Every Odoo 20 decision eventually runs into the same fork in the road: where will the system live? Odoo offers three answers — Odoo Online, its fully managed cloud; Odoo.sh, its developer platform; and self-hosting, on your own server or cloud instance. Odoo's own pricing page makes a point that frames the whole comparison: Odoo Online and Odoo Enterprise on Odoo.sh or on-premise are the same software — only the hosting and infrastructure differ. What you are really choosing is who runs the servers, who may change the code, and who does the work when a new version arrives.
That choice also constrains your plan. The Standard plan is hosted on Odoo Online only. The Custom plan lets you choose Odoo Online, Odoo.sh, or on-premise, and it is the plan that unlocks Studio, multi-company, and the external API. Choose hosting casually and you may find you have also chosen your ceiling.
Odoo Online: the managed default
Odoo Online is software as a service in the strictest sense. Odoo runs your database on its cloud infrastructure, and you simply log in. Odoo's pricing page describes what every cloud plan includes: hosting on scalable infrastructure, incremental daily backups kept on two continents, email integration, security, 24/7 monitoring, and a control centre for managing your environment — plus upgrades included at no extra fee. Odoo's cloud runs the latest version of Odoo with regular upgrades, so an Online customer is, by design, always near the front of the release curve, including the move to Odoo 20.
The trade is control. Odoo describes the Standard plan's Online hosting plainly as infrastructure “to host databases without custom modules.” You cannot install custom or third-party modules on Odoo Online; configuration and the built-in tools are your customisation layer, and serious tailoring means the Custom plan's Studio. Storage is unmetered up to 100 GB, and you can download a backup of your database at any time through the control centre — your data remains exportable even though the servers are not yours.
Online fits businesses that want the apps as they are, have no developer ambitions, and would rather never think about a server again.
Odoo.sh: the developer's middle ground
Odoo.sh is a platform as a service built for projects that need custom code without wanting to run servers. Odoo calls it “the continuous integration platform to host your development, staging and production branches, allowing you to develop or use custom modules.” Your project lives in a Git repository; pushes trigger builds, and development, staging, and production branches let you test changes — including version upgrades — before they touch the live database.
Two facts about Odoo.sh surprise people. First, it requires the Custom plan, and second, its hosting is billed separately: Odoo's pricing FAQ lists “Hosting on Odoo.sh for custom developments” among the things not included in the plan price, priced by the resources your project consumes. In exchange you get the managed platform underneath — infrastructure, backups, and monitoring handled by Odoo — while you or your partner own the code on top of it. When a new major version lands, the upgrade is a project you run on your branches, with Odoo's upgrade service covering the standard apps; making your custom modules compatible remains your maintainer's job.
Odoo.sh fits companies with a partner or developer, custom modules in production, and no appetite for patching servers at midnight.
Self-hosted: maximum control, maximum responsibility
Self-hosting means downloading Odoo and running it yourself — on your own hardware, a rented server, or a cloud instance you administer. It is the only route available to the free Community edition, and the route Enterprise customers take when control is non-negotiable: full access to the server and the database, any custom module or Python library, your own security model, and your data physically where you decide it should be — a genuine requirement for some regulated or offline environments.
The invoice for that freedom is operational. Backups, redundancy, email delivery, monitoring, and security patching are yours. So are upgrades: Odoo states that on-premise users must use the latest stable version, but nothing moves you there automatically — planning, testing, and executing each upgrade, Odoo 20 included, is your project. Odoo 20 raises the stakes of doing this well: the platform work in this release, such as read-replica support aimed at deployments with 10,000+ concurrent users, is only available to you if your own infrastructure and database setup are built to use it.
Self-hosting fits organisations with real IT capacity, strict data-residency or integration requirements, or a Community-edition strategy they are prepared to support themselves.
Side by side
| Factor | Odoo Online | Odoo.sh | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs the infrastructure | Odoo, fully | Odoo runs the platform; you manage your project and code | You (or your hosting partner) |
| Plan required | Standard or Custom | Custom | Custom for Enterprise; not applicable for Community |
| Custom modules | Not allowed | Allowed | Allowed |
| Third-party apps | Not allowed | Allowed | Allowed |
| Server / database access | None | Platform tools and shell on builds; no server administration | Full |
| Upgrades | Handled by Odoo; cloud runs the latest version | Your project, tested on staging branches | Entirely your project |
| Backups | Daily incremental backups on two continents, run by Odoo | Automatic backups run by the platform | Your responsibility |
| Hosting cost | Included in the plan | Billed separately from the plan | Your infrastructure bill |
| Edition | Enterprise | Enterprise | Enterprise or Community |
| Best for | Standard needs, zero server work | Custom development without server operations | Full control, data residency, Community edition |
The costs people forget
Licences are the visible price; hosting shifts several quieter costs between you and Odoo:
- Odoo.sh hosting is a separate bill. The plan buys the software and the right to use the platform; the platform itself is charged on top, scaled to the resources your project uses. A heavily customised project should model that line explicitly rather than discover it.
- Self-hosting makes email your problem. Odoo's cloud plans include email integration; on your own server, configuring outgoing mail — and keeping it out of spam folders — is your configuration to build and maintain, along with backup tooling and monitoring.
- Online's convenience has a storage shape. Hosting is included with unmetered storage up to 100 GB, which is generous for documents and attachments but worth checking if your business hoards large files inside the ERP.
- Upgrade labour moves, it does not vanish. On Online, Odoo carries it. On Odoo.sh it becomes branch testing. Self-hosted, it becomes a project with your name on it — cheaper in cash, never free in time.
How to decide
Three questions cut through most of the debate:
- Will you ever need a custom module or a third-party app? If yes, Odoo Online is out, no matter how attractive its simplicity is. This is the single most common hosting regret: a business starts on Online, grows into one specific integration or workflow the standard apps cannot express, and has to migrate platforms mid-flight.
- Who will do the operational work? If the honest answer is “nobody,” choose Online or Odoo.sh and let Odoo carry the servers. Self-hosting without an owner becomes a security and reliability liability within a year.
- Do you have a hard requirement — data residency, offline operation, an unusual integration — that only full control satisfies? If yes, self-host, and budget the operations time as a real cost alongside the licences you save.
Note what is not on the list: features. Because the software is the same, an Odoo 20 capability — AI agents, offline mode, the new accounting rules — does not change with your hosting choice (though AI usage always draws on paid IAP credits, on every hosting model and every plan). Hosting decides who can change the system and who keeps it running, not what it can do.
Finally, movement between the options is possible but not free. Odoo notes that the best moment to switch from Odoo Online to on-premise is right after a new stable release — a hint that migration is an event to plan, not a toggle. Decide with your three-year self in mind: the cheapest hosting today is the one you do not have to leave in year two.
Further reading
- Odoo Pricing — the plans, which hosting each includes, and Odoo's own FAQ on Online, Odoo.sh, and on-premise.
- Odoo.sh — the platform's own site, covering branches, builds, and hosting for custom developments.
- Odoo 20 Release Notes — what the version you will be hosting actually contains.
