OSI-licensed open source
Business management software ties together accounting, sales, inventory, purchasing, HR and CRM. The open-source options let you run it on your own servers, read the code and avoid per-user licence fees, in exchange for doing your own hosting and customisation.
Every tool here is under an OSI-approved licence read from its repository on 2026-11-07: GPL, LGPL, AGPL or Apache. Odoo's Community edition is LGPL-3.0, while its Enterprise edition is a separate commercial product that is not covered by this listing.
Tools, licences and pricing checked against vendor and repository pages on November 7, 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERPNext | All-in-one ERP for small and mid-size companies | Free, open source; hosted option via Frappe Cloud, see vendor pricing. | GPL-3.0 |
| Odoo Community | Modular business apps with a large app ecosystem | Community edition free, open source (self-hosted); Odoo Online and Enterprise are paid, see vendor pricing. | LGPL-3.0 |
| Dolibarr | Small companies, freelancers and associations | Free, open source; SaaS options listed on vendor site. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Apache OFBiz | Java teams building custom enterprise applications | Free, open source | Apache-2.0 |
| iDempiere | Mid-size companies with Java skills | Free, open source | GPL-2.0 |
| SuiteCRM | Sales and customer-service teams | Free, open source; hosted version with free trial, see vendor pricing. | AGPL-3.0 |
| metasfresh | Trade and distribution businesses | Free, open source | GPL-2.0 |
Best for: All-in-one ERP for small and mid-size companies · Free, open source; hosted option via Frappe Cloud, see vendor pricing.
ERPNext is a free and open-source ERP covering accounting, order management, manufacturing, asset management and projects. It is built on the Frappe framework.
Best for: Modular business apps with a large app ecosystem · Community edition free, open source (self-hosted); Odoo Online and Enterprise are paid, see vendor pricing.
Odoo is a suite of web-based open-source business apps. The community repository is published under LGPL-3.0.
Best for: Small companies, freelancers and associations · Free, open source; SaaS options listed on vendor site.
Dolibarr is a PHP web suite for ERP and CRM covering contacts, proposals, orders, stock, billing, double-entry accounting, projects and HR modules. It can be self-hosted or used as SaaS.
Best for: Java teams building custom enterprise applications · Free, open source
Apache OFBiz is a suite of business applications and a Java web framework. Out of the box it includes accounting, CRM, order management, e-commerce, warehousing and manufacturing.
Best for: Mid-size companies with Java skills · Free, open source
iDempiere is a community-maintained open-source ERP, CRM and SCM system with enterprise-grade accounting, multi-entity support and OSGi-based extensibility. Its latest listed release is iDempiere 13 LTS.
Best for: Sales and customer-service teams · Free, open source; hosted version with free trial, see vendor pricing.
SuiteCRM is an open-source CRM on PHP with lead and opportunity management, quotations, marketing segmentation, service tools and a REST API.
Best for: Trade and distribution businesses · Free, open source
metasfresh is a free open-source ERP aimed at industry and trade companies.
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| If you need… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Full ERP with strong module coverage | ERPNext |
| Modular apps and a big ecosystem | Odoo Community |
| Lightweight PHP ERP and CRM for a small firm | Dolibarr |
| Java framework to build custom business apps | Apache OFBiz or iDempiere |
| CRM only | SuiteCRM |
| Trade and distribution | metasfresh |
Quick answers to common questions
It is ERP, CRM and related software whose source code is released under an OSI-approved licence, so you can self-host and modify it.
The Odoo Community repository is LGPL-3.0. Odoo Enterprise adds proprietary features and is sold separately.
Dolibarr and ERPNext are common starting points, Dolibarr for a lighter PHP footprint and ERPNext for broader modules.
Licences are free, but you pay for hosting, backups, customisation and optionally paid support or hosted versions.
List it on TechLogHub and we'll review it for this guide.
