ERP · head to head
ADempiere vs Ansible
ADempiere
ERP
Community-run open source ERP forked from Compiere, with no vendor behind it
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: ADempiere there is no company behind it, so there is no support contract to buy, no SLA, no escalation path and no roadmap commitment; if your implementation partner leaves the market you own the problem entirely.; Ansible the open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
- They diverge on capability: ADempiere covers Application dictionary, Ansible covers Playbooks.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ADempiere and Ansible actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in ADempiere
- Application dictionary
- Financial accounting
- Order to cash and procure to pay
- Inventory and warehouse
- Manufacturing
- Point of sale
- Workflow engine
- Java and PostgreSQL stack
Only in Ansible
- Playbooks
- Inventory management
- Module library
- Variables and templating
- Handlers
- Roles
- Async tasks
- Plugins
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
ADempiere
- A manufacturer in Latin America with an existing ADempiere consulting partner that needs localised tax and accounting behaviour a global vendor will not buildnot Ansible
- A company that wants to modify ERP screens and document workflows without a vendor change request, using the application dictionary rather than codenot Ansible
- An organisation with a hard requirement to keep financial data on its own servers under its own control with no cloud dependencynot Ansible
- A systems integrator building a vertical ERP product on a permissive base it can fork and ship without paying a licence feenot Ansible
Ansible
- Configuration managementnot ADempiere
- Server provisioningnot ADempiere
- Application deploymentnot ADempiere
- Multi-node managementnot ADempiere
- Orchestrationnot ADempiere
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
ADempiere
- There is no company behind it, so there is no support contract to buy, no SLA, no escalation path and no roadmap commitment; if your implementation partner leaves the market you own the problem entirely.
- The official website adempiere.net does not resolve, which strands most of the historic documentation and tutorials that search engines still point at and makes onboarding a new developer considerably harder.
- The last conventional stable release, 3.9.4, is from January 2023, so despite ongoing GitHub activity a buyer evaluating on release cadence sees a project moving slowly.
- iDempiere, a later fork of the same codebase, absorbed much of the developer community, so ADempiere competes for contributors with its own descendant and is the smaller of the two ecosystems.
- The interface and the Java Swing heritage feel dated, and staff coming from a modern cloud ERP will need training and will complain; expect resistance from finance and warehouse users during rollout.
Ansible
- The open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
- Event-Driven Ansible and the AI coding assistant are platform features rather than open source ones
- Red Hat does not publish platform pricing
- Running open source Ansible at scale means building the control plane the platform otherwise provides
Pricing, plan by plan
ADempiere
Free- Community editionFree
- GPL v2 licensed, no licence fee
- Full ERP, CRM, supply chain and POS modules
- Self-hosted on your own infrastructure
Ansible
Free- Open SourceFree
- Community edition
- Unlimited nodes
- Full functionality
- Ansible Automation Platform$5000/year
- Enterprise support
- Ansible Tower
- Advanced features
Which should you pick?
Choose ADempiere if
- You need application dictionary.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted.
- You also want financial accounting.
Choose Ansible if
- You need playbooks.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
- You also want inventory management.
Questions people ask
- Is ADempiere or Ansible better?
- Neither clearly leads. ADempiere starts at Free and Ansible at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ADempiere or Ansible?
- ADempiere starts at Free and Ansible at Free.
- Does ADempiere or Ansible run on more platforms?
- ADempiere runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted. Ansible runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
- Can I use ADempiere for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is ADempiere best used for?
- ADempiere is most often used for a manufacturer in latin america with an existing adempiere consulting partner that needs localised tax and accounting behaviour a global vendor will not build, a company that wants to modify erp screens and document workflows without a vendor change request, using the application dictionary rather than code, an organisation with a hard requirement to keep financial data on its own servers under its own control with no cloud dependency, a systems integrator building a vertical erp product on a permissive base it can fork and ship without paying a licence fee. Of those, a manufacturer in latin america with an existing adempiere consulting partner that needs localised tax and accounting behaviour a global vendor will not build and a company that wants to modify erp screens and document workflows without a vendor change request, using the application dictionary rather than code are not what Ansible is typically brought in for.
- What can ADempiere do that Ansible cannot?
- ADempiere covers Application dictionary, Financial accounting, Order to cash and procure to pay, Inventory and warehouse. Ansible covers Playbooks, Inventory management, Module library, Variables and templating.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
ADempiere: Should I choose ADempiere or iDempiere?
Look at iDempiere first. It is a later fork of the same codebase with a more active community and a modular OSGi architecture. Choose ADempiere if a specific partner or localisation you need only exists there.
Ansible: Is Ansible free for commercial use?
Ansible Collaborative is open source. The page describes it as 'an open source IT automation engine' and does not impose restrictions on commercial use for the open source version.
SourceADempiere: Is ADempiere free?
The software is GPL licensed with no licence fee. The cost is implementation, customisation and permanent in-house maintenance, which for a real deployment is substantial.
Ansible: What is the difference between open source Ansible and the commercial alternative?
The page references Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as an enterprise alternative to Ansible Collaborative, but does not disclose specific differences, pricing, or feature comparisons between the two offerings.
SourceADempiere: Is the project still alive?
Development continues on GitHub with commits into 2026, but the official website is down and the last stable release is from January 2023. Treat it as maintained rather than actively advancing.
Ansible: Is there paid support available for Ansible?
The page does not disclose whether paid support contracts are available for open source Ansible or whether Red Hat offers support plans for their enterprise Ansible Automation Platform.
SourceADempiere: What is the application dictionary?
It is the metadata layer inherited from Compiere that stores the definition of every window, field and validation rule as data, so you can change the application without touching source code.
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