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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

CentOS is compatible with Red Hat, offering similar features without subscription costs.
Setup is straightforward, enabling quick installation.
It provides exceptional stability and reliability, ideal for enterprise environments.
The open-source nature of CentOS helps in reducing operational costs significantly.
CentOS scales well, adapting to a wide range of hardware and virtual environments.

CONS

CentOS lacks sufficient security features and requires more security patches to address vulnerabilities.
The system's integration with other platforms and products is inadequate, necessitating improvements.
CentOS faces instability issues, particularly with previous versions and updates to a streaming version are concerning.
The discontinuation of support and updates for CentOS and its transition away from an enterprise solution are major drawbacks.
CentOS has limited scalability and updating capabilities, with frequent updates leading to compatibility issues.
 

CentOS Pros review quotes

it_user541425 - PeerSpot reviewer
SCM administrator at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Jul 5, 2017
The ROI is incalculable. We could not do our business without CentOS/Red Hat.
it_user466755 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud & Monitoring System Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Jul 18, 2017
The setup was straightforward with easy step-by-step installation for basic use.
it_user479220 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Jul 25, 2017
The solution has made our organization more secure than in previous releases.
Learn what your peers think about CentOS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user351633 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineer | OpenStack Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Jul 25, 2017
With CentOS, we know it just works.
it_user357567 - PeerSpot reviewer
Applications & Systems Administrator at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Aug 3, 2017
Once a Linux server has been built, it tends to be stable with no performance leakage.
PS
Security Pre-Sales Engineer - Southern Reigion at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Aug 7, 2017
The platform has helped us to keep things simple and yet very secure, allowing us to meet the requirements with surgical precision.
it_user538686 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Corporate Systems Division at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Aug 9, 2017
Asus technical support is very efficient.
D6B8 - PeerSpot reviewer
District Technology at INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 196
Sep 8, 2020
It has minimal updates compared to other distributions.
reviewer1473483 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Dec 22, 2020
The most valuable feature is that it is compatible with RedHat.
VP
Independent Technical Consultant at i4c
Jun 4, 2021
The user access level is most valuable. When you do administration with CentOS, the number of customizations that you can do for each user is higher than other solutions. It is very customizable.
 

CentOS Cons review quotes

it_user541425 - PeerSpot reviewer
SCM administrator at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Jul 5, 2017
When the NFS client becomes overloaded, due to its default queue sizes that are way too small, combined with poor scheduling algorithms, it makes the host unstable.
it_user466755 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud & Monitoring System Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Jul 18, 2017
Reverse compatibility with old commands
it_user479220 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Jul 25, 2017
Initially, I found it a bit difficult to work with as it was a totally new platform as compared to CentOS 6.
Learn what your peers think about CentOS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user351633 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineer | OpenStack Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Jul 25, 2017
CentOS and RHEL for that matter are fairly difficult for beginners, as there are no popular and widely used Red Hat-based Desktop distros.
it_user357567 - PeerSpot reviewer
Applications & Systems Administrator at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Aug 3, 2017
I would like it to be more intuitive.
PS
Security Pre-Sales Engineer - Southern Reigion at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Aug 7, 2017
I've found certain issues where I couldn't find any documentation to help me solve them.
it_user538686 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Corporate Systems Division at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Aug 9, 2017
The system has 10GB SFP+ Asus cards but some of them, under CentOs 7, only work at 1GB speed.
D6B8 - PeerSpot reviewer
District Technology at INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 196
Sep 8, 2020
They could build more options into the wizard.
reviewer1473483 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Dec 22, 2020
In the future, CentOS will no longer be compatible with Red Hat.
VP
Independent Technical Consultant at i4c
Jun 4, 2021
The YUM install manager can be improved. It is below average as compared to the other install managers. This is the only major problem that I see with CentOS. They should reduce dependency on the YUM manager.