u/DryZookeepergame8644

Hi all,

We build ERP systems for SME / MSME clients across mixed industries. For each client we deploy a tailored ERP and put a custom UI on top so the experience feels like *their* product, not a generic ERPNext install.

We're evaluating **ERPNext + Frappe v15** as our standard platform going forward. Before we commit and standardize delivery on it, I want honest war stories from people who've shipped Frappe / ERPNext in production for paying clients.

Where we're leaning

- **Self-hosted Frappe + ERPNext v15** per client (each gets their own VPS, MariaDB, Redis stack)

- **Custom Frappe app** per client for client-specific DocTypes, workflows, hooks, fixtures

- **Custom Next.js dashboard / app on top of Frappe** via REST API — modern UI that we give to the client as their primary interface; Frappe Desk stays available as a power-user fallback

- **White-labelled** — clients see *their* brand, not ERPNext's

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

1. Production reliability. For a single-client deployment (small team, dozens of concurrent users), how solid is the stock Frappe + ERPNext stack under real load? Anyone hit weird scaling cliffs around schedulers, background workers, or socketio?

2. Custom Frappe app development. DocTypes, hooks (doc_events, scheduler_events), permissions, fixtures, custom Python in hooks.py. Where are the landmines? What patterns work well for client-specific code that needs to layer cleanly on top of stock ERPNext?

3. Next.js or external frontend on top of Frappe. Anyone built a serious custom UI consuming Frappe's REST API in production? Auth handshake (token vs session)? CORS pain? Real-time updates via socketio? Performance over time as the customer dataset grows?

4. Multi-version upgrade pain. Frappe major upgrades (v14 to v15 to v16) — how disruptive in production? Anyone gotten stuck on a custom app that doesn't migrate cleanly across major versions?

5. Maintenance burden per client. Backups, monitoring, security patches, upgrades, bench operations. What does a steady-state monthly hour count look like for a small Frappe or ERPNext deployment?

6. Inventory and stage modeling. For manufacturing-flavoured clients, what is the cleanest way to model production stages — separate Warehouses per stage, BOM with Manufacture Stock Entries, or something else? Tradeoffs?

7. ERPNext vs alternatives. Odoo (Community or Enterprise), Dolibarr, Tryton, or full-custom builds on Django or Rails. For an agency shipping to SME and MSME clients, what made you pick what you picked? Anything you'd undo with hindsight?

8. White-labelling depth. How far can you actually take it? Logo and theme is the easy part. Can you rebrand URL paths, email templates, the API namespace, the admin / desk experience? Anyone shipped a product that truly does not look like ERPNext?

9. Performance ceiling. At what client size (users, transactions per day, DocType count) does stock Frappe start showing strain? What did you do — vertical scale, read replicas, partitioning, caching?

10. Documentation gaps. Frappe's docs are solid for basics, but I've seen complaints about deeper internals being under-documented. What did you learn the hard way that you wish was written down somewhere?

11. Frappe Cloud vs self-hosted. Anyone weighed paying Frappe Cloud per client vs running your own infra? At what scale does each make sense?

WHAT I'D LOVE

- Honest takes (positive and negative) from real Frappe or ERPNext deployments

- Don't-go-down-X-path-do-Y-instead warnings

- Specific tooling, patterns, library recommendations

- Anyone running multiple client deployments on Frappe, happy to compare notes

Not asking for free consulting, just trying to learn from people who have been here. Thanks.

I'm a technical founder working with the owner of a small-to-mid stainless-steel utensils factory
We want 2–3 piece-counting sensors at envelope points
Input side — shearing machine + blanking press. Drums skip blanking (sheared rectangle → rolled → welded → no blank punching), plates skip shearing (single-action hydraulic press cuts circular blanks straight from sheet). So one input sensor doesn't cover all products — we need both.
- Output side — break-beam at the laser-engraving bay exit, where finished pieces pass single-file (cleanest low-dust chokepoint in the factory; polish bay is too dusty for optical sensors).

Floor constraints:

- 50°C summer ambient

- Heavy emery + cloth-compound dust in polish bay (rules out optical sensors there)

- EMI from neighboring motors, vibration from press hammering

- Polish bay has a 2,800 RPM motor but counts are operator-paced (worker holds a piece against the buffing wheel for 1–3 min) so motor amperage tells us nothing useful about piece, count there → polish stays voice-only

- Dispatch has the "workers carry 2–3 drums per pass" problem if we ever try to break-beam at the truck door

Questions on this side:

5. Anyone used clamp-on CT sensors on Indian single-phase motors for piece counting (each press stroke = one current spike)? Threshold + debouncing approach? Reliability after 6+ months in dust/heat?

6. Optical break-beam vs ToF vs camera-with-counting at a packaging-exit chokepoint — what survived dust + dynamic ambient light at a real factory?

7. How did you handle multi-piece-per-pass at a loading dock — pair break-beam with a weighing scale (weight ÷ kg/piece), two beams with timing analysis, or camera-with-CV count? Any that didn't break in practice?

Phase-agnostic constraints

Workforce is mostly contract labour, mixed literacy, Hindi/Marwari speakers

Owner explicitly refuses to push compliance on labour because they'll quit and get poached by the cluster next door → nothing workers have to do. Capture is supervisor-mediated, sensors are silent.

MSME budget — ~₹10–15K total hardware for the 2–3 Phase 2 sensors

What I'd love

- Patterns that worked / pitfalls that bit you

- Anyone who's shipped industrial AI / voice / sensors in Indian MSME factories — happy to compare notes

Not asking for free consulting, just learning from people who've solved adjacent problems. Thanks