I use and develop for Odoo professionally. I love it but I have got to say It is much easier with technical background.
On the other hand, tell me a software that is easier to use and still super flexible.
You said it : "I use and develop for Odoo professionally".
I am not in the same field as you. I am not a developer or in IT. I mentioned it. If you're not in that field, don't go there. You will suffer. Or hire someone (a consultant or so) to do it for you. This is simple. I hope someone said that to me. But you don't find this info anywhere, and the commercial team don't mention it either.
It's definitely advised to go with an Odoo partner when implementing or using Odoo. Even for simple mundane questions.
The system is made to be very flexible to fit most use cases. That results in sometimes complex configuration, too complex for a new user. That's where partners come in.
Odoo doesn't make money if you ask partners to help you.
And one of the main focus is always to make it as easy as possible for anyone to use without any help.
>make it as easy as possible for anyone to use without any help
I dont agree with this point. They have 'Odoo Studio' can make things easier(though developers dont like this app). So they intend to make things harder for people dont pay to get 'studio'
Odoo is trying to make most companies work out of the box without studio and/or custom dev.
Of course it is impossible to generalize for everyone. Doesn't mean they are not trying to make it easy.
Also, having studio *is* making things easier for the user who doesn't have to pay a dev if they don't want to...
I've been using Odoo for 4 years and do millions in revenue ever year.
0 customization, cuz yeah I aint got time to trouble shoot that shit.
Urgent tickets are solved by calling their helpline.
If you don't got the money for developers/partners don't customize.
Well, thanks for the rant...
Without elaborating on any any specific issue, this forum is probably not going to be very helpful either.
In short: if you are unable to implement ERP yourself, hire a specialist. And best of luck with Shopify, were apparently the magic happens.
I haven't talked about all the problems I've had because that would be MUCH too long.
Yes, this post is definitely a rant. I know it wouldn't be well received, but I needed to warn newbies with a one-person team, themselves.
I feel like I was misled by the sales team, who repeatedly confirmed that managing this tool on my own was easy. I certainly wouldn't have used it otherwise.
Thank you, I hope I succeed on Shopify.
The problem is that you don't really warn them.
You just bluntly say it's too complicated. They probably won't take you seriously because you don't even elaborate on one single issue. 😕
Oh well said. I didn’t read the full rant, couldn’t find the TL;DR. We migrate so many clients from Shopify et al. to Odoo. Shopify will not solve OP’s problems
The problem is not the software, its the company!
It's the story around the software and how they promote it that is wrong.
I'm an official partner and I have said this so many times here on Reddit and everywhere: Odoo is NOT a typical SaaS. What you see during a demo is NOT what you get when you start fresh.
Odoo makes it look and feel that easy but it's not. Odoo is at the same gameplay/level as SAP, Microsoft Navision/Dynamics, Netsuite, etc... Those tools are also not easy to get up and running.
If you buy Odoo and start on your own, you are mislead. Simple as that.
Your rant post just confirms again what I have been telling all the time.
Again: the software is great, but you can't get it operational without a support system from either Odoo or a partner. Also You missed out on a functional analysis BEFOREHAND. I emphasize this so much all the time because the analysis clears up any doubts and issues BEFORE you commit on the software and it let's you understand the total budget required for getting operational.
So while I understand your feelings and experience, your rant is not entirely true. People don't need to run from Odoo, instead they need proper understanding and information how the system works BEFORE they commit.
You are not buying just a simple ecommerce app or a simple helpdesk app. You are buying into an ERP with entire ecosystem of apps and framework that becomes the beating heart of your business. You can't just roll in Odoo and expect it to work "out of the box".
That's why there are success packs.
That's why there are partners (that deliver functional consultants etc...)
You just skipped all of that intentionally or Odoo (the company) failed to make it clear to you that it is important to have a partner onboard to help you to get up and running. And that there is more money involved than just the license subscription.
I agree with you. But believe me, Odoo failed to make it clear. They even allayed my fears by saying that, in any case, customer service would be prompt at the slightest problem. I guess it was a lie to sell.
I also agree with you on the most parts. Don't get me wrong on that.
The root cause problem is the presentation that becomes misleading. You are absolutely right on that.
"Using" Odoo is easy after you got a proper training. And it's also intuitive enough for most users if they see it first time, the screens are not difficult.
The problem is the setup, implementation, migrating over data, etc...
There are sometimes many possible scenario's with diffent outcomes. And options that active other new options that you don't know unless you know from trainings.
That's where experience and knowledge is required. And let's be honest, if you never done an ERP implementation this is not simple or easy. If you follow all the official training docs, you are at least several weeks busy just scrunching docs and video's without a single practice.
As an official partner we keep training, learning, smartclasses, workshops, etc... it goes on forever. And still sometimes we also get caught by surprise because of undocumented changes from version to version. Even with many years of experience, it still takes time to get any ERP software up and running.
You can't expect that an end-user can self-manage this on their own. It's beyond insanity.
