Odoo has become a leading open-source ERP platform with thousands of businesses worldwide. With its modular architecture, large developer community and strong open-source foundation, Odoo has a solid technical ground. This article will dive into the underlying structure of Odoo, real-world usage by country and the global impact of the open-source model—with a developer focus and examples.
Odoo’s Technical Stack
Odoo’s strength is in its modularity. Developers can activate only what they need and extend it easily with Python and XML. Here’s a breakdown of the core technologies that make Odoo:
•Backend: Python (mainly with the Odoo ORM, an abstraction over PostgreSQL)
•Frontend: JavaScript, XML, QWeb templates, OWL (Odoo Web Library)
•Database: PostgreSQL
•Web Server: Built-in HTTP server or WSGI with Nginx or Apache for production
•APIs: XML-RPC and JSON-RPC
Example: Custom Module Creation
Let’s say you want to add a custom approval step in the Sales Order workflow. You can do this by creating a new module that inherits the sale.order model and adds a new field x_approval_state. Using Odoo’s ORM and XML views, you can easily integrate this field into the backend interface without altering core files
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from odoo import models, fields class SaleOrder(models.Model): _inherit = 'sale.order' approval_state = fields.Selection([ ('draft', 'Draft'), ('waiting', 'Waiting for Approval'), ('approved', 'Approved') ], string='Approval Status', default='draft')
This extensibility makes Odoo a developer-friendly ERP choice.
The Developer Ecosystem and Contributions
As of 2025, Odoo's GitHub repository https://github.com/odoo/odoo has over:
•⭐ 32,000 stars
•🍴 21,000 forks
•👩💻 4,000+ contributors
This massive contributor base has built over 38,000 custom modules, available through the Odoo App Store or community repositories like OCA (Odoo Community Association).
Example: Using Community Modules
A logistics company in India customized their warehouse using OCA’s stock-logistics-warehouse module. Instead of building from scratch, they forked the module, modified business logic in stock_picking.py, and deployed it with just a few lines of configuration in their manifest.py.
This showcases how the open-source model accelerates development.
Real-World Usage: Who Uses Odoo and Where?
Odoo powers businesses in over 175+ countries, and according to BuiltWith, the top Odoo users worldwide include:
•India – 18.2%
•United States – 11.5%
•France – 10.3%
•Germany – 9.1%
•Mexico – 6.8%
These numbers reflect active web deployments, indicating that a significant percentage of businesses across domains such as retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and education rely on Odoo.
Real-World Example: Mexican Retail Chain
A mid-sized retail chain in Mexico migrated from SAP B1 to Odoo due to licensing costs. By customizing POS and Inventory modules and integrating with local payment gateways like Conekta, they reduced operational costs by 30%. They also used Odoo Studio to build custom fields for tax compliance.
Open Source Impact on Business Adoption
Odoo’s open-core model (community + enterprise) offers both accessibility and scalability. While Odoo Enterprise has extra features, the Community Edition is powerful and flexible for small and mid-sized developers and system integrators.
Impact Highlights:
•Low Entry Barrier: You can spin up an Odoo instance locally in under 5 minutes using Docker.
•Total Cost of Ownership: Businesses pay only for hosting, development and optional enterprise features.
•Innovation Drive: Odoo’s MIT-style permissive licensing encourages
innovation and custom development.
Example: Open-Source POS Deployment
In Kenya, a startup cafe chain deployed Odoo’s POS system using only open-source modules. They integrated mobile payments using an open API from M-Pesa and added real-time sales dashboards using Odoo’s web controller system. The entire deployment cost less than $3,000—a fraction of traditional POS systems.
Technical Innovation in the Odoo Ecosystem
Odoo 17 and Odoo 18 have many backend and frontend improvements for developers:
•OWL 2.0: A lightweight reactive framework for Odoo frontend components
•FastAPI Integration: Expose REST endpoints more efficiently
•Automated Testing Framework: Python unit tests, JS QUnit tests, YAML integration testing
•Improved Multi-worker Setup: odoo.conf to scale across CPUs using workers and db_maxconn
Example: Load Balancing Odoo with Nginx and Multiple Workers
A logistics platform in France used the following setup for high-volume operations:
conf
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[options] addons_path = /opt/odoo/addons db_host = False db_port = False db_user = odoo db_password = odoo workers = 4 limit_memory_soft = 512000000 limit_time_real = 120
With Nginx as a reverse proxy and PostgreSQL on SSD-backed volumes, they processed thousands of transactions daily without bottlenecks.
Odoo’s Founder and Vision
Fabien Pinckaers, the founder and CEO of Odoo, launched the company (formerly TinyERP) in 2005. As of 2025, Fabien pinckaers odoo founder net worth is over $500 million, according to various tech finance trackers.
Fabien’s commitment to open-source software and user-centric ERP design still guides Odoo’s roadmap. Under his leadership, Odoo has been both commercially successful and community-driven.
Developer Tools and Learning Resources
Odoo provides a full set of tools to help developers learn and grow:
•Odoo.sh: Cloud hosting and CI/CD platform for module testing
•Odoo Studio: Visual module editor (mainly for enterprise users)
•Official Developer Docs: https://www.odoo.com/documentation
•Community Forums & Discords: Active channels with rapid support
Example: Debugging with Odoo Debug Mode
By adding ?debug=1 to your Odoo URL, you can see field IDs, view XML elements and customize views directly from the web interface—saving hours of backend inspection.
Community Events and Global Collaboration
Odoo hosts the annual Odoo Experience in Belgium, with thousands of developers, partners and clients from all over the world. Regional meetups, hackathons and webinars drive innovation.
In 2024, Odoo certified 15,000 new developers, globally.
Future of the Odoo Ecosystem
Odoo 18 will introduce:
•TypeScript support for frontend components
•GraphQL API layer
•Deeper AI integration for predictive inventory and sales analytics
•Enhanced mobile UI with Flutter wrappers
This is going to be fun!
Conclusion
Odoo’s technical ecosystem is unique: extensible, scalable and community driven. From solo developers launching a simple CRM to large enterprises managing multi-country supply chains, Odoo is a powerful tool thanks to its open-source model and strong developer foundations.
By looking at real-world usage data, we know Odoo is not just a software—it’s a global movement fueled by innovation, affordability and developer freedom. Whether you are building your first module or deploying a multi-tiered infrastructure, Odoo invites you to join the party.
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