Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Kali Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
11th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
AWS Marketplace (9th)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
270
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Kali Linux is 1.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 10.6%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

GurpreetSingh4 - PeerSpot reviewer
Has small footprint and low maintenance cycles
Pre-installed tools can provide basic training and security measures, which is helpful. However, these tools may not be sufficient to secure your workload fully. That's why it's important to complement them with other specialized security tools to enhance your overall security. Before using Kali Linux, make sure you know its pros and cons. It's a good system to learn because it's the best choice for some situations. It has default firewall settings that block everything by default. It's up to the user to decide how much they want to open up. Learning Kali Linux takes time because it relies on command-line tasks instead of graphical interfaces. Practice is key to becoming comfortable with it.
Bruce Lundberg - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The interface is good and straightforward to use."
"The most effective features of Kali Linux include its stability as a Linux operating system, its flexibility in configuring resources such as partitions, its powerful and stable file system, and its multi-user capability, which allows for setting user privileges and rights. Additionally, Kali Linux provides access to a wide range of free and open-source applications for testing and development purposes."
"The most valuable feature of Kali Linux is the attack it performs using a CVE script that's already on the internet."
"In general, Kali Linux is used for hosting applications, developing new applications, and operating systems. It's also used in containers and nodes. The tool offers a smaller footprint than Windows because it lacks the functionality of graphical user interfaces. One advantage of Kali Linux is its lower maintenance requirements than Windows, with slower update cycles and easier maintenance procedures."
"We use the product for open-source intelligence and identifying vulnerabilities."
"I'm mostly using for the web security web application, so end map and the troubleshoot will it's my price, and it's available in ColliNX."
"Additionally, it now includes comprehensive migration analytics and reporting capabilities."
"Kali Linux is much better than other OS because it gives you a good set of tools. It is preferred for vulnerability assessments and cybersecurity."
"We use this product's built-in tracing and monitoring tools such as syslog and SAR (system activity reporter) to provide us with greater insight and visibility into what's going on."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features are very good."
"The product is optimized for resource utilization."
"I like the stability that comes with Red Hat. That has always been the feature that I like."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the underlying licensing system that our third-party tool uses. It offers convenience. We can open a case when we want to escalate anything."
"The support from Red Hat is valuable."
"Technical support is excellent."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very stable. It has been in the market for so many years, and it is used by large organizations."
 

Cons

"I would like for them to offer more features for the free version in order for users to test them in their internal environment before purchasing."
"The tool is slightly difficult to learn."
"The product should integrate AI and GPT capabilities."
"Any new user or someone without deep expertise won't be able to understand how to scale or manage it"
"I would like to have automation in Kali Linux instead of manually configuring or setting up something in case of an upgrade."
"There can be some lagging issues because the product gets stuck at times, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The installation process of Kali Linux can be slow, particularly when installing and upgrading packages within virtualized environments."
"From an improvement perspective, Kali Linux could include more ML to help with academic literature, as it is one of the areas where there are shortcomings in the solution."
"The accessibility to the resources could be more widespread. We have to put a lot of effort into finding indigenous information on the site. For example, the license information is convoluted. This information should be easier for customers to access."
"It is not very easy to manage because it has a command line interface, and it can be a little bit confusing from one version to another."
"I am still trying to figure out the features it has. There is so much that it can do."
"An area for improvement in RHEL has to do with security policies. I know they are doing something about this in RHEL 9, but I haven't worked with that version yet. When it comes to security policies in RHEL 8, it is a bit behind. It would be better if we could just enforce a certain security policy such as CIS Level 1. That was not available, out-of-the-box, in RHEL 8."
"Sometimes they don't have new versions for applications like Apache or PHP. I understand it's because they have to have support for them, so they can't have the latest version all the time, but that's the main thing I see that could be improved."
"Recently, Red Hat did a strange thing where they took over the CentOS project and changed several things in their pipeline. I don't believe that I, or the vast majority of Linux systems engineers out there, are fans of their development process for the operating system."
"From a cloud perspective, I'm looking for more integrations with native cloud services. For example, the ability to use native Azure Key Vault instead of Ansible Key Vault or Red Hat Key Vault."
"Right now, we need to get memory and CPU via the console."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source tool."
"Kali Linux is open source."
"The price is good because Kali Linux already provides a good bundle of tools."
"I have used the free version."
"I use it free of charge."
"The tool is open-source."
"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 perpetual license. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"The licensing fee is expensive compared to other products."
"We transferred our license to the cloud because we were originally a VMware on-prem shop. So we're just transitioning some of our workloads to cloud licensing. Also, I have opted for a subscription."
"We have to pay for the support and features."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a yearly subscription cost for the licensing that includes maintenance and support."
"The price is reasonable."
"The price for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is reasonable."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a more cost-effective solution than Windows Servers."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"It is expensive. Everything is. I was happy to get a three-year Red Hat Enterprise Linux contract for our initial rollout."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Operating Systems (OS) for Business solutions are best for your needs.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
11%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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?
The tool is already stable and well-developed, so there's minimal feedback for enhancement or change. However, it should improve security, which is crucial, especially with the increasing use of Ka...
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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
Red Hat could gain a competitive advantage in the Asia Pacific region by adjusting its pricing strategy. Lowering the cost of enterprise-level offerings could attract organizations seeking operatin...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Kali Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.