What ERPNext actually costs
to implement in India
Move four sliders and switches and you get a one-time implementation range, an annual hosting range and a go-live window, built from the same model we use to scope real projects. Every assumption behind the number is written on this page.
Price your own
ERPNext rollout
Nothing is emailed to you and nothing is stored. Change any input and every number updates instantly.
Team size
People who need a login to create or approve documents.
Functional scope
Switch on only what you will genuinely run in year one. You can add the rest later.
Data migration
How much history moves across, and where it comes from.
Customisation depth
How far your workflows sit from stock ERPNext.
Hosting model
Annual infrastructure, backups, monitoring and upgrades.
Configuration, migration, training and go-live support.
Compared with a commercial ERP at ₹18,000 per user per year. ERPNext charges nothing per user.
Indicative budget, not a quotation. A written scope follows a free discovery call.
What the number
does and does not cover
Included in the estimate
- Business process mapping against standard ERPNext DocTypes before anything is configured.
- Configuration of every module you selected, including GST, e-invoicing and e-way bill setup.
- Data migration at the tier you chose, with a reconciliation pass signed off by your finance team.
- Print formats and reports for the documents your customers and auditors actually see.
- Role-based training for each department, plus a written runbook.
- Hypercare through your first month-end close on ERPNext.
Not included
- Hardware and end-user devices, and any on-premise network work if you self-host.
- Third-party subscriptions such as e-invoicing GSPs, SMS or WhatsApp gateways and payment gateways.
- Annual support or AMC after hypercare, which is quoted separately once we know your ticket volume.
- Statutory or audit consultancy; we configure what your CA specifies, we do not replace them.
- Data cleansing you choose to do differently, for example deduplicating a customer master by hand.
- Scope added mid-project, which is estimated and agreed before any work starts.
How the estimator arrives at a number
- A core finance and GST rollout for up to five users starts at
₹1,40,000. Every user beyond the fifth adds₹3,200. That is not a licence, which ERPNext does not charge; it is the training, role design and testing each extra seat creates. - Each module you switch on adds the price shown on its card. Those prices come from what the work has actually taken on comparable rollouts, not from a rate card.
- Your data migration tier is added as a flat line.
- The running total is multiplied by the customisation factor you chose:
1.0,1.2or1.45. - The upper end of the range is the lower end plus
35%. Most projects land in the lower half; the top of the range is where scope grew during discovery. - Hosting is the plan you picked plus
₹1,500per user per year, with the same kind of upper band. - The go-live window starts at four weeks and grows with team size and the number of modules. It measures kick-off to go-live, not the end of hypercare.
Six things decide
what an ERP project costs
Users and concurrency
Seats matter for training, role design and testing, not for licensing. Ten warehouse operators using one screen cost far less to onboard than ten accountants who each need a different approval chain.
Module scope
The gap between finance-only and a full manufacturing rollout is the single largest swing in any ERPNext budget. Phase what you can; a smaller first go-live almost always finishes faster and cheaper than one big bang.
Data migration
Masters and opening balances are straightforward. Several years of transactions from a legacy ERP, with a reconciliation your auditor will accept, is a project inside the project.
Customisation depth
Every workflow you keep because it is habit rather than necessity becomes code. Standard ERPNext is cheaper to build, cheaper to support and upgrades cleanly for years.
Integrations
Payment gateways, e-invoicing GSPs, WhatsApp, shipping partners, marketplaces and existing shop-floor systems each carry their own build and testing effort.
Hosting and support
Frappe Cloud costs a little more per year and removes the person you would otherwise need for backups, upgrades and uptime. Self-hosting is only cheaper if that person already exists.
