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CentOS vs Kali Linux comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.0
Businesses rely on CentOS for efficient web application management, ensuring operations efficiency and cost savings through regular updates.
Sentiment score
8.5
Kali Linux provided cost-effective vulnerability testing, enhancing system security and efficiency, while integrating with DevOps and facilitating faster learning.
We have saved approximately 50% of our revenue by using CentOS.
It saved a lot of time through troubleshooting, which gives us substantial room for improvement in terms of fixing things.
Integrating Kali Linux with DevOps tools has resulted in reduced operational costs due to automated test cases, making it a worthwhile investment with significant returns by decreasing the attack surface area and the frequency of attack incidents.
I have saved time by avoiding the lag I sometimes face on the TryHackMe in-built machine, and I have learned more efficiently.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
CentOS relies on an active community, offering troubleshooting through forums and documentation, despite lacking official technical support.
Sentiment score
4.6
Kali Linux support relies on active community forums, offering reliable guidance and documentation, with limited traditional support.
I would rate the customer support for CentOS a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
I would rate the documentation about eight in terms of usefulness.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
CentOS efficiently scales across user volumes and hardware, though some users note limitations requiring external tools or license changes.
Sentiment score
7.0
Kali Linux offers strong scalability, efficiently supporting single to multiple users for both personal and professional environments.
CentOS's scalability for my organization has handled growth and changing needs smoothly.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
CentOS is highly stable, with users praising its reliability and scoring its performance between eight and ten out of ten.
Sentiment score
7.8
Kali Linux is highly praised for its stability and reliability, particularly in virtualization, despite occasional system-specific issues.
I believe CentOS is stable, but we are gradually moving away from it.
 

Room For Improvement

CentOS struggles with performance, stability, UI complexity, limited documentation, security concerns, and needs more updates and support.
Kali Linux needs better automation, AI integration, user interfaces, security, and community engagement for improved user experience and compatibility.
CentOS should introduce more security patches to fix different vulnerabilities.
CentOS removed long-term support, and version releases every two to three years are not ideal for production environments because they necessitate frequent updates.
It could be brought back, but that seems unnecessary now that Rocky Linux exists.
If real-time customized port scanning can be added, for example, instead of a default port such as 8080 or 443, if we can use a customized port such as 9876, that capability would be great.
Making Kali Linux more customizable would allow users to personalize it to their style.
Making it more user-friendly and encouraging the use of GUI tools can significantly enhance the overall experience.
 

Setup Cost

CentOS is cost-effective for enterprises, offering free open-source use with optional third-party support and nominal fees.
Kali Linux is free and open-source, offering cost-effective tools without licensing fees, except for potential setup costs.
There was no cost in terms of deploying it or getting the license for it.
CentOS is a free product with free updates.
Kali Linux is free software, an operating system that's available to download without any cost or licensing fees.
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Kali Linux has been positive, as it operates under an open-source model.
 

Valuable Features

CentOS excels in stability, performance, and security, favored for compatibility, scalability, and open-source flexibility with minimal resource consumption.
Kali Linux offers robust tools, security, scalability, and efficiency, enhancing penetration testing and reducing cybersecurity threats effectively.
We have not faced any CPU utilization alerts, and there have been no downtime reports from CentOS.
Even when a product does not function optimally, the base OS CentOS works smoothly; we can see the status of the services with the command-line interface, making it very efficient.
The best feature CentOS offers is that it's free.
Kali Linux has positively impacted my organization by improving efficiency in penetration testing; its open-source nature permits extensive customization and inclusion of numerous comprehensive pre-installed tools, contributing to a secure network environment with effective monitoring of network applications.
The overall focus on security in Kali Linux is what I find most useful.
Kali Linux has the capability of real-time data scanning for vulnerability assessment for backend services.
 

Categories and Ranking

CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.5%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kali Linux is 3.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
CentOS4.5%
Kali Linux3.0%
Other92.5%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Mahender Nirwan - PeerSpot reviewer
In-depth documentation available and command-line utility works well
One issue I recently faced, but I think it was due to my IT support guys, was that when the server storage gets full, the service crashes. It's very difficult to regain access and stability in that situation. That could be improved. So, the stability might be improved. But I don't think it's a CentOS-level issue. The system administrators need to come up with a solution for that, but I don't think it's CentOS's fault. I haven't done any research [R&D] on this issue. There's one thing for sure. We recently migrated from CentOS 7 to CentOS 9, and it was a bit difficult. For example, updating Windows is simple; you just download it, and it takes about 15-20 minutes. But that's not the case with migrating from CentOS 7 to 9. We had to back up the entire server, launch a new server, and then restore the backup to the new server. We couldn't directly migrate. I think that was a bit of a problem. The setup and updates are not that new in CentOS.
Aditya Pillai - PeerSpot reviewer
Has helped me learn penetration testing through hands-on tasks and faster workflows
It would be helpful if Kali Linux could be involved in more systems or laptops. Windows is a standard for many laptops and comes pre-installed on many devices available in the market. If Kali Linux could do the same and increase their reach to better areas, it would be beneficial. They could improve Kali Linux's UI/UX. They have been following a standard UI/UX. They could add more options, similar to how CachyOS distro of Arch Linux has many different UI options to select from. Making Kali Linux more customizable would allow users to personalize it to their style. Many users utilize Kali Linux through virtual machines. Sometimes Kali Linux has issues detecting hardware such as inbuilt or external Wi-Fi adapters. Improving device detection would be beneficial.
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 24, 2017
It's improved our company's system environments that run Oracle databases.
Red Hat is mission critical to our environment Red Hat has improved the mission critical environments running Oracle databases, while CentOS has improved our web environment and MySQL. Oracle and SAP Environment and all HPC environments. 10 years No issues Very stable i don´t find any problem…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
University
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Educational Organization
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or CentOS?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is fantastic. It is an inexpensive solution that has excellent security, performance, and stability, and also lots of features. I specifically like that the solution has fe...
What do you like most about CentOS?
CentOS is very easy to use, and all the commands are user-friendly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?
CentOS is a free product with free updates. There are third-party companies available for support, but they charge varying amounts for their services.
What do you like most about Kali Linux?
I use the tool with Nmap to perform network audits. We use it to find vulnerabilities in our network through attacks. It's for those who want to launch or create viruses or perform attacks on syste...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kali Linux?
Kali Linux offers a perpetual license, meaning you pay for it once and can use it. While free versions of Linux are available, Kali Linux, being an enterprise edition, usually comes with a perpetua...
What needs improvement with Kali Linux?
We don't know if Kali Linux has the port scanning capability yet, but that is an area of improvement because we are working with DMZ zones and customized ports. If we can add featured customized po...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CentOS 7 (x86_64) - with Updates HVM
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about CentOS vs. Kali Linux and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
870,697 professionals have used our research since 2012.