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Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

AlmaLinux offers free updates and security, unlike Red Hat which requires separate support purchases.
It supports long-term stability with its binary compatibility with RHEL.
AlmaLinux positively impacts organizations by consolidating operating systems and reducing licensing costs.
The long-term support ensures systems do not require frequent renewals, aiding in business stability.
AlmaLinux is highly recommended for being a stable, simple, and reliable enterprise-grade Linux platform.

CONS

Host access control in AlmaLinux was not working as expected and was more complex compared to CentOS.
There are concerns about vulnerabilities not being addressed in AlmaLinux despite available fixes from open sources.
AlmaLinux demands significant resource allocation, such as ten gigabytes of RAM and four gigabytes of CPU allocation.
AlmaLinux does not ship with Wi-Fi drivers, which is a major issue noted by users.
Users face challenges with SELinux in AlmaLinux, finding it complex for server security and hardening.
 

AlmaLinux Pros review quotes

Naim Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at SMC Labs, LLC
Apr 11, 2026
Moreover, stable OVS networking and floating IP configuration is very easy for me when using AlmaLinux, making it a reliable and highly recommended option for teams needing an enterprise-grade Red Hat compatible workflow without the subscription cost.
Onyeahialam Gracious - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Security Engineer at Andela
Apr 9, 2026
Using AlmaLinux was a condition to do my job, and right afterwards, I have been enjoying it.
Jan 19, 2026
The long-term support provided by AlmaLinux helps my business by ensuring that we do not have to renew our servers every four to five years.
Learn what your peers think about AlmaLinux. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Abhishek Hegde - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Linux Systems Engineer at Liquid Web
Apr 17, 2026
Overall, AlmaLinux is really good, easier as well, and I do not see much difference between CentOS and AlmaLinux.
Laszlo Porcsin - PeerSpot reviewer
Junior Software Test Automation Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Apr 10, 2026
What I especially appreciate about AlmaLinux is the long-term support, which I consider a top priority because many companies and other users need to focus on support, and I believe AlmaLinux is the best for it.
AnilKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Azure Dev Ops Engineer at a engineering company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Apr 15, 2026
AlmaLinux offers the best features in that it is freeware for RHEL, and it is really reliable.
reviewer2797920 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
Jan 19, 2026
Positively, I can say that AlmaLinux has brought a sense of stability, and besides the security patches, we also noticed better virtualization for our use cases.
Mayur Kapurkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Software Engineer at Coupa Software
Apr 2, 2026
AlmaLinux has positively impacted our organization because our goal was to generalize our entire fleet into one operating system, which earlier was not the case as we were using around seven to eight different operating systems.
Rajeshk Kumar Nayak - PeerSpot reviewer
Open Shift Engineer at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
Apr 7, 2026
I have seen a return on investment through significant time and money savings.
OR
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Jan 19, 2026
The most valuable feature I find in AlmaLinux is the binary compatibility with RHEL and the long-term stability, which makes it a predictable, rock-solid system behavior, while also having small and safe packaging for subsystems or systems that run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
 

AlmaLinux Cons review quotes

Naim Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at SMC Labs, LLC
Apr 11, 2026
Despite being subscription-free and reliable, I find some complexities in the documentation and troubleshooting guides which are not as comprehensive as Red Hat's.
Onyeahialam Gracious - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Security Engineer at Andela
Apr 9, 2026
In terms of resource allocation, AlmaLinux requires you to have at least ten gigabytes of RAM storage and four gigabytes of CPU allocation.
Jan 19, 2026
One area for improvement with AlmaLinux is the use of SELinux to secure and harden my server, which I find to be a complicated beast.
Learn what your peers think about AlmaLinux. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Abhishek Hegde - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Linux Systems Engineer at Liquid Web
Apr 17, 2026
I wish host access control in AlmaLinux could be made easier the way it was in CentOS because host access control was not working as expected in AlmaLinux during the initial stages.
Laszlo Porcsin - PeerSpot reviewer
Junior Software Test Automation Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Apr 10, 2026
Regarding my experience today, I installed AlmaLinux 8, and everything is okay, but the significant problem is that AlmaLinux does not ship with Wi-Fi drivers.
AnilKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Azure Dev Ops Engineer at a engineering company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Apr 15, 2026
AlmaLinux could be improved by having some basic components, such as ifconfig and netstat, pre-installed on the container image, as that would be really helpful for us.
reviewer2797920 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
Jan 19, 2026
After six months of migration, we ended up using more resources for the same websites, and that's not acceptable.
Mayur Kapurkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Software Engineer at Coupa Software
Apr 2, 2026
We feel they are not taking ownership of addressing a lot of vulnerabilities in some operating systems that are not patched even though fixes are available in open sources.
Rajeshk Kumar Nayak - PeerSpot reviewer
Open Shift Engineer at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
Apr 7, 2026
AlmaLinux could be improved by addressing the slow adoption of new software and the dependency on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
OR
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Jan 19, 2026
If AlmaLinux could provide ten to twenty years of fixes, that would be an improvement because I do not want to update the system all the time, as it becomes more challenging for me as a system administrator to track all the patches and everything I should patch on the system.