Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs SUSE Linux Enterprise comparison

Red Hat and SUSE are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8, while SUSE is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2. Red Hat holds a 11.9% mindshare in OSB, compared to SUSE’s 8.4% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of SUSE users who would recommend it.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Read 262 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews

41,524 Views
15,075 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

SUSE Linux Enterprise

Read 31 SUSE Linux Enterprise reviews

12,892 Views
11,465 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

SUSE Linux Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise compete in the enterprise Linux distribution category. Users prefer SUSE Linux Enterprise for its advanced features, ease of use, and better value for money.

Features: Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers strong security, stability, and application support. SUSE Linux Enterprise is noted for its superior integration with cloud platforms and innovative management tools. Users find SUSE's feature set more comprehensive and forward-thinking than RHEL's.

Room for Improvement: Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux often mention the need for a more intuitive update process and better cost management. For SUSE Linux Enterprise, users suggest enhancements in technical support and a more streamlined installation experience. SUSE receives more feedback regarding support improvements compared to RHEL.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Red Hat Enterprise Linux is praised for its clear documentation and extensive community support which simplifies deployment. SUSE Linux Enterprise, while also easy to deploy, receives mixed reviews on customer service responsiveness. Users find RHEL's deployment more straightforward but note SUSE's deployment tools are more modern.

Pricing and ROI: Red Hat Enterprise Linux is considered more costly, but users feel the investment is justified by the level of support and reliability. SUSE Linux Enterprise is seen as offering better value for money with a faster ROI due to its efficiency and feature set. Users generally perceive SUSE as a more cost-effective option.

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

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. SUSE Linux Enterprise

October 2024

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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

262

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SUSE Linux Enterprise

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 11.9%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SUSE Linux Enterprise is 8.4%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

Saravvana Kumar.

Developer at Capgemini

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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Naveen Venugopal

Research Engineer at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

Efficient IT management with crucial automatic updates but needs developer-friendly configuration

Sometimes it is a bit of work for developers to change the configurations. Some kernels will not fit with some packages, and this aspect could be improved. Furthermore, the system's rigidity when updating packages and services needs improvement. Additionally, there should be more loosely bound functionalities to improve developer experience.

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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

"Technical support is pretty good. It's one of the main reasons we chose Red Hat over competitors."

"Security, packages, and updates are valuable. There is also the possibility to do unattended installations. This way you can define how you want the installation to behave and be configured whenever you do the deployment."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 updates the Cipher Suites and the security proceeds it. I wasn't pleasantly surprised because a bunch of our server communication didn't work. Having the Cipher Suites updated is a good thing but was not convenient."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is an enterprise-grade solution where we receive regular security patches and proper support."

"It helps our customers save money and do things quickly."

"The most valuable feature of RHEL is the Ansible Automation Platform, closely followed by Satellite."

"The most valuable feature is its security. In Windows, there are risks of attacks or of data leaks because it is using .exe files, but in Red Hat's Linux-based operating system, the data is more secure."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers many features I appreciate, especially the increasing maturity of the operating system and its automation platform."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

"SUSE Linux Enterprise is stable."

"Linux is easy to use. You have more control on a Unix system."

"The solution offers a secure operation system."

"The tool’s idempotency ensures all configurations are in place at all times."

"The stability of the solution is good. We have not had any issue with performance."

"The most valuable feature is that there is an inbuilt HANA firewall."

"The most important feature is the automatic kernel lifecycle subscription, which is critical for us because the server cannot go down once we start offering any services on the cluster."

"The initial setup is simple and takes five minutes for deployment and if you have automation in place, it will take four minutes."

More SUSE Linux Enterprise pros

Cons

"It is a bit on the pricier side. However, due to the stability and support that they provide to my management and me, we really don't see a reason to choose another way to go. It is hard to get good support."

"Network virtualization resources could be better. When you have any kind of trouble with network virtualization, such as with OVS, which is like a switch in a virtual environment, it takes many hours to find what is happening. Other vendors, such as VMware, and even other Linux implementations for network virtualization have better resources. It is much easier to escalate, and there is better documentation."

"I like the way the operating system works now, and I do not really see any bad functionality with it. The only thing I would say is getting rid of some aspects. That is the one part that a lot of admins probably get annoyed with."

"The Authselect tool needs improvement. This tool is used to connect your system to an identity provider or directory service, e.g., openLDAP. There is documentation and descriptions. While there are a few use cases and examples described, it is sometimes hard to use these tools to set up the configuration that we need for our specific environment. I would like it if there was more general information about the tool, not just describing a use case. For example, here is how to do it and how to connect to some kind of openLDAP service as well as more information about when you need to configure certificate services and mutual authentication."

