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Oracle Solaris 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

Oracle Solaris
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
49
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 Oracle Solaris is 3.2%, down from 3.6% 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

Zandile Mushi - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good security features and reliability
The tool is quite complex and difficult for anyone trying to use or study it. The complexity of learning the tool is an area of concern where improvements are required. Oracle Solaris' lighter and simpler version can be introduced. I feel that Oracle Solaris is a user-friendly tool because I am exposed to 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

"One of the main advantages is the rock-solid reliability. It works. The stability is very good. It has a very good track record in the data security database."
"The stability of the solution is good."
"Solaris's best features are high availability, robustness, and database hosting."
"It stands out for its exceptional stability."
"The backup capabilities are quite good."
"Oracle Solaris was the preferred operating system for their customers to run their databases on and to get the best performance. It performs well with Oracle applications. Additionally, there are some features inside that are called zones which are Linux containers."
"The ability to manipulate the zones and the files within the zones from a global OS provides us flexibility that no other virtualization can match."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The security of the OS is the most valuable feature."
"The biggest benefit is from a security standpoint. As the product progresses and they come up with new versions, the new security features are addressing vulnerabilities. From that perspective, it has worked well."
"Red Hat has introduced a fast server, where Red Hat Enterprise Linux can be integrated or connected to via a client."
"Red Hat Insights provides good visibility and proactive management of our environment."
"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."
"The most valuable features are ease of support and the ability to run a read-only course on the operating system."
"The technical support is very helpful."
 

Cons

"Solaris' package management could be improved, especially in comparison to Linux."
"There is an issue where Solaris doesn't give the correct figures for memory use when checked."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is more secure and better documented. So Oracle could learn from them when it comes to security and documentation."
"I believe before Oracle was using Oracle Linux, they were using Oracle Solaris for their customers who are using Oracle databases. This was because it was more optimized for the hardware built for it. It has good performance for the database only. However, if you take it out of the Oracle applications, it will not do well compared to other operating systems, such as Linux or even Windows can have better performance."
"The tool is quite complex and difficult for anyone trying to use or study it."
"One of the drawbacks is Oracle itself. Oracle has its good and bad they are not putting resources into the development."
"The solution is pricey and can be improved by lowering the cost."
"Oracle customer service is slow at times."
"Everything in my company is based on whatever AWS provides, specifically when Linux is on AWS, and I guess it negatively affected my company."
"When we initially began working with containers, we encountered some challenges with compatibility."
"Some problems may occur with the product if you don't patch it after a year or two."
"The default settings are confusing."
"It could be simplified. I'd like to see them introduce PDFs or documents to better explain technicalities to new users."
"Although the price is reasonable, there is room for improvement in order to stand out from other open-source solutions."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux was not used for containerization due to its mutable nature, unlike CoreOS, a lightweight and immutable Red Hat Enterprise Linux variant designed explicitly for containerization and optimized for running authorization."
"The GUI has room for improvement. It needs to be managed by many administrators. It has basic command lines. They could improve it with better automation. We'd like to be able to create a script, and then have the ability to deploy it where we don't need to write everything manually. That part can be useful for automating."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive product. I rate the pricing a ten out of ten."
"We don't use an authorized license."
"The solution is expensive and is based on an annual fee."
"Solaris is highly priced compared to other solutions, but since it's a niche product, this is to be expected."
"It is more expensive, but very complete and worth enacting."
"The current setup with hardware devices involves a higher cost, but the performance is top-notch."
"The product is inexpensive."
"If you buy Oracle hardware it's supported free with the hardware. If you're putting it on non-Oracle hardware, that is when you buy the support license, which is also very reasonable. It is $1000 dollars per year, so it's not overly expensive."
"They knew we would buy tons of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so they were a little bit more relaxed. We wanted a thousand licenses, and we could pick those up. We true up. Our license experience has been positive with the exception of having to deal with all of the broken-up accounts, which is as much our fault as anybody's."
"I do not know enough to give a comprehensive answer, but other operating systems are in use at my company because they have more favorable licensing terms."
"It is expensive. Everything is. I was happy to get a three-year Red Hat Enterprise Linux contract for our initial rollout."
"We use open source. We only have a subscription for support."
"I like my developer account. The free sixteen licenses that they give with the developer account are great because that gives me the ability to keep using it at home instead of trying CentOS or something like that."
"Its licensing is pretty confusing. There are a lot of subscriptions, and it isn't always clear which subscription is the best, but with their support, it's easy to find the right one."
"Red Hat is stable, and we always opt for the lower-tier subscription, which is affordable."
"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side, mainly because of the support they provide. However, it is quite affordable if you are an organization. If, as a small company or individual, this is an expensive option, I would recommend CentOS, which is an exact replica of RHEL, minus the customer support."
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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
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
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

How does Oracle Linux compare with Solaris?
When comparing Oracle Linux and Solaris, I believe that Linux is more secure and more flexible. It is also very suitable for enterprises that are already Oracle solution users. I found Linux to be ...
What do you like most about Oracle Solaris?
We use the solution as an internal operating system.
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)?
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...
 

Also Known As

Solaris 11, Solaris
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Siemens, IVV
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 Oracle Solaris vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.