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AlmaLinux vs CentOS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 4, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AlmaLinux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
17th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of AlmaLinux is 2.9%. The mindshare of CentOS is 4.4%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CentOS4.4%
AlmaLinux2.9%
Other92.7%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Reliable long-term hosting has reduced server migrations and lets me focus on projects
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. Better documentation on that part could be useful, although there is a lot of material out there. I choose a nine because nothing is ever perfect. For example, coming from Ubuntu, I found their firewall software easy to use, while with AlmaLinux's entire ecosystem, I always have to look up how to use firewall-cmd. These are just little preferences. I cannot think of anything else AlmaLinux could improve; it serves me well, and I have not been missing anything.
Mohammad Wasif - PeerSpot reviewer
IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Has supported reliable deployments and simplified issue resolution in complex environments
The most suitable feature of CentOS is its exceptional stability, security, and long-term support, which make it a popular choice for enterprise and server environments. CentOS is widely recognized for providing a stable and secure platform, especially suited for server and mission-critical workloads. Whenever we face critical work, it is easy for our team to handle. For long-term support, each CentOS release generally guarantees long-term updates, ensuring reliability for extended periods. For package management, we use YUM and DNF in the new version for flexible and efficient software management. It depends on our users' requirements for installing CentOS. Licensing for CentOS is above my management details, so I am not aware of this information. CentOS always provides good feedback, is easy to handle, and easy to troubleshoot. The experience with CentOS OS has been very good over the last two months. I rate CentOS nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"AlmaLinux has impacted our organization positively by providing a stable and reliable enterprise Linux platform without licensing cost."
"AlmaLinux provides free updates and security, unlike Red Hat, where support must be purchased separately."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"CentOS's most valuable features are that it's cost-saving and helps to scale down your usage."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is free."
"The setup was straightforward with easy step-by-step installation for basic use."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward and not complex, especially if you are familiar with CLI."
"The open architecture is useful for us. That's why we're using CentOS."
"It helps us install and deploy our applications."
"The product is free to use."
"The scalability of CentOS is good. We can deploy the operating system in many hardware, laptops, and servers."
 

Cons

"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."
"After six months of migration, we ended up using more resources for the same websites, and that's not acceptable."
"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."
"CentOS could be improved by being more secure. Of course, we use a firewall, but security is always a concern."
"CentOS is pretty old now, so I wouldn't recommend anyone use it."
"We occasionally have issues with software installation."
"Like every operating system, it could be more secure."
"The price of CentOS could improve."
"The security could be improved because the server system isn't very secure."
"It is challenging to scale the solution when we have to increase the storage capacity from one end."
"CentOS, being Linux-based, is the best in security, but it needs more on the security side for CentOS RADIUS server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Once you buy the license, Linux will provide you with yearly or monthly patches, so your systems will be scalable for a long time."
"For the enterprise version of CentOS, there is a license required. However, for personal use, I do not need a license."
"CentOS is free."
"The product is free."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"There are no licensing fees for CentOS."
"We are using a subscription-based license option for CentOS."
"It is open-source, which means it is a free product. It has a one-time deployment cost."
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlmaLinux?
AlmaLinux is free, so there are no costs there. The open source licensing helps a lot, and the setup cost is just my own time invested in learning the platform.
What needs improvement with AlmaLinux?
I would like to see better tools in terms of memory consumption with AlmaLinux. I would like to know what processes exactly are consuming how much memory and have better core dumps or system core d...
What is your primary use case for AlmaLinux?
I provide hosting and email services for customers using AlmaLinux. Most of our customers are using Plesk for managing their domains, and some servers end up having 300 or 400 domains, while others...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?
I am not entirely sure about the license I purchased for my local machine, but I assume it is the community version, while for the AWS one, I do not entirely remember the pricing.
What needs improvement with CentOS?
I do not find anything that can be improved in CentOS. I am a huge fan of it, and there is hardly anything that Linux in general does not already provide. I think CentOS is the best and closest thi...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

AlmaLinux OS 8 (x86_64), AlmaLinux OS 10 (x86_64)
CentOS 7 (x86_64) - with Updates HVM
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about AlmaLinux vs. CentOS and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.