Installation methods

Devstack

For Hawthorn and above, Devstack is based on docker to install the stack. Previously, Vagrant was used for installation; however, now with Docker it should be straightforward. Follow official instructions to install your devstack

Don't use Devstack for anything other than development because its lack of stability can result in lost progress and precious information.

Bitnami

Bitnami's installation is one of the easy installation options which with just a click you can install OpenEDX, but its downfall is that you don't have full control over the code base (adding new features, making changes etc. won't be straightforward). Scalability also presents an issue; there is no straightforward workflow to create multi-server environments and share traffic loads between different nodes.

Tutor

Tutor is an easy way to get started with OpenEdx without having the complexity of a native installation. Tutor provides you with everything that's needed for production, but it has some drawbacks as well.

• It installs all services on one server and scalability becomes difficult if you want to divide platform roles (app servers and data servers) and it's not clear how you can distribute the application load by providing multiple app servers.

• Tutor is not officially supported by edx.org and is maintained by the third part

• Tutor is using docker, and it adds another learning curve for the maintainer of the platform

• Since you don't have access to all the configurations, that limits how many customizations and tweaks you can do with your platform.

• Integration with third-party systems like BI connector and IDPs is not straightforward

Native

Native installation is the most complex method for installing openedx. But when you do it the right way, you have the power to do whatever you want to do with the platform.

• Customizing the backend, frontend without limit.

• Integrate your instance with third-party systems like Auth0, Stripe, and BI connector.

• You can have a multi-server environment to provide scalability and availability.

• You don't have any limit on what Independently deployable application (IDA) you can add to OpenEDX

• This is the official method for installing OpenEDX and supported by edx.org