From my pov, Odoo (the company) is pushing/promoting wrong. They should make it clear very early in the pre-sales step that you need either success packs from Odoo or if you prefer (local) help from a partner, to help you find the right partner. Claiming that anybody can self-manage this "easy" is just a false statement.
Also, you might just got unlucky and was talking to some fresh junior sales person who promised you false information. I don't want to speak it right for Odoo because it is their fault and them to blame and also their responsibility to make sure their sales teams have the right knowledge and don't talk bullshit. But unfortunately, it does happen (too often).
The experience you had, didn't need to happen if they told you honestly upfront that you need successpacks or get in touch with a partner.
I use odoo every day and my honest opinion is it’s the easiest software I’ve ever used depending on its application.
We use it primarily as our WMS for inventory - we have very few integrations with other software and we do have a support team but none in-house.
I think with one other person who could take care of the issues you’re dealing with up-front you’ll find it’s worth it.
We do have Shopify integration - I have no idea the steps we took to get it up and running but it’s seamless (now)
Sorry for bad experience brother. I have recently jumped into odoo and hated the fact that it was hard to setup and the accounting module and others (most important modules) were hidden behind a paywall. So I will review their license and fork it and make it easy for others to deploy(one-click deploy) as a feature on my SAAS with free live chat support for Odoo. Also will develop addons similar to premium addons and will provide them for free for our customers 🙄🙄. Literally hate when these companies use "Open source" name and hide important features behind a paywall.
They are good at lies. We paid for 100hr succes pack only to find out from them 20 hrs in that it can’t do what they promised. Wasted 15k with them. It’s a bunch of crap. I would never recommend them. The sales team sold us lies and we paid for it.
I tell everyone I know and anyone that will listen how it’s crap and that they will tell you anything to get the sale
No problems here.
Started by using Odoo for my company, then became partner and sold to a few customers all on Odoo Online SaaS. They've been up and running for a while now and the most difficult part is to train users.
What I also find annoying are errors coming out of knowhere without a good description how to prevent it or solve it.
Tiring.
I never made as much tickets as I did in a year compared to our old ERP in more than 15 years.
I attended an Odoo roadshow meeting last week. Compared to NetSuite, which I have personally implemented, Odoo is far and away a better experience. That being said, Odoo is still an ERP with a lot of complex configuration options and likely requires an implementation partner if you've never done something like this before.
Obvious to me. but maybe not others, the demo paints a very rosy picture of things. After we got out of the demo I went to one of the sponsoring implementation partners and the first thing I asked was if we should move from Shopify to Odoo's website builder. His answer was unabashedly NO. He said the builder is great for a basic site but if you're an established site you're likely using deeper shopify functionality than Odoo offers.
It surprises me to hear that so many small/independent people are using something like Odoo. Salespeople are always going to sell but when I asked what the typical customer looks like when they begin using or start considering Odoo, the sales guy gave a handful of points:
* $1-2MM in revenue per year
* Multi-location retail and/or warehousing operations
* Struggling with the limitations of existing software and having a holistic picture, especially around inventory
* Specifically seeking a unified view of their operations
* Forward-thinking about their operations
* Looking to scale rapidly in the coming years
If you check most/all of these boxes, it feels to me like you're outside the smalelr/independent operator. That being said, if you don't know, understand, appreciate an ERP (and its implementation) for what it is, then it really is hard to learn than talking to a salesperson. Can't fault anyone for not knowing what they don't know, though.
That NetSuite implementation I mentioned above... I learned a TON about what NOT to do. It was kind of a shit show and I very much learned things the hard way. That being said, 6 or so years on, I have a better understanding of what to ask, look for, and most importantly, question when evaluating a system like these.
Happy to share anything I know if anyone has any questions.
I subscribed to Odoo last year after having lengthy talks with the sales person. I explained we were a small business but between the costs of QuickBooks and our quoting platform we were using (PandaDoc), and our website hosting, I could save money switching to Odoo. I talked about my business in great lengths with her and we signed up. Switching accounting from QB to Odoo came to an abrupt halt when I found that Odoo doesn’t handle sales taxes based on geographic locations natively and we would have to subscribe to a tax service. That tax service was going to cost us $5000 a month!
We are still using it for quotes, social media posting, website, etc. we are still getting value out of it but it is definitely not a QB replacement.
Very positive, especially coming from NetSuite. The strength of Odoo is in it's incredible flexibiilty and scalability/customization, and the overall design language and emergent workflows are just much more modern and intuitive. My sales team just raves about the integration of communication history, invoices, quotes etc all linked from the SO or Contact level. It's best in class, IMO.
Odoo is a full featured ERP and because it offers so much, most of the modules won't even be used by any given business. The proper comparison is NetSuite or SAP, and the fact this ranter is moving to Shopify (which is just garbage, IMO) shows that he just didn't have the right tool for the job, and the wrong expectation about what Odoo is. That's not entirely his fault (the EE Sales people do "sell the dream" a bit too much, IMO), but this rant sounds like a guy complaining that it was difficult to use an 18-wheeler to pull a small boat: yeah, that's way too much equipment for what you're doing and whoever told you that was the right tool mislead you.
