Unlocking the Flexibility of Odoo: Comparing 3 Hosting Types to Choose the Best Fit for Your Business

Understanding Odoo and Its Flexible Hosting Options

As an open-source ERP, Odoo has a very high modularity and adaptability to any unique business processes. Odoo has 30+ main applications along with hundreds supporting application that can be used for any business processes. These applications are maintained regularly and every year Odoo launches new features that benefits business owners around the world. Even with 30+ applications that support many industries, Odoo has a lot more (like, a lot) community based applications that are developed by 1000+ community members.

Odoo has 3 different hosting types with each type having their own pros and cons which might makes choosing what works for you a bit confusing. Don’t worry! Just like ice cream flavors, you get to know what each type offers and how it works so you can make an informed decision when using Odoo for your business.

Exploring the Pros and Cons of Each Hosting Type

Odoo has 3 different hosting types that comes with their own advantages in disadvantages and they are Odooo Online, Odoo.sh, and On-Premise. So let’s dig in and see what works for you!

• Odoo Online

Odoo Online is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) hosting that allows you to use Odoo without having to dive into technicalities and just, use it. With all 30+ applications awaits you, you will be able to select applications that you need, install them, and configure them as needed. You can start using Odoo Online by going to Odoo and click on the ‘Start Now’ button. Finish the setup form and you can access your Odoo Online by using the link given in the last setup form (where you insert your information).

• Odoo.sh

Odoo.sh is a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) hosting that integrates tightly with GitHub, allowing you to manage all Odoo applications as well as any third-party or your own Odoo applications using Git commands. Using Odoo.sh, you can use GitHub features such as clone, fork, merge and others so you can expand or modify existing Odoo applications to fit your business processes. You can start using Odoo.sh by going to Odoo.sh and click on the ‘Deploy Your Platform’ button. Finish the setup form and your own Odoo.sh will be available within your GitHub account.

• On-Premise

Just like the name of the hosting type, you can also install Odoo on your own server (or computer) to work locally. Go to Odoo Nightly Builds to download your Odoo setup file by selecting your operating system and your preferred Odoo version. Once downloaded, you can install Odoo just like you install any other applications for your system. On-Premise Odoo will be accessible using localhost with port 8069 (default port).

Now with only that information, we still don’t know for sure which one you should have for your business. To know the right answer to that, there are many factors that can help you decide how to select the right hosting type for you. Here are 5 factors to know which hosting type you should use.

• Preparation time indicates how quickly you can start your own Odoo with all the applications installed and ready-to-use for your daily business processes. This factor vary between all 3 hosting types and while it seems to be trivial, in some cases you might need the quickest one to check out features and maybe use them for your business processes. 
  
  
• Customizability of each hosting type depends on whether you plan to adapt, modify or extend Odoo applications and its feature to accurately fit your business processes or not. This also means that if you want to customized Odoo applications, you would need someone that have knowledge to do so.
  
  
• Technical difficulty talks more into the technical side on setting up, running and maintaining Odoo installation. This might be one of, if not, the most important aspect that you have to consider when choosing your Odoo hosting type.
  
  
• Price might seem a bit mainstream to factor in for Odoo as it only has free subscription and paid subscription but we can’t just ignore it.
  
  
• Version updates may be what you look for if you want continuous improvements to the Odoo that you’re using and some of the hosting types support automatic update even to a newer version of Odoo. The others, however, require you to update your Odoo manually and this can become problematic if you have installed some third-party applications.

On-Premise vs. Odoo.sh vs. Odoo Online: A Simplified Comparison

*Technical knowledge is optional
**There is an option to use Odoo for free by using only 1 - 2 applications, otherwise you would have a 15-days trial continued by paid subscription
***You need paid subscription to get access to the Enterprise Edition applications

Empower Your Business with the Right Odoo Hosting Type Today!

So, have you decided on what hosting type you would get for your Odoo or are you still a bit confused on some parts? Contact us to consult for free on whatever it is on your mind!