Everyone loves free stuff because they don’t have to pay for it with their hard-earned money. What if I told you there’s free ERP software to streamline your business needs? Yup. There are vendors that sell ERP software with little to no fees at all.

Our analysts compiled a list of the best free ERP solutions. This article also covers the difference between free and open-source ERP and how to find the right solution for your company’s needs.

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What This Article Covers

• Best Free ERP Software
  • Flectra
  • Dolibarr
  • ERPNext
  • Apache OFBiz
  • Versa Cloud ERP
• How To Choose the Best Free ERP
• Free vs. Open Source ERP
• Next Steps

Best Free ERP Software

Though not exhaustive, this analyst-picked list of cheap ERP software offers in-depth information on each system’s best benefits, features and limitations.

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Flectra

This free ERP serves all business sizes and offers cloud and on-premise deployment options. It serves many industries, such as transportation, accounting, trucking, consumer services, cosmetics and more.

Flectra also has a mobile app for Android devices.

An example of Flectra.

Top Benefits

• Gain Effective Training Materials: Gain personalized training services to meet your ERP user demographics, background and necessities with modular, functional, technical and other training modes to keep everyone on the same page.
• Manage Numerous Global Facilities: Work with multi-currency and support tools to supervise numerous companies and worksites overseas for convenient centralization.
• Obtain a Solid Test Drive: Access a 15-day free trial without a credit card to get a feel for this solution’s capabilities.
• Toggle Between Accessibility Settings: Switch off between cloud and on-premise hosting for more accessibility and security options.

Primary Features

• Accounting: Supervise money management operations, including your company’s expenses, profits, budgets and more. Work with automatically-generated profits and losses, cash flow statements, general ledgers, country-specified tax reports and more.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Input client appointments, emails, sales, dates and other vital information. Gain automatic lead generations, client acquisitions, conversions and upselling.
• HR Management: Manage open positions, available candidate pools, hiring cycle durations and more. Manage employee time and approve time-off requests.
• Project Management: Handle personalized, consolidated project planning, management and execution procedures. Break down projects into tasks and subtasks. Prioritize, delegate and develop operational plans to fulfill responsibilities.
• Rental Management: Streamline raw material procurement, supply management, purchase automation and spending comprehension.

Limitations

• Lacks live customer support line.
• On-premise community edition only offers free community support.
• Lacks account reporting in certain countries.

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Dolibarr

Dolibarr is an open-source ERP to improve project management for foundations, freelancers and businesses. Use this solution as a standalone application or access it virtually anywhere.

Key features include billing and payments, quotes and proposals, expense reports, timesheets and more.

A preview of Dolibarr’s interface.

Top Benefits

• Improve Security: Establish thresholds that send automatic email notifications if breached to improve safety.
• Personalize Reports: Add custom fields for numerous values, required information and more to better align with your company’s goals.
• Guard Important Data: Add additional safeguarding tools that support one-time password (OTP) or two-step authentication with tools like Google Authenticator to protect vital data and confidential information.

Primary Features

• Billing and Payments: Supervise client and supplier invoices and payments by creating, sending and managing transactions. Track open invoice statuses. Analyze billing performances.
• Quotes and Proposals: Craft and deliver proposals to regular and potential clients. Develop in-depth quotes or commercial proposals, assess outcomes and track proposals.
• Member Management: Govern foundation or association memberships accordingly. Collect payments, automate membership supervision and more.
• Product and Stock: Access warehouse, product, service and shipping management in one system. Track product and service performance and superintend margins.
• Surveys and Polls: Draft polls to determine meeting dates, take election votes and manage other topics. Receive emails, add comments or make votes private or public.

Limitations

• Lacks additional services and support for the free, on-premise version.
• Doesn’t have an iOS app.
• Lacks printable formats for inventory reports.

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ERPNext

This cheap ERP software serves all business sizes in the manufacturing, retail, education and services sectors. It works on Mac and Linux operating systems and is available as an app for Android and iOS devices.

The top modules include financial accounting, manufacturing, HR, payroll, CRM and more.

An example of ERPNext’s accounts dashboard.

Top Benefits

• Manage Local Compliance: Include custom fields and local regulation support for better compliance adherence.
• Supervise Global Operations: Govern global clients and worksites with more than 80 supported languages.
• Streamline Processes: Manage a user-friendly user interface for more straightforward navigation and management for every user skill level, including novice, intermediate and expert.
• Simplify File Sharing: Upload and share images, videos, documents and other files directly or through a link for improved sharing methods.
• Assess Project Outcomes: Track project budgets and fees for better insights and decisions regarding specific assignments.

Primary Features

• Journals and Payments: Maintain a general ledger and track income and expenses. Establish period closing notifications. Record and reconcile advance payments.
• Billing and Pricing: Create custom print templates for bills or set up defaults. Track client invoices and receivable payments with email or SMS requests and notifications.
• Subcontracting: Supply raw materials and track suppliers’ labor and operation time. Value finished products according to material costs and procured services.
• Automated Payroll: Garner automated payslips according to time sheets via automated validations and salary components and structures.
• Digital Marketing: Work with targeted marketing email campaigns. Send bulk emails to clients with newsletters and use thorough lead source analyses to review campaign results.