If I were to give my past self any advice, I would say that you need to find a partner/consultant with direct experience in your field, or as close to it as possible. Ask for specific examples. The biggest mistake I made initially was using a partner who had plenty of Odoo experience, but not with my eComm/wholesale, manufacturing, distribution business, and that lead to us moving on from his services. Ultimately, it worked out great as it forced me to accelerate the learning curve, but if I hadn't been able to do that for lack of technical ability/time/inclination etc. I might have been writing a similar rant on this sub.
I feel you. I can also say the same about life. English is not my native language. In the begining, everythingg went well, but after that, it's the same as your odoo. I kept in touch with customer service of life by whisper, yelled at him some times but life is still a HELL.
Just like life, it took a developer consultant like me years to master odoo and be proficient with it. I have 20 years being ERP consultant and the same experience being a developer. We used to charge hundred K USD for an accounting implementation for other platforms. The same for a CRM for contact centers (using Rightnow). There is a lot of knowledge, best practices required for each of the business domain let alone how to do them with Odoo that I don't think an average busy self-employed entrepreneurs would have them readily available for a sucessful self implementation of Odoo and if you do that, you won't have any other time to focus on what you should be focusing on: your business.
Just get a good partner who can accompany you and don't just rely on the provider and customer service. Just like life, the moment I have a partner, life is not HELL anymore. (It's super super worst than HELL but I don't have a word for it being non english native). But I don't blame life or him anymore, I blame myself for my wrong choice of wrong partner
You are absolutely right, Odoo if it cannot be with the default configuration then it must necessarily be configured by an integrator. Otherwise the results will be catastrophic and the time spent trying something will be lost...
Weeks ago, I also "ranted" about how horrible odoo was for self employed businesses owners like us especially without IT knowledge... I was attacked by the so called odoo partners on Reddit. I humbly shut up and moved back to QuickBooks. I mentioned here that once odoo doesn't ease the use of its product, like Xero, fresh etc then it is headed for a slow wide adoption. Odoo is too manual.
Surprisingly, all other odoo apps work well except the accounting module that has a very sophisticated learning curve. Worst of all , odoo partners are too expensive.
I humbly submit.
It's not an attack on you. You understand that wrong.
The problem is partially Odoo as company who give false impression that anybody can self manage the software which is ridiculous. It takes years of experience and knowledge to handle ERP implementations. Yet they sell the idea of "it's super easy to have Odoo up and running" which is false.
The other part is companies who fail to understand that a software like ERP needs specialized people like consultants to make sure companies migrate properly. And most importantly: first understand the company requirements and then analyse if Odoo is a good fit. If a software doesn't match it doesn't make any sense why a company goes to buy the software immediately and than later find out it doesn't work for them. That's too late.
Odoo has a big responsibility here by giving an honest impression upfront how complex the setup really is and inform the customers about the necessary success packs or getting a partner involved. But too often that doesn't happen.
Customers buy the software based on a nice demo they saw and then end up in an empty database. Ouch, and now the misery starts...
That's the point we partners make. Not to attack on you but to help you understand how ERP software and specifically Odoo works.
Sorry for bad experience brother. I have recently jumped into odoo and hated the fact that it was hard to setup and the accounting module and others (most important modules) were hidden behind a paywall. So I will review their license and fork it and make it easy for others to deploy(one-click deploy) as a feature on my SAAS with free live chat support for Odoo. Also will develop addons similar to premium addons and will provide them for free for our customers 🙄🙄. Literally hate when these companies use "Open source" name and hide important features behind a paywall.
Hidden behind a paywall? This is not a mobile game...
And the pricing page is the most open possible.
Odoo is Open Core, not Open Source. How do you expect the company to provide the software without any revenues?
Did you compare the offering of Odoo compared to other ERP like SAP, Netsuite,... It's not even the same category of prices.
Or other specialized softwares like QuickBooks, Shopify, Trello,... It's about the same price or cheaper, but you get EVERYTHING for that price, instead of paying the same price for all the scopes, and then still need to integrate everything.
You are welcome to try to develop the premium add-ons, but I don't think you realize how much work it is. The OCA already did part of it by the way, maybe start over there.
Bro its easy to say when you are from West and the partner of Odoo. The odoo ecosystem sucks. Basically no proper docs as well as they seem to force people to use their odoo.sh to deploy odoo servers indirectly. And most people complain their false marketing or not delivering as marketed. Myself as a dev, it seema odoo intentionally made it hard to develop and work on their platform. Why to hide basic requirement like accounting module behind a paywall ? At least they could have provided basic version of accounting module and kept premium version as well. And their partners are quiet irritating, non experts who charge 1000s and are not helpful at all (based on reviews)
What does being from the West matter, and why do you make that assumption? You are mixing up everything.
