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Amazon Linux vs CentOS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

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

Amazon Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
16th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
7th
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 January 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Amazon Linux is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CentOS is 4.4%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
CentOS4.4%
Amazon Linux0.5%
Other95.1%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

SAURAB K GANGURDE - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
“Amazon Linux delivers automated security updates— including live kernel patching in AL2023—ensuring protected workloads with minimal manual effort and zero-downtime patching.”
One improvement for Amazon Linux would be stronger support for running it outside AWS. Although Amazon provides local VM images for VirtualBox and VMware, they are intended mainly for development and testing. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian, or Red Hat, Amazon Linux is not designed or fully supported as a production OS in on-prem or hybrid environments. Expanding official support outside AWS would offer more flexibility for teams that maintain mixed infrastructure. Another area for improvement is the community ecosystem. Compared to Ubuntu or Red Hat, Amazon Linux has a smaller community and fewer third-party resources or tutorials. A larger ecosystem would make troubleshooting and adoption easier. Finally, improving backward compatibility between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023—especially around package management (DNF vs yum) and updated toolchains—would simplify upgrades for teams managing large fleets.
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

"The main positive impact of Amazon Linux on my company has been no interruptions of services, and the public website is up and running, which allows us to monetize with virtually no staff hours for downtime or service interruptions."
"The ecosystem of software packages in Amazon Linux has helped us keep up to date with the artificial intelligence trend, where people are using ChatGPT to code, and they are also using Amazon Developer Q to program applications much faster, and then also to meet requirements with the Google Play Store and Apple Store."
"With respect to scalability, security, and reliability, these services help me significantly."
"I find Amazon Linux valuable for its direct functionality; the best features include the core capabilities that make it suitable for our operations."
"One great feature is the ability to apply critical security patches without rebooting the server, which avoids downtime and is why we prefer to use Amazon Linux for production servers and low-latency applications."
"Whenever I deploy solutions on Amazon Linux, I almost never have to worry about the operating system."
"The main benefits I receive from Amazon Linux are saving time and streamlining some work processes."
"In my opinion, the best features of Amazon Linux include the stability and its standard Linux distribution, which in some cases is easier to deploy and manage than the Ubuntu distribution, but I feel comfortable with Ubuntu too."
"The product is based on Red Hat and very stable."
"I find the solution's stability to be the most valuable feature of it since I have been using a virtual machine with the help of the solution since 2015, and it still works on all the laptops in my organization."
"The vendor updates the tool regularly to solve vulnerabilities."
"The solution is productive."
"It's a good and stable system. It provides everything you need for web servers and database servers."
"The user interface of CentOS is intuitive, we can also use the command prompt."
"The community and knowledge base are very robust."
"It’s a simple, straightforward implementation."
 

Cons

"I have honestly never had any problems with Amazon Linux, aside from disk space issues."
"Amazon Linux could be improved by including additional features and continuous improvements in various areas."
"Amazon Linux is not supported outside of EC2. You cannot install it on a local system, whereas you can install Ubuntu and Red Hat on your local system."
"Amazon Linux can be improved by having the documentation contain more examples of use cases."
"It could be more secure."
"Updates are going to a streaming version."
"CentOS could be improved by being more secure. Of course, we use a firewall, but security is always a concern."
"When comparing the GUI of CentOS to Microsoft Windows or Mac, it could improve."
"The stability could always be improved."
"GUI could be merged and expansion simplified."
"CentOS removed long-term support, and version releases every two to three years are not ideal for production environments because they necessitate frequent updates."
"The product lacks a graphical user interface that can help users automate certain systems using the native features offered by CentOS."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"There are no costs for CentOS, it is open-source."
"The price could be better. The cost depends on how the organization or a specific person licenses it. If you want the free version, there's Ubuntu which is supported by forums. You can pay for the license yearly or pay for a specific version."
"The solution is open source."
"The solution is not subscription-based, unlike Red Hat."
"There are no licensing costs for CentOS."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"For the enterprise version of CentOS, there is a license required. However, for personal use, I do not need a license."
"We use the free, open-source solution because we cannot afford the price for Linux."
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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
Government
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?
I have not had exposure to migrations, such as from Azure to AWS or GCP to AWS. A main concern is that security patches and versions are released continuously. For example, EKS versions increase wi...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?
I switched to a different organization where I am using AWS. We are dealing with EKS and ECS. I work with API Gateways, Amazon Linux, Lambda functions, and S3 storage buckets, among other services....
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?
Azure and GCP each present different scenarios. We use Terraform because it is scalable and manageable across all clouds. I believe AWS could introduce a no-cloud approach where, as a developer and...
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 do you like most about CentOS?
CentOS is very easy to use, and all the commands are user-friendly.
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
CentOS 7 (x86_64) - with Updates HVM
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. CentOS and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.