Odoo POS Review

Pros

• Free plan and affordable paid plans available
• Extremely customizable
• Updating constantly

Cons

• May need help with installation
• Iffy customer service
• Not for first-time POS users

What Is Odoo?

Odoo is a point of sale platform for retail stores and restaurants that comes with a simple free plan and is designed to be extremely customizable.

Odoo is app-based, allowing you to pick and choose what functions your business needs. It is affordable, offering three basic plans and can really help you create a point of sale system that seems unique. However, its implementation can be a little difficult, and you may need professional installation if you aren’t particularly tech-savvy or don’t have a strong IT team.

Odoo Is Best Suited For

• Small-to-mid-sized businesses needing an affordable plan that they can scale
• Tech-savvy business owners wanting a fully customizable POS system
• Business owners with developer experience or who are willing to pay set-up fees

Odoo Pricing

Odoo receives a decent rating from us when it comes to pricing, as its free plan is an excellent value, but it can be difficult to figure out exactly how much you’ll pay once you’ve decided on the apps you need.

Odoo has three pricing tiers for its services, starting with a limited free plan that allows you to use just one app. Its paid plans are affordable, however, and give you access to all of its apps. At the highest level, you also get access to Odoo Studio and external API. There is also a reduced rate if you sign up for a year-long plan.

Odoo has a pricing range of $0/mo - $37.40/mo.

Extra Costs & Fees

While Odoo’s base pricing is extremely affordable, it’s likely that you’ll need help with implementation, and that’s where the fees can add up as Odoo doesn’t disclose how much that will cost; rather, it bills you by the hour.

You will also want to take advantage of its demo and make sure you’ve tested the product before signing up for any long-term contract.

Odoo Features

Odoo’s features are as deep as you want to make them. The product starts out as a blank slate, and you can choose from more than 40,000 apps to make it as simple or complex as your business needs; at the paid level, there is no limit to the number of programs you can download.

Here are just a few of the areas where Odoo has advanced apps that could help you out:

• Finance: Odoo has apps for accounting that require almost no data entry and can be used directly through its mobile app. It also syncs with most banks around the world, making it a good option for international sellers. You can also submit your expenses over the phone and scan your receipts, which are then uploaded automatically. There are apps to help with document signing as well.
• Invoicing: Odoo has multiple apps for simple or complex invoicing, once again allowing you to do much of the work through its mobile app. You can handle multiple invoices with multiple currencies and track all of them in real-time.
• Customer Relations: Odoo has scheduling apps to help keep you organized and the ability to set up text messaging and live chat. You can also set up your own loyalty program, allowing customers to earn rewards through spending and encourage repeat visits.
• Restaurant Features: Odoo is also functional as a restaurant or appointments POS. You can set up a simple interface and allow customers to self-order. It also has a kiosk mode, making it a solid choice for a food cart or smaller food-service establishment. There are apps that let you customize the floorplan of your restaurant, split tickets, and print to your kitchen.
• Employee Management: You can run all of your HR needs through Odoo’s apps, assign permissions to differing levels of employees, and track PTO requests. There are also apps that help with recruiting new employees if your company is expanding.
• Marketing: If you need help reaching new customers, Odoo has you covered there as well with apps that help you sell over social media. You can also customize email blasts and set up surveys to help gather information from your customer base.
• Inventory management: You can create as in-depth inventory management as you want, whether you just need simple product tracking or full-on warehouse management. There are also numerous reporting apps that can help you analyze your business and assess areas where you can improve.

Ease Of Use

There are conflicting schools of thought here. On the one hand, if you’ve set up Odoo properly, either on your own or through Odoo’s services, the system can and should be extremely user-friendly, and if you do a demo through a company rep, you will see how easy it is to fly through the system’s interface. However, it can also be very easy to make mistakes in the setup process, which can make the system extremely clunky, and it can be difficult to diagnose the problem.