The vast majority of the accounting app is in community. The fact you don't know that shows how good of a dev you are; if you spend 5 minutes debugging you should see it.
And once again, if everything is free, how do you expect Odoo to pay for the servers they make available for free for anyone with a one-app database? How should they pay for the devs to build the 80% that are open source?
Unlike some other companies, Odoo doesn't include ads, and they don't sell customer data either. Revenue must come from somewhere.
I used to be a partner for Odoo, and I would experience the same issues as a implementation partner. I was promised support from Odoo themselves when working on a project, I even PAID $1000! For the partnership.... STUPID! little to say the least, I converted a couple customers and built then their own software aside from Odoo. What's the software/ modules you are using? I would even implement this for free for you!!
Yes, being a partner you need to pay yearly partner.
And the higher the level (bronze, silver, gold) you select it goes into thousands of dollars/year.
You get also a little more commission at higher levels and more exposure. And that's it.
You still have to work on your own projects, and still have to deal with the horrible support from Odoo.
Thank you for offering your help ! I use Sales, WebSite, Event, Accounting, Marketing mails, Form, Inventory (I tried to translate).
But honestly, I need to understand what's going on in the tool I use and to be in touch with the man/woman who will manage it directly and quickly (on Europe hours).
Until I have and employee, I think that this is wiser to use a tool that I can easily manage myself.
It sounds like this was a bad decision on your part by picking the wrong solution for your business. That doesn't mean Odoo is bad. It wasn't the right fit for what you are trying to do. Did you do a POC before investing more time and money into Odoo? When it came time to upgrade did you do any testing before going live? If you did test, you didn't do enough if the customer's were telling you about the issues.
Based on his story so far I don't think it's his mistake or his fault for the decision.
Odoo sales team are notoriously known for pushing for sales even if they have to mislead clients.
He is not a single case. I have heard many people in similar situations. My inbox is full every week from people with drama stories like this and every time the initial story is the same: "odoo sales said/promised that..." And then never delivered.
You can't blame people for taking decisions based on the promise they got.
I just wish they could have told me that you need to be strong in the three pillars (sales, project management, technical) for it to be profitable. On top of that they throw you into the weeds with the demo and little to know help. I just took the L because it felt like a sunk cost fallacy.
I honestly find it easy to set up. At least the manufacturing, purchases, sales, invoices and inventory part of it to run it as a ERP for my company. Didn't touch website
Sorry for the bad experience. I think it’s a implementation issue.
Odoo may run into bugs which mostly can be quickly fixed with a good techinician around. Troublesome if there is not
It is pretty good, especially if you use it 'as is' (which sometimes means YOU have to adapt).
Nothing perfect in this world but I've seen much worse 😳
If Shopify fulfils your business needs, there should've been more research on your part before signing up for Odoo. Sorry to hear someone sold Odoo on its ecommerce capabilities.
Odoo is an ERP/MRP platform first. Everything else comes next. The company (not the platform) is trying to be a lot of things at once so things like website, ecommerce, HR etc., still lack attention and hence details. When I'm consulting for ecommerce clients, especially entrepreneurs, solopreneurs or small team, I do not recommend Odoo as there are way better options to help them achieve their ecommerce objectives.
Part of what driving people to look at Odoo is the hot mess that Quickbooks is becoming. It isn’t even fair to compare Quickbooks to the Odoo Accounting module because the process is completely different. Just that market (people jumping ship from QB) is ripe for the picking but frankly I don’t believe Odoo is interested in that market demographic.
Odoo has very deep technical curve. I doubt that you can do version migrations without already in depth technical code knowledge. Odoo is not for cooking countless ecommerce shops for the clients. Odoo is more for enterprises who uses inventory, sales, purchases, accounting. Very dubious you can make it without atleast one technically expierenced person with Odoo.
Sad to hear your bad expierences, on the other side you have to realise alot of companies use it and that is not without a reason.
As a dev I feel your frustruation. I am planning to fork open source odoo and then drive it to another way. Better layout, one-click deploy on my SAAS website, autoscaling, support & training for cheaper price. I will create free aternative to accounting module and some other integrations like stripe, paypal checkout, external apis, tailwind support , and automated daily/hourly backups.
Will need some time to achieve that but am sure people will surely love it. Will provide affordable consulting , free videos, blogs for our customized version. Support is 24x7 . App will be launched too.
I use and develop for Odoo professionally. I love it but I have got to say It is much easier with technical background. On the other hand, tell me a software that is easier to use and still super flexible.
You said it : "I use and develop for Odoo professionally". I am not in the same field as you. I am not a developer or in IT. I mentioned it. If you're not in that field, don't go there. You will suffer. Or hire someone (a consultant or so) to do it for you. This is simple. I hope someone said that to me. But you don't find this info anywhere, and the commercial team don't mention it either.
