CentOS vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap comparison

CentOS and openSUSE are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. CentOS is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.8, while openSUSE is ranked #13 with an average rating of 9.5. CentOS holds a 5.5% mindshare in OSB, compared to openSUSE’s 6.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of CentOS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of openSUSE users who would recommend it.

CentOS

Read 69 CentOS reviews

8,350 Views
8,466 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

6,981 Views
6,263 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Read 275 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews

32,560 Views
12,986 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

CentOS

openSUSE Leap

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between CentOS, openSUSE Leap, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Canonical, Oracle and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business.

To learn more, read our detailed Operating Systems (OS) for Business Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 5.5%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 6.3%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 9.9%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

Mahender Nirwan

Software developer at TAIGLE LLC

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.

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NagendraKavadi

Systems Analyst at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Provides BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots

I only use the tool for testing purposes on my team, but multiple people use it. We don't make a team effort to install the solution. When it comes to maintenance, we ask our company to buy SUSE Linux Enterprise. My team consists of 13 people. We are currently integrating the solution with Ansible to do some coding. Although not a full-fledged automation, we are integrating the solution with Ansible and executing a couple of playbooks connected to openSUSE Leap. I would recommend the solution to other users looking for an open-source solution. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Bruce Lundberg

Linux HPC Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Reliable patch management, high uptime, and incredible knowledge base

In terms of security, it does a lot of things that most people still turn off. SELinux is turned on by default. They have pretty good firewall rules in their defaults. The audit rules always take tweaking, but, overall, it comes out of the box not too bad. I used to write scripts to harden them from there. There are multiple ways to provision and patch. You have everything from local repositories to doing it by hand. Their knowledge base is incredible. There is so much information out there. It has never taken me longer than 30 minutes to find an answer to anything, even very tough ones. One company I worked for was a security company, and we did a lot of patching on everything. It was designed around security and email hosting, and uptime was pretty much whatever we wanted it to be. I have had a couple of times when the uptime was bad, but it was caused by a third-party solution. In fact, the Norton antivirus was definitely the worst. Red Hat had nothing to do with it.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is open source."

"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward and not complex, especially if you are familiar with CLI."

"The solution is easy to troubleshoot."

"CentOS adapts well to many software and applications, providing good compatibility."

"The pricing is good. We pay a minimal fee."

"The initial setup is very easy."

"The product is very efficient when it comes to virtualization."

"The most valuable features of CentOS are it is built from Linux, has good performance, and can we can create scripts. The scripts are you to do minor work automatically."

More CentOS pros

"The most valuable feature by far has been the virtualization capabilities of the operating system."

"Stable - it just runs without the necessity to reboot."

"The solution is very stable after it is configured. It is hard to have a panel slow, a problem, misconfiguration, or any kind of loss function."

"The solution is easy for me to use because the backend is derived from FreeBSD and this is something I have been using for over 20 years."

"openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots."

"The most valuable feature of RHEL is the Ansible Automation Platform, closely followed by Satellite."

"I see so many features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux that I do not see in other Linux operating systems, such as Ubuntu. That is why Red Hat is very popular"

"The containerized platform will help us use ROSA."

"The solution's technical support is really good and responsive. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a good file system type and good kernels."

"Their support is valuable. Whenever I had a problem, I could get on a phone call with somebody. I did not have to go to some random forum or send an email and wait forever. I could call somebody."

"For us, its security, management, stability, and hardening are most valuable."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is super fast, and our systems have less downtime."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

Cons

"This solution is no longer supported and will not receive any updates going forward."

"Lacks sufficient security and some coding tools."

"More security features could be included in the next release."

"The price could be better. They could add more drivers in terms of peripherals and other things. Add more drivers for the Linux specifications in the next release. Right now, they are just pushing to have more drivers for Windows instead of Linux."

"The solution could be more scalable."

"When comparing the GUI of CentOS to Microsoft Windows or Mac, it could improve."

"Updates are going to a streaming version."

"CentOS should extend the support of the solution. The solution is set to have no update support in 2023."

More CentOS cons

"I would like openSUSE Leap to have better link integration with Windows."

"In the future, the Active Directory could improve."

"It would be helpful if we could easily switch from openSUSE Leap for testing to SUSE Linux Enterprise for production."

"There is room for improvement in the console."

"Somehow the change from OS12.x via 13.x to Leap was a bit bumpy and some old issues seemed to reappear."

"Like most Linux-based operating systems, the biggest challenge Leap faces is the GUI."

"To improve standardization, deprecate YUM and transition to DNF."

"There is potential for improvement when it comes to ease of use. It has become easier to use over the years but could be better still. Linux, in general, has never been a simple solution. It's usually a more complex solution than something like Windows. If there is a downside, it's that it is more complex than some of the other solutions."

"Everything in my company is based on whatever AWS provides, specifically when Linux is on AWS, and I guess it negatively affected my company."

"We just learned that we can get access to more support documents by going through the portal. I didn't know that. If it was something that was more known or advertised, that would have helped us to find out some of the information a little better."

"I would like to see a better way to organize the jobs within Ansible, specifically with the automation platform."

"The only change that stumped me was the networking in version 9. I preferred the ifconfig way of doing things, but the system changes of it have grown on me."

"The upgrade procedures are a little bit cumbersome. It would be nice if they are not because every three or four years we have to update, and I find that to be a bit on the cumbersome side. We have been able to automate most of it, but we still run into things where the job does not finish. There are things that require additional steps. There are things that need to be removed and that always require manual intervention."

