Compare
Six ways to run the business. Where each one wins.
You have five other options, and each is right for someone. Here is what each does well and what it costs. Ordence comes last.
Last reviewed 11 October 2026. Competitor prices change often; check each vendor's own page. Tally, BUSY, Marg, Vyapar, Zoho, Odoo, ERPNext and SAP Business One are trademarks of their owners. Ordence is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them; they are named only to compare.
The five, side by side
Cost, time to start, and where each one struggles.
Find the row that sounds like you today. For competitor prices, see the vendor's page or your renewal bill. The two rupee ranges for building your own are our estimates, not a developer's quote.
| Option | Cost | Time to running | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tally plus spreadsheets plus WhatsApp | Your licence, plus about one senior person's week a month matching three systems | Already running | Around 30 to 40 orders a month, or when the godown count stops matching the sheet |
| Zoho One or a similar suite | A per-user subscription (two licence models), plus a setup project you must run | 6 to 12 weeks | Where its apps join, and where your trade counts more than plain units |
| A freelancer or an in-house developer | About ₹1.5 to 4 lakh for a first version, or ₹10 to 20 lakh a year for a staff developer | 3 to 9 months | The day that developer leaves |
| BUSY, Vyapar or Marg | Their published licence | See each vendor's pages | When the work around the bill (lots, schemes, work orders, bookings) matters more than the bill |
| SAP Business One or Odoo with a partner | Licence plus partner setup, which usually costs more | 4 to 12 months | Rarely the software. The partner's bill can outgrow the problem |
| Ordence | Shared privately with invited businesses | Agreed at onboarding; each system is set up by hand | Group accounts, more than one country, heavy factory floors with machine terminals and OEE (machine efficiency), and buyers who need a security certificate |
Each option in full
One page each. Each starts with what that option does better.
- Ordence vs Tally, a spreadsheet and WhatsApp. A fast, trusted ledger your CA asks for by name. The real cost is three places holding three versions of one order. You can keep Tally: Ordence works alongside Tally.
- Ordence vs Zoho One. Our closest rival. Zoho wins on breadth, on SOC 2 and ISO 27001 security certificates (we have none), and on working in many countries. Ordence goes deeper into one trade and Indian GST. Check which licence model a Zoho price assumes.
- Ordence vs building it yourself. Fully yours, and usually dearer by year two. Build if you need one narrow workflow no one sells, or already employ developers.
- Ordence vs BUSY, Vyapar and Marg. Popular Indian accounting, stock and GST billing software. If books and bills are the whole job, or you sell over a counter, pick one of them.
- Ordence vs Odoo, ERPNext and SAP Business One. Full ERPs backed by partner firms. Choose one if you combine accounts across companies, trade abroad or run a heavy factory floor.
What Ordence is, in one paragraph
The last row, explained.
Ordence keeps enquiries, quotes, stock, dispatch, GST invoices and its own double-entry books in one place. One of nine industry packs fits it to your trade: roll and batch trading, chemicals, distribution, manufacturing, real estate developers, pharma distribution, jewellery and diamonds, restaurants, or hospitals. The manufacturing pack, for example, covers bills of material, routings, work orders, quality holds, and job work with ITC-04 figures. Scheduled jobs run on their own. Agents draft and suggest; nothing is sent, priced or changed without a person. Each business gets its own system. Ordence runs at eight businesses today: five on an industry pack and three on the core system. Roll and batch trading is live at a hot and cold stamping foil trader, and Chemicals at two chemicals and trading firms. A developer uses the real estate pack for enquiries, site visits and follow-ups; a jewellery business uses its pack for catalogue, orders and dealers. The core runs at a financial-services firm and two services firms. Distribution, Manufacturing and Pharma distribution are built, with no customer yet.
At the foil trader: a party rings for 640mm gold from the lot they approved last time. One screen shows which reels are free, their godown and rack, and what the party owes.
Where Ordence loses
The five limits that most often rule us out.
- No certificate. Ordence holds no security certificate, so if you require SOC 2 or ISO 27001, stop here.
- No self-serve signup. Access is by invitation, and a founder sets up each system by hand. How access works explains why.
- India only. One company per system, no combined group accounts, and books in rupees, with foreign-currency rates typed by hand.
- No ledgers made in Tally. Vouchers move both ways by file or an optional connector on the Tally PC. Ordence never creates a ledger or deletes anything in Tally.
- No salary processing and no online payment collection. Ordence prepares GST return figures and e-way bill files, and records the IRN from the IRP on the invoice; you or your CA upload and file them.
Questions
What buyers ask after the table.
Why list your rivals fairly? What is the catch?
A business that joins knowing what is built gets what it expects. Those setups go well.
We already use Zoho or Odoo. Should we move?
Often not. If your team uses it daily and it works, moving costs more than it saves. Move when people have gone back to spreadsheets for stock, lots and dispatch.
Do we have to give up Tally?
No. Ordence keeps its own books, and many businesses keep Tally for their CA. The two swap files; there is no live link.
What if we compare and pick someone else?
Then you chose with better facts, which was the point. If you can, tell us who and why. It teaches us a lot.
Bring the comparison you have already started.
The sheet with three vendors and a column of question marks. Bring it to the fit call and we will fill in our column, including every no.
Questions first? Email the founders.