Why should you not publish Apps on Odoo Apps Store?
First things first: I’m not an Internet warrior. I do not wish to make a judgment here nor am I trying to convince you that this platform is right or wrong.
Instead, I would like to warn people of a trend that is endangering their own work. People, who are making App publishing on Odoo app store as their main business and trying to build a business around it.
TL;DR
I don’t think Odoo App Store as a platform is a problem but how Odoo S.A. uses it. Authors should not post their apps only on Odoo App Store. And why that? Let me give you a point by point explanation
1. Odoo’s Own Work Ethics
Odoo S.A always had questionable work ethics and development ethics, especially with the community.
Odoo S.A. has been seen openly confronted by many community members and developers about Odoo S.A. creating a similar feature as their app, putting the same features in the enterprise edition.
When you publish your app on Odoo App Store, Odoo S.A. does have access to your code, access to all the stats of sales and views.
This makes it easier for them to create such a feature and putting it in Odoo Enterprise along with the price tag.
A simple example is the “muk_dms” module, greatly done by the author, published in Open Source and then the same feature in Odoo Enterprise. There are many such examples.
Recent one Warehouse Management System from Odoo Community Association.
https://twitter.com/jgrandguillaume/status/1348626635487121408
2. Odoo App Store Policies
I haven’t seen any one-sided policies in the world that the developer needs to follow but the publisher doesn’t need to.
“The module cannot be a clone of our Enterprise modules — i.e. built with the clear intention to duplicate the functionalities of an Enterprise module. We reserve the right to unpublish such module at any moment.”
By this means, Odoo S.A. can simply create the module/app in enterprise edition feature which duplicates the functionalities of your app, but when you create similar functionalities, your app will be unpublished or your entire developer publisher account will get barred. Under the conflict of functionalities with Enterprise Edition.
3. No facility to sell per domain/database sales
If an Odoo developer/partner purchases your app, they are free to use it in as many projects as they wish, there are no restrictions or license restrictions for it. Where-in Odoo S.A. is selling their apps only based on Enterprise contract and per instance/database restriction. Fair to developers ??
There are many third party stores that explicitly let the end-users pay for multiple instance usages.
4. Selling Maintainance Contract on top of your Odoo App
You read it right. Odoo S.A. can now offer maintenance and upgrade services on top of the app.
Apps that are actually created by the developers who have invested time and money both in creating the app, but now Odoo S.A. will be maintaining it and minting the money from the investment of the developer.
https://twitter.com/Yenthe666/status/1318969337294839808
5. Chargeback Claims for the Sales
I have talked to a number of developers during the last few years who are selling apps on Odoo App Store. Most of them have felt the burn of the charge back claims due to fraudulent sales.
Their pain point is, Odoo S.A. never even tried to fight the charge backs, even if the product or app is purchased by a genuine buyer. Such losses are always passed on to the developers and Odoo S.A. keeps their profits intact.
Conclusion
You may think about the options that work best for your app. If you are creating something unique, AVOID Odoo App Store.
Top comments (1)
I once volunteered for a non-profit to help their IT put together their website and web store in Odoo. I have to say, Odoo itself is the single worst code base I have ever seen in my life. Everything inherits from everything in a massive tangle of bad design, and they even retrofitted "composition" to be a form of inheritance. It's badly documented, and prone to breaking changes high up in the Jenga tower of inheritance.
(P.S. That IT I was working for was later found to be defrauding the non-profit, negotiating his volunteer role into a full-time paid position, and then claiming it would be an additional seven to ten years before the website — a simple blog + web store + donation option — would be ready to go live. Odoo was one of his delay tactics. I was the one who exposed the IT's scam. Not a fun time.)