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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Windows 11 comparison

Red Hat and Microsoft are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8, while Microsoft is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5. Red Hat holds a 10.6% mindshare in OSB, compared to Microsoft’s 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Read 270 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews
  • 37,090 Views
  • 13,999 Comparison Views
97% willing to recommend
Windows 11
Read 44 Windows 11 reviews
  • 2,470 Views
  • 2,349 Comparison Views
93% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Windows 11 cater to different user needs with distinct advantages. RHEL excels in support and long-term cost benefits, while Windows 11 leads in features and ease of use.

Features: RHEL is known for its robust security features, stability, and versatility in enterprise environments. Its deployment tools, automated patch management, and comprehensive support structure make it appealing for enterprises. Windows 11 offers extensive software compatibility, an intuitive user experience, and rich multimedia capabilities, making it ideal for desktop use and user satisfaction.

Room for Improvement: RHEL users indicate a need for better GUI enhancements, more straightforward updates, and a more user-friendly interface. Windows 11 users want improved customization options, reduced bloatware, and more consistent updates. Addressing these areas can enhance user experience for both systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: RHEL stands out due to its comprehensive deployment tools and excellent customer support services, facilitating smoother enterprise integration. Windows 11 benefits from easy installation processes and a familiar interface, though troubleshooting might require moderate to high support levels. RHEL’s professional support is highly detailed, whereas Windows 11’s user-friendly service can sometimes be less comprehensive.

Pricing and ROI: RHEL offers competitive pricing with significant ROI from reduced maintenance and robust security. Subscription-based models can start as low as $349 per server annually. Windows 11, though perceived as pricier initially, delivers strong ROI through productivity and regular updates, with a one-time cost starting from $139. RHEL’s cost advantage lies in lower operational expenses over time, and Windows 11 provides immediate returns in performance and compatibility.

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To learn more, read our detailed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Windows 11 Report (Updated: February 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Windows 11
February 2025
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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers cost-effective stability, scalability, and support, reducing expenses and enhancing productivity for businesses.
Sentiment score
8.6
Windows 11 provides varied ROI, with benefits including cost savings, improved interface, and strong support, though not universally significant.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
Windows 11 is more stable compared to its earlier versions.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
Syed Azhar - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2592627 - PeerSpot reviewer
MD
PK
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers reliable support with prompt issue resolution, though some users experience delays and navigation challenges.
Sentiment score
8.8
Windows 11 support experiences vary; enterprise users report satisfaction, while others face slow responses, preferring self-service options.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
They are very quick and knowledgeable about their product.
Sometimes they won't even respond.
Everything should work perfectly if you have new hardware that matches the Windows 11 requirements.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
SC
Syed Azhar - PeerSpot reviewerZunaira Afzal - PeerSpot reviewerAnish Bheekoo - PeerSpot reviewerAjenthan Aiyathurai - PeerSpot reviewer
AI
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers exceptional scalability and flexibility across various environments, seamlessly handling diverse workloads and resource adjustments.
Sentiment score
6.4
Windows 11 is praised for scalability and ease of deployment but suggested to improve hardware integration and sizing.
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.
I would rate the scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as nine out of ten, indicating it scales well with our needs.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
With various products available, such as those integrated with Active Directory, you can streamline and automate the process for a thousand users or more.
I would rate the scalability of Windows 11 a ten out of ten.
I would rate the product's scalability a nine out of ten and my company has about 2000 users for Windows 9 and Windows 10.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
reviewer2592627 - PeerSpot reviewerBruce Lundberg - PeerSpot reviewerSyed Azhar - PeerSpot reviewer
MK
Narender Reddy - PeerSpot reviewerAyaz Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
RHEL is favored for its stability, minimal downtime, and reliability in business-critical environments, despite minor third-party related issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
Windows 11 is generally rated as stable and reliable, with minimal issues and effective performance for everyday applications.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
I rate the stability a nine and a half out of ten.
With the tool, we are able to control airplane traffic.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
reviewer2592627 - PeerSpot reviewer
SC
reviewer2599974 - PeerSpot reviewerAnish Bheekoo - PeerSpot reviewerFrancis Adesalu - PeerSpot reviewerYantao Zhao - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Room For Improvement

Red Hat Enterprise Linux could enhance support, documentation, user-friendliness, and adaptability, focusing on automation, security, and cost-effectiveness.
Windows 11 requires enhancements in security, stability, cost, interface, updates, compatibility, and AI integration for improved user satisfaction.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
In terms of security, implementing easier remote access to laptops and providing more mature patching options would be beneficial.
It should also improve security which includes patching the vulnerabilities.
Windows 11's pricing needs improvement.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
reviewer2592627 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2591346 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2620827 - PeerSpot reviewerAnish Bheekoo - PeerSpot reviewerEnrique Hernandez - PeerSpot reviewer
SA
 