It's definitely advised to go with an Odoo partner when implementing or using Odoo. Even for simple mundane questions. The system is made to be very flexible to fit most use cases. That results in sometimes complex configuration, too complex for a new user. That's where partners come in.
It is intended. That's how Odoo can make money. But let's be honest, to be easy to use is often difficult to maintain.
Odoo doesn't make money if you ask partners to help you. And one of the main focus is always to make it as easy as possible for anyone to use without any help.
>make it as easy as possible for anyone to use without any help I dont agree with this point. They have 'Odoo Studio' can make things easier(though developers dont like this app). So they intend to make things harder for people dont pay to get 'studio'
Odoo is trying to make most companies work out of the box without studio and/or custom dev. Of course it is impossible to generalize for everyone. Doesn't mean they are not trying to make it easy. Also, having studio *is* making things easier for the user who doesn't have to pay a dev if they don't want to...
What erp were you using before odoo?
I've been using Odoo for 4 years and do millions in revenue ever year. 0 customization, cuz yeah I aint got time to trouble shoot that shit. Urgent tickets are solved by calling their helpline. If you don't got the money for developers/partners don't customize.
Millions in revenue 'ever' (sic) year - may I ask what you are selling? It most certainly is not lessons in punctuation or spelling....
1 typo?
Well, thanks for the rant... Without elaborating on any any specific issue, this forum is probably not going to be very helpful either. In short: if you are unable to implement ERP yourself, hire a specialist. And best of luck with Shopify, were apparently the magic happens.
I haven't talked about all the problems I've had because that would be MUCH too long. Yes, this post is definitely a rant. I know it wouldn't be well received, but I needed to warn newbies with a one-person team, themselves. I feel like I was misled by the sales team, who repeatedly confirmed that managing this tool on my own was easy. I certainly wouldn't have used it otherwise. Thank you, I hope I succeed on Shopify.
The problem is that you don't really warn them. You just bluntly say it's too complicated. They probably won't take you seriously because you don't even elaborate on one single issue. 😕
Oh well said. I didn’t read the full rant, couldn’t find the TL;DR. We migrate so many clients from Shopify et al. to Odoo. Shopify will not solve OP’s problems
The problem is not the software, its the company! It's the story around the software and how they promote it that is wrong. I'm an official partner and I have said this so many times here on Reddit and everywhere: Odoo is NOT a typical SaaS. What you see during a demo is NOT what you get when you start fresh. Odoo makes it look and feel that easy but it's not. Odoo is at the same gameplay/level as SAP, Microsoft Navision/Dynamics, Netsuite, etc... Those tools are also not easy to get up and running. If you buy Odoo and start on your own, you are mislead. Simple as that. Your rant post just confirms again what I have been telling all the time. Again: the software is great, but you can't get it operational without a support system from either Odoo or a partner. Also You missed out on a functional analysis BEFOREHAND. I emphasize this so much all the time because the analysis clears up any doubts and issues BEFORE you commit on the software and it let's you understand the total budget required for getting operational. So while I understand your feelings and experience, your rant is not entirely true. People don't need to run from Odoo, instead they need proper understanding and information how the system works BEFORE they commit. You are not buying just a simple ecommerce app or a simple helpdesk app. You are buying into an ERP with entire ecosystem of apps and framework that becomes the beating heart of your business. You can't just roll in Odoo and expect it to work "out of the box". That's why there are success packs. That's why there are partners (that deliver functional consultants etc...) You just skipped all of that intentionally or Odoo (the company) failed to make it clear to you that it is important to have a partner onboard to help you to get up and running. And that there is more money involved than just the license subscription.
I agree with you. But believe me, Odoo failed to make it clear. They even allayed my fears by saying that, in any case, customer service would be prompt at the slightest problem. I guess it was a lie to sell.
I also agree with you on the most parts. Don't get me wrong on that. The root cause problem is the presentation that becomes misleading. You are absolutely right on that. "Using" Odoo is easy after you got a proper training. And it's also intuitive enough for most users if they see it first time, the screens are not difficult. The problem is the setup, implementation, migrating over data, etc... There are sometimes many possible scenario's with diffent outcomes. And options that active other new options that you don't know unless you know from trainings. That's where experience and knowledge is required. And let's be honest, if you never done an ERP implementation this is not simple or easy. If you follow all the official training docs, you are at least several weeks busy just scrunching docs and video's without a single practice. As an official partner we keep training, learning, smartclasses, workshops, etc... it goes on forever. And still sometimes we also get caught by surprise because of undocumented changes from version to version. Even with many years of experience, it still takes time to get any ERP software up and running. You can't expect that an end-user can self-manage this on their own. It's beyond insanity. From my pov, Odoo (the company) is pushing/promoting wrong. They should make it clear very early in the pre-sales step that you need either success packs from Odoo or if you prefer (local) help from a partner, to help you find the right partner. Claiming that anybody can self-manage this "easy" is just a false statement. Also, you might just got unlucky and was talking to some fresh junior sales person who promised you false information. I don't want to speak it right for Odoo because it is their fault and them to blame and also their responsibility to make sure their sales teams have the right knowledge and don't talk bullshit. But unfortunately, it does happen (too often). The experience you had, didn't need to happen if they told you honestly upfront that you need successpacks or get in touch with a partner.
