iDempierevs
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ERPNext: If you want open source ERP with a modern interface and a company offering hosted support, rather than a community with no vendor.
iDempiere
Community-governed open source ERP, CRM and supply chain built on Java, OSGi and PostgreSQL
As of 31 August 2026, iDempiere is free to use. The Compiere and ADempiere lineage rebuilt on OSGi in 2011, and the only one of the three still under active development. Softwr lists it under ERP. iDempiere is made by iDempiere community project, available on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, Linux.
Overview
What iDempiere does
iDempiere is a Tier II open source ERP covering finance, purchasing, sales, inventory, manufacturing, projects, CRM and point of sale. It descends from Compiere by way of ADempiere and was restarted in 2011 on an OSGi plug-in architecture running on Java, ZK for the web interface and PostgreSQL or Oracle for storage. The current long-term support release is iDempiere 13, codenamed Orion. Everything, including the model-driven application dictionary, window and workflow designer and multi-organisation accounting, is in the free download; there is no paid edition. The distinguishing property is governance. iDempiere has no owning company. It is run by its community, releases are decided by contributor consensus, and there is no commercial entity that can change the licence, introduce an enterprise tier or be acquired. For an organisation that has been burned by an open core vendor moving features behind a paywall, that is a real structural guarantee rather than a promise. The application dictionary is the other genuinely distinctive asset: tables, windows, fields, validation rules and workflows are data, so much of what would be custom code in another ERP is configuration that survives upgrades. Buyers are mid-sized distributors, manufacturers and public bodies, with the largest concentrations in Latin America, Spain, Indonesia, Germany and India, almost always working through a local implementation partner. The trade-off is that the absence of a vendor is also the absence of a support contract, a roadmap you can hold anyone to, and a salesperson to escalate to.
What people use it 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.
Related searches
The honest half
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 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.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of iDempiere
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.
- iDempierevsMetasfresh
Metasfresh: If you want the same distribution and procurement depth from a fork with an active commercial sponsor behind it.
- iDempierevsOpenBravo
OpenBravo: If you need retail and commerce oriented open source ERP with a vendor providing a supported commercial edition.
Pricing
What iDempiere costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
iDempiere
Free
- Full ERP, CRM and supply chain source
- Unlimited users and organisations
- No enterprise edition and no feature gating
- Community forums, wiki and ticket system only
Implementation partner
On request
- Local partners provide installation, configuration, training and support
- Priced per engagement, not published
- Realistically the only viable route for a production deployment
Capabilities
Features
Application dictionary
Tables, windows, fields, validation and workflows defined as data rather than code, so customisation survives upgrades
OSGi plug-in architecture
Extensions are deployable bundles that can be added and updated without forking the core
Multi-organisation accounting
Multiple entities, currencies, calendars and accounting schemas in one instance
Materials management
Warehousing, lots, serials, landed costs and multiple costing methods
Manufacturing
Bills of material and production orders, extended further by community plug-ins
Workflow engine
Document approval routing configured through the dictionary
Report and print engine
Built-in report writer with print formats plus integration to Jasper Reports
No paid edition
Every feature is in the free distribution under an open licence
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 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.
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.
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.
Which database does it need?
PostgreSQL or Oracle. PostgreSQL is the mainstream community choice and the one most partners deploy.
Keep looking
Where to go from iDempiere
- iDempiere alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- iDempiere pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- iDempiere badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All ERP softwareThe full category
- Best ERP softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best ERP software for
Compare iDempiere with
- OpenBravo
- Metasfresh
- Apache OFBiz
- ADempiere
- Tryton
- SYSPRO
- Aptean
- Axelor
- Dolibarr
- QAD Adaptive ERP
- Epicor
- Rootstock
- Sage X3
- Apache OFBiz
- ADempiere
- SYSPRO
- QAD
- QAD Adaptive ERP
Other ERP software
Open-source-derived ERP that has narrowed its focus to retail commerce
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From $1,500/mo13 researched notesJava ERP and e-commerce framework from the Apache Foundation, sold as a toolkit not a product
Open source12 researched notesCommunity-run open source ERP forked from Compiere, with no vendor behind it
Open source12 researched notesLong-established mid-market manufacturing ERP, sold through a partner channel
From $1,200/mo13 researched notesERP for regulated and supply-chain-heavy manufacturers, strongest in automotive and life sciences
Pricing on request12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for iDempiere, 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.
More on iDempiere
iDempiere alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
iDempiere pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare iDempiere
Put it head to head with anything we hold
iDempiere badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best ERP software alternatives
Modular open source ERP and CRM for very small businesses, installable on shared hosting
Open source, no licence feeFrench open source ERP and CRM with a low-code studio for changing the data model without forking
Per user per month
Enterprise source-to-pay from a vendor that also sells the consulting and the outsourced procurement team
quote
Community-run open source ERP forked from Compiere, with no vendor behind it
Open source, no licence fee
Java ERP and e-commerce framework from the Apache Foundation, sold as a toolkit not a product
Open source, no licence fee