"We finally started doing Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Edge. That one definitely is an improvement. One piece that is missing is that we are required to use moby-engine, but currently, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Edge forces Podman, so we have to work around it."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's freeware, so we can use it without worrying about licensing."

"CentOS is a free solution."

"We have a CentOS license that we pay for on a yearly basis."

"I'm not required to pay a licensing fee."

"It is open-source, which means it is a free product. It has a one-time deployment cost."

"We don’t have to pay for the system’s licenses."

"We are using a subscription-based license option for CentOS."

"I use the free version."

More CentOS pricing and cost advice

"The cost of this solution was reasonable and it was within our budget."

"This is an open-source operating system that can be used free of charge."

"The solution is open-source."

"openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost."

"For the basic operating system, its price is fair. It is not cheap, and it is also not expensive. For the OpenShift or OpenStack implementation, the cost is a little higher than what I would expect, but it is doable. For a storage solution, it is almost impossible to pay. In comparison to open-source competitors, RHEL has the most cost-effective open-source subscription model."

"The licensing model of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good, but lower prices are always preferable."

"Red Hat is stable, and we always opt for the lower-tier subscription, which is affordable."

"The solution can get pretty pricey depending on how many machines we're licensing but for a good reason."

"The Red Hat Enterprise Linux automation platform subscriptions are quite expensive."

"When I started using it, Red Hat Enterprise Linux was free for all and open-source. It is now paid with access to many features to upgrade and use their services."

"I find the cost of this solution expensive."

"We get our licenses directly through Red Hat."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user281973

Storage and VMware Expert at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

14%

Educational Organization

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 st...

See all answers

What do you like most about CentOS?

CentOS is very easy to use, and all the commands are user-friendly.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?

I am not responsible for the setup cost in my company, so I am unsure about the cost of the license.

See all answers

What do you like most about openSUSE Leap?

openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman.

See all answers

What needs improvement with openSUSE Leap?

Both openSUSE Leap and the SUSE Enterprise version use the same kernel. Suppose I have a lower environment where I ca...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for openSUSE Leap?

I use openSUSE Leap for testing purposes. Before officially using any server in our office, we test it using the solu...

See all answers

What do you like most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

Though a bit expensive compared to competitors, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is still recommended because it works...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

The performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux ( /categories/operating-systems-os-for-business ) (RHEL) could be improve...

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle Linux vs CentOS

Compared 40% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs CentOS

Compared 10% of the time

Windows Server vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

Kali Linux vs CentOS

Compared 6% of the time

More CentOS Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 28% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 22% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 18% of the time

Fedora Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 9% of the time

Windows 10 vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 3% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 22% of the time

Windows Server vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 16% of the time

Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 15% of the time

Oracle Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 9% of the time

Windows 11 vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 2% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CentOS

April 2025

Download CentOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

April 2025

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

April 2025

Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL

Overview

CentOS is a versatile operating system with many use cases, including virtual spaces, scientific computing, data center servers, web-based applications, and more. Its valuable features include customization options, low memory consumption, performance, scalability, open-source nature, cost-saving, and compatibility with Red Hat packages.

The solution has helped organizations save money on licensing and improve testing capabilities for new implementations without spending additional resources. CentOS is a stable, reliable, and efficient operating system that is easy to use and integrate with other applications and services.

CentOS

openSUSE Leap is a brand new way of building openSUSE and is new type of hybrid Linux distribution. Leap uses source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), which gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions, and combines that with community developments to give users, developers and sysadmins the best stable Linux experience available. Contributor and enterprise efforts for Leap bridge a gap between matured packages and newer packages found in openSUSE’s other distribution Tumbleweed.

openSUSE

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is recognized for its stability, security, and performance, serving diverse industries with its robust support and seamless cloud deployment capabilities.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides comprehensive server applications across cloud environments, featuring tools like Ansible for enhanced user experience. It integrates OpenShift, Identity Management, and automation, supported by extensive documentation. Users seek easier upgrades, enhanced network virtualization support, and improved live patching.

What are the key features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Stability and Security: RHEL is designed to provide a stable and secure environment, backed by consistent updates.
Cloud Deployment: Easily deployable across cloud platforms, enhancing flexibility.
Integration with Ansible: Enhances operational efficiency with powerful automation tools.
OpenShift and Containerization: Supports modern app development with integrated OpenShift features.
Extensive Documentation: Offers comprehensive resources for users to troubleshoot and optimize.

What are the benefits of using Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Reliable Support: Benefit from extensive support options for seamless operation.
Enhanced Security: Built-in features ensure data integrity and protection.
Increased Flexibility: Suitable for diverse deployment environments, including on-premises and cloud.
Operational Efficiency: Tools like automation and cloud navigation improve productivity.
Training and Resources: Access to comprehensive training contributes to smoother implementations.

In sectors like finance, telecommunications, and education, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is crucial for running stable, secure systems. Its application spans web servers, data management, and containerization through tools like Kubernetes. Organizations adopt it for on-premises, virtualized, and cloud environments, ensuring robust infrastructure management.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Travel Channel, Mohawk Industries, Hilti, Molecular Health, Exolgan, Hotelplan Group, Emory University, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, HCA Healthcare, Paychex, UPS, Intermountain Healthcare, Brinker International, TransUnion, Union Bank, CA Technologies

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

April 2025

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