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CentOS vs Windows 11 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 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
5.8
CentOS offers cost savings, operational stability, and efficiency, enhancing web management with strong community and AI support.
Sentiment score
5.7
Users found Windows 11 cost-effective, especially with free upgrades, though some questioned the ROI without noticeable enhancements.
I have seen a return on investment, particularly in terms of money saved because I do not pay for the servers.
Technical Lead InfraOps at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The money saved was significant, approximately fifteen percent of our IT budget.
Senior Support Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
It saved a lot of time through troubleshooting, which gives us substantial room for improvement in terms of fixing things.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Windows 11 is more stable compared to its earlier versions.
IT Manager
It has definitely saved time and generated a return on investment as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.6
CentOS support relies on community resources and documentation, with Red Hat as a paid alternative for formal assistance.
Sentiment score
6.0
Windows 11 support is generally quick and knowledgeable, though accessibility varies, especially between newer and older hardware.
I would rate the customer support for CentOS a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
I've seen many people across the globe interacting, and when users encounter issues, the community provides solutions.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
I would rate the documentation about eight in terms of usefulness.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
Everything should work perfectly if you have new hardware that matches the Windows 11 requirements.
Head of IT department at Monetars
For issues that require level three or level four support, they initiate a process with Microsoft to address the problem.
Telecom Project Consultant at Nexa Resources
The technical support team’s response time is very slow.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
CentOS is praised for its scalability, handling large user bases effectively and reliably across diverse IT environments.
Sentiment score
5.6
Windows 11 is praised for scalability, offering smooth installation, quick deployment, and adaptability despite some hardware challenges.
CentOS is scalable and user-friendly without requiring complex configurations.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
It allows users to scale resources vertically for upgrading hardware and horizontally by adding more servers, making it suitable for modern web hosting and containerized applications.
IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CentOS's scalability for my organization has handled growth and changing needs smoothly.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
The system is used to control the whole site and the air traffic in every city.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
We faced challenges integrating it in multi-app environments, requiring complex API setups.
Associate Vice President at Rishabh Software
The solution's scalability is good because it allows you to run a large number of virtual machines.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
CentOS is widely regarded as stable and reliable, often rated highly for its consistent performance and efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.0
Windows 11 is praised for performance but criticized for stability issues and frequent update disruptions, with mixed user feedback.
CentOS is stable, reliable, flexible, and very useful.
IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CentOS's simplicity and stability make it easy to use.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
I believe CentOS is stable, but we are gradually moving away from it.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
With the tool, we are able to control airplane traffic.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
The solution's high level of stability ensures that the machine doesn't go down multiple times.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
The stability can be influenced by the status and specifications of our company PCs.
IT Specialist at EMA
 

Room For Improvement

CentOS users seek better security, user-friendliness, third-party integration, frequent updates, and stability, as it shifts from a stable platform.
Windows 11 needs stability, security, and interface improvements as users face compatibility issues, complex installations, and high pricing.
The documentation and support could be improved, along with compatibility with newer hardware as hardware continually evolves over time.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
Kernel parameters, sysctl config details, tuned profiles, process prioritization, optimized disk, and input scheduler choice are all points for performance optimization.
IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CentOS RADIUS server handles sensitive authentication data, so improving security is the priority.
Technical person at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
For a better experience, Windows 11 should be improved to take fewer resources.
Delivery Manager at Ford Motor Company
The needed improvements in Windows 11 include that the Copilot integration needs a better user interface experience with rich features, alongside making a very simple UI experience as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
From an improvement perspective, the frequency of updates should be lesser.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
 

Setup Cost

CentOS is a cost-effective, open-source operating system favored for its free availability and minimal setup costs.
Enterprise users see Windows 11 pricing as high yet fair, benefiting from integrated licensing, bulk deals, and deployment advantages.
There was no cost in terms of deploying it or getting the license for it.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
CentOS is a free product with free updates.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
The enterprise subscription cost is at a certain level, but CentOS saves customers from paying additional money, optimizing costs for enterprises and startups involved in application development.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.
IT Manager
The tool is expensive.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
I have a university license, so I do not pay anything for Windows 11.
Associate Professor at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

