About Odoo (Community)
Odoo Community is the open-source edition of the Odoo business suite. Apps cover CRM, sales, inventory and accounting. Community and Enterprise share a core. Enterprise adds apps and official support under a separate contract.
Why it exists
Companies wanted one suite of business apps they could run and extend, instead of a closed product with no server of their own.
Who uses it
Operations teams, and implementers who set Odoo up for a client.
What it is used for
CRM, orders, stock and accounting, depending on the apps you install. Confirm an app is in Community before you plan on it.
Open source behind the product
Odoo Enterprise is the paid edition of this codebase. It adds modules and a support contract. It is not a different product on unrelated code. Community is LGPL-3.0.
How to run it on a server
- Use the official packages or container, with PostgreSQL as the database.
- Put HTTPS in front. Store the filestore and the database on volumes you back up.
- Add workers when more than a handful of people use it. Read the deployment page for the version you install.
- Keep Community and any custom modules on matching versions.
Follow the project's own guide for the version you install. Commands and file names change between releases.
How to contribute
Issues and pull requests go to the Odoo repository. Check whether the module you touch is Community code before you invest in a change.
- Read the project's guidelines. Open the repository and look for CONTRIBUTING, the code of conduct and the README.
- Find something to work on. Browse good first issues or all open issues. Documentation and bug reports count.
- Make a small change. Fork the repository, work on a branch, and keep the change focused.
- Open a pull request. Say what changed and why, and link the issue. See open pull requests.
Contributions are accepted under the project's own licence (LGPL-3.0). Some projects also ask you to sign a contributor agreement. A doc fix or a reproduced bug is a real contribution.
Licence: LGPL-3.0
Weak copyleft. You can use it in other software, including commercial products. Changes to the library itself must be shared under the same licence.
This is a plain-English guide, not legal advice. Read the licence in the repository before you ship it or sell a service on top of it.