Odoo Community is LGPLv3. Here is what that actually permits.
No licence key, no seat count, no audit clause — and no network copyleft, since Odoo 9 left the AGPL behind. The interesting questions are what happens to your custom modules and what the licence cannot protect you from.
Odoo Community is LGPLv3. That is a real open-source licence.
Odoo Community Edition is published under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 — LGPLv3, an OSI-approved licence. There is no licence key, no seat count, no activation server and no audit clause. You may run it on as many databases, servers and users as you like, forever, for nothing, including commercially.
That is not a trial edition or a crippled build. It is the same ORM, the same PostgreSQL schema and the same web client that Enterprise runs on. Enterprise is a set of additional modules distributed under Odoo's own proprietary licence, layered on top of the LGPL core — which is precisely why the core had to stay under a licence that permits exactly that layering.
Two things the licence does not give you: the Enterprise modules, and the trademark. "Odoo" is a trademark of Odoo S.A. and the LGPL covers code, not brand names. You can run and modify the software; you cannot call your fork Odoo.
LGPL vs GPL vs AGPL: the difference that decides your project
People arrive at this question because they have been told "GPL is viral" and they want to know whether writing a custom module means publishing their business logic. The answer turns on which of three licences you are actually under, and Odoo has been under two of them.
| LGPLv3 (Odoo 9+) | GPLv3 | AGPLv3 (Odoo ≤ 8) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combine with proprietary modules | ✓ — the point of the licence | Contested at best | Contested at best |
| Must publish changes you never distribute | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Must publish changes you distribute | ✓ (to the LGPL parts) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Offering it over a network counts as distribution | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ — the §13 network clause |
| Charge money for it | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
The AGPL → LGPL change is the one that matters
Odoo's Community core moved from AGPLv3 to LGPLv3 at version 9. Under AGPLv3, letting users reach a modified copy over a network triggers the obligation to offer them the corresponding source. Under LGPLv3 it does not — there is no network clause. If you host a modified Odoo for your own staff or your customers and never hand out the software itself, LGPLv3 asks nothing of you.
If you are reading a blog post about Odoo licensing that talks about the AGPL network clause, check its date. It is describing Odoo 8 and earlier.
Does an LGPL core make your custom module open source?
Here is the honest version, including the part most pages skip.
The clear cases. If you modify Odoo's own LGPL source — patch a core model, change the ORM — those modifications are LGPL, and if you distribute the modified Odoo you must offer that source. If you write a separate addon that sits in its own directory and talks to Odoo through its normal module API, the widely-followed practice across the Odoo ecosystem is that you may license it however you want. That is why the Odoo App Store sells modules under OPL-1 alongside LGPLv3 ones, and why Odoo S.A. can ship proprietary Enterprise modules on top of an LGPL core at all. If addons were automatically derivative works, Odoo's own commercial model would not be legal.
The unclear case. Where an addon inherits heavily from core models, the line between "separate work that calls an API" and "derivative work" is a judgement call that no court has drawn for Odoo specifically. Anyone who tells you the boundary is settled is overselling. If your business depends on the answer, that is a question for a lawyer who reads the actual code — not for a comparison table.
The practical answer for most companies. None of this binds you, because you are not distributing anything. Copyleft obligations attach when you convey software to someone else. A company running Odoo for its own staff, with its own custom modules, on its own server, distributes nothing and therefore owes nothing — no source, no notice, no filing. The obligation appears the day you sell, resell or hand over the modules, and at that point it applies only to the LGPL parts.