Limitations

• Warranty plans to fix bugs are only available for paid plans.
• The accounting module lacks localization for all global regions.

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Apache OFBiz

This cloud-based cheap ERP caters to all company sizes. Apache OFBiz serves numerous industries, including manufacturing, retail, eCommerce and trade.

Best features include accounting, HR, manufacturing, catalog management and more.

A preview of Apache OFBiz’s interface. Source

Top Benefits

• Personalize Workflows: Manage numerous customizable features to ensure this solution meets your business needs.
• Support Company Growth: Access scalability tools that promote growth as you add machinery, employees, facilities and other resources.
• Consolidate Merchandise: Construct and add parts and products to catalogs for better centralization.
• Simplify Searches: Develop specific merchandise keywords and descriptions per categories and segments for easy searches.

Primary Features

• Accounting: Use a standard, double-entry general ledger. Perform financial reporting, budgeting management, payment gateways and processing, and more. Manage accounts payable and receivable, invoices, statements and more.
• Manufacturing: Conduct equipment billing, raw material procurement, manufacturing reporting, BOM management and more. Streamline production planning and MRP workflows.
• HR: Supervise job positions, skills and performance reviews. Govern salaries, payment, training and employee training.
• Inventory Management: Superintend and establish single or several warehouse locations, lot management, picklists, packages and more. Streamline receiving and returning protocols.
• CRM and Order Management: Govern lead and sale opportunities. Perform customer service and case management. Access email integrations, sales team files, calendars and task sharing.

Limitations

• Most things written in the system only appear in XML format.
• Lacks community support for developers.

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Versa Cloud ERP

This cloud-based ERP serves manufacturing, eCommerce, retail and other sectors. It caters to small and mid-sized companies. Versa Cloud ERP serves numerous business users like AR and PR specialists, shipping coordinators, accountants and more.

Top features include financial and accounting, buying, selling, warehouse management, dashboards and more.

An example of Versa’s dashboard. Source

Top Benefits

• Align Workflows with Company Goals: Work with customizations to ensure better adherence to company requirements.
• Improve Branding: Add base system logos, reports and custom form personalizations to strengthen company branding.
• Get Questions Answered: Join the knowledgebase and community support channels for expedited help and solutions for the most head-scratching queries.

Primary Features

• Financial and Accounting: Access batch receipts, deductions, returns and refunds, and sales deposits in the accounts receivable tool. Use the general ledger for efficient balancing.
• Selling: Use Shopify ordering, purchase and standing orders and inventory planning. Access landed costs, landed cost distribution and purchase order receipt matching.
• Warehouse Management: Perform receiving, picking, packing, shipping and cycle counting. Manage cycle counting, inventory adjustments and transfers, and more.
• Standard Reports: Obtain and use balance sheets, income statements, cash flow, BOM, expenses, and other financial and operational documents.
• Custom Reports: Personalize all financial and operational files with brands, logos, colors and more.

Limitations

• Free plan lacks API developer support.
• Lacks data repairs and restoration in the free version.
• Doesn’t offer mobile apps for the free version.

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How To Choose the Best Free ERP

There are numerous ways to pick and choose software.

We’ve developed a nine-step methodology called Lean Selection to streamline software selection for your company, no matter the industry or company size.

Here’s a rundown of each step:

1. Establish: Determine why you need new software.
2. Collaborate: Develop an internal software selection team of stakeholders, end users, department leaders and more to brainstorm must-have software features.
3. Define: Compile a master list of must-have software requirements with your software selection committee.
4. Distribute: Conduct apple-to-apple vendor comparisons of your requirements and shortlist those who best match your needs.
5. Justify: Determine if you need new software, add-on modules for your current system or to end the software selection journey.
6. Prove: Ask potential vendors for demos, use cases or proofs-of-concept to exhibit their product’s capabilities.
7. Rank: Review and rank solutions according to their demo scores. You should have at least two to three programs that best meet your company’s needs.
8. Negotiate: Talk contract and conditions with your top-rated vendor. Seek additional legal help if needed. Repeat this step with your second-best vendor if you can’t reach a compromise.
9. Sign: Review and sign on with your ideal software provider. Establish an effective implementation plan.

You can also try online reviews and speak with colleagues and friends about how they found a suitable ERP for their company.

Free vs. Open-Source ERP

Some people confuse free ERP with open-source ERP. These solution types have their similarities, but each has unique characteristics.

Free ERP software is a solution, or the free version of that system, that has no associated fees. Vendors have different standards for their free software. The free version may have only a few features, and you must enter a different plan to access more modules.

Open-source ERP is a term that vendors use to say the solution’s source code is available for you to customize to meet your company’s needs. Most open-source solutions are free, but some vendors charge for hosting, support, and other features and services.

Open-source software is free, but not all free software is open source.

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Next Steps

The right free ERP software can provide suitable modules for accounting, manufacturing, CRM, supply chain management and more. Like regular ERP, this system can streamline operations, provide real-time data, garner more profits and improve customer retention.

Need more help? Review our free, in-depth comparison report to find more solutions and see how they stack up to your must-have requirements.

What are you looking for in free ERP software? Let us know in the comments.