ERPNext is a free, open source finance & accounting project written in Python and released under GPL-3.0. It has 39,326 GitHub stars, 12,835 forks and 1,822 open issues, and was last pushed 6 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #1 of 34 tracked projects in Finance & Accounting, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 172 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

ERPNext — Comprehensive business management, tailored for you

What is ERPNext?

What it is

ERPNext is a free and open-source Enterprise Resource Planning system built on the Frappe Framework. It unifies core business functions—including accounting, procurement, manufacturing, CRM, HRMS, and asset management—into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple proprietary tools. The project lives in the Python-based Frappe ecosystem and is licensed under GPL-3.0.

It solves the problem of fragmented business operations by replacing siloed, often expensive software suites with a cohesive, customizable, and cost-free alternative. Organizations avoid per-module licensing fees and vendor lock-in, gaining full control over their data and system evolution.

Key capabilities

  • Full-cycle accounting: journal entries, bank reconciliation, tax handling, and financial reporting
  • Inventory and order management: real-time stock tracking, purchase/sales orders, and shipment fulfillment
  • Manufacturing workflows: BOM management, work orders, capacity planning, and subcontracting
  • Fixed asset tracking: depreciation schedules, maintenance logs, and disposal workflows
  • Project accounting: timesheet integration, expense tracking, and profitability analysis
  • CRM and sales: lead-to-invoice pipelines, customer portals, and quote management
  • HRMS: attendance, leave, payroll, and recruitment workflows

Who uses it and how

Manufacturing SMEs use ERPNext to manage production scheduling, material consumption, and quality checks. Retail and distribution businesses deploy it for point-of-sale, multi-warehouse inventory, and supplier procurement. Service firms run projects and track billable hours using integrated timesheets and task management. Healthcare providers use the HRMS and asset modules for staff scheduling and equipment maintenance.

Getting started

Deploy via Docker using frappe/erpnext image with docker compose -f pwd.yml up -d, or self-host using the bench install script. A managed option is Frappe Cloud. Demo credentials: Administrator / admin.

When to use it — and when not to

ERPNext replaces paid ERPs like SAP Business One or Odoo Enterprise without recurring subscription fees, but requires operational overhead for database (MariaDB), storage, and SMTP configuration. It lacks native multi-currency tax engines for complex jurisdictions and has a steeper learning curve than hosted SaaS alternatives. Choose it when full data ownership, customization, and long-term cost savings outweigh infrastructure management effort. Avoid if your team lacks Linux/Docker expertise or requires out-of-the-box compliance for highly regulated industries.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

ERPNext

Powerful, Intuitive and Open-Source ERP

Learn on Frappe School

CI docker pulls

Live Demo - Website - Documentation

ERPNext

100% Open-Source ERP System to help you run your business.

Motivation

Running a business is a complex task - handling invoices, tracking stock, managing personnel, and other daily operations. In a market where software is sold separately to manage each of these tasks, ERPNext does all of the above and more, for free.

Key Features

  • Accounting: All the tools you need to manage cash flow in one place, right from recording transactions to summarizing and analyzing financial reports.
  • Order Management: Track inventory levels, replenish stock, and manage sales orders, customers, suppliers, shipments, deliverables, and order fulfillment.
  • Manufacturing: Simplifies the production cycle, helps track material consumption, exhibits capacity planning, handles subcontracting, and more!
  • Asset Management: From purchase to disposal, IT infrastructure to equipment. Covers every branch of your organization, all in one centralized system.
  • Projects: Deliver both internal and external projects on time, budget and profitability. Track tasks, timesheets, and issues by project.
More

Under the Hood

  • Frappe Framework: A full-stack web application framework written in Python and JavaScript. The framework provides a robust foundation for building web applications, including a database abstraction layer, user authentication, and a REST API.

  • Frappe UI: A Vue-based UI library, to provide a modern user interface. The Frappe UI library provides a variety of components that can be used to build single-page applications on top of the Frappe Framework.

Production Setup

Managed Hosting

You can try Frappe Cloud, a simple, user-friendly, and sophisticated open-source platform to host Frappe applications reliably and securely.

It handles installation, setup, upgrades, monitoring, maintenance, and support of your Frappe deployments. It is a fully featured developer platform with an ability to manage and control multiple Frappe deployments.

Try on Frappe Cloud
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Self-Hosted

Docker

See Frappe Docker Documentation for full documentation & FAQ on Docker setup

Prerequisites

For Docker basics and best practices refer to Docker's documentation

Try on your environment

⚠️ Disposable demo only

This setup is intended for quick evaluation. Expect to throw the environment away. You will not be able to install custom apps to this setup. For production deployments, custom configurations, and detailed explanations, see the full documentation.

First clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/frappe/frappe_docker
cd frappe_docker

Then run:

docker compose -f pwd.yml up -d

Wait for a couple of minutes for ERPNext site to be created or check the create-site container logs before opening browser on port 8080. (username: Administrator, password: admin)

See Frappe Docker for ARM based docker setup

Development Setup

Manual Install

The Easy Way: our install script for bench will install all dependencies (e.g. MariaDB). See https://github.com/frappe/bench for more details.

New passwords will be created for the ERPNext "Administrator" user, the MariaDB root user, and the Frappe user (the script displays the passwords and saves them to ~/frappe_passwords.txt).

Local

To setup the repository locally follow the steps mentioned below:

  1. Setup bench by following the Installation Steps and start the server

    bench start
    
  2. In a separate terminal window, run the following commands:

    # Create a new site
    bench new-site erpnext.localhost
    
  3. Get the ERPNext app and install it

    # Get the ERPNext app
    bench get-app https://github.com/frappe/erpnext
    
    # Install the app
    bench --site erpnext.localhost install-app erpnext
    
  4. Open the URL http://erpnext.localhost:8000/app in your browser, you should see the app running

Learning and Community

  1. Frappe School - Learn Frappe Framework and ERPNext from the various courses by the maintainers or from the community.
  2. Official documentation - Extensive documentation for ERPNext.
  3. Discussion Forum - Engage with the community of ERPNext users and service providers.
  4. Telegram Group - Get instant help from huge community of users.

Contributing

  1. Issue Guidelines
  2. Report Security Vulnerabilities
  3. Pull Request Requirements
  4. Translations

Logo and Trademark Policy

Please read our Logo and Trademark Policy.



Frappe Technologies
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Frequently asked questions

Is ERPNext free to use?

ERPNext is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does ERPNext do?

Comprehensive business management, tailored for you

What is ERPNext written in?

ERPNext is primarily written in Python. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/frappe/erpnext, and it has 39,326 GitHub stars.