Odoo is a suite of business apps, priced per user per month, with an open-source Community edition you can host yourself. Nexus is HR, CRM, sales and project management in one application you buy once and host yourself. Odoo covers far more ground; Nexus is narrower and costs the same however many people use it. This page sets out how they differ and who should choose which.
At a glance
| Odoo | Nexus | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Per user per month on its Standard and Custom plans, with one app free for unlimited users. The Community edition is open source | One-time licence: $24 Regular, $129 Extended. No per-user fee |
| Where it runs | Odoo Online, or Odoo.sh or on-premise on its Custom plan. Community is self-hosted | Your own hosting, with your own database |
| What it covers | Many apps, including Sales, CRM, HR, Project, Accounting, Inventory, POS, Website, eCommerce and Sign | HR, CRM and sales, projects and time tracking, support tickets and a client portal |
| Payroll | Listed by Odoo as an Enterprise feature | Included in the licence. Taxes are set up as deduction components with your own rates |
| Support | Unlimited support, hosting and maintenance are included in its plans | 6 months of support with every licence |
| Extending it | Studio and an external API on the Custom plan | You get the source code, and a REST API with scoped tokens |
What Nexus includes
- HR and people: employee records, departments, org chart, onboarding, attendance, leave, payroll, performance reviews and recruitment with a careers page
- CRM and sales: leads, weighted pipelines, quotes that convert to invoices, and contracts signed online
- Projects and time: list, board, Gantt and calendar views, and a timer that turns approved billable hours into a client invoice
- Support tickets with response targets, and a client portal for invoices, quotes, contracts and tickets
- Permissions enforced on every route, and per-project access
See the Nexus page for the full list and a live demo.
How the costs are structured
Odoo’s price depends on the plan, the number of users and the apps you use, so we don’t print it here. You can work out your own five-year figure for both:
| Odoo | Nexus | |
|---|---|---|
| Software | Price per user per month on your plan, times your users, times 60 months. Community is free to download | The licence price, once |
| When you add staff | Each paying user adds to the monthly bill | Nothing changes |
| Hosting | Included on Odoo Online. Your own for Community, and Odoo.sh hosting is priced separately | Your own. A $10 a month hosting plan or VPS does the job, so $600 over 60 months |
| Setup help | Included support, and the implementation services described in its pricing FAQ | Our managed service from $20 a month, where we manage your installation |
The own versus rent page works through five years of owning compared with renting.
Where Odoo is the better choice
- You need more than HR, CRM and projects. Odoo lists accounting, inventory, purchasing, a website, eCommerce and manufacturing as apps in the same suite.
- You want a free self-hosted option. Its Community edition is open source, and it includes HR, Project and CRM.
- You want someone else to run it. Odoo Online includes hosting, maintenance and unlimited support.
- Mobile apps and Studio. Odoo lists mobile apps and its Studio customisation tool as Enterprise features.
- A large catalogue of apps and modules that you can switch on as the business grows.
- Track record. Nexus’s first release was in September 2026.
Where Nexus is the better choice
- The price does not rise with headcount. You pay once, and adding a user, a freelancer or a branch changes nothing.
- One focused application. HR, CRM and projects share one database and one login, so an employee, a contact and a project member are the same person.
- Time becomes an invoice. Approved billable hours and unbilled expenses collect into a draft invoice, and each entry is marked as billed so it cannot be invoiced twice.
- Payroll is in the licence, not an upgrade.
- Ordinary hosting is enough. Nexus needs no cron, queue worker, Redis, WebSockets or Node.js. If your host runs Laravel and MySQL, Nexus runs there. See the server requirements.
- Your data and the source code are yours. You can modify it, within the terms of your licence.
Good to know. Nexus records payments made against invoices but does not take card payments. Payroll taxes are set up as deduction components with your own rates, because tax rules vary by country. If you also need accounting, inventory or a website in the same system, Odoo covers more.
What you take on
You install Nexus on your own hosting, following the install guide in the documentation, and apply updates by copying files and running migrations. You also keep your own backups. If you would prefer not to, the managed service from $20 a month covers the installation for you, and we’ll add the details once the service pages are ready.
Questions
Is Nexus a replacement for all of Odoo?
No. Nexus covers HR, CRM, sales and projects. If you rely on Odoo’s accounting, inventory or manufacturing apps, keep using them or check what Nexus covers first.
Is Odoo’s Community edition free?
Odoo describes Community as open source, and it is free to download. Odoo lists payroll, mobile apps and Studio as Enterprise features.
Which licence does a business need?
Running Nexus for your own business is one project of your own. The licence guide explains the Regular and Extended licences.
Can I try Nexus first?
Yes. The Nexus page links to a live demo.
Statements about Odoo come from its pricing and editions pages, which we read on 6 October 2026. Odoo changes its plans and prices, so check its site for current figures.
See Nexus for yourself
Open the live demo, check the requirements and pick a licence.