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Kali Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 21, 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
6.5
Kali Linux optimizes vulnerability testing, automates tasks, and offers up to 85% ROI by reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.5
RHEL boosts ROI through cost-saving automation, improved productivity, security, and reduced total ownership costs with reliable support.
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.
SWE-1 at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
If we had installed it on-premises or through other means, it would have incurred significant money and effort to create the VMs, deploy it on machines, and then delete and format it after use.
Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I have saved time by avoiding the lag I sometimes face on the TryHackMe in-built machine, and I have learned more efficiently.
Associate Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
A long lifecycle is key to having a good return on investment.
Architect at KnowIT
Being able to transform common manual tasks that previously took all day into processes that take an hour, half an hour, or even less, demonstrates clear value.
Systems administrator at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has saved us time and increased productivity.
Cloud engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
Kali Linux users rely on community forums and documentation for support, preferring it over traditional customer service methods.
Sentiment score
7.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux support is praised for expertise and efficiency, despite occasional initial communication challenges and delays.
Since most of the tools and other things are community-based, the documentation and other community support are very good.
Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I was able to solve the problems I was experiencing.
Product security engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) support is great, as they go beyond their duty to help resolve issues and provide solutions even for third-party software such as XRDP.
Senior Infrastructure Systems Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
When we do contact customer service, they are generally very knowledgeable and well-versed in our size.
Solutions Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Usually, I send the information, and they have something for me within hours, sometimes even minutes.
Team manager at Evertec
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Kali Linux effectively scales with user needs, handling complex tasks with high user ratings, limited only by hardware.
Sentiment score
7.3
RHEL excels in scalability, enabling seamless adaptation for diverse workloads across on-premises and cloud environments with high stability.
Regarding the scalability of Kali Linux for my work and projects, whenever I was conducting brute force attacks and provided more than two or three million lines of payload, the system would freeze.
Product security engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I find Kali Linux very scalable.
Senior Solution Architect & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
If I need more workload, I would probably need more CPU, and Kali Linux will handle that properly.
Consultant at Cognizant
Many of our applications scale really well, with some having several hundreds of VMs, which we couldn't accomplish on Windows.
Solutions Architect at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales very well with the growing needs of our company.
Director, DevOps at Lightedge Solutions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) handles increases in users, applications, or data smoothly, which is why we use it for all our projects, as it provides us with confidence.
Cloud Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Kali Linux is generally stable, excelling in virtualization, but stability issues may occur, especially during updates.
Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is renowned for its stability and reliability, excelling in uptime and handling business-critical operations efficiently.
Kali Linux is stable for my use cases, though not the latest version.
Product security engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Kali Linux is very stable for my needs.
Consultant at Cognizant
It works consistently with minimal downtime and very few bugs or glitches.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It just works, and that's really the key factor; I can't remember the last time we had a system go down and had to restore it due to a bad patch.
Senior software engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We've not had a service outage with Red Hat in six years.
Team Lead, Linux Systems & Tools at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Kali Linux users seek improved automation, AI integration, enhanced UI, better hardware compatibility, and easier installation and customization.
Improving documentation, support, cost-effectiveness, upgrades, security, GUI, integration, and automation would enhance Red Hat Enterprise Linux's user experience.
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.
Senior Technical Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I face significant challenges with Kali Linux regarding a major issue with the Grub loader becoming corrupted, which makes it very difficult to recover data.
Senior Solution Architect & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Making Kali Linux more customizable would allow users to personalize it to their style.
Associate Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Addressing these limitations would significantly enhance the operating system's flexibility and efficiency.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The built-in security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux were insufficient for our needs, necessitating the implementation of supplementary security measures.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
By providing pre-installed, native automation tools within the operating system, Red Hat would streamline processes and improve user efficiency.
Systems Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Kali Linux is free, open-source, ideal for cost-effective enterprise solutions, with users valuing its comprehensive toolset.
RHEL's high pricing is offset by support and reliability, ideal for enterprises but costly for smaller businesses.
Kali Linux is free software, an operating system that's available to download without any cost or licensing fees.
Associate Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I simply create a VM, so there are no costs involved.
Senior Solution Architect & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Kali Linux has been positive, as it operates under an open-source model.
SWE-1 at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It may be considered expensive compared to other solutions like CentOS or Ubuntu, which offer some of the same features without additional costs.
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Its pricing has room for improvement because it's more expensive in the local market due to purchasing power parity in India.
Cloud engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Windows Servers base their cost on the number of users and have high licensing fees, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers free versions alongside its paid, supported versions.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Kali Linux features tools for cybersecurity, offering easy installation, flexibility, and robust security for penetration testing and training.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in stability, security, and automation, making it a preferred choice with strong support and community backing.
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.
SWE-1 at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
A unique and really helpful feature of Kali Linux, compared to other operating systems, is that many of the offensive security tools are already pre-configured and pre-installed.
Product security engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Kali Linux positively impacts my organization by allowing us to monitor changes and security posture for the company.
Consultant at Cognizant
It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
There is also no downtime.
Linux/DevOps Engineer at Ekwantu Consulting
The operating system allows for the simple addition of kernels, modules, and other applications, making it highly adaptable to various needs.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
382
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Kali Linux is 3.2%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.6%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)7.6%
Kali Linux3.2%
Other89.2%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Ciyagi Ciyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solution Architect & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Runs efficiently across devices and streamlines penetration testing workflows
Kali Linux could be improved by including more tools. I would personally like to see improvements in Kali Linux, particularly regarding Grub issues that sometimes occur when installing the VM. Additionally, I have experienced problems when updating Kali Linux from a higher version to a lower version, which resulted in crashes. These Grub issues should be resolved. I face significant challenges with Kali Linux regarding a major issue with the Grub loader becoming corrupted, which makes it very difficult to recover data.
RO
Server administrator at Northrop Grumman
Empowers collaboration through streamlined integration and extensive documentation
Improving Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be tough, however, a significant area is collaboration tools. We have many Windows users that use Outlook and Skype or Teams to collaborate on our network. They want Linux desktops due to the fact that they want to use containers. Their biggest complaint is, 'I need two workstations to do my container work and one to collaborate.' If somehow RHEL can start introducing or collaborating with Teams and Outlook so their users can work with their Windows peers, that would be great. But I don't think that's available yet. Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, there needs to be more of an education piece to it. For instance, when purchasing 10 or 100 node licenses, they could suggest, 'We also offer this 1,000 node license instead, and it'll save you specific amounts.' Just more education on their offerings would be helpful, because usually, we're coming out with the requirements, and then they just provide it to us. They could inform us about saving by bundling it differently or using alternative approaches.
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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
University
13%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business86
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise262
 

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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been good because I am using the free version.
What needs improvement with Kali Linux?
I think there are a lot of efforts which are really great for improving Kali Linux. Increasing the tutorials and the help inside Kali Linux would make it more useful.
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)?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, the pricing is good; however, licensing is a bit confusing.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS
 

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: December 2025.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.