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ERP · head to head

iDempiere vs Litmus Edge

iDempiere logo

iDempiere

ERP

Community-governed open source ERP, CRM and supply chain built on Java, OSGi and PostgreSQL

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Litmus Edge logo

Litmus Edge

Manufacturing

Industrial edge platform that collects, normalises and forwards OT data to cloud and enterprise systems

From
$1500/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only iDempiere has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Litmus Edge pricing is by site and data point, so a large tag count at one plant can cost more than a modest tag count spread over several, which is the opposite of how most manufacturers plan a rollout.
  • They diverge on capability: iDempiere covers Application dictionary, Litmus Edge covers Prebuilt driver library.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which iDempiere and Litmus Edge actually diverge.

Attributes where iDempiere and Litmus Edge differ
AttributeiDempiereLitmus Edge
Starting priceFree$1500/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer site by data point count
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, WindowsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, On-premise
CategoryERPManufacturing

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 iDempiere

  • Application dictionary
  • OSGi plug-in architecture
  • Multi-organisation accounting
  • Materials management
  • Manufacturing
  • Workflow engine
  • Report and print engine
  • No paid edition

Only in Litmus Edge

  • Prebuilt driver library
  • Unified data model
  • Litmus Edge Manager
  • Edge applications
  • Store and forward
  • Cloud and broker outputs

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

iDempiere

  • A distributor wants multi-organisation, multi-currency accounting and warehouse costing without a per-user ERP licence that scales with headcount.not Litmus Edge
  • 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 Litmus Edge
  • 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 Litmus Edge
  • 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 Litmus Edge

Litmus Edge

  • A manufacturer with twenty plants and five PLC brands that needs one data acquisition standard rather than twenty bespoke integrationsnot iDempiere
  • Feeding a cloud data warehouse or lakehouse with normalised production data without asking the controls team to write cloud connectorsnot iDempiere
  • Retrofitting data collection onto old CNC machines and robots where the protocol support is the hard part, not the analyticsnot iDempiere
  • Adding local buffering and computation at sites with unreliable WAN links so cloud outages do not create gaps in production historynot iDempiere

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

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.

Litmus Edge

  • Pricing is by site and data point, so a large tag count at one plant can cost more than a modest tag count spread over several, which is the opposite of how most manufacturers plan a rollout.
  • The entry package sits around $1,500 per month, an awkward number for a single-site pilot given that the product is infrastructure with no visible output of its own until something downstream consumes it.
  • Litmus does no analytics, so the business case always depends on a second purchase; the platform on its own produces no result a plant manager can see.
  • Full pricing beyond the entry tier is not published and the Growth and Scale packages are quoted, so scaling costs are unknown at the point you commit to the architecture.
  • A capable controls team can approximate a single-site deployment with an open-source broker and a driver gateway for a fraction of the cost, so the value case depends entirely on how many sites you are managing centrally.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Litmus Edge

$1500/month
  • Foundation$1500/month
    • Entry package sized by site count and data points
    • Core driver library and edge runtime
    • Store and forward to cloud and brokers
  • Growth$undefined/month
    • Larger site and data point allowance
    • Litmus Edge Manager fleet management
    • Priced on application
  • Scale$undefined/month
    • Enterprise multi-site deployment
    • Higher data point ceilings and support tier
    • Priced on application

Which should you pick?

Choose iDempiere if

  • You need application dictionary.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, Windows.
  • You also want osgi plug-in architecture.
iDempiere review

Choose Litmus Edge if

  • You need prebuilt driver library.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want unified data model.
Litmus Edge review

Questions people ask

Is iDempiere or Litmus Edge better?
Neither clearly leads. iDempiere starts at Free and Litmus Edge at $1500/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, iDempiere or Litmus Edge?
iDempiere has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for iDempiere and $1500/month for Litmus Edge.
Does iDempiere or Litmus Edge run on more platforms?
iDempiere runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux, Windows. Litmus Edge runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, On-premise.
Can I use iDempiere for free?
Yes. iDempiere has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Litmus Edge starts at $1500/month.
What is iDempiere best used for?
iDempiere is most often used for a distributor wants multi-organisation, multi-currency accounting and warehouse costing without a per-user erp licence that scales with headcount., 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., a team needs heavy customisation of screens, fields and approval workflows that must survive version upgrades, which the application dictionary makes possible without forking., 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.. Of those, a distributor wants multi-organisation, multi-currency accounting and warehouse costing without a per-user erp licence that scales with headcount. and 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. are not what Litmus Edge is typically brought in for.
What can iDempiere do that Litmus Edge cannot?
iDempiere covers Application dictionary, OSGi plug-in architecture, Multi-organisation accounting, Materials management. Litmus Edge covers Prebuilt driver library, Unified data model, Litmus Edge Manager, Edge applications.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Litmus Edge: Does Litmus Edge do analytics or dashboards?

Only lightweight edge computation and basic visualisation. It is a data acquisition and normalisation layer; the analysis happens in whatever you send the data to.

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.

Litmus Edge: How is it priced?

By number of sites and number of data points, in packages. The entry package starts around $1,500 per month; larger tiers are quoted.

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.

Litmus Edge: Can it replace my historian?

No. It buffers and forwards but is not a long-term historian. Most deployments send data into a historian, warehouse or lakehouse.

iDempiere: Which database does it need?

PostgreSQL or Oracle. PostgreSQL is the mainstream community choice and the one most partners deploy.

Litmus Edge: Does it need Litmus hardware?

No. It runs on standard industrial PCs, virtual machines or containers; there is no proprietary appliance requirement.

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