Should I use ERPNext and frappe open-source products?

You've probably found the suite of open-source products written by frappe, such as ERPNext, CRM, Helpdesk, Wiki, HRMS, etc and wondered: are they good enough for me and my business? Allow me to weigh in with my 4 years of experience.

Don't get me wrong, having such completely free open-source products available is great, and their FOSS intent in that regard is unquestionably good. The functionality available out-of-the-box is also excellent and rivals any of the big-name paid-for accounting and ERP systems out there. So what are the downsides?

Well, scratch beneath the surface and you'll find problems, such as old unmaintained features, thousands of bugs and functionality that doesn't quite do what you want or expect it to do. But maybe you would expect that of open-source. It doesn't have the best of reputations, right?

I would argue paid software isn't necessarily any better. I have had the misfortune to be forced to work with Microsoft Windows and other products like Dynamics NAV; their quality processes aren't exactly stellar. Windows is arguably single-handedly responsible for pioneering a developer culture of "I can just release another version tomorrow". Instead of doing their design and test work up front and releasing solid and dependable software, they force daily Microsoft Windows Software Updates on the whole globe to fend off their bugs. I guess it keeps an army of system admins employed when the updates themselves fail.

You wouldn't buy a car if it needed to go back to the dealer every week would you?

Open-source doesn't have to be poor quality. 96% of web servers use Linux, and Android which powers 72% of mobile phones also uses Linux; an open-source project. That's right, chances are you have Linux in your pocket and probably your TV, internet router, printer and soon your fridge.

So what are the problems in Frappe Technologies Pvt. Ltd?

The first problem is the sheer number of open issues reported on github against their main two repositories: frappe framework and ERPNext. At time of writing these were 1869 and 2035. And if you add in their various other fledgling products this easily totals 4500. However that's without counting the many issues that have been closed automatically by the stalebot simply because they have had no activity.

This problem is not a new one either. There don't appear to be any statistics kept for issue history, but as I recall the open issue counts were roughly the same 4 years ago when I first encountered the projects.

But the problem gets much worse when you understand the developer culture. Many of their developers are allowed to work on pet projects without any design work, requirements, quality processes or oversight. This leads to developers thinking they always know best and are above constructive feedback. This in turn means pull requests to fix bugs or introduce new features are ignored or receive review comments along the lines of "this isn't how I would have done it" or "this doesn't look quite right". This is intensely disrespectful of the time and effort it takes to understand, write, test and submit to a complicated project. Enhancing their product for free.

On the one hand they welcome contributions, however they are rarely accepted or deemed good enough.

The other main problem is the comparative level of new features and bug fixes, and the level of testing that goes into a new major release. frappe aim for a new major version every 12 months, and in that release they will introduce a plethora of major new features, like a user interface redesign, replacement of fundamental features, major code refactors etc. These are often hastily released late and consequently are not thoroughly tested. This means early adopters are unfairly punished.

My advice would be to stay a major version behind on frappe and ERPNext. At time of writing version 15 is reaching maturity because version 16 is imminent.

Another more minor problem is that developers work at weekends. I don't know if that is voluntary, enforced, part of a shift rotation or paid but it is not good for their health and mental well-being.

In summary, frappe's development discipline leaves a lot to be desired, but can you complain about free software?

If you have reached this far I'm glad that should you choose to adopt one of their software products into your business, you are doing so with your eyes open.

Be prepared to spend a proportion of the money you save on software licenses for a paid ERP system, on support and development of frappe's open-source offerings with a suitable provider.