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ERP · head to head

ADempiere vs SAP for Government

ADempiere logo

ADempiere

ERP

Community-run open source ERP forked from Compiere, with no vendor behind it

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
SAP for Government logo

SAP for Government

Government

Intelligent Enterprise for Public Sector

From
$8000/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only ADempiere has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • 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.; SAP for Government sAP's own G-Cloud 14 SuccessFactors pricing document lists Employee Central at £59.76 per user per year for the public sector, with Recruiting and Onboarding modules charged per transaction at £142.00 and £72.00 respectively
  • They diverge on capability: ADempiere covers Application dictionary, SAP for Government covers Financial Management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ADempiere and SAP for Government actually diverge.

Attributes where ADempiere and SAP for Government differ
AttributeADempiereSAP for Government
Starting priceFree$8000/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hostedWeb, Desktop, Mobile
CategoryERPGovernment
FoundedUnknown1972

Identical on both: 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 SAP for Government

  • Financial Management
  • Procurement
  • Human Resources
  • Analytics
  • Grants Management
  • Microsoft
  • Oracle
  • Third-party Systems

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 SAP for Government
  • A company that wants to modify ERP screens and document workflows without a vendor change request, using the application dictionary rather than codenot SAP for Government
  • An organisation with a hard requirement to keep financial data on its own servers under its own control with no cloud dependencynot SAP for Government
  • A systems integrator building a vertical ERP product on a permissive base it can fork and ship without paying a licence feenot SAP for Government

SAP for Government

  • Citizen Servicesnot ADempiere
  • Records Managementnot ADempiere
  • Public Safetynot ADempiere
  • Civic Engagementnot 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.

SAP for Government

  • SAP's own G-Cloud 14 SuccessFactors pricing document lists Employee Central at £59.76 per user per year for the public sector, with Recruiting and Onboarding modules charged per transaction at £142.00 and £72.00 respectively
  • RISE with SAP is listed on G-Cloud 14 as a subscription requiring a minimum three year contract term, per SAP's own pricing document

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

SAP for Government

$8000/month
  • Government Cloud$8000/month
    • ERP
    • Financial Management
    • Analytics

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.
ADempiere review

Choose SAP for Government if

  • You need financial management.
  • You work on Web, Desktop, Mobile.
  • You also want procurement.
SAP for Government review

Questions people ask

Is ADempiere or SAP for Government better?
Neither clearly leads. ADempiere starts at Free and SAP for Government at $8000/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ADempiere or SAP for Government?
ADempiere has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for ADempiere and $8000/month for SAP for Government.
Does ADempiere or SAP for Government run on more platforms?
ADempiere runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted. SAP for Government runs on Web, Desktop, Mobile.
Can I use ADempiere for free?
Yes. ADempiere has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. SAP for Government starts at $8000/month.
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 SAP for Government is typically brought in for.
What can ADempiere do that SAP for Government cannot?
ADempiere covers Application dictionary, Financial accounting, Order to cash and procure to pay, Inventory and warehouse. SAP for Government covers Financial Management, Procurement, Human Resources, Analytics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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