Odoo vs Silae: which HR/payroll solution should you really choose?

Odoo vs Silae: which HR/payroll solution should you really choose?

Two tools, two scopes, two logics. Why the choice between Odoo and Silae is almost never a true "versus" — and how to decide in practice.

Introduction

The topic comes up regularly in the HR projects we support: "We are hesitating between Odoo and Silae, what do you recommend?". And each time, our first response is the same: that is not exactly the right question.

Odoo and Silae do not operate in the same category. Odoo is a unified ERP whose HR module covers personnel administration, leave, recruitment, expense reports, evaluation, and — in certain geographies — payroll. Silae is an ultra-specialized software for French payroll and social production, a leader in the market for accounting firms, producing more than 7 million payslips each month. Both tools are serious, but they do not solve the same problem.

This article aims to clarify what each person really does, where they intersect, where they complement each other, and how we concretely guide our clients according to their context. If you are currently arbitrating between the two to structure your payroll and personnel administration, you should come away with a clear decision-making framework.

What Silae really does

Silae is, to give a reference, the payroll engine that powers a large part of French accounting firms. The publisher claims about 80% market share among firms, over 7 million payslips produced per month, and a network of 6,000 certified partners that ensure distribution. The specialization is total: Silae does not do accounting, does not do CRM, does not do ERP. It does French payroll, and it does it with a depth that few competitors match.

Specifically, the central product — now marketed under the name mySilae since the repositioning of the range — covers the entire French payroll chain: calculation of payslips, management of over 900 collective agreements updated weekly by Silae teams, consideration of special regimes (agricultural, ENIM, notary clerks, IEG, Mines), production of monthly and event-driven DSN, dematerialization of payslips via certified digital safe, management of absences and leave, employee portal. The publisher has gradually expanded its offering with peripheral modules: mySilae Santé for health and welfare launched in 2025, mySilae Expense for expense reports, mySilae BI for HR management, mySilae Assistant powered by AI. Together, they form a coherent HRIS, but with payroll remaining the center of gravity.

Two structural features deserve to be highlighted. First, Silae is not marketed directly by the publisher: to use it, you must go through a partner firm — usually an accounting expert or a specialized payroll firm. This is a strategic choice that distances Silae from direct client relationships and places the quality of service in the hands of the partner. Secondly, the prices are not public and are negotiated on a case-by-case basis: according to specialized sources for 2026, the cost generally ranges between €3 and €12 per payslip per month depending on the volume, modules, and partner. Additionally, there are initial setup fees (€2,000 to €8,000), training fees (€1,000 to €3,000), and migration fees from the old solution (up to €5,000). Over the past twelve months, the publisher has also been at the center of a pricing controversy with accounting firms, as its price increase was partially readjusted and spread over 2025, 2026, and 2027 under market pressure.

In summary, Silae is the reference tool when the absolute priority is the reliability of French payroll production in all its regulatory and conventional complexity.

What Odoo really does in terms of HR and payroll

On the Odoo side, it is important to clearly distinguish two areas that are often wrongly amalgamated in online comparisons.

The HR module of Odoo (Odoo Employees) is mature and widely used. It covers all personnel administration: employee records, contracts, organizational charts, management of leave and absences, scheduling, attendance with badge readers, remote work requests, recruitment (job postings, application tracking, automated onboarding), performance evaluations, management of skills and training, employee portal, expense reports, attendance declarations, electronic signatures. This scope is solid, natively integrated with the rest of the ERP (accounting, projects, sales), and has no real competition for an SME that wants to centralize its HR administration on a single platform.

The Payroll module of Odoo, on the other hand, is a subject that must be addressed head-on. Odoo Payroll exists in the standard, and the publisher provides localizations for certain countries — Belgium, the United States, the Emirates, and several others — where payroll can be managed natively. For France, this is not the case in the standard Odoo. There is no official French payroll localization package, no native support for French collective agreements, and no native production of DSN. French payroll modules exist in the Odoo community and with some specialized integrators (OpenPaie from Sudokeys, for example), but these are partner developments that do not benefit from the same level of regulatory maintenance as Silae or Sage. The weekly changes in collective agreements, changes in URSSAF scales, adjustments to the DSN, the arrival of the substitute DSN planned for 2026: all of this requires a dedicated team for regulatory monitoring that few publishers outside of payroll champions can assume.

This is why in the overwhelming majority of French Odoo projects involving payroll, we do not deploy the Odoo Payroll module. We connect Odoo to a specialized payroll software — and Silae is precisely one of the most common candidates.

Why the 'vs' is almost always misused

At this point, the stage is set: Odoo and Silae are not direct competitors in the payroll sector in France. Silae does what Odoo does not (advanced French payroll). Odoo does what Silae does not (ERP, CRM, accounting, invoicing, inventory, production, e-commerce, and even a good part of the HR chain outside of payroll).

The relevant question is therefore almost never 'Odoo or Silae?'. It is: 'How to articulate a specialized payroll tool with my HR ERP, and which one to choose from both sides?'. Three configurations deserve to be distinguished in practice, as they correspond to radically different company profiles.

