OpenBRM and Oracle BRM in one paragraph
Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) is a commercial convergent billing system built for large operators. OpenBRM is an open source alternative to Oracle BRM: a billing and BSS platform you can download, self-host and change. If you need convergent charging at very large scale and already run Oracle infrastructure, BRM is designed for that. If it is more cost, footprint or process than your business needs, OpenBRM covers the same core of telecom billing (rating, subscriptions, invoicing and payments) without the licence.
An open source Oracle BRM replacement
Replacing Oracle BRM with another commercial suite swaps one licence for another. If you want a BRM alternative that is open source end to end, OpenBRM is that route: no licence fee, full source code and the same core scope of rating, subscriptions, invoicing and payments, plus a built-in CRM and inventory.
Still building a shortlist? Our guide to Oracle BRM alternatives compares 11 commercial and open source billing platforms.
Oracle BRM vs OpenBRM at a glance
| OpenBRM | Oracle BRM | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Open source; no licence fee. Full source available on SourceForge. | Commercial licence; pricing through the vendor's sales team. |
| Source code access | Yes — modify and extend it yourself. | No; extended through the vendor's supported customisation interfaces. |
| Database | PostgreSQL. | Oracle Database. |
| Deployment footprint | Java / Spring application on Tomcat with PostgreSQL; can start on a single server, self-hosted or hosted for you. | Multi-component enterprise deployment, on-premises or a cloud-native (Kubernetes) option, sized for large subscriber bases. |
| TM Forum Open APIs | A SOAP API, plus a REST API for customer and product lookups, covering the same business entities; not a certified TMF implementation. See the TMF mapping or our TMF Open API guide. | BRM REST Services Manager exposes TMF-compliant APIs, including TMF635, TMF654, TMF666, TMF670, TMF676 and TMF678. |
| Rating | OpenRate: batch and real-time rating of CDRs (delimited, fixed-length, TAP, ASN.1; Diameter and RADIUS interfaces). | Convergent rating and charging designed for very high volumes. |
| CRM, inventory & storefront | Built in: CRM (quotes, tickets, notifications), SIM/MSISDN/device inventory and a self-service storefront. | Focused on billing and revenue management; CRM and inventory are typically separate products. |
| Support | Your own team, or implementation and support from Saralam Technologies. | Vendor support contracts and certified partners. |
Details in the right-hand column are summarised from Oracle's public documentation. Last reviewed: October 2026.
Oracle BRM license cost vs OpenBRM deployment cost
Oracle BRM pricing is not published: licences and annual support are quoted through the vendor's sales team, based on your deployment. With OpenBRM there is no licence to buy, so the cost of running it is infrastructure plus the people who implement and support it — whether that is your own team or ours. A commercial suite adds licence and annual support fees on top of those, and usually needs a larger infrastructure and skills base. For MVNOs, ISPs and regional operators, that difference often decides the project.
When Oracle BRM is the better fit
- You are a tier-1 operator rating very high event volumes across many networks and services.
- Your architecture is built around Oracle Database and the rest of that vendor's communications stack.
- You need certified TM Forum Open API conformance out of the box rather than a mapping layer.
When OpenBRM is the better fit
- You are an MVNO, ISP, VoIP provider or subscription business and want telecom-grade rating without an enterprise suite.
- You want to self-host, own the source and avoid licence fees.
- You want billing, CRM, inventory and a storefront in one open source BSS deployment.
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Oracle BRM migration: moving to OpenBRM
If you are planning to replace Oracle BRM, an Oracle BRM migration starts with scoping: your products and price plans, rating rules, integrations and data volumes. Contact us to talk it through, or explore the features first — rating engine, subscription management and the built-in CRM.
Common questions about switching
OpenBRM includes OpenRate, a rating engine that rates CDRs in batch or real time, at around 1,000 CDRs a second. It reads delimited, fixed-length, TAP and ASN.1 records and has Diameter and RADIUS interfaces, so usage rating does not need a separate product.
Yes. OpenBRM is open source with no licence fee. You can download it and self-host it, or ask Saralam Technologies for a hosted trial and implementation support.
No. OpenBRM runs on PostgreSQL as a Java application on Tomcat, and can start on a single server.
OpenBRM has a SOAP API, plus a REST API for customer and product lookups, covering the same business entities as the TMF Open APIs. It is not a certified TMF implementation. See the TMF mapping.
A migration starts with scoping your products and price plans, rating rules, integrations and data volumes. We will walk through it with your team — Contact us.