E-commerce is rapidly becoming the go-to way for businesses to generate revenue. Running an online store is challenging, involving everything from managing products and processing payments to developing a website. Using an eCommerce platform makes daily operations easier by providing all the essential tools to set up and run your online business. Plus, it’s more cost-effective than building custom software from scratch.
Today, platforms like Odoo and Shopify offer a variety of features to support your business, whether you're selling online or in a physical store. When choosing an eCommerce platform, Odoo, and Shopify stand out as two of the most popular options. Each has its strengths and is designed to meet different business needs. Let’s compare them in detail to help you determine which one is the best fit for your business.
Odoo and Shopify are both well-known platforms for CRM and e-commerce. Shopify offers a customizable layout for your online store along with 100+ attractive templates. On the other hand, Odoo provides essential features like website development and customer relationship management.
To help you choose the right platform, we’ll compare Shopify and Odoo based on real user reviews, focusing on functionality, ease of use, customer support, and value for money.

Odoo: A Complete Business Suite

Odoo is more than just an online store builder—it’s a comprehensive business management solution. With its integrated apps, businesses can handle sales, customer relationships, inventory, and even accounting in one place. One of its key features is the Odoo website builder, which allows businesses to create customized online stores tailored to their brand and needs.

Shopify: Simple and User-Friendly

Shopify stands out for its simplicity and ease of use. It’s designed to help anyone start selling online without technical hassle. With Shopify apps, users can enhance their store with features like customer reviews and special promotions. Its website builder offers ready-made templates and intuitive tools, making it easy to create a professional-looking store—even for those without technical experience.

Features and Functionalities: Odoo e commerce vs. Shopify

Both Odoo and Shopify offer powerful eCommerce and CRM features, making them excellent choices for businesses looking to streamline their operations. Each platform provides a unique set of tools to enhance online selling and customer management.

Shopify Features

Shopify is designed for ease of use and efficiency, offering:

• Convenient dropshipping integrations
• Built-in support for top SEO strategies
• Automated store emails to engage customers
• Simple inventory management
• Unlimited bandwidth for web hosting
• A comprehensive analytics dashboard to track performance
• A dedicated Shopify mobile app for store management on the go

Odoo Features

Odoo e commerce provides a user-friendly interface along with flexible and customizable features. Built on a modular framework, it offers a centralized approach to business management. Odoo includes 30 main modules that businesses can combine based on their needs, such as:

1. CRM for customer relationship management
2. Warehouse management for efficient inventory control
3. Point of Sale (POS) for retail businesses
4. Sales management to track and optimize transactions
5. Manufacturing and accounting tools
6. Purchase management for streamlined procurement

Backend Functions: Odoo vs. Shopify

Both Odoo e commerce and Shopify offer powerful backend functions to manage your online store efficiently.

Shopify’s Backend

Shopify provides a dynamic task management system, allowing store owners to easily switch themes when needed. With Shopify’s strong firewall, your store and customer data remain secure, boosting customer trust with top-tier security.

Shopify also integrates seamlessly with third-party themes and plugins. It supports multiple user logins, modern programming, and mobile management through the Shopify app. Additional backend features include mobile browser support, data backup solutions, and cloud-based editing.

Odoo’s Backend

Odoo e commerce is an excellent choice for small and medium-sized businesses, offering an easy-to-manage online store with a robust backend system. From a single platform, businesses can handle accounting, invoices, inventory, CRM, procurement, and other essential tasks, making Odoo a centralized solution for business operations.

Setup and Customization: Odoo vs. Shopify

Shopify’s Setup and Customization

Setting up a Shopify store is quick and straightforward, taking just a few minutes. Businesses can configure design settings, payment processing, and essential apps with ease. The Shopify dashboard is user-friendly, and with Shopify Plus, you can fully customize themes, products, discounts, checkout processes, and payments to suit your needs.

Odoo’s Setup and Customization

Odoo is also easy to set up, requiring no advanced technical knowledge. The platform offers a variety of themes to enhance your store’s appearance. Unlike Shopify, Odoo’s free community version allows for easy installation and customization without hiring a professional. Both beginners and experts appreciate Odoo’s intuitive interface and flexibility.

SEO Features: Odoo vs. Shopify

SEO is essential for online business success, and both Odoo and Shopify come with built-in SEO tools.

Shopify SEO

Shopify offers a range of SEO features to optimize store performance, improve page speed, and attract organic traffic. It supports essential SEO elements like metadata, fast loading times, and international reach, making it easier for businesses to rank higher on search engines.

Odoo SEO

Odoo e commerce simplifies SEO by handling technical aspects automatically. It generates titles and meta descriptions based on page content and includes a keyword finder to help create high-quality content. Odoo also provides modules for content creation and social media marketing, ensuring strong online visibility.

