Free ERP Software in 2026: What Each Free Plan Covers

Odoo's One App Free plan is the best free ERP for a team that needs one Odoo app: €0 with unlimited users, on one app, forever. For the full suite, ERPNext charges no per-user license fee, but you pay for hosting, which starts at $5 a month on Frappe Cloud's Sites plan. Zoho Books Free is accounting software, capped at $50K of revenue a financial year.

Free means three different things in ERP. A free plan is a hosted tier with limits you can hit. A free license is open-source code you install and run yourself, so the software costs nothing while the server, support and setup still do. A free trial is a clock: Business Central gives 30 days and Frappe Cloud gives 14. Trials end, so this page compares only the free plans and free licenses. Each row reads the vendor's own pricing or license page, checked on 10 October 2026.

The free options at a glance

Odoo shows euros only, so its prices stay in euros here. We do not convert them.

Odoo One App Free: unlimited users on one app

Among hosted free plans, Odoo's is the most generous we found. Its pricing page promises one app for unlimited users, "forever, whatever the dependencies", and the apps it depends on come free too. Our Toolradar listing covers the same tool.

The cost starts with the second app. Odoo's FAQ says installing more apps moves you to Standard, and installing Studio or adding a company moves you to Custom. Standard includes all apps at €24.90 per user per month billed yearly, or €31.10 billed monthly. A footnote mentions a 12-month discount for the initial users ordered. Two legal entities need Custom, because Multi-Company appears only on that plan, at €44.90 per user per month billed yearly or €56.90 billed monthly.

Odoo.sh hosting is excluded from both paid prices, according to the page's footnote. The free plan runs on Odoo Online only, so self-hosting is a separate route. The Odoo source code on GitHub is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3, and Odoo's editions page calls Community the core that Enterprise is built on. We did not verify which features Enterprise adds, so check the edition table before you choose. The Odoo review covers the paid tiers in full.

The trade-off is plain: the free plan stops at one app, and every step up is priced per user.

ERPNext: no per-user fee, a hosting bill

ERPNext calls itself a "free and open source ERP", and its page says there is no "Per User Fee" for ERPNext and that you "pay only for hosting". The software is under the GNU General Public License version 3, which lets you run and change it without paying the vendor. A 25-user team pays no seat fee to use it.

Hosting is the recurring bill. Frappe Cloud's pricing page starts the Sites plan at $5 a month, billed monthly, and the Servers plan at $40 a month for a full virtual machine with unlimited sites and benches. Frappe Cloud offers a 14-day free trial and no free tier, so the hosting bill starts after 14 days unless you run the software yourself.

Setup is the number no vendor page prices. Entities, the chart of accounts and inventory need an administrator or an implementation partner, and the ERPNext page does not say what that work costs. If nobody on the team can run upgrades, backups and the database, a free license becomes a hosting bill plus someone's time.

Dolibarr: open source with no price on the homepage

Dolibarr describes itself as a free open-source ERP and CRM that you can install wherever you choose. Its source is under the GNU General Public License version 3. The homepage links to a SaaS offer but shows no price, so hosted Dolibarr is not in the cost comparison below. We did not verify its user or feature limits, so this page states none.

Zoho Books Free: accounting with a revenue cap

Zoho Books is accounting software, and Zoho sells it that way. Its pricing page says the Free plan stays free as long as revenue for the financial year does not exceed $50K, and the account creates no more than 1,000 invoices a year. The free tier covers one user plus one accountant. Our Toolradar listing covers the same product.

The paid ladder is per organization. Standard is $15 per organization per month billed yearly ($20 billed monthly) and covers 3 users. Ultimate, at $240 billed yearly or $275 monthly, lists 15 users, the highest count on Zoho's table. A 25-person finance team does not fit any Zoho Books plan. For finance-first, multi-entity accounting, the next step is the Sage Intacct review and the NetSuite versus Sage Intacct comparison. For a small ledger, the QuickBooks Online review and the best accounting software list cover the rest.

Trials and quote-only ERPs are not free plans

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a free 30-day trial. After it, Essentials costs $80 per user per month paid yearly, and Premium costs $110. Acumatica publishes no dollar figure, no free plan and no free trial on its pricing page. It prices on applications, usage and deployment, says it is "not for user seats", and offers a no-obligation custom pricing review. The Acumatica review has the full read. NetSuite publishes no USD list price, which our NetSuite pricing guide explains. The NetSuite review and the NetSuite alternatives list place it beside the others.

