What are the Odoo partner tiers?
Odoo's partner program has two tracks. Learning Partners are the entry level: firms getting trained on the platform, with no certification requirements yet. Official Partners are the graded track (Ready, Silver and Gold), and the grade is earned on three measurable things: how many consultants the firm keeps certified on recent Odoo versions, how many new Odoo Enterprise users it takes live, and how well it retains the clients it already serves.
That last input matters most and is easiest to miss: retention is weighted into the grade, so a partner that launches systems clients later abandon cannot hold a high tier for long.
What does it take to hold Gold?
Gold is the top tier, and it is re-earned continuously rather than awarded once. The thresholds rise with each grade: more consultants certified on the latest versions, more new users delivered, stronger retention. Stop delivering, let certifications lapse, or lose the clients you launched, and the grade goes with them. That is precisely what makes the tier a signal instead of a marketing badge: it is Odoo's own, continuously updated scorecard of who actually delivers.
How do you verify a partner's tier?
You never have to take the slide's word for it. Every official partner has a public profile in Odoo's directory at odoo.com/partners showing its current grade, certified consultants and reference count. Two things to check carefully: the country: certification is per legal entity, so a group can be Gold in one market and unlisted in another. And the certified people, because a tier carried by two certificates is a different promise than one carried by a bench.
Our own profiles are public for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE: every claim on this page is checkable off this page.
Does the tier guarantee a good project?
No, and a partner that tells you otherwise is selling. The tier verifies certified people, real delivery volume and retained clients: necessary, not sufficient. Pair the directory check with the questions that reveal how a firm actually runs projects: who staffs yours, how version upgrades are planned, what support looks like after go-live. We published the full list in Choosing an Odoo partner in the GCC: 9 questions that reveal everything.
Ready, Silver, Gold: what separates the grades
Odoo does not publish the numeric bar for each grade, so treat any partner who quotes you an exact threshold with suspicion. What Odoo does make clear is which inputs are measured, and the bar on each of them rises as the grade does.
| Measured on | Learning | Ready | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consultants certified on recent versions | Not required | Required | Higher bar | Highest bar |
| New Odoo Enterprise users taken live | Not counted | Counted | Higher bar | Highest bar |
| Retention of clients already served | Not counted | Weighted in | Weighted in | Weighted in |
| Re-earned continuously, not awarded once | n/a | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Retention is the input most people miss, and it is the one that makes the grade hard to game. A firm can win a lot of new logos and still slide down a tier if those clients abandon the system afterwards.
How to read a partner's profile in the directory
The tier is a headline. The profile underneath it carries the detail that actually predicts your project, and most buyers never scroll to it. Four things are worth reading properly:
- Certified experts, and on which version. Profiles break the bench down by release, for example 8 certified experts of whom 7 are certified on the current version and 1 on the previous one. A large bench certified on an older release is a different proposition from one certified on the version you are about to implement.
- Client references. The count of references a partner has registered, which is a firmer signal than a logo wall because it is recorded on Odoo's side rather than the partner's.
- Project size. Profiles indicate the user counts a partner typically handles and the largest it has delivered. A firm whose work clusters at ten users is not the same firm as one running several hundred, in either direction.
- Country and industry. Both are filters in the directory, and the country filter is the one that catches people out. See the note on entities below.
Does the Gold tier apply per country or to the whole group?
Per legal entity. This is the single most common misreading of the badge. A group can hold Gold through one country's entity and be listed at a lower grade, or not listed at all, in the country where your project will actually be delivered and invoiced. Always filter the directory by your own country and confirm the entity you will be contracting with appears there.
Can a partner lose the Gold tier?
Yes, and that is the point of it. The grade is re-earned continuously rather than awarded once. Let certifications lapse against newer releases, stop taking new users live, or lose the clients you launched, and the grade goes with them. It is Odoo's own rolling scorecard, which is precisely why it means more than a badge a firm bought or a logo it added to a slide.
Does a Gold Partner cost more than a smaller firm?
Day rates vary by firm and market, and a Gold Partner is not automatically the most expensive quote you will receive. The number that decides total cost is rarely the rate. It is rework, scope that was never pinned down, and the cost of a go-live that has to be repeated. A cheaper day rate that produces a system your team abandons is the most expensive option on the table, which is why retention is weighted into the tier in the first place.
Gold Partner, freelancer, or an in-house team?
All three are legitimate, and the honest answer depends on what you are optimizing for. A freelancer is efficient for a contained change on a system that already works, and carries obvious key-person risk. An in-house team makes sense once Odoo is core infrastructure and the backlog is permanent, though it takes time to build and to keep certified. A partner is worth it when you need a full implementation delivered against a date, several disciplines at once, and someone accountable after go-live. The failure mode to avoid is using a partner as a body shop, or a freelancer for a first implementation.