CentOS is a stable, secure, and cost-effective platform with excellent compatibility, ideal for enterprises seeking reliability and performance.
Windows 11 offers a user-friendly interface, enhanced security, productivity features, and seamless integration with Microsoft tools, boosting its appeal.
CentOS has helped me most through its enterprise-level stability.
Technical person at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The update cycle changed when CentOS was prioritized for updates, causing stability issues.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
In my experience, the best feature that CentOS offers is the network configuration of a device from the command-line interface, which is exceptionally clean.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
The tool's most valuable feature is its stability.
Telecom Project Consultant at Nexa Resources
Windows is one of the best operating systems an enterprise or user can use.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
The solution's most valuable feature stems from the fact that it has been a huge product for Australia's air traffic control system for many years.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
 

Categories and Ranking

CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 11
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.4%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 11 is 8.4%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Windows 118.4%
CentOS4.4%
Other87.2%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Wasif - PeerSpot reviewer
IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Has supported reliable deployments and simplified issue resolution in complex environments
The most suitable feature of CentOS is its exceptional stability, security, and long-term support, which make it a popular choice for enterprise and server environments. CentOS is widely recognized for providing a stable and secure platform, especially suited for server and mission-critical workloads. Whenever we face critical work, it is easy for our team to handle. For long-term support, each CentOS release generally guarantees long-term updates, ensuring reliability for extended periods. For package management, we use YUM and DNF in the new version for flexible and efficient software management. It depends on our users' requirements for installing CentOS. Licensing for CentOS is above my management details, so I am not aware of this information. CentOS always provides good feedback, is easy to handle, and easy to troubleshoot. The experience with CentOS OS has been very good over the last two months. I rate CentOS nine out of ten.
Naveenkumar Lakshman - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
Daily work has become smoother and organized as I manage calls, notes, and files efficiently
The best features that Windows 11 offers in my opinion are Notepad++ and the integration, as I could use Microsoft 365 on it and I could also run many applications. If I want to use Linux, then I could use Windows Subsystem for Linux as well. Most of the industry-wide applications are easily installable on Windows 11 and user-friendly as well. Windows 11 has definitely impacted my organization positively because you could see that all the day-to-day activities, most of our professionals would use a Windows system itself. In terms of productivity, Windows 11 has made a positive difference as we use a mail inbox with its links and Microsoft Teams, which is available. Windows 11 is natively installable and very friendly with the compatible operating system, and alongside, we have other applications that are available. Edge browser, which is the default browser for Windows 11, is also a good browser and a very decent option. Additionally, we have other features available for the day-to-day activities. You can see it gives you a basic calendar, calculator, and camera options, and you have the File Explorer. You get a pretty decent operating system for a layman to work on a day-to-day basis. While there are certain tasks that consume a certain amount of time, Windows 11 reduces the time. The usability and architecture, how it is built, makes a user get into a state where they don't need to spend excessive effort on the task to be done. You can get everything through a UI-based interface, and everything is sorted and very simple. Over the period of time, the operating system evolution by Microsoft is good for the individual workspace.
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
 

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?
I am not entirely sure about the license I purchased for my local machine, but I assume it is the community version, while for the AWS one, I do not entirely remember the pricing.
What do you like most about Windows 11?
We use Windows 11 for our workstation’s daily operations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows 11?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Windows 11 is that it is bundled with the hardware. It comes with a pre-installed license in the operating system. When the laptop or deskt...
What needs improvement with Windows 11?
One area where Windows 11 can be improved is the Copilot that has been added. It should have a good, decent user interface experience. The user interface experience should be enhanced in terms of C...
 

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. Windows 11 and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.