Setup Cost

Red Hat Enterprise Linux pricing is high, with larger organizations benefiting from discounts, while smaller entities struggle with costs.
Enterprise users see Windows 11 as costly but valuable, highlighting flexible licensing and bundling options for large deployments.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
Windows 11 is not an expensive solution.
I rate its pricing a nine out of ten.
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
SC
Syed Azhar - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2592627 - PeerSpot reviewerAditi Patil - PeerSpot reviewerRajkumarSanthanam - PeerSpot reviewer
PK
 

Valuable Features

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides stability, security, and support with robust tools for automation, scalability, and infrastructure adaptability.
Windows 11 offers an advanced interface, seamless integration, enhanced security, and productivity features with easy installation and widespread compatibility.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) report
One of the most valuable features of Windows 11 is its ability to provide detailed statistics about the laptop's performance, including battery usage, CPU performance, and network performance.
The standout feature, known as the Linux App System Forwarded, enables the use of Linux commands within the Windows environment.
The tool's most valuable feature is its stability.
For more quotes and insights, download the Windows 11 report
SC
Siphosethu Ndebele - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2641572 - PeerSpot reviewerAnish Bheekoo - PeerSpot reviewerAkram Zaki Hussein - PeerSpot reviewer
MA
 

Categories and Ranking

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
270
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 11
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 10.6%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 11 is 4.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

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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Anish Bheekoo - PeerSpot reviewer
Stable performance, straightforward setup process, and it is easy to join a domain
In terms of improvement, I have noticed some latency issues when loading large Excel or Word files. I'm not sure if it's a network or software issue, but it would be great if they could address that. Additionally, in terms of security, implementing easier remote access to laptops and providing more mature patching options would be beneficial. Overall, there is room for improvement in these areas. It should also give complete support for already tested versions.
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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…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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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)?
Red Hat could gain a competitive advantage in the Asia Pacific region by adjusting its pricing strategy. Lowering the cost of enterprise-level offerings could attract organizations seeking operatin...
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What do you like most about Windows 11?
We use Windows 11 for our workstation’s daily operations.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows 11?
I have a university license, so I do not pay anything for Windows 11.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Windows 11?
Drives are a significant issue, and finding the correct drives for everything to function properly is challenging. I also faced issues with Teams, although it's unclear whether this is related to W...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 16% of the time
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Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Compared 15% of the time
Oracle Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Logo
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Compared 9% of the time
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VMware vSphere vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Compared 2% of the time
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Windows Server vs Windows 11 Logo
Windows Server vs Windows 11
Compared 75% of the time
Ubuntu Linux vs Windows 11 Logo
Ubuntu Linux vs Windows 11
Compared 7% of the time
Kali Linux vs Windows 11 Logo
Kali Linux vs Windows 11
Compared 5% of the time
openSUSE Leap vs Windows 11 Logo
openSUSE Leap vs Windows 11
Compared 3% of the time
Rocky Linux vs Windows 11 Logo
Rocky Linux vs Windows 11
Compared 2% of the time
More Windows 11 Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
February 2025
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reportDownload Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report
Buyer's Guide
Windows 11
January 2025
Windows 11 reportDownload Windows 11 product report
 

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
No data available
 

Overview

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.

Red Hat

Windows 11 provides a streamlined, user-friendly experience combining enhanced graphics and superior performance. It supports a wide array of tasks from professional work activities to gaming and supports Microsoft Office applications seamlessly.

Windows 11 stands out with its intuitive setup, comprehensive network analytics, and robust security features. It is adopted in production, educational, and development environments for tasks like front-end automation and business processes. Users benefit from improved multitasking capabilities with screen snapping and seamless application integration. The operating system also supports AI initiatives, offering automatic screen recording and advanced animation features.

What key features does Windows 11 offer?
  • User-friendly interface with updated design and stability
  • Seamless Microsoft Office integration
  • Enhanced multitasking support with screen snapping
  • Comprehensive security with Windows Defender
  • AI and animation support including automatic screen recording
  • Improved taskbar and icon grouping for better efficiency
What benefits can users expect from Windows 11?
  • Enhanced productivity through efficient booting
  • Robust security measures to protect sensitive data
  • Valuable performance insights and statistics
  • Intuitive setup process minimizing downtime
  • Strong compatibility with Microsoft Office boosting versatility

Organizations implement Windows 11 in production environments to optimize workflows while educational institutions leverage its features for collaborative learning. Developers use it to streamline coding and testing, benefiting from its automation and multitasking capabilities.

Microsoft
 

Sample Customers

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
Information Not Available
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Windows 11
February 2025
Free Report: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Windows 11
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Windows 11 and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
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We monitor all Operating Systems (OS) for Business reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.