Practical guides on custom software, Odoo implementation and process automation, for companies that want to grow without administrative chaos.
In almost every conversation with a manufacturing or distribution company in Romania, sooner or later we get to the same question: “If we bring in Odoo, what happens to our accountant? She works in Saga and doesn’t want to change it.”
Odoo started out as free software, built together with a community of developers, and since then every version has brought changes that are felt directly in the budgets of the companies using it. Odoo 20, released on 24 September 2026, introduced Odoo Light User, a license that costs €4.90 a month in Romania, compared with the €22.90 a user on the Custom plan costs in the first year. It is designed for employees and contractors who use Odoo only for limited tasks: reporting production, scanning barcodes in the warehouse, logging hours worked or requesting time off.
Below we compare the costs of four of the ERPs most widely used by small and mid-sized companies: Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP Business One and Oracle NetSuite. In the interest of transparency: we are an Odoo partner. To make the figures comparable, we calculated them for a concrete case, a manufacturing company in Romania with 15 users, and it wasn’t simple at all, because only two of the four platforms publish their prices. With the other two, you only find out what it costs once you’re in a conversation with a partner.
There’s a point in the life of every manufacturing business where growth becomes hard to keep under control. It usually means the system the company was built on can no longer keep up with today’s demands. If you’re losing whole hours to customers, suppliers, invoices and stock, you’ve probably reached the point where you need an ERP.
Many manufacturing companies in Romania started out the same way: a few people, a good product and a simple, cheap, effective invoicing program. The owner handles orders and admin, and raw materials get ordered when they run out.
