ERP · head to head
ADempiere vs iDempiere
ADempiere
ERP
Community-run open source ERP forked from Compiere, with no vendor behind it
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
iDempiere
ERP
Community-governed open source ERP, CRM and supply chain built on Java, OSGi and PostgreSQL
- 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.; iDempiere there is no vendor, so there is no support contract, no service level agreement and nobody to escalate to; you either build the skills internally or you depend entirely on a local partner whose quality you must judge yourself.
- They diverge on capability: ADempiere covers Financial accounting, iDempiere covers OSGi plug-in architecture.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ADempiere and iDempiere actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (ERP).
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
- Financial accounting
- Order to cash and procure to pay
- Inventory and warehouse
- Point of sale
- Java and PostgreSQL stack
- gRPC and REST services
- Multi-tenant client model
Only in iDempiere
- OSGi plug-in architecture
- Multi-organisation accounting
- Materials management
- Report and print engine
- No paid edition
Both cover
- Application dictionary
- Manufacturing
- Workflow engine
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 iDempiere
- A company that wants to modify ERP screens and document workflows without a vendor change request, using the application dictionary rather than codenot iDempiere
- An organisation with a hard requirement to keep financial data on its own servers under its own control with no cloud dependencynot iDempiere
- A systems integrator building a vertical ERP product on a permissive base it can fork and ship without paying a licence feenot iDempiere
iDempiere
- A distributor wants multi-organisation, multi-currency accounting and warehouse costing without a per-user ERP licence that scales with headcount.not ADempiere
- An organisation that has been caught by an open core vendor moving features into a paid tier wants an ERP with no company that can make that decision.not ADempiere
- A team needs heavy customisation of screens, fields and approval workflows that must survive version upgrades, which the application dictionary makes possible without forking.not ADempiere
- A public sector or university body in Latin America or Indonesia needs a locally supportable ERP where the source and the implementation skills are both available in-country.not 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.
iDempiere
- There is no vendor, so there is no support contract, no service level agreement and nobody to escalate to; you either build the skills internally or you depend entirely on a local partner whose quality you must judge yourself.
- It demands real Java, OSGi and PostgreSQL administration, so the running cost is a systems engineer rather than a subscription, and that engineer is harder to hire than a PHP developer.
- The ZK-based interface is dense and dated, with a data-entry feel inherited from Compiere that staff used to modern software find hostile, which drives up training cost.
- Localisation depends on community contribution, so tax, payroll and statutory reporting for your country may be absent, out of date or maintained by one person, and you may end up funding it yourself.
- The documentation is a community wiki with gaps and stale pages, and much of the practical knowledge sits in forum threads and partner heads rather than in anything you can hand to a new administrator.
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
iDempiere
Free- iDempiereFree
- Full ERP, CRM and supply chain source
- Unlimited users and organisations
- No enterprise edition and no feature gating
- Implementation partner$undefined/year
- Local partners provide installation, configuration, training and support
- Priced per engagement, not published
- Realistically the only viable route for a production deployment
Which should you pick?
Choose ADempiere if
- You need financial accounting.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted.
- You also want order to cash and procure to pay.
Choose iDempiere if
- You need osgi plug-in architecture.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, Windows.
- You also want multi-organisation accounting.
Questions people ask
- Is ADempiere or iDempiere better?
- Neither clearly leads. ADempiere starts at Free and iDempiere at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ADempiere or iDempiere?
- ADempiere starts at Free and iDempiere at Free.
- Does ADempiere or iDempiere run on more platforms?
- ADempiere runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted. iDempiere runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, Windows.
- 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 iDempiere is typically brought in for.
- What can ADempiere do that iDempiere cannot?
- ADempiere covers Financial accounting, Order to cash and procure to pay, Inventory and warehouse, Point of sale. iDempiere covers OSGi plug-in architecture, Multi-organisation accounting, Materials management, Report and print engine. Both handle Application dictionary, Manufacturing, Workflow engine.
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.
iDempiere: Is iDempiere the same as ADempiere or Compiere?
It shares the lineage. iDempiere forked from ADempiere in 2011 to rebuild the platform on OSGi, and it is the branch that remains actively developed.
ADempiere: 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.
iDempiere: Is there a paid or enterprise edition?
No. There is no commercial owner and no feature gating. Money is spent on implementation partners and hosting, not on licences.
ADempiere: 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.
iDempiere: What does it actually cost to run?
Nothing in licence fees, and a great deal in skills: expect a partner implementation and ongoing Java and PostgreSQL administration, which for a mid-sized company is comparable to a commercial subscription.
ADempiere: 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.
iDempiere: Which database does it need?
PostgreSQL or Oracle. PostgreSQL is the mainstream community choice and the one most partners deploy.
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