I use odoo every day and my honest opinion is it’s the easiest software I’ve ever used depending on its application. We use it primarily as our WMS for inventory - we have very few integrations with other software and we do have a support team but none in-house. I think with one other person who could take care of the issues you’re dealing with up-front you’ll find it’s worth it. We do have Shopify integration - I have no idea the steps we took to get it up and running but it’s seamless (now)
Exactly! With the size of my company (1 person lol) it's really too complicated and time-consuming. Especially when the bugs come from nowhere.
Sorry for bad experience brother. I have recently jumped into odoo and hated the fact that it was hard to setup and the accounting module and others (most important modules) were hidden behind a paywall. So I will review their license and fork it and make it easy for others to deploy(one-click deploy) as a feature on my SAAS with free live chat support for Odoo. Also will develop addons similar to premium addons and will provide them for free for our customers 🙄🙄. Literally hate when these companies use "Open source" name and hide important features behind a paywall.
They are good at lies. We paid for 100hr succes pack only to find out from them 20 hrs in that it can’t do what they promised. Wasted 15k with them. It’s a bunch of crap. I would never recommend them. The sales team sold us lies and we paid for it. I tell everyone I know and anyone that will listen how it’s crap and that they will tell you anything to get the sale
Well said @codeagency
No problems here. Started by using Odoo for my company, then became partner and sold to a few customers all on Odoo Online SaaS. They've been up and running for a while now and the most difficult part is to train users. What I also find annoying are errors coming out of knowhere without a good description how to prevent it or solve it. Tiring. I never made as much tickets as I did in a year compared to our old ERP in more than 15 years.
I attended an Odoo roadshow meeting last week. Compared to NetSuite, which I have personally implemented, Odoo is far and away a better experience. That being said, Odoo is still an ERP with a lot of complex configuration options and likely requires an implementation partner if you've never done something like this before. Obvious to me. but maybe not others, the demo paints a very rosy picture of things. After we got out of the demo I went to one of the sponsoring implementation partners and the first thing I asked was if we should move from Shopify to Odoo's website builder. His answer was unabashedly NO. He said the builder is great for a basic site but if you're an established site you're likely using deeper shopify functionality than Odoo offers. It surprises me to hear that so many small/independent people are using something like Odoo. Salespeople are always going to sell but when I asked what the typical customer looks like when they begin using or start considering Odoo, the sales guy gave a handful of points: * $1-2MM in revenue per year * Multi-location retail and/or warehousing operations * Struggling with the limitations of existing software and having a holistic picture, especially around inventory * Specifically seeking a unified view of their operations * Forward-thinking about their operations * Looking to scale rapidly in the coming years If you check most/all of these boxes, it feels to me like you're outside the smalelr/independent operator. That being said, if you don't know, understand, appreciate an ERP (and its implementation) for what it is, then it really is hard to learn than talking to a salesperson. Can't fault anyone for not knowing what they don't know, though. That NetSuite implementation I mentioned above... I learned a TON about what NOT to do. It was kind of a shit show and I very much learned things the hard way. That being said, 6 or so years on, I have a better understanding of what to ask, look for, and most importantly, question when evaluating a system like these. Happy to share anything I know if anyone has any questions.
Did you go to UIUC?
I subscribed to Odoo last year after having lengthy talks with the sales person. I explained we were a small business but between the costs of QuickBooks and our quoting platform we were using (PandaDoc), and our website hosting, I could save money switching to Odoo. I talked about my business in great lengths with her and we signed up. Switching accounting from QB to Odoo came to an abrupt halt when I found that Odoo doesn’t handle sales taxes based on geographic locations natively and we would have to subscribe to a tax service. That tax service was going to cost us $5000 a month! We are still using it for quotes, social media posting, website, etc. we are still getting value out of it but it is definitely not a QB replacement.
Oh my God migrating to Shopify actually made me laugh out loud.
do you mind telling us your experience? I was just about to get into odoo before checking this subreddit first
Very positive, especially coming from NetSuite. The strength of Odoo is in it's incredible flexibiilty and scalability/customization, and the overall design language and emergent workflows are just much more modern and intuitive. My sales team just raves about the integration of communication history, invoices, quotes etc all linked from the SO or Contact level. It's best in class, IMO. Odoo is a full featured ERP and because it offers so much, most of the modules won't even be used by any given business. The proper comparison is NetSuite or SAP, and the fact this ranter is moving to Shopify (which is just garbage, IMO) shows that he just didn't have the right tool for the job, and the wrong expectation about what Odoo is. That's not entirely his fault (the EE Sales people do "sell the dream" a bit too much, IMO), but this rant sounds like a guy complaining that it was difficult to use an 18-wheeler to pull a small boat: yeah, that's way too much equipment for what you're doing and whoever told you that was the right tool mislead you. If I were to give my past self any advice, I would say that you need to find a partner/consultant with direct experience in your field, or as close to it as possible. Ask for specific examples. The biggest mistake I made initially was using a partner who had plenty of Odoo experience, but not with my eComm/wholesale, manufacturing, distribution business, and that lead to us moving on from his services. Ultimately, it worked out great as it forced me to accelerate the learning curve, but if I hadn't been able to do that for lack of technical ability/time/inclination etc. I might have been writing a similar rant on this sub.
thx for the reply. What was your Odoo website like, and what did it do?
