Axelor

French open source ERP and CRM with a low-code studio for changing the data model without forking

As of 31 August 2026, Axelor has a free plan and paid plans start at $35/month. Axelor is an AGPL-licensed business suite from Paris that pairs ERP and CRM modules with a low-code studio, so fields, screens and workflows are changed through configuration rather than by editing Java. Softwr lists it under ERP. Axelor is made by Axelor SAS, available on Web, Linux, Docker, iOS.

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Overview

What Axelor does

Axelor is an open source business application suite built on Java and its own framework, covering CRM, sales, purchasing, stock, manufacturing, project management, HR, accounting and a BPM engine. The Community edition is published under the AGPL with the core modules, and paid Pro and Enterprise editions add commercial licensing, additional business modules, e-invoicing and support. It runs in Axelor's cloud or on customer infrastructure. The distinguishing piece is Axelor Studio. Most open source ERPs require you to write module code to add an entity or change a screen, which creates a fork you then have to maintain across upgrades. Axelor exposes model, view, workflow and BPM design as configuration stored in the database, so a functional consultant can extend the system and the customisation survives version upgrades. For a mid-sized firm without Java developers on staff that is the difference between owning the system and depending on an integrator forever. Buyers are European SMEs and mid-market companies, heavily concentrated in France and francophone markets, plus public sector bodies with data sovereignty requirements that push them away from US cloud vendors. The trade-offs are the seat minimums on paid tiers, a documentation and community base that is far stronger in French than English, a partner network thin outside Europe, and an AGPL licence that has real consequences if you intend to build a hosted product on top of it.

What people use it for

A European SME that wants ERP on its own servers for data sovereignty rather than in a US cloud
A company whose processes do not fit a standard ERP and that wants to model them in BPMN instead of paying for custom code
A francophone business needing a French chart of accounts and local statutory reporting out of the box
A team validating an open source ERP on the free Community edition with the option to move the same database onto a commercial licence later

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Axelor.

Pro requires at least ten users and Enterprise at least twenty, so a six-person company either stays on unsupported Community or pays for seats it does not have.
Documentation, community answers and partner material are substantially richer in French than English, which slows adoption for anglophone teams and makes hiring implementers outside Europe difficult.
The AGPL licence on Community obliges you to publish modifications if you offer the software as a network service, which is a genuine blocker for anyone planning to resell a hosted version.
The implementation partner network is concentrated in France and neighbouring markets, so buyers elsewhere have few local firms to tender against and limited support timezone coverage.
It is a smaller ecosystem than Odoo or ERPNext, so there is no large third-party app marketplace, and functionality the suite lacks has to be built rather than bought.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Axelor

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Axelorvs
Odoo
Odoo: If you want the largest open source ERP app marketplace and a much bigger implementer network
Axelorvs
ERPNext
ERPNext: If you want a fully open source suite with no seat minimums and a strong self-hosting community
Axelorvs
Acumatica
Acumatica: If you would rather buy a commercial cloud ERP with consumption-based licensing than run your own

Pricing

What Axelor costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Community

Free

AGPL licensed, self-hosted
Essential ERP and CRM modules
Forum and documentation support only
No minimum user count
You carry hosting, upgrades and backups

Pro

$35 /mo

Minimum ten users
Commercial licence covering all business modules
E-invoicing included
Standard support
Built-in AI features

Enterprise

$55 /mo

Minimum twenty users
Advanced BI and dedicated AI agents
SSO and CAS authentication
Priority support
Enhanced customisation and search

Capabilities

Features

Axelor Studio
Low-code designer for entities, fields, views, menus and workflows stored as configuration
BPM engine
BPMN process modelling that drives real transactions rather than documentation
CRM and sales
Leads, opportunities, quotations and orders linked directly to stock and invoicing
Manufacturing
Bills of materials, routings, work orders and production planning
Accounting
Double-entry ledger with French chart of accounts and European statutory needs
E-invoicing
Structured electronic invoicing on the paid editions, relevant to EU mandates
Stock and logistics
Multi-warehouse inventory with tracking numbers and logistical positions
REST API
Full API over the model layer for integration and headless use

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Is Axelor really free?

The Community edition is genuinely AGPL open source with no licence fee, but it lacks several business modules and has no vendor support, and you carry all hosting and upgrade work.

Can I upgrade from Community without losing data?

Yes, Axelor states that a Community deployment can move to Pro or Enterprise keeping its database and configuration, which is unusual among open core vendors.

Do I need Java developers?

Not for most changes. Studio handles entities, views and workflows as configuration. Deep integrations and new module logic still need Java skills.

Does it handle EU e-invoicing mandates?

E-invoicing is included on the paid editions, which is the main reason French customers move off Community as mandates come into force.

Keep looking

Where to go from Axelor

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Axelor, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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