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Amazon Linux vs Oracle Solaris comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
4.9
Amazon Linux enhances ROI by reducing costs, boosting efficiency, and optimizing AWS integration for improved operations across industries.
Sentiment score
4.6
Oracle Solaris offers high ROI with stability, integration, reduced downtime, performance boosts, and cost benefits, enhancing operational efficiency.
With Amazon Linux, selecting and launching instances on a public cloud provider means the machine spins up in fewer than ten seconds, making it efficient.
Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
By switching the compute fleet from a paid distribution to Amazon Linux, we have reduced our OS-related overhead cost by 100%.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Some wins commonly seen after switching, particularly when moving from general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu, include approximately twenty to forty percent better price-performance ratio.
configuration and management deployment at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In terms of ROI, there have been performance improvements because Oracle Solaris is lighter.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Amazon Linux customer support is praised for quick responses, expert assistance, and 24/7 availability with comprehensive resources.
Sentiment score
4.6
Oracle Solaris support is 24/7, efficient yet sometimes slow, with helpful tools and mixed user ratings on effectiveness.
Amazon has the best expertise and they are available 24/7.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Timely and helpful responses for performance, updates, or AWS integration issues.
QA Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It offers specific advantages and constraints depending on the use case.
Cloud Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The technical support by Oracle is good.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Amazon Linux offers seamless scalability and performance in AWS environments, excelling in quick scaling and stable performance across regions.
Sentiment score
6.1
Oracle Solaris excels in scalable performance, efficiently handling extensive workloads with robust file systems and virtualization, despite hardware dependencies.
Since it is tightly integrated with AWS services, I can easily scale instances up or down based on demand using EC2 auto-scaling and load balancing.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
The compatibility of container scalability with Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS, along with performance optimizations and low latency for workloads.
Technical Trainer at DIEMS Chh.Sambhajinagar
The beauty here is that we can scale it immediately, which also saves cost.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Regarding vertical scalability, Oracle Solaris is probably one of the most scalable operating systems in the industry.
System specialist at Savecore
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon Linux excels in stability and reliability with predictable updates, seamless scalability, and effortless