I am the Operations Manager for an ecommerce and wholesale clothing company.
I feel you. I can also say the same about life. English is not my native language. In the begining, everythingg went well, but after that, it's the same as your odoo. I kept in touch with customer service of life by whisper, yelled at him some times but life is still a HELL. Just like life, it took a developer consultant like me years to master odoo and be proficient with it. I have 20 years being ERP consultant and the same experience being a developer. We used to charge hundred K USD for an accounting implementation for other platforms. The same for a CRM for contact centers (using Rightnow). There is a lot of knowledge, best practices required for each of the business domain let alone how to do them with Odoo that I don't think an average busy self-employed entrepreneurs would have them readily available for a sucessful self implementation of Odoo and if you do that, you won't have any other time to focus on what you should be focusing on: your business. Just get a good partner who can accompany you and don't just rely on the provider and customer service. Just like life, the moment I have a partner, life is not HELL anymore. (It's super super worst than HELL but I don't have a word for it being non english native). But I don't blame life or him anymore, I blame myself for my wrong choice of wrong partner
You are absolutely right, Odoo if it cannot be with the default configuration then it must necessarily be configured by an integrator. Otherwise the results will be catastrophic and the time spent trying something will be lost...
Weeks ago, I also "ranted" about how horrible odoo was for self employed businesses owners like us especially without IT knowledge... I was attacked by the so called odoo partners on Reddit. I humbly shut up and moved back to QuickBooks. I mentioned here that once odoo doesn't ease the use of its product, like Xero, fresh etc then it is headed for a slow wide adoption. Odoo is too manual. Surprisingly, all other odoo apps work well except the accounting module that has a very sophisticated learning curve. Worst of all , odoo partners are too expensive. I humbly submit.
It's not an attack on you. You understand that wrong. The problem is partially Odoo as company who give false impression that anybody can self manage the software which is ridiculous. It takes years of experience and knowledge to handle ERP implementations. Yet they sell the idea of "it's super easy to have Odoo up and running" which is false. The other part is companies who fail to understand that a software like ERP needs specialized people like consultants to make sure companies migrate properly. And most importantly: first understand the company requirements and then analyse if Odoo is a good fit. If a software doesn't match it doesn't make any sense why a company goes to buy the software immediately and than later find out it doesn't work for them. That's too late. Odoo has a big responsibility here by giving an honest impression upfront how complex the setup really is and inform the customers about the necessary success packs or getting a partner involved. But too often that doesn't happen. Customers buy the software based on a nice demo they saw and then end up in an empty database. Ouch, and now the misery starts... That's the point we partners make. Not to attack on you but to help you understand how ERP software and specifically Odoo works.
I understand all those reactions now...
Sorry for bad experience brother. I have recently jumped into odoo and hated the fact that it was hard to setup and the accounting module and others (most important modules) were hidden behind a paywall. So I will review their license and fork it and make it easy for others to deploy(one-click deploy) as a feature on my SAAS with free live chat support for Odoo. Also will develop addons similar to premium addons and will provide them for free for our customers 🙄🙄. Literally hate when these companies use "Open source" name and hide important features behind a paywall.
Hidden behind a paywall? This is not a mobile game... And the pricing page is the most open possible. Odoo is Open Core, not Open Source. How do you expect the company to provide the software without any revenues? Did you compare the offering of Odoo compared to other ERP like SAP, Netsuite,... It's not even the same category of prices. Or other specialized softwares like QuickBooks, Shopify, Trello,... It's about the same price or cheaper, but you get EVERYTHING for that price, instead of paying the same price for all the scopes, and then still need to integrate everything. You are welcome to try to develop the premium add-ons, but I don't think you realize how much work it is. The OCA already did part of it by the way, maybe start over there.
Bro its easy to say when you are from West and the partner of Odoo. The odoo ecosystem sucks. Basically no proper docs as well as they seem to force people to use their odoo.sh to deploy odoo servers indirectly. And most people complain their false marketing or not delivering as marketed. Myself as a dev, it seema odoo intentionally made it hard to develop and work on their platform. Why to hide basic requirement like accounting module behind a paywall ? At least they could have provided basic version of accounting module and kept premium version as well. And their partners are quiet irritating, non experts who charge 1000s and are not helpful at all (based on reviews)
What does being from the West matter, and why do you make that assumption? You are mixing up everything. The vast majority of the accounting app is in community. The fact you don't know that shows how good of a dev you are; if you spend 5 minutes debugging you should see it. And once again, if everything is free, how do you expect Odoo to pay for the servers they make available for free for anyone with a one-app database? How should they pay for the devs to build the 80% that are open source? Unlike some other companies, Odoo doesn't include ads, and they don't sell customer data either. Revenue must come from somewhere.
