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AlmaLinux vs Windows 11 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 5, 2026

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
4.8
Switching to AlmaLinux saves costs, reduces risks, enhances communication, and eliminates vendor lock-in, ensuring enterprise compatibility.
Sentiment score
5.1
Windows 11 offers user-friendliness, stability, and cost-effective upgrades, enhancing efficiency and ROI for many companies.
The clearest measurable benefit is avoiding operating system subscription costs while maintaining enterprise Linux compatibility and stability.
Associate Systems Engineer at Dhanyaayai Enterprises Pvt Ltd
We saved approximately 70% of our budget with AlmaLinux, and the system is stable and reliable.
Systems Engineer at SARL Rajafood
Moving over to AlmaLinux saves a lot of time because of the long-term support, meaning I do not have to support the latest version every couple of years.
It has definitely saved time and generated a return on investment as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
I believe we have seen a return on investment from using Windows 11 since our company is primarily a software house where most costs stem from salaries and licenses.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.2
AlmaLinux offers reliable support with quick responses and robust documentation, praised by users and supported by active community resources.
Sentiment score
5.2
Windows 11 support experiences vary, with some appreciating efficient assistance and others encountering delays or using internal resources.
AlmaLinux offers strong community support and excellent documentation.
Associate Systems Engineer at Dhanyaayai Enterprises Pvt Ltd
The best features AlmaLinux offers include its support, which is outstanding from TuxCare, as we are getting the fixes and patch sets for the OS very fast.
Cloud Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The customer support for AlmaLinux is good.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
The technical support team’s response time is very slow.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
We have an internal team that supports all the Microsoft issues within the system.
Chief Executive Officer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.6
AlmaLinux excels in scalability, supporting diverse infrastructures efficiently, praised for stable performance and high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.3
Windows 11 offers scalable solutions for enterprises, excelling in vertical scaling while requiring Windows Server for horizontal expansion.
It is very scalable and performs well both on small deployments and large-scale infrastructure with many servers.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
AlmaLinux scales very well and can support everything from a small virtual machine to large enterprise deployments.
Associate Systems Engineer at Dhanyaayai Enterprises Pvt Ltd
AlmaLinux's scalability is very good because the predictable updates ensure there are no issues from that point of view.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
We faced challenges integrating it in multi-app environments, requiring complex API setups.
Associate Vice President at Rishabh Software
The solution's scalability is good because it allows you to run a large number of virtual machines.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
It scales well vertically, so a single machine can be very powerful without reaching its limits.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
AlmaLinux offers stable, reliable performance with minimal failures, ideal for enterprise workloads with timely security updates and extended uptime.
Sentiment score
6.7
Windows 11 is praised for stability and performance, though some users face update issues and prefer Windows 10.
Its security is another highlight, providing minimal disruptions, timely security patches, bug fixes, and a reduced attack surface.
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
AlmaLinux is a reliable and stable version of Linux.
Systems Engineer at SARL Rajafood
It is designed for enterprise workloads and follows a long-term support model, making it suitable for production servers, databases, web applications, virtualization platforms, and cloud environments.
Associate Systems Engineer at Dhanyaayai Enterprises Pvt Ltd
The solution's high level of stability ensures that the machine doesn't go down multiple times.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
The stability can be influenced by the status and specifications of our company PCs.
IT Specialist at EMA
Regarding stability, I would say the Slack issue which I found; other than that, I think all of the other things are pretty smooth.
S QA Engineer at 7Vals
 

Room For Improvement

AlmaLinux needs improved host access control, documentation, hardware compatibility, support, memory management, software updates, and third-party repository integration.
Windows 11 needs better integration, security, performance, and AI features while addressing stability, compatibility, and cost issues.
The AlmaLinux team can look into this and see what they can improve in terms of resource consumption and monitoring tools that can actually help the users of AlmaLinux pinpoint the exact processes or services that are causing that amount of resource consumption.
DevOps at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
If something is added to AlmaLinux that allows for some subscription or makes it exactly equal to RHEL, it would be perfect.
Devops Engineer at EDAG
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.
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
For a better experience, Windows 11 should be improved to take fewer resources.
Delivery Manager at Ford Motor Company
The needed improvements in Windows 11 include that the Copilot integration needs a better user interface experience with rich features, alongside making a very simple UI experience as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
It still feels more oriented toward consumer use rather than enterprise use, and the company is forced to maintain extensive backward compatibility, which creates technical debt.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

AlmaLinux attracts enterprises with its free, open-source model and cost-effectiveness, enhancing budget management and resource allocation.
Enterprise feedback on Windows 11 pricing varies, with opinions split between seeing it as costly and reasonably priced.
In the open-source environment, I believe a Linux distribution is always free of cost.
Junior Software Test Automation Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
AlmaLinux is free, so there are no costs there.
I have no licensing cost, which means there is no burden related to licensing.
Solution Architect at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
I have a university license, so I do not pay anything for Windows 11.
Associate Professor at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The licensing is expensive, but it's value for money.
Associate Vice President at Rishabh Software
We use a cracked version of Windows, so there are no licensing costs.
IT Specialist at EMA
 