Configuration 1 — Total outsourcing of payroll at a firm using Silae

This is the most common configuration among our SME clients. Payroll is outsourced to an accountant or a payroll firm that produces the payslips using Silae, and the company uses Odoo for all the rest of its HR management: leave, absences, contracts, recruitment, expense reports, evaluations, organizational chart, employee portal. Payroll variables (hours, bonuses, absences, approved expenses) are transferred from the Odoo scope to the Silae scope either via Excel export or via API depending on the desired level of integration. Conversely, the payroll accounting entries produced by Silae are imported into Odoo accounting.

This configuration provides the most peace of mind for SME leaders who do not have an internal payroll manager or who want to sleep soundly regarding regulatory aspects. The complexity of French payroll remains where it should be — with the professional who has made it their job — while the company manages its HR administration in a modern tool integrated with the rest of its information system.

Configuration 2 — Internalization of payroll under Silae with Odoo in HRIS

This is the configuration for SMEs and mid-sized companies that have an internal payroll service or a dedicated manager, and who want to maintain control over the process. Silae is used in SaaS mode via a partner, the internal payroll manager produces the payslips, and Odoo handles the entire expanded HRIS part: recruitment, onboarding, contract management, leave, evaluations, training, skills management, expense reports, employee portal.

In this scheme, the added value of Odoo lies in its integration with the rest of the ERP. The expense reports entered by employees feed both payroll (reimbursement) and accounting (analytical charge on the correct project or client) without double entry. The hours tracked on projects feed both client billing and variable payroll elements. Absences validated in Odoo are automatically transferred to Silae via the connector. This is an architecture that requires a bit more framing during implementation, but it eliminates re-entries and data discrepancies between the two worlds.

Configuration 3 — Everything in Odoo, including payroll

This configuration exists, but it is rare in France and we advise against it in most cases. It may make sense for very specific structures: a French company with a large majority of employees abroad in geographies natively covered by Odoo, a very small structure with a simple collective agreement and a marginal payroll volume, or a specific industrial case handled by a proven community module like OpenPaie. Outside of these situations, the combination of 'Odoo HR + Silae payroll' offers a better balance of robustness / cost / regulatory peace of mind than doing everything in Odoo.

Nalios' perspective When a client tells us 'we want to manage payroll in Odoo to centralize everything', we systematically ask the return question: 'who will monitor weekly on collective agreements and URSSAF scales?'. In 9 out of 10 cases, no one internally. This is exactly what software like Silae is for: to pay so you don't have to ask this question. Centralizing for the sake of centralizing rarely makes good ERPs.

Synthetic comparison table

How to choose in practice

Choose Silae (in addition to Odoo) if:

You have a significant payroll volume (from 20-30 employees internally), a complex collective agreement, specific schemes, strong DSN issues, or an internal payroll service that requires a reference tool. You want to ensure 100% regulatory compliance and delegate monitoring to a publisher whose exclusive business it is. You work with an accountant who already processes your payroll under Silae and continuity makes sense.

In all these cases, Silae handles payroll, Odoo handles the rest. The two communicate via a connector or a structured export.

Stay on Odoo alone (without Silae) if:

You are a very small structure (fewer than 10 employees), with a simple collective agreement, and a marginal volume of payslips that can be processed via a proven partner module or even manually outsourced to an accountant on a case-by-case basis. Or you are a French company whose vast majority of staff is abroad, in geographies where Odoo Payroll is natively available (Belgium, for example). Or you are willing to bet on a community French payroll module with a specialized partner who takes care of its maintenance — an approach that can be relevant for specific industrial cases, but requires a real cost/benefit analysis compared to Silae.

First, ask yourself the right questions

Before choosing one or the other, three questions almost always settle the debate. How many payslips will you produce per month and with which collective agreement? Do you have an internal payroll manager, or is payroll outsourced? What level of integration between payroll and ERP is necessary for your management (project analytics, internal re-invoicing, cost tracking by client)? The answers to these three questions determine the target architecture. The choice of tool follows from that.

What to remember

• Odoo and Silae are not direct competitors in the payroll scope in France. They address different problems and are more often combined than opposed.

• The Odoo Payroll module is not localized for France in the standard. For French payroll, plan either for Silae or a seriously maintained specialized partner module.

• The Odoo HR module (excluding payroll) is mature and widely sufficient for the vast majority of SMEs: leave, contracts, recruitment, expense reports, evaluations, employee portal.

• The most common configuration we deploy is the combined architecture: Silae for payroll (internally or via a firm), Odoo for everything else, with a connector between the two.

• Silae must go through a certified partner: the quality of your experience will depend as much on the chosen firm as on the tool itself.

Conclusion

If you opened this article looking for which of the two tools to choose, the honest answer is: do not choose one over the other, choose the architecture that fits your company. For a French SME that wants a modern HRIS and secure payroll, the combination of Odoo + Silae is today one of the most robust solutions on the market — each does what it does best, and the integration between the two is becoming more professional year after year.

The real question is rather the order in which you structure your project. On the ERP and HRIS side, you will benefit from framing Odoo with an integrator who understands the French issues and the articulation with specialized payroll tools. On the payroll side, you will benefit from choosing a serious Silae partner, not just the cheapest — the quality of the initial setup and the responsiveness of support make a huge difference over time. These two choices are independent, and that is rather good news.

At Nalios, we regularly support our clients on this type of combined architecture, working hand in hand with their payroll firm or their Silae partner. If you are currently structuring your HR/ERP stack and looking for a perspective to frame the project, discover our approach as anOdoo integrator.