Customer Service & Support

This can be an issue with a system that is complicated to set up and one that can have issues when you’re adding apps. In my own experience, Odoo was easy to get ahold of when I was contacting them as a new user, but when I said I was having a technical issue, it took considerably longer to reach a human being.

Odoo also has tutorial videos on YouTube and a technical team specifically designated for set-up issues.

Payment Processing With Odoo

Odoo has multiple payment processing options built in, integrating with software like Adyen, Authorize.net, Ogone, and Stripe. They also support virtually every form of card payment, so you can pick and choose the best company and the best rates for your needs.

Odoo Contract Requirements & Commitment

You can pay Month-to-month with Odoo, but like many other companies, you will receive a discount if you sign up for a year-long contract.

If you are talking to a sales rep, however, you may be convinced to try and sign up for a longer contract, but unless you are extremely confident in the software, we would generally recommend against that.

Concerns About Odoo

There are a few red flags when it comes to Odoo, and we’ve addressed most of them already. This is an excellent product for developers, and it’s also a very strong free system if you really just need a very simple POS. If you want a system that’s easy to set up and that you likely won’t have to think about ever again, this might not be for you. The learning curve is higher than a lot of other systems, and as good as the customization options are, they add to the level of complexity.

There are also more than the usual number of customer service complaints online, with users finding it difficult to get their problems solved in a timely manner.

Odoo Reviews

Users who have been with Odoo for a while generally have a very high opinion of the product. Here are some of the things they appreciate about it.

Positive Reviews

• Highly customizable: Users do love the customization options and how often the product updates with more apps to choose from
• Clean interface: Many other users liked how the system looks and how easy it is to navigate once it’s set up
• All-in-one software: With all of Odoo’s apps, you really can use it for all of your small business needs like accounting, HR, and inventory management

Negative Reviews & Complaints

On the other hand, people do have some strong opinions about Odoo that you should be aware of before making a purchase. Here are some of the top issues:

• Shaky customer service: While the customer service has seen an uptick of positive reviews lately, users still complain about their inability to get in touch with someone when help is needed, and they also complain that some of the service reps are unhelpful
• Heavy sales pitch: A handful of users talked about getting an excellent demo and then being pitched services that ended up either not working or being overly complicated, and others complained about being talked into signing up for long-term contracts
• Clunky software: Multiple users reported that the software glitches or runs poorly when certain apps are downloaded or if they aren’t synced up correctly

How Odoo Compares To Other POS Companies

Odoo is unique because of its app-based product, but its closest comparison is with Clover.

Like Odoo, Clover also uses apps to create a customizable experience. Clover does not have a free plan that includes POS features, but it does have an extremely simple interface, and there are very few issues with the software itself. Like Odoo, Clover also has issues with customer service and long-term contracts so you have to know what you’re getting into with each product. Clover is a bit more expensive, but it has the benefit of excellent proprietary hardware options.

Final Verdict

I really like Odoo’s free product, and it’s a great option for small vendors who really don’t need more than a single app to sell at places like farmers’ markets. If you’re a small business that’s just starting out and you don’t want any set-up issues, you probably want to look at a different company.

However, if customization is important to you and you’re confident either in your own skills or if you know exactly what apps you want before the set-up process, you can really get a lot out of Odoo. There are tens of thousands of apps that can turn their software into a real powerhouse that’s able to serve even larger industries for a much lower price than its competitors. You just may have to put up with some headaches along the way.

Retail POS Review Methodology

We evaluate and test each software system that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key software characteristics in order to generate our granular product ratings.

For retail POS software in particular, we have a 62-point rubric we use to evaluate the system in terms of its pricing, ease of use, features, and user reviews. These points are based on attributes relevant to the retail POS niche—such as the availability of features like purchase ordering, customer-facing displays, BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), and others.

Our rating system also takes into account attributes that are desirable for POS systems and cloud-based software in general, such as the availability of monthly pricing plans, free trials, and transparent software contracts.

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