People call me just before they sign. An Odoo Online quote, a Gold partner on the directory, sometimes an integrator in Liège or Namur. The question is not “Odoo or not”. It is whether you asked the right questions before you put a signature on paper.
Odoo SA is a Belgian company, based in Grand-Rosière. That helps for localisation. It says nothing about who will sit with you after go-live. Neither does the badge on odoo.com/partners. Ready, Silver, Gold are commercial thresholds — net new Enterprise users per year, certified staff, retention. They are not a quality score for a twelve-person SME. I reopened the Belgium directory on 18 September 2026: 135 partners listed, of which 18 Gold, 30 Silver, 87 Ready. The criteria are on become-a-partner. Gold means 300 new Enterprise users a year. A Liège firm with fifteen seats can be a poor match for a partner that works like a factory and averages far more.
z80 is not on that list. We are an integrator / consultant in Liège. We deploy Odoo; we do not claim the badge. Better to say so upfront.
Official partner or integrator
Both do scoping, configuration and training. The difference is the contract with Odoo SA: commission on licences, visibility on the site, partner access. Implementation remains a service. Odoo says so: under fifty employees you can also work with them directly (Success Packs). Above that, the market pushes toward a local partner. That does not ban a certified freelancer, or an integrator outside the directory. It means asking who answers on Tuesday when a Peppol invoice gets stuck.
Before signing, I would write three questions. Who will be in the room, in French, after go-live? Do we stay on standard, or will we customise? And Belgian Peppol: is it already live on a real database, not a demo?
Online, Odoo.sh, or on your own metal
Three options, not just one.
Odoo Online is Odoo’s cloud. No custom Python modules and no Git repository for adding third-party add-ons. The Standard plan is tied to it: all apps, Online only. For many SMEs, that is enough. Less infrastructure to maintain.
Odoo.sh is Odoo’s CI platform: development, staging and production branches, and custom modules. You need the Custom plan. Odoo.sh hosting is extra — the pricing page says so. In the Europe zone, the GCP datacentre is in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium (source: Odoo.sh FAQ, 4 September 2026). The locations “are not contractually guaranteed”. A Belgian datacentre is not a Belgian hosting contract with a hoster you chose. If the client wants a Belgian hosting contract, on-premise or a Belgian hoster is a different answer.
With on-premise, you (or your integrator) host Enterprise yourselves. Same Custom plan. Updates, backups and patches are your responsibility. Odoo.sh phases out old versions once they reach six years; for Odoo 14, support on Odoo.sh ends on 31 October 2026, and any database still on that version is then blocked. Staying stuck on an old version is not a plan.
GDPR compliance and data residency in Belgium are not the same as sovereignty. The infrastructure behind Odoo.sh Europe is Google’s. If someone in the room asks for a Belgian hosting contract, say it clearly.
Standard or Custom
I rechecked odoo.com/pricing on 4 September 2026. From here, prices are shown in dollars; I am not copying euro figures.
Standard: all apps, but Odoo Online only.
Custom: Studio, multi-company, the external API, and the choice of Online, Odoo.sh or on-premise. Odoo.sh hosting is not in the base price.
If you need Studio — a field, a slightly odd automation — or another system calling into Odoo over JSON-RPC / XML-RPC, that is Custom. Installing Studio on Standard switches you to Custom. If Odoo pushes outward (bank, carrier, payment), their FAQ says that is not “External API”. Custom Python modules and non-standard apps from the store are not possible on Online Standard.
You do not take Custom “just in case”. You take it when the needs list asks for it. Otherwise you pay for a door you will not open in year one.
Peppol and the Belgian localisation
Since 1 January 2026, between Belgian VAT-registered firms, a structured B2B invoice is no longer a PDF by email. I already covered the law and the royal decree in invoicing from Excel. Here, just the Odoo checkpoints.
According to the Belgium 19.0 documentation, when you activate Peppol you use EAS 0208 (company registry number), the endpoint is the company registry number, and the customer format is BIS Billing 3.0. Odoo can act as an access point. The l10n_be localisation provides the chart of accounts, taxes, Intervat, CODA and SODA; CodaBox is available as a module. This is not “Odoo now, Peppol later”. It is part of the day-one scope for a Belgian SME that invoices B2B.
Useful questions before signing: who activates Peppol on the database? Who checks that customers are reachable on the network? What if a supplier still sends a PDF where the Peppol obligation does not apply? And B2C, which is outside the obligation: do not mix the flows.
Before you put the signature down
One sheet of paper, not an eighty-page specification.
- How many users actually open the backend (not the customer portal)?
- Is Online enough, or do you already have a list of custom / API / multi-company needs?
- Who hosts, under which contract, and where are the backups that you have already restored once?
- Belgian Peppol: EAS 0208, BIS 3.0, a send-and-receive test on five real invoices.
- Who provides training, and who answers after go-live, in French, without tickets that disappear?
The Gold badge appears on none of those lines. A clear quote that states the plan (Standard or Custom), the hosting, and Peppol switched on: that does.
If the sheet is still stuck after a week, info@z80.be, +32 494 111 041, www.z80.be — we look at the scoping, not an eighteen-month, factory-style project.