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ERP · head to head

ADempiere vs Zip

ADempiere logo

ADempiere

ERP

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zip logo

Zip

ERP

Procurement intake and orchestration that sits on top of the systems you already run

From
On request
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.; Zip it is a layer on top of systems you already pay for, so the business case rests on adoption and cycle time rather than replacing a licence, and that is harder to defend to a finance director cutting software spend.
  • They diverge on capability: ADempiere covers Application dictionary, Zip covers Unified intake.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ADempiere and Zip actually diverge.

Attributes where ADempiere and Zip differ
AttributeADempiereZip
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hostedWeb, iOS

Identical on both: 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

  • 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 Zip

  • Unified intake
  • Approval orchestration
  • Vendor onboarding
  • Contract repository
  • ERP write-back
  • Renewal management
  • Spend visibility
  • AI request handling

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

Zip

  • A company that owns a source-to-pay suite nobody uses because employees cannot navigate itnot ADempiere
  • An organisation where every software purchase needs security, legal, privacy and finance sign-off and currently does it in email threadsnot ADempiere
  • A finance team that keeps discovering contracts that auto-renewed because nobody owned the renewal datenot ADempiere
  • A business needing an auditable record of who approved a third-party engagement and on what evidencenot 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.

Zip

  • It is a layer on top of systems you already pay for, so the business case rests on adoption and cycle time rather than replacing a licence, and that is harder to defend to a finance director cutting software spend.
  • Value depends entirely on integration depth into your specific ERP and ticketing tools, and a shallow connector reduces it to a workflow tool that someone rekeys out of.
  • Pricing is not published and is structured around company size and integration scope, so buyers cannot benchmark without peer references.
  • If procurement policy itself is unclear, Zip encodes the confusion: the tool routes requests according to rules someone must first write, and organisations without that clarity see slow implementations.
  • It does not do sourcing, auctions or spend analysis, so organisations expecting a full procurement capability will still need a suite or specialist tools alongside it.

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

Zip

On request
  • Zip$undefined/year
    • Intake and approval orchestration
    • Vendor onboarding and diligence workflows
    • Integrations with ERP, contract and ticketing systems

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 Zip if

  • You need unified intake.
  • You work on Web, iOS.
  • You also want approval orchestration.
Zip review

Questions people ask

Is ADempiere or Zip better?
Neither clearly leads. ADempiere starts at Free and Zip at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ADempiere or Zip?
ADempiere has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for ADempiere and On request for Zip.
Does ADempiere or Zip run on more platforms?
ADempiere runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted. Zip runs on Web, iOS.
Can I use ADempiere for free?
Yes. ADempiere has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Zip starts at On request.
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 Zip is typically brought in for.
What can ADempiere do that Zip cannot?
ADempiere covers Application dictionary, Financial accounting, Order to cash and procure to pay, Inventory and warehouse. Zip covers Unified intake, Approval orchestration, Vendor onboarding, Contract repository.

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.

Zip: Is this the buy now pay later company?

No. This is Zip at ziphq.com, a procurement orchestration platform, unrelated to the payments company of the same name.

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.

Zip: Does it replace Coupa or Ariba?

No, and that is the point. It sits in front of them, providing the intake and approval experience employees actually use, and writes back into the suite.

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.

Zip: What does it cost?

Not published. Quoted by company size, modules and the integrations you need. Get peer benchmarks before negotiating.

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.

Zip: What is the prerequisite for success?

A written procurement policy. Zip automates the routing rules you give it; if nobody can say who approves what, implementation stalls.

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