Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap comparison

openSUSE and Red Hat are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. openSUSE is ranked #13 with an average rating of 9.3, while Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. openSUSE holds a 5.9% mindshare in OSB, compared to Red Hat’s 11.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of openSUSE users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

7,379 Views
6,539 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Read 263 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews

39,082 Views
14,503 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and openSUSE Leap are both popular Linux distributions. Users are generally happier with the pricing and support of RHEL, but openSUSE Leap is preferred for its feature set and perceived value.

Features: RHEL is praised for its robust security features, extensive documentation, and strong support network. openSUSE Leap, on the other hand, is valued for its advanced system administration tools, flexibility, and broad software repository. Users prefer openSUSE Leap's features due to its versatility and comprehensive toolset.

Room for Improvement: RHEL users indicate a need for improved user feedback mechanisms and simpler setup processes. openSUSE Leap users desire more frequent updates and streamlined package management. Both products have areas to improve, but openSUSE Leap's feedback focuses more on enhancement rather than fundamental issues.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: RHEL is recognized for its straightforward deployment and excellent customer service with prompt support responses. Conversely, openSUSE Leap is noted for its slightly steeper learning curve and community-driven support, which can be slower but often comprehensive. RHEL users find deployment easier, while openSUSE Leap users appreciate the community aspect.

Pricing and ROI: RHEL has a higher upfront cost which users feel is justified by its return on investment due to stable and secure operation. openSUSE Leap, being open-source and free, provides excellent ROI but may incur higher indirect costs through the need for customized support solutions. Users find RHEL's pricing more predictable, while openSUSE Leap offers more cost flexibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

December 2024

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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:

Categories and Ranking

openSUSE Leap

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

13th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

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

7.4

Number of Reviews

263

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 5.9%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 11.8%, 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

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

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

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

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

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

"We have used many of the Linux-based operating systems for production purposes, but this is the only solution that guarantees performance and scalability. When we run industry servers, they demand high performance."

"Resiliency-wise, the solution is very good."

"The cloud platform provides a real-time experience, enabling us to practice for exams easily and enhance our Linux knowledge."

"The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its comprehensive ecosystem."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its good integration with Ansible."

"We have support. If we have any issues with the distro, we can call their support team."

"When it comes to security, scalability, and robustness, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) excels in all aspects. That's why we rely on this operating system."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable attribute is its stability."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

Cons

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

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

"There is room for improvement in the console."

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

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

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

"Providing more detailed explanations would make it easier to work on projects."

"While Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers robust security features, continuous improvement is crucial to ensure a secure environment and prevent potential losses."

"Red Hat training is phenomenal, but it is expensive. There has to be a better way to onboard new engineers into Linux to really and truly compete with Microsoft."

"The patching process with Red Hat is disruptive and not very cost-effective."

"Red Hat could enhance its user experience by incorporating built-in automation tools, eliminating users needing to install, set up, or configure external applications."

"Red Hat can improve its operating system by making it better from the quality assurance perspective. Users do find bugs, which they, of course, shouldn't encounter. A better QA would probably make the job a lot better. It would make the product a lot more stable than it's today."

"Most Indians will find Red Hat Enterprise Linux a little costly."

"One area for improvement is the Subscription Manager, which is sometimes an inconvenience, especially when it doesn't work well with Satellite."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"The solution is open-source."

"I do not know the overall cost, but I know that Red Hat is cheaper than Windows."

"The prices are comparable, and good for what is being provided."

"It seems to be fair. It is not overpriced."

"I have purchased the license via hyperscalers and transferred it as well. I purchased the license from the marketplace and also from Red Hat. Pricing is something that can always be better."

"The licensing with Red Hat is on par with other organizations like Microsoft. We have a site license, which gives us a certain number of servers, perhaps 25,000, for the type of license that we have. That works really well for us."

"It's pretty expensive, but I'm not familiar with the pricing of other vendors for their operating systems. I'd rate it a seven out of ten in terms of pricing. Red Hat Enterprise Linux's main advantage is the support that you get by purchasing their subscriptions."

"The tool is getting expensive."

"We purchased it directly from Red Hat. Compared to open source, it's very pricey, but you get the support, which makes it much better."

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 can run openSUSE to test all my products. It would be helpful if I could easily sw...

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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 solution. My office usually uses production servers on the SUSE Linux enterprise ver...

See all answers

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...

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)?

I do not have any insights, but I know why the prices went up. At the time, it made sense. I do not know what the pricing is like now. Previously, the pricing model was advantageous as it allowed u...

See all answers

Comparisons

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 27% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 25% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 17% of the time

CentOS vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 4% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 21% of the time

Windows Server vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 17% of the time

Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 14% of the time

Windows 10 vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 10% of the time

VMware vSphere vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 2% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

December 2024

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

January 2025

Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL

Learn More

openSUSE

Red Hat

Overview

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.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a stable and reliable open-source operating system for running application servers, databases, web servers, and production systems. It is also used for cloud infrastructure services, BI, and disaster assistance. Its valuable features include support and subscription, ease of management and troubleshooting, integration with existing infrastructure, security updates and hardening tools, scalability, and flexibility.

Red Hat has helped organizations accelerate deployment, provide stability, control, and reliable updates, and enable the deployment of current applications and emerging workloads across different environments.

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

December 2024

Free Report: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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