"It is challenging to use the knowledge base and the deployment documentation."

"Red Hat's standard deployment is with Satellite and Kickstart, but we're looking at other options to help speed it along. We do have a mix of bare metal and virtualized servers and it's easier to spin up in the virtualized world versus bare metal. That's why we're looking at some options outside of Red Hat, for the bare metal."

"There are just some points in the solution's documentation where a few areas seem generic."

"The only area would be in regards to being capable of running on other architectures like ARM. They are about to release a new version that is available to be executed on ARM architecture."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) cons

"They should probably just make clustering a bit simpler and also provide more descriptive log files for cluster services."

"SUSE could make more APIs available."

"When working in a Department of Defense environment, Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) have to be followed. SLES is not really addressed directly here. It did make following security policy difficult."

"The initial setup could be simplified."

"All distributions of Linux could use some improvement."

"We previously had trouble integrating Autodesk with the SUSE Manager, but the issue was resolved."

"I would appreciate the product's future releases being lighter and operating more efficiently on smaller systems."

"I have not seen an ROI with this solution."

More SUSE Linux Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Red Hat is stable, and we always opt for the lower-tier subscription, which is affordable."

"The cost of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is reasonable."

"Our client has a direct subscription to Red Hat."

"In terms of the solution’s single subscription and install repository for all types of systems, we can have as many RHEL installations as we want because we have a specific subscription that entitles us to have as many RHEL services as we want. We pay for a subscription and with that we get RHEL and Satellite as well."

"It is more expensive than other vendors in terms of pricing and licensing, but because of its stability, I have to go with it."

"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."

"We can always ask for Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be less expensive but when we compare it to other options, there are savings in the long run."

"One Red Hat license costs USD 131, which I find reasonable."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pricing and cost advice

"I would advise others to download the free or strictly open source versions, then test them in their environment before committing to a purchase. This will allow for testing suitability for applications that they want to run."

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"As far as licensing goes, there is nothing unusual here. The price and model have worked fine for my organization."

"The product's licensing options align well with the evolving landscape of Linux variants."

"There is no license for this solution, there is only a subscription of support available."

"The tool is expensive compared to Red Hat. I rate its pricing a nine out of ten."

"The price of SUSE Linux Enterprise could be cheaper. Other solutions, such as"

"When we first implemented this product, we had licenses for support."

More SUSE Linux Enterprise 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

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Financial Services Firm

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.

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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 ...

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What do you like most about SUSE Linux Enterprise?

The initial setup is simple and takes five minutes for deployment and if you have automation in place, it will take four minutes.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SUSE Linux Enterprise?

The pricing is slightly higher than expected, but it is manageable for our current project. For the upcoming projects, we are looking for cost-effective solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SUSE Linux Enterprise?

See all answers

Comparisons

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 11% of the time

Oracle Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 10% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 8% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

openSUSE Leap vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 22% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 20% of the time

Rocky Linux vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Linux vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

CentOS vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

More SUSE Linux Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

November 2024

Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report

Buyer's Guide

SUSE Linux Enterprise

November 2024

Download SUSE Linux Enterprise product report

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL

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Red Hat

SUSE

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.

SUSE Linux Enterprise is a versatile operating system ideal for deploying solutions, managing applications, and running certain applications. It is also used for migrating SAP workloads to the cloud, integrating with SAP HANA solutions and products, and as an operating system for application servers.

The solution is praised for its YaST tool for easier server administration, compatibility with Oracle and SAP, stability, scalability, ease of use, extensive documentation, pacemaker cluster, and SUSE Manager for patching. SUSE Linux offers extended support for each version and a special edition for SAP applications.

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

Air India, Akademicki Szpital Kliniczny (ASK), Allone, Altran, Apollo, ARCHIVA, Asia Innovatory Management School, ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH, AutoData Norge AS, Baldor Electric, Business Connexion, CASIO, Ciclum Farma, Delta Lloyd, Edumate , HPE, SAP SE, Lenovo, BMW, T-Systems, UCX, Turners & Growers, Shenzhen Development Bank, Bosch Group, JK Tyres & Industries, IOCL, European Space Agency, Daimler AG, China Minsheng Banking Corp, Café Coffee Day, Unisys, Petrochina Company Ltd, Fitch Ratings, ABeam Consulting Co Ltd, Tyro Payments, Rackspace, Pacific Textiles, ...

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. SUSE Linux Enterprise

October 2024

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

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

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