Accounting, Documents, Spreadsheet, Sign and ESG
• Sales extras: Subscriptions, Rental and the Amazon Connector
• Operations: Barcode, Shopfloor and scheduling, PLM and Quality
• Services and support desks: Helpdesk, Field Service, Planning and Appointments
• Marketing: Marketing Automation and Social Marketing
• Productivity and building: Approvals, VoIP, IoT, Knowledge and Studio
• Service layer: unlimited functional support, version upgrades, hosting and the Android and iOS app

We left out two rows (Payroll and Appraisals) because the table did not show them clearly for each edition. If either matters to you, check the page.

The practical point is accounting. Community has Invoicing, but the compare table marks comprehensive Accounting (bank reconciliation, budgets, consolidation and localizations) as Enterprise. Many buyers find that out late.

Odoo's download page lists both Community and Enterprise builds for Odoo 20, 19 and 18. Enterprise downloads need a subscription code.

The Community licence, quoted

Community's source licence is the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3. The repository's LICENSE file says: "Odoo is published under the GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 3 (LGPLv3), as included below." It adds: "Some external libraries and contributions bundled with Odoo may be published under other GPL-compatible licenses."

Read the LICENSE file and any module's own licence before you build a product on it. This is not legal advice. We did not read the Enterprise licence text, so we describe Enterprise only as Odoo does: licensed.

Where you can host it, and what each option costs

You have three hosting choices: Odoo Online, Odoo.sh, or your own server. Online is included in the per-user price. Odoo.sh and your own server are extra.

Odoo Online is the managed default. Hosting, backups and upgrades are in the plan.

Odoo.sh is Odoo's own cloud platform for custom development, with staging servers, GitHub deploys and daily backups kept up to three months. It is priced by usage, in dollars:

The page says "The hosting price does not include the enterprise licence." So Odoo.sh is the Custom plan plus this bill. Odoo's tooltips recommend "1 additional worker per 25 back-end users" and "1 GB per user to start with". On those rules, 5 users need roughly $58.60 a month on annual billing, 20 users $61.60 and 50 users $125.20 (our reading: 1, 1 and 2 workers). That is small next to the licence.

Self-hosting means you download Odoo and run it on a server you rent. Community is free to download. Enterprise needs a subscription, and under the published plans that means the Custom plan.

What self-hosting really costs

Self-hosted Community costs very little in cash and a lot in time. On our assumptions it totals $4,562 for 5 users over three years, and only $561.60 of that is cash.

We reuse the model from our self-hosted CRM cost article. All of the following are our assumptions, not Odoo's:

• Server: a DigitalOcean Basic Droplet in the US: $12 a month (2 GB) at 5 users, $24 (4 GB) at 20 users, and $48 (8 GB) at 50 users, each plus 30 percent for daily backups. DigitalOcean's prices were read on 2 October 2026.
• Sizing: Odoo's docs say about 6 concurrent users per worker, with heavy workers using around 1 GB of RAM and light ones around 150 MB. That works out to roughly 325 MB per worker on Odoo's own 80/20 mix. Four workers need about 1.3 GB before the database and operating system. Our 50-user box is headroom, not a published requirement.
• Admin time: 8 hours of setup plus 2 hours a month for updates, backup checks and restore tests, at $50 an hour. The $50 rounds up the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median of $47.66 an hour for network and computer systems administrators. This is wage only. A real consultant charges more.

Setup plus upkeep is $4,000 over 36 months, regardless of size. That is why the self-hosted total barely moves with headcount.

Implementation: what Odoo publishes and what it does not

Odoo publishes its own Success Pack prices, and does not publish partner rates. If a partner implements Odoo for you, we found no price list. Treat any partner number as "not published" until you have a quote.

Success Packs are blocks of hours with a dedicated consultant. Odoo says the hours expire after one year. Prices on the packs page, in euros:

The 15 percent discount applies to a new customer's first pack only. Odoo notes that extra monthly charges apply for maintaining extra modules or lines of code, and that above 50 users you should contact Odoo. None of these packs are in our three-year totals.

The three-year cost at 5, 20 and 50 users

Self-hosted Community is the cheapest paid-for route at every size, but it does not include the same apps. At 5 users the gap is small: $4,562 against $4,769 for Online Standard.

How the numbers are built.

• Standard: 12 months at €19.90 plus 24 months at €24.90 is €836.40 a user, or $953.75 at the ECB rate of 25 September 2026. Multiply by headcount.
• Custom: 12 months at €35.90 plus 24 months at €44.90 is €1,508.40 a user, or $1,720.03.
• Odoo.sh row: Custom licence plus Odoo.sh at annual billing for 36 months (our worker and storage reading above), with no staging environment. A staging environment adds $14.40 a month.
• Self-hosted Enterprise row: Custom licence plus the self-hosted server, backups and admin time.
• Self-hosted Community: server and backups ($561.60, $1,123.20 or $2,246.40) plus $4,000 of setup and upkeep.

What the table shows. From 5 to 50 users, Community self-hosted rises by $1,685, a bigger server. Online Standard rises by $42,919. Admin time is 88 percent of the Community total at 5 users and 64 percent at 50. If you value your own time at zero, Community's cash cost is $561.60 to $2,246.40 over three years.

What the table hides. Community and Standard are not the same product. Standard has every app; Community lacks full Accounting, Helpdesk, Studio and the rest listed above. You also own security patches, backups and every major upgrade. A Standard plan includes those. And if you add Odoo Enterprise on your own server, the licence dominates: self-hosting Custom costs more than Online Custom by the server and admin bill.

Which route fits which team

Pick by the gate you hit first, then confirm it on Odoo's pages.

If you are still comparing CRMs, our eight-CRM comparison for AI startups selling to enterprise covers fit and security gates, and Attio vs HubSpot pricing shows what per-seat CRM pricing looks like next to Odoo's all-apps model. More buying guides are on the Business Software hub.