Understanding Odoo Online Hosting
For those who don't already know, Odoo is an open-source suite of business applications that you can learn more about here. One of the many benefits of Odoo is its accessibility. Odoo is a cloud-based platform, so it can be utilized by any computer (or tablet/phone!)Â with an internet connection. However, for software to be accessible via the internet, it must still be hosted somewhere, and the same applies to Odoo.
There are several options for hosting an Odoo instance: On-premise, Odoo Online, and Odoo.sh. However, it is important to note that the edition of Odoo that is being run will determine what hosting options are available. Like how Odoo Community must be self-hosted (or through third-party hosting) and Odoo Enterprise can be hosted yourself or by Odoo themselves.
But you may be asking yourself, what is the difference between these Odoo hosting options? The answer is quite simple actually: Odoo Online is Software as a Service (SaaS) with hosting handled by the Odoo company itself and On-premise is when you must host your Odoo instance on your own hardware (or a third-party.)
Understanding Odoo Online Hosting
Odoo Online is the simpler option as everything is already set up for you; all that is required is an internet connection and a user account to log in with. You can even test out an Odoo Online instance right now through their live demos, which can be found here. Odoo will handle the hard work of maintaining a server that hosts your Odoo instance. However, that simplicity does come with limitations. Odoo Online does not support customizations and third-party applications. You also cannot control when you upgrade to new versions. You'll be notified when you are scheduled to upgrade, and even get a test database for a few weeks, but you are required to update on their schedule.
Does Lighthouse recommend Odoo Online? In most cases, no. Simply because the appear of Odoo to us is the ability to own your environment outright and control everything from customizing the instance to skipping major upgrades. But if you run a small business and don't require integrations with existing systems, customizations of apps and views, or don't mind Odoo hosting your data, then it could still be a decent fit, especially for the lower cost.
Benefits of On-Premise Hosting
On-premise hosting will require you to have the hardware and enough technical knowledge to build and maintain your own Odoo instance, but that also gives you full control over your instance. A self-hosted Odoo instance is one you can freely customize by installing third-party apps, custom-developing your own apps or app-extensions, or even editing the source code of Odoo itself! You can utilize both variants of Odoo as well this way. Odoo Community Edition and Odoo Enterprise Edition are both available to you via this hosting method, but you'll still need to pay for Enterprise licenses if you go that route. Of course, none of these actions should be taken without an understanding of how they might affect and break your Odoo instance. (Get in touch with your local partner for assistance!)
Does Lighthouse recommend on-premise hosting of Odoo? Yes! Hosting your own Odoo database is a great way to maintain your data, improve your processes, grow your business, and more!
Why Choose Odoo.sh?
Lastly, there is Odoo.sh, which you can think of as similar to a mix of Odoo Online and On-premise hosting. The 'sh' stands for Share Hosting and this makes it similar to Odoo Online, in that Odoo handles the hosting. Odoo.sh is hosted by Odoo itself, but it also allows custom development, managing when you upgrade to new versions, and more! Odoo.sh is designed to support a development environment and natively features integration with Github, development branches, logs, testing, monitoring, and more.
Does Lighthouse recommend Odoo.sh? Yes! Odoo.sh is a great solution for people who don't want to deal with hosting their own instance of Odoo, but want/need more flexibility than Odoo Online grants them. (But don't let self-hosting scare you. Lighthouse is always here to help get you set up!)
If, after this, you are still unsure what type of hosting would work best for your organization, don't worry; Lighthouse can help. Our team is ready to assist in reviewing your business tech stack and identify the best way to improve it, and Odoo can be an incredible tool for doing so!