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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.5
Oracle Solaris offers strong integration and troubleshooting ease, but cost-effectiveness and complexity vary, impacting adoption and ROI.
Sentiment score
7.6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers cost savings, efficiency, and enhanced productivity through reliability, automation, community support, and scalability.
In terms of ROI, there have been performance improvements because Oracle Solaris is lighter.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has saved us time and increased productivity.
Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux can yield resource savings of 200 percent to 300 percent compared to Windows Server instances.
It helps them meet the requirements of having commercial support, and that is about the extent of it.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Oracle Solaris offers global 24/7 support with knowledgeable staff but faces regional quality variance and sometimes scripted interactions.
Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides proficient support, with high ratings but occasional delays in complex cases and time zone issues.
They respond immediately based on the SLA level.
The technical support is excellent.
They promptly addressed my concerns regarding permission issues when I contacted them.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Oracle Solaris excels in scalability and adaptability, efficiently handling workloads across diverse IT environments and supporting extensive storage.
Sentiment score
7.7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in scalability, performance, and adaptability across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments for enterprises.
There are no issues with scalability when it comes to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Each computer has at least 24 to 72 CPUs in it, and everything runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Rocky.
Switching between vendors requires a significant migration effort.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Oracle Solaris is praised for its stability, with minimal issues, high reliability, and strong support enhancing user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
8.2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is praised for its stability, reliability, and efficiency, though third-party software integration may pose challenges.
It works consistently with minimal downtime and very few bugs or glitches.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers great stability and performance compared to other operating systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle Solaris needs better hardware certification, easier configuration, enhanced GUI, and broader software support for improved adoption.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires improvements in user-friendliness, compatibility, support, pricing, and enhanced features like automation and security.
Oracle Solaris needs to improve its compatibility with office tools like Excel.
Addressing these limitations would significantly enhance the operating system's flexibility and efficiency.
The built-in security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux were insufficient for our needs, necessitating the implementation of supplementary security measures.
By providing pre-installed, native automation tools within the operating system, Red Hat would streamline processes and improve user efficiency.
 

Setup Cost

Oracle Solaris offers significant savings and robust integration, despite complex licensing and higher costs versus alternatives like Linux.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's pricing is high, but its strong support and stability are valued by larger organizations.
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
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.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Oracle Solaris offers virtualization, data management, stability, and integration features, ensuring high availability and performance for enterprises.
RHEL offers stability, security, enterprise support, and tools for efficient management, ideal for mission-critical and diverse environments.
The operating system is lightweight, which makes it easier to use on an average computer compared to systems like Windows.
It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
There is also no downtime.
The operating system allows for the simple addition of kernels, modules, and other applications, making it highly adaptable to various needs.
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Solaris
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
50
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
7.3
Number of Reviews
271
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Oracle Solaris is 2.4%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 9.9%, down from 12.4% 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.
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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)?
The setup and licensing costs for RHEL are high, especially concerning support and associated applications. Red Hat charges high prices for support solutions like Ansible ( /products/red-hat-ansibl...
 

Also Known As

Solaris 11, Solaris
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
 

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: February 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.