Apache OFBiz vs ERP5

Apache OFBiz is a suite of business applications for organizations that need functions across finance, commerce, inventory and manufacturing. Its ready-to-use modules include accounting, CRM, order management, e-commerce, warehousing, inventory, manufacturing and MRP. Product and catalog management, promotions, pricing, supply-chain fulfillment, contracts, payments and billing are also listed. Finance tools cover the general ledger, receivables, payables, invoices, payments, statements, aging and financial reporting. Manufacturing functions include bills of materials, production planning, routings, job costing and raw-material procurement. For commerce, OFBiz lists payment gateway integrations and integrated online and point-of-sale stores, with support for physical, digital and configurable products. It is built as a Java-based web framework with entity and service engines and a widget-based interface, and can be downloaded and run on Unix-based or Windows-based systems. The framework and plugins trunk and release 24.09 require at least Java 17 JDK. The software is self-hosted and costs nothing, with no licensing fees.

ERP5 is a free, open-source business platform covering CRM, production management, supply chain, product design, accounting, human resources and e-commerce. Its listed modules include finance, inventory, order management and manufacturing, with support for multiple entities. The system can be used and configured in a web browser, and the maker says all browsers are supported. Organizations can also run a preconfigured ERP5 virtual machine on their own server. That VM package is not recommended for large production environments with many users or for development; the maker recommends SlapOS for production deployments and complex integrations. ERP5 is written mostly in Python and uses the NEO transactional NoSQL database alongside a relational SQL database, with MariaDB preferred. It provides a HATEOAS JSON API and an MCP implementation that can expose read-only or read-write services. ERP5 uses role-based permissions configured by module and document. The maker says it is intended for organizations prepared to supervise deployment or learn the platform in depth. ERP5 is free to download and use under GPL v2.