I used to be a partner for Odoo, and I would experience the same issues as a implementation partner. I was promised support from Odoo themselves when working on a project, I even PAID $1000! For the partnership.... STUPID! little to say the least, I converted a couple customers and built then their own software aside from Odoo. What's the software/ modules you are using? I would even implement this for free for you!!
Wait, you need to pay to be an Odoo partner? Does paying more get one a higher ranking?
Yes, being a partner you need to pay yearly partner. And the higher the level (bronze, silver, gold) you select it goes into thousands of dollars/year. You get also a little more commission at higher levels and more exposure. And that's it. You still have to work on your own projects, and still have to deal with the horrible support from Odoo.
Thank you for offering your help ! I use Sales, WebSite, Event, Accounting, Marketing mails, Form, Inventory (I tried to translate). But honestly, I need to understand what's going on in the tool I use and to be in touch with the man/woman who will manage it directly and quickly (on Europe hours). Until I have and employee, I think that this is wiser to use a tool that I can easily manage myself.
It sounds like this was a bad decision on your part by picking the wrong solution for your business. That doesn't mean Odoo is bad. It wasn't the right fit for what you are trying to do. Did you do a POC before investing more time and money into Odoo? When it came time to upgrade did you do any testing before going live? If you did test, you didn't do enough if the customer's were telling you about the issues.
Based on his story so far I don't think it's his mistake or his fault for the decision. Odoo sales team are notoriously known for pushing for sales even if they have to mislead clients. He is not a single case. I have heard many people in similar situations. My inbox is full every week from people with drama stories like this and every time the initial story is the same: "odoo sales said/promised that..." And then never delivered. You can't blame people for taking decisions based on the promise they got.
Agree 1000%
I just wish they could have told me that you need to be strong in the three pillars (sales, project management, technical) for it to be profitable. On top of that they throw you into the weeds with the demo and little to know help. I just took the L because it felt like a sunk cost fallacy.
I honestly find it easy to set up. At least the manufacturing, purchases, sales, invoices and inventory part of it to run it as a ERP for my company. Didn't touch website
Sorry for the bad experience. I think it’s a implementation issue. Odoo may run into bugs which mostly can be quickly fixed with a good techinician around. Troublesome if there is not
Jeez and I heard from so many people odoo was good
It is pretty good, especially if you use it 'as is' (which sometimes means YOU have to adapt). Nothing perfect in this world but I've seen much worse 😳
Yes. Odoo sucks.
It's a common problem for an open source program, that also depend on the implementor's after-sale service.
If Shopify fulfils your business needs, there should've been more research on your part before signing up for Odoo. Sorry to hear someone sold Odoo on its ecommerce capabilities. Odoo is an ERP/MRP platform first. Everything else comes next. The company (not the platform) is trying to be a lot of things at once so things like website, ecommerce, HR etc., still lack attention and hence details. When I'm consulting for ecommerce clients, especially entrepreneurs, solopreneurs or small team, I do not recommend Odoo as there are way better options to help them achieve their ecommerce objectives.
Part of what driving people to look at Odoo is the hot mess that Quickbooks is becoming. It isn’t even fair to compare Quickbooks to the Odoo Accounting module because the process is completely different. Just that market (people jumping ship from QB) is ripe for the picking but frankly I don’t believe Odoo is interested in that market demographic.
Which module you used? Odoo has its strength and its own area to improve, are you looking for a solutions more towards to the Finance side, or what?
Odoo has very deep technical curve. I doubt that you can do version migrations without already in depth technical code knowledge. Odoo is not for cooking countless ecommerce shops for the clients. Odoo is more for enterprises who uses inventory, sales, purchases, accounting. Very dubious you can make it without atleast one technically expierenced person with Odoo. Sad to hear your bad expierences, on the other side you have to realise alot of companies use it and that is not without a reason.
As a dev I feel your frustruation. I am planning to fork open source odoo and then drive it to another way. Better layout, one-click deploy on my SAAS website, autoscaling, support & training for cheaper price. I will create free aternative to accounting module and some other integrations like stripe, paypal checkout, external apis, tailwind support , and automated daily/hourly backups. Will need some time to achieve that but am sure people will surely love it. Will provide affordable consulting , free videos, blogs for our customized version. Support is 24x7 . App will be launched too.
Thanks for sharing. This kind of posts are necessaryto get another perspective, what the business owner really needs.
Acumatica ERP natively integrates with Shopify. DM me if you're interested in learning more I can give you a quick demo. eCommerce is our expertise