1/ Upgrade are super complex: requires a service, not just a script
2/ We used it to monetize Odoo Enterprise
Upgrade: Even after 1000+ upgrades, we still run into issues regularly as every environment is different (set of modules, customizations, community apps, ...). So we need to test the database, and fix scripts when necessary. If we would just provide scripts, it would cost us a lot in support for issues... and a bad customer experience. At least, by having the control we can ensure a smooth customer experience; it just works - and you don't see everything we do behind. (most of the time)
Monetization: The open core business model is hard, when your goal is to do a maximum open source. Our main competitor being Odoo Community, we charge 5x less than competitors for a better software. (25€ vs 180€)
So, we had to pick a few apps and services to monetize Odoo Enterprise, like the accounting app, or the upgrade service.
Fortunetally, there is OpenUpgrade (scripts from the community) so that there is no lock-in on the upgrade. (you spend time with open-upgrade or go to Enterprise and we do it)
Imagine we develop: Shopify + Wix + Quickbooks (accounting in 140 countries) + Netsuite + Asana + Discord + SAP + DocuSign + Payroll + ... 30 other apps.
On the service side, we onboard 14.000 new clients per month. (need a lot of sales too for that). Projects varies from a 5 users company (4 hours of service), to 5000 users. (1 year implementation for a team of 5)
The spread in people is more or less: 30% developers, 30% consultants, 30% sales.
In addition to our 6700 employees, we also have a large partner network: 200k FTE working on Odoo (selling, developing, doing services). They developed 50k apps, and onboard tens of thousands of companies per month.
You can crypt the data before sending to the upgrade platform. Before it was an external script, and since Odoo 16 you can use the `oboo-bin obfuscate` command, before running the upgrade script.
See `./odoo-bin obfuscate --help` to check how to crypt your custom data and uncrypt after upgrade.
It's not perfect (crypt specific columns rather than full DB) but, unfortunatelly, to operate our upgrade service, we need access to the database. Upgrades are complex and requires testing, fine tuning scripts to your specific use cases, etc.
The other alternative is to not use our services, but do it yourself using upgrade scripts from the community: https://github.com/OCA/OpenUpgrade
> you end up paying more money for "open source" ERP than normal ERP
That's not what I see on the market. Even the paying version of Odoo is way more affordable than traditional ERP:
- licenses are 5x lower than competition: https://www.odoo.com/pricing (avg 25€/user/month vs 180€ for Netsuite - Odoo has a "no-extra" / transparent pricing policy)
- On implementation service fees, Odoo is usually from 30% to 75% cheaper: more capabilities and easier to implement or customize.
As a result of capabilities + affordable, Odoo became the most used ERP in the world: 16m users (incl free ones), 200k+ clients. (Netsuite is 43k clients, Dynamics BC is 40k clients)
Just an example: when I send an email marketing campaign with Odoo, I have all the stats attached: the usual # clicks, open rate, ... but also # Leads, # Orders, Revenues.
Because Odoo as it all:
- You send an email with link tracker (Email Marketing App)
- The visitor goes on website (Website App)
- He fills a form that creates an opportunity (CRM App)
- 4 weeks later a sales make a quotation (Sales App)
- After Delivery (Inventory App)
- We send the invoice to the customer that books revenue (Accounting App)
So, you get the revenue for every email sent. Imagine that power for everything. (eg. stock is common between eCommerce, CRM, POS - Wommunication on whatsapp, SMS, chat, emails are centralized for helpdesk, ...)
But the main advantage is convenience. Once you use Odoo, everytime you have a need, you can install an app in one click that fully integrates with your stack. No need for developers to integrate, to call vendor to buy software, ...
The complexity of an IT stack grows with the square of the number of software components it contains. Most Odoo clients run everything on Odoo, eliminating the need for integrations and significantly reducing overall complexity.
Odoo SA (my company) has 6700 employees: we only use 2 software to run everything: Odoo and Google Workplace.
It's not a fork of Django, even thought the stack has similarities: Python, ORM on top of Postgresql, Modules. We use werkzeug (it's been a long time I checked Django, not sure they are on it too), but the rest of the stack is Odoo's own framework: ORM, Templating (QWeb), API, etc.
But it's not comparable to Django:
- Odoo is built for management application: think CRM, Accounting, Project Management, ... a strong backend
- Django is often used as a framework, Odoo for end-users apps (even though our framework is super advanced)
- Odoo has a CMS (website builder) too but with a focus on being end-user friendly, like Wix, or Squarespace but for businesses (eCommerce, Jobs, Events, ...)
- the javascript client of Odoo is huge whereas Django is minimal
- Odoo has it's own ORM optimized for speed and complexity of an ERP
- templating engine based on XML rather than inline python instructions
Today, we have way more free trials on the saas, than download of the open source version.
Our clients (entrepreneurs, CFO, logistic, HR ...) don't care that we are open source: they just want the best product, at a good price.
But it helped us grow our partner network of IT companies. For them, open source is a real value.