What 25 users cost on each option

Our scenario is 25 finance and operations users across two legal entities, billed yearly unless stated. Each line is the recurring license or hosting bill, not setup. One calculation, shown once: 25 users x €44.90 x 12 months = €13,470 a year on Odoo Custom.

Odoo Custom is the only line in the table whose vendor page lists multi-company, and its euro figure cannot be set against dollars without an exchange rate. ERPNext has the lowest recurring vendor bill in dollars, $480 a year at the starting Servers price, with no per-user line at all. That bill is not the lowest total cost, because setup is unpriced and can cost more than the hosting bill.

Consolidation for two entities is a separate job, covered in the best financial consolidation tools list.

The cheapest option turns on the app count. Odoo's free plan costs €0 for any number of users, but only on one app and one company, and nothing else on this table is cheaper at that size. A second app moves Odoo to the per-user line. Above 15 users, Zoho Books drops out of the scenario altogether.

How we checked

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 268 accounting tools for its October 2026 ranking, the nearest category we track to the finance half of an ERP (accounting software).

We read each vendor's own pricing or license page on 10 October 2026, and quote only what those pages show. A free plan counts when the vendor lists its limits. A trial does not count. Limits we could not confirm, such as Dolibarr's user caps, are left out rather than estimated. The 25-user scenario is ours, not a vendor's.

How to choose in four questions

1. Do you need more than one app? If not, Odoo One App Free costs €0 for unlimited users. If yes, Standard costs €24.90 per user per month billed yearly.
2. Do you run two or more legal entities? Odoo needs Custom for Multi-Company, at €44.90 per user per month billed yearly. ERPNext has no per-user fee, but its entity setup is unpriced, so budget that work first.
3. Can someone run a server? If yes, self-host ERPNext, or run Odoo Community under its open-source license. If no, pay for hosting on Frappe Cloud or take Odoo Online.
4. Do you need an ERP, or only accounting? If only accounting, Zoho Books Free works while you stay on one user plus one accountant and inside its revenue cap. If you need an ERP, none of the accounting plans replaces one.

Who should skip the free options

• Odoo One App Free: skip it if you need two apps or two entities on day one.
• ERPNext: skip it if nobody can run hosting, upgrades and backups.
• Zoho Books Free: skip it past one user plus one accountant, past the revenue cap, or past 1,000 invoices a year, and skip it if you need an ERP rather than accounting.
• Dolibarr: skip it if you need a hosted, priced plan you can budget today.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free ERP software in 2026?

For a single app, Odoo One App Free is the best value: €0 with unlimited users, on Odoo Online. For a full ERP, ERPNext has no per-user license fee under GPLv3, so the bill is hosting, and Frappe Cloud's Servers plan costs $40 a month for a full virtual machine. Zoho Books Free is accounting software with a revenue cap.

Is Odoo free?

Partly. One App Free costs €0 on one app with unlimited users. Standard, needed for a second app, costs €24.90 per user per month billed yearly. Custom, needed for multi-company, costs €44.90 per user per month billed yearly. Odoo.sh hosting is excluded from both paid plans.

Is ERPNext free to use?

The license is free under GPLv3, with no per-user fee. You pay for hosting: Frappe Cloud's Sites plan starts at $5 a month and its Servers plan at $40 a month, with a 14-day trial. Setup labor is not priced on any vendor page.

Is there a free ERP for 25 users?

For 25 users, ERPNext is the option this page can price: a $0 license and Servers hosting from $40 a month, since Frappe's pricing page does not say which plan size fits 25 users. Odoo's free plan covers 25 users only on a single app. Zoho Books Free allows one user plus one accountant, and its top paid plan lists 15 users.

Is Zoho Books an ERP?

No. Zoho Books is accounting software. Its Free plan covers one user plus one accountant, up to the revenue cap for the financial year and 1,000 invoices a year.

Is Dolibarr free?

Its source code is under GPL version 3, and you can install it where you choose without a license fee. Its homepage lists a SaaS offer with no price, so hosted Dolibarr is not in this comparison.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm plan terms, limits and fees with each vendor in writing before you sign.

Cite this: CFOpresso, "Free ERP Software in 2026: What Each Free Plan Covers", October 2026.

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