What comparable projects
actually cost
These four rows are produced by the same model as the estimator above, so they can never drift from it. Hosting figures assume Frappe Cloud.
| Profile | Scope | One-time | Hosting / year | Go-live |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small business Up to 10 users | Finance & GST, Inventory & warehouse, Sales & CRM, Buying & procurement | ₹3 lakh - ₹4.1 lakh | ₹75k - ₹94k | 7 - 11 weeks |
| Growing SME 25 users | Finance & GST, Inventory & warehouse, Sales & CRM, Buying & procurement, HR & statutory payroll | ₹5.4 lakh - ₹7.4 lakh | ₹98k - ₹1.2 lakh | 9 - 13 weeks |
| Manufacturer 60 users | Finance & GST, Inventory & warehouse, Manufacturing & BOM, Sales & CRM, Buying & procurement, HR & statutory payroll, Projects & timesheets | ₹8.7 lakh - ₹11.8 lakh | ₹1.5 lakh - ₹1.9 lakh | 11 - 15 weeks |
| Multi-entity enterprise 120 users | Finance & GST, Inventory & warehouse, Manufacturing & BOM, Sales & CRM, Buying & procurement, HR & statutory payroll, Projects & timesheets, Custom Frappe app | ₹15.6 lakh - ₹21 lakh | ₹2.4 lakh - ₹3 lakh | 14 - 18 weeks |
Figures in Indian rupees, exclusive of GST. ERPNext itself carries no licence fee at any of these sizes.
Where the budget
actually gets spent
- Week 1-2
Discovery and process mapping
We sit with each department, document how the business actually runs today, and map it onto standard ERPNext DocTypes. Anything that cannot be mapped is listed as a customisation with its own price before you commit.
- Week 2-4
Core configuration
Company, chart of accounts, tax templates, warehouses, item groups, naming series, roles and permissions. You see a working system with your own master data inside the first fortnight.
- Week 3-8
Migration and custom build
Masters and opening balances first, then transaction history at the tier you chose. Any custom Frappe app is built in parallel as a separate, upgrade-safe app.
- Week 6-10
User acceptance and training
Department-by-department training on your own data, with a UAT script per role. Nothing goes live until the people who use it daily sign it off.
- Go-live
Go-live and hypercare
A planned cutover on an agreed date, then daily support through your first month-end close on ERPNext.
- Ongoing
Support and improvement
An optional annual plan covering issue resolution, user changes, version upgrades and a monthly review of what to improve next.
Open source changes
the shape of the bill
The one-time cost of an ERPNext project is comparable to a licensed ERP. The difference shows up every year after that.
| Cost line | ERPNext with Exalix Tech | Typical licensed ERP |
|---|---|---|
| Software licence | ₹0. GPL v3, no per-user fee, ever. | Per user, per month, billed annually and repriced at renewal. |
| Implementation | One-time, quoted against a written scope. | One-time, often a multiple of first-year licence. |
| Adding users later | Training and role setup only. | Licence for every new seat, at the current list price. |
| Customisation | Source available. Any Frappe developer can extend it. | Vendor or certified-partner gated, priced per change. |
| Hosting | Frappe Cloud, any cloud, or your own hardware. | Usually the vendor's cloud, at the vendor's price. |
| Leaving | Database and code are yours. Export everything. | Data export is possible; the customisations rarely come with you. |
The savings line in the estimator assumes a commercial ERP at ₹18,000 per user per year, which is a mid-range figure for the products Indian SMEs usually shortlist against ERPNext. Your own vendor quote is the number that matters; put it next to this one.
Get the real number
for your business
The estimator is deliberately conservative because it cannot see your business. Thirty minutes on a call usually moves the figure in your favour, because most of what looks like customisation turns out to be configuration.
- A fixed-price scope document, not an open-ended rate card
- An honest answer if ERPNext is the wrong fit for what you do
- Your calculator inputs come with the request, so we start from your numbers
- Call us+91 77780 25099
- WhatsAppChat on WhatsApp
- Emailsales@exalixtech.com
Turn this estimate into a written scope
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ERPNext pricing,
answered plainly
Where to go
from here
ERPNext Implementation
End-to-end rollout: discovery, configuration, migration, training and go-live.
Learn moreERPNext Consulting
Process mapping, gap analysis and an ROI roadmap before you build.
Learn moreERPNext Integrations
Shopify, payment gateways, shipping, WhatsApp and custom APIs.
Learn moreTraining & Adoption
Role-based training and change management that make ERPNext stick.
Learn moreSupport & AMC
SLA-backed support, upgrades, backups and server monitoring.
Learn moreStop guessing
at the budget
Bring your estimate to a free thirty-minute call and leave with a written scope, a timeline and a fixed price.