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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:
 

Customer Service

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers responsive customer service, valued for its knowledgeable team, quick escalation, and extensive support resources.
They promptly addressed my concerns regarding permission issues when I contacted them.
Their documentation is clear and built into the GUI, so you can easily access information if you're curious about a topic.
They respond immediately based on the SLA level.
 

Room For Improvement

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
5.3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires improvements in documentation, support, pricing, UI, compatibility, updates, and integration for better user experience.
The solution operates on a subscription-based model, which may not provide immediate return on investment for small to medium-sized organizations.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux could make the interface more colorful and improve the user experience.
Improvement is needed for supporting Kubernetes clusters because it is less supported by Red Hat according to my experience.
 

Scalability Issues

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable and adaptable, supporting efficient workload scaling across various environments, ensuring seamless IT operations.
I would rate the scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as nine out of ten, indicating it scales well with our needs.
 

Setup Cost

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
6.3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's pricing is justified by its support, stability, flexible subscriptions, and appeal for reliability-focused businesses.
It may be considered expensive compared to other solutions like CentOS or Ubuntu, which offer some of the same features without additional costs.
Its pricing has room for improvement because it's more expensive in the local market due to purchasing power parity in India.
 

Stability Issues

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is highly stable and reliable, performing well for business-critical applications with minimal downtime.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers great stability and performance compared to other operating systems.
 

Valuable Features

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
8.3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is praised for robust performance, security, scalability, seamless integration, and comprehensive enterprise-level support.
It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
It also has the 'top' command that gives you all the processes running and their utilization of resources like CPU, RAM, etc.
The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its comprehensive ecosystem.
 

Categories and Ranking

Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
11th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
AWS Marketplace (2nd)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
259
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
Saravvana Kumar. - PeerSpot reviewer
Highly stable, good knowledge base, and reasonable price
Its installation on a RAID or cluster system is something difficult. There are specific teams working on that. The GRUB configuration is also a little different from the other Linux distributions. In terms of additional features, as technology keeps evolving, the product will also have to evolve. For example, Microsoft Windows has come a long way. In Windows 11, there are so many features that are fundamentally the same as the oldest version, but there are other aspects or processes that have improved. macOS has also evolved over time. Similarly, in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux that I used in 2003 and the one that I am using now, some things are the same and some things have changed. Red Hat can continue to engage clients, understand the use cases, and update them.
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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
14%
Educational Organization
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
10%
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 Enterprise Linux is expensive, but I'm not paying anything because it's the company's money. However, it's priced comparably to other enterprise Linux solutions. It costs a lot because you ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
 

Learn More

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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: October 2024.
816,192 professionals have used our research since 2012.