Valuable Features

AlmaLinux delivers stability, RHEL compatibility, cost savings, and performance, making it ideal for organizations migrating from other Linux distributions.
Windows 11 enhances productivity with features like snap layouts, improved security, seamless multitasking, and development tools integration.
The tooling stability for DevOps is also significant, allowing easy use of infrastructure as code with Ansible or scripting playbooks that remain valid for years, making it especially important for the CI/CD pipelines.
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Because AlmaLinux is binary compatible with Red Hat, it provides a very stable and reliable operating system suitable for production environments.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
The prompt patching and OS updates with AlmaLinux have helped our team by improving our FedRAMP compliance and vulnerability scan reports.
Cloud Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is fast, doesn't get hung, and minimizes operational issues, which improves the end user's productivity.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
We use it for the validation of our data and code, or even code generation.
VP & GM, Client Storage at Micron Technology
It has good security features, providing strong protection against platform viruses and vulnerabilities, which secures my resources.
IT Specialist at EMA
 

Categories and Ranking

AlmaLinux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 11
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of AlmaLinux is 4.3%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 11 is 7.6%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windows 117.6%
AlmaLinux4.3%
Other88.1%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Naim Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at SMC Labs, LLC
Private cloud practice has become seamless and deployments run smoothly for my projects
I follow the documentation for AlmaLinux, which I believe could be more extensive for enterprise setups. My primary use case remains deploying private cloud infrastructure using OpenStack Yoga, thus suggesting improvements to cater to specific cloud instances like AWS Graviton or Azure NVMe. Driver or kernel updates for new hardware or cloud instances like AWS Graviton or Azure NVMe tend to arrive a little later in AlmaLinux than they do in the Red Hat distribution. Therefore, I suggest that faster releases of cloud-optimized images and updated hardware drivers could enhance AlmaLinux's competitiveness. Additionally, I find it sometimes difficult to find answers on forums due to the community not being as large as that of Red Hat or CentOS. My suggestion is to create an active forum or Q&A session where developers can directly address user problems, growing the community and providing optional enterprise support tiers for large organizations. Additionally, I have continued to consider improvements. For server administration and language runtime management, I encountered conflicts on production servers with older and newer versions of tools such as Python and Node.js. Simplifying the application space management would reduce the friction in multi-language development environments. Moreover, including more pre-configured or auto-remediation scripts like CIS Benchmark or STIG compliance would be immensely helpful for enterprise security hardening.
Naveenkumar Lakshman - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
Daily work has become smoother and organized as I manage calls, notes, and files efficiently
The best features that Windows 11 offers in my opinion are Notepad++ and the integration, as I could use Microsoft 365 on it and I could also run many applications. If I want to use Linux, then I could use Windows Subsystem for Linux as well. Most of the industry-wide applications are easily installable on Windows 11 and user-friendly as well. Windows 11 has definitely impacted my organization positively because you could see that all the day-to-day activities, most of our professionals would use a Windows system itself. In terms of productivity, Windows 11 has made a positive difference as we use a mail inbox with its links and Microsoft Teams, which is available. Windows 11 is natively installable and very friendly with the compatible operating system, and alongside, we have other applications that are available. Edge browser, which is the default browser for Windows 11, is also a good browser and a very decent option. Additionally, we have other features available for the day-to-day activities. You can see it gives you a basic calendar, calculator, and camera options, and you have the File Explorer. You get a pretty decent operating system for a layman to work on a day-to-day basis. While there are certain tasks that consume a certain amount of time, Windows 11 reduces the time. The usability and architecture, how it is built, makes a user get into a state where they don't need to spend excessive effort on the task to be done. You can get everything through a UI-based interface, and everything is sorted and very simple. Over the period of time, the operating system evolution by Microsoft is good for the individual workspace.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlmaLinux?
In AlmaLinux, I do not have experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with AlmaLinux?
AlmaLinux could have more software options. For example, if I need some software from Windows or something similar, it is missing some tools. I would say you cannot assume AlmaLinux is so similar t...
What is your primary use case for AlmaLinux?
I use AlmaLinux to create simulations, Monte Carlo simulations using C++, and for that I need to use the terminal and put a lot of different jobs to process the code. AlmaLinux is a pretty fast sof...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows 11?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Windows 11 is not something I can share, as I am not the one responsible for that; it falls to other colleagues in my company.
What needs improvement with Windows 11?
Until now, I have not paid much attention to the areas for improvement in Windows 11, but in the settings bar, I can say that in the notification center, which shifts and changes sometimes. Notific...
What is your primary use case for Windows 11?
From Windows 7, my use cases for Windows 11 feel quite similar to the Mac users because the toolbar and the bay at the bottom of the toolbar look similar to the MacBook. With how it is displayed on...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

AlmaLinux OS 8 (x86_64), AlmaLinux OS 10 (x86_64)
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about AlmaLinux vs. Windows 11 and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.