Free licence, real bill
LGPLv3 removes the licence fee. It does not remove the work. Being clear-eyed about which costs are gone and which merely moved is the difference between a good Community decision and a bad one.
| Community (LGPLv3) | Enterprise (proprietary) | |
|---|---|---|
| Per-user licence fee | None | Per user, per month, rising as you hire |
| Hosting | You buy it — a VPS or a provider | Included on Online / Odoo.sh |
| Version upgrades | Yours to run or contract out | Included as a service |
| Vendor support contract | Not included | Included |
| Studio, and the Enterprise-only apps | Not included | Depends on plan |
| Right to modify the source | ✓ | Restricted |
| Right to move hosts on any day | ✓ | Depends on plan |
The honest framing is not "free versus paid." It is a licence fee that scales with headcount versus operations work that scales with complexity. For a growing company with a modest technical footprint, the second is usually smaller and — more to the point — it is a cost you can shop for, delay or bring in-house. A per-seat licence is none of those things. The full comparison is in Odoo Community vs Enterprise, and the pricing mechanics that surprise people most are in the renewal price increase.
The licence is why nobody can switch your ERP off
This is the part that turns a licensing footnote into a business fact. Because the code is LGPLv3 and the data is in your own PostgreSQL database, no vendor decision can strand you. Not a price change, not a plan discontinuation, not a partner relationship that ends badly.
That last one is not hypothetical. Businesses regularly discover that their Odoo database was created under a partner's account rather than their own — and that it can be moved or deleted without their consent. The licence protects the software; it does not automatically protect an account someone else opened. Check who owns your Odoo database before you need the answer.
- The code: LGPLv3, downloadable from GitHub, forever. A fork of today's source is a valid, legal, runnable ERP a decade from now.
- The data: a standard PostgreSQL database plus a filestore. Back both up together — a database dump without its filestore restores to missing attachments.
- The exit: no key to deactivate, no clause to breach, no notice period. Move hosts on a Tuesday because you feel like it.
If you are weighing whether to run this yourself, the self-hosting requirements are the realistic version of what "free" asks of you.
Verify all of this in about ninety seconds
Do not take a vendor's word for a licence — including ours. Every claim above is checkable:
- Open github.com/odoo/odoo and read
LICENSEat the repository root. It is the LGPLv3 text. - Open any core addon's
__manifest__.pyand look at the'license'key. Core addons declareLGPL-3. - Compare with a paid App Store module's manifest, which will typically declare
OPL-1. - Check the branch. Licensing questions are version-specific, and anything written about Odoo 8 or earlier is describing the AGPL era.
FAQ
Is Odoo Community really open source?
Yes. Community Edition is licensed under LGPLv3, an OSI-approved licence. The source is public on GitHub and there is no key, seat count or audit clause.
What licence is Odoo Community Edition under?
GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 (LGPLv3), since Odoo 9. Odoo 8 and earlier were AGPLv3, which is why older articles describe a network clause that no longer applies.
Do I have to open-source my custom Odoo modules?
Not if you never distribute them. Copyleft obligations attach when you convey software to someone else, so a company running its own modules on its own server owes nothing. If you do distribute, the obligation covers modifications to Odoo’s LGPL code; separate addons that use the module API are conventionally licensed freely — which is how the App Store sells proprietary OPL-1 modules at all.
Does LGPLv3 force me to publish source if I host Odoo for customers?
No. LGPLv3 has no network clause. Offering a modified Odoo as a hosted service is not distribution under this licence. AGPLv3 — Odoo 8 and earlier — did work that way.
Can I use Odoo Community commercially?
Yes, without a fee and without a limit on users, databases or revenue. You can also charge for hosting, implementation and custom modules built on it.
What is the difference between LGPLv3 and Odoo’s OPL-1?
LGPLv3 is the open-source licence on the Community core. OPL-1 is the Odoo Proprietary License used for paid App Store modules and Enterprise code. A single Odoo installation commonly runs both at once.
Does the licence mean I own my Odoo database?
It means nobody can revoke your right to run the software. Database ownership is a separate, account-level question, and partner-created databases are a genuine trap — see who owns your Odoo database.
Related reading
Own the licence and the operations.
Flat-fee hosting for Odoo Community — your database, your code, no per-user bill and no lock-in clause.