Customer Management Features: Odoo vs. Shopify

Shopify Customer Management

Shopify automatically adds customer data to your database when they make a purchase. It also creates customer profiles for those who sign up for newsletters or accounts. Store owners can send emails and discounts directly from Shopify’s dashboard, using customer segments for targeted marketing.

Odoo CRM

Odoo offers a dedicated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module, helping businesses track leads, convert them into customers, and manage long-term relationships. The system enables follow-ups to encourage repeat purchases, making customer retention easier.

Hosting and Security: Odoo vs. Shopify

Hosting ensures your store runs smoothly, while security keeps it protected from threats.

Shopify Hosting and Security

Shopify provides dedicated SSL encryption and fraud detection tools. While it has faced security issues in the past, it has improved data protection through strong security measures. Shopify’s fraud prevention system flags potentially fraudulent orders before they are processed.

Odoo Hosting and Security

Odoo offers robust security, including shared SSL, SQL injection tracking, suspicious activity monitoring, data encryption, and regular backups. Both platforms provide secure hosting, but Odoo gives users more control over security configurations.

Administrative Features: Odoo vs. Shopify

Odoo offers more advanced administrative features than Shopify.
Shopify Admin Features

Shopify lacks bulk order processing and bulk product import/export features, which can make managing a large inventory challenging.

Odoo Admin Features

Odoo e commerce provides API support, user permissions, and role-based access, giving businesses greater flexibility in managing administrative tasks.

Promotion and Marketing Features: Odoo vs. Shopify

Shopify Marketing Features

Shopify helps businesses promote their stores through built-in marketing tools. The platform provides SEO recommendations, marketing automation, discount codes, and sales promotions. However, Shopify lacks certain promotional features, such as product comparisons and built-in product creation tools, which may require third-party apps.

Odoo Marketing Features

Odoo offers automated and targeted marketing campaigns, helping businesses segment their audience and send the right message to the right customers. It also supports advanced marketing workflows to nurture leads throughout the sales funnel.

Inventory Management: Odoo vs. Shopify

Shopify Inventory Management

Shopify allows businesses to track inventory levels, view product history, and adjust stock quantities. Its inventory reports help store owners manage stock efficiently.

Odoo Inventory Management

Odoo provides a comprehensive inventory management system that supports multi-warehouse operations, making it ideal for global businesses. It offers advanced tracking tools for stock management, order fulfillment, and procurement.

Payment and Pricing Features: Odoo vs. Shopify

Shopify Payments

Shopify supports various payment methods, including Shopify Payments, PayPal, Facebook Pay, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay. However, Shopify charges additional fees for third-party payment processors.

Odoo Payments

Odoo integrates with Worldline SIPS and supports multiple payment gateways, including PayPal. However, it does not currently support recurring payments or multi-currency/multi-provider options like Shopify.

Reporting and Analytics: Odoo vs. Shopify

Shopify Reporting

Shopify provides analytics tools that help store owners make data-driven decisions. Reports are categorized by business metrics, and available features depend on the Shopify plan selected.

Odoo Reporting

Odoo offers detailed sales, inventory, and performance reports. It includes invoicing, A/B testing, sales summaries, and other essential analytics tools. Businesses can generate customized reports based on their specific needs.

Cost: Odoo vs. Shopify

One of the key differences between Odoo and Shopify is their pricing model.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify follows a tiered pricing structure:

• Basic Shopify – $29/month
• Shopify – $79/month
• Advanced Shopify – $299/month

Additional costs may apply for third-party apps, themes, and non-Shopify payment gateways.

Odoo Pricing

• Odoo Community Edition – Free
• Odoo Enterprise Edition – Starts at $12/month per module
• Odoo also charges a per-user fee, which increases with the number of users.

Custom setup assistance is available for $3,000 but is optional.
Odoo offers a flexible pricing model where businesses only pay for the modules they need. However, using multiple apps can increase costs over time.

Odoo e commerce vs. Shopify – Which One is Right for You?

Choosing the right platform for your online store is crucial. It sets the foundation for a successful eCommerce business and ensures smooth operations.

Odoo e commerce stands out with its robust inventory management, product management, customer management, and accounting features. It also provides advanced reporting and analytics tools to help managers make data-driven decisions. Shopify offers similar capabilities but also includes user-friendly design templates and tools that simplify store management.
We've already outlined the key differences between Odoo and Shopify. Now, let's help you decide which eCommerce platform best fits your business needs.

Who Should Use Shopify?

Shopify is ideal for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. Over 600,000 businesses worldwide rely on Shopify’s powerful eCommerce platform. Entrepreneurs find Shopify appealing because it doesn’t require long-term commitments or high setup costs. Plus, you can customize and scale your store by adding features from Shopify’s App Store.