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Odoo 16 and 17 Are Out of Support: What Australian Businesses Should Do Next

OdooOdoo 16Odoo 17Odoo 20UpgradeAustralia

Odoo supports each major version for three years. With Odoo 20 released in September 2026, Odoo 17 reached the end of standard support that month, and Odoo 16 ended a year earlier. If your business still runs on either, here is what that means in practice and what your options are.

Where each version stands

  • Odoo 20: released September 2026, standard support until September 2029 (planned).
  • Odoo 19: standard support until September 2028 (planned).
  • Odoo 18: standard support until September 2027 (planned).
  • Odoo 17: standard support ended September 2026.
  • Odoo 16: standard support ended September 2025.
  • Odoo 15 and older: standard support ended in 2024 or earlier.

What "out of support" actually means

  • No more security updates. Odoo only provides security fixes during standard support. For a system that holds your customers, bank details, payroll and pricing, this is the most important point.
  • Extended support costs extra. After standard support ends, Odoo offers extended support for an additional fee. It is available only on Odoo.sh (for a limited number of versions) and on-premise, and bug fixes are provided only where technically feasible.
  • Odoo Online does not wait. On Odoo Online, databases on a major version must upgrade every two years, so Odoo will prompt the upgrade for you.
  • The 25% old version fee. Odoo's subscription agreement allows an extra fee of 25% of your annualised price when your database is older than the three most recent major versions, from six months after a new major release. With Odoo 20 out, that means 17 and older from around March 2027.
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Add it up for a 25-user business on the Custom plan: 25 x A$80 x 12 = A$24,000 a year in licences, so the old version fee alone could be A$6,000 a year, before any extended support charges. That money usually goes a long way towards the upgrade itself.

Your options

  • Upgrade now (recommended for most). You get security updates again, avoid the old version fee and get several years of features in one step.
  • Pay for extended support and upgrade later. Reasonable for a few months if you are in peak season or mid-way through another project, but it is a holding pattern, not a plan.
  • Stay where you are. Technically possible on-premise, but you carry the security risk and the fee, and every year you wait makes the eventual upgrade bigger.

Upgrade to Odoo 19 or Odoo 20?

Odoo's documentation says you can upgrade from any version to any major version that is still in standard support, or that left standard support less than six months ago. For a business on 16 or 17 today, the realistic targets are 19 and 20. You request an upgraded database for the version you choose, rather than running a separate project for each version in between.

  • Choose Odoo 20 if you want the longest runway (support until September 2029) and every third-party app you use already has a version 20 release. This is our default recommendation for most businesses upgrading now.
  • Choose Odoo 19 if a third-party app you depend on is not ready for 20 yet, or you rely heavily on Field Service and want to plan the move to Planning separately. Odoo 19 has a year of bug fixes behind it, but you will be facing the next upgrade sooner.

Read what is new in Odoo 20 before deciding. Some changes, like Field Service moving into Planning and work entries being removed from payroll, affect how your team works day to day.

What an upgrade involves

  • 1. Audit what you have changed. Custom modules and third-party apps, but also Studio fields, automated actions, server actions, edited website pages and anything that connects to Odoo through the API. Customisations stored in the database break just as easily as code.
  • 2. Request a test upgrade. Odoo's upgrade service produces an upgraded test copy of your database. Its upgrade report shows what needs attention.
  • 3. Port custom modules. Odoo cannot upgrade a database with custom modules until those modules exist for the target version, so this runs in parallel with the test upgrade.
  • 4. Test with your team. Run real workflows end to end on a staging copy: quote to cash, purchase to pay, stock moves, manufacturing, payroll and month-end.
  • 5. Rehearse and go live. Do a final upgrade with fresh production data, ideally over a weekend, then provide a week of close support while staff settle in.

How long does it take? For a mostly standard database with a few custom modules, weeks rather than months. In one recent project we took a 45-user Sydney manufacturer from Odoo 16 to 19 in 6 weeks for a fixed $32,000, against a Gold partner quote of 14 weeks and $85,000. You can read the details in our Odoo 16 to 19 upgrade case study.

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On Odoo Community? Odoo's support policy and upgrade service are for Enterprise customers. Community databases are usually upgraded with the open-source OpenUpgrade scripts from the Odoo Community Association, which is more hands-on. The same audit and testing steps apply.

If you are on Odoo.sh or self-hosted

  • Odoo.sh: you can run the upgrade from your Odoo.sh project, with a staging branch for testing.
  • Self-hosted: Odoo 20 needs Python 3.12 or later and PostgreSQL 16 or later, so check your server first. Your own upgrade may include an operating system and database upgrade.
  • Stuck with a partner who controls your Odoo.sh project? You own your data. See how we helped one business in our Odoo.sh case study.

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Still on Odoo 16 or 17?

We will review your database and customisations and give you a fixed-price upgrade plan, usually within a couple of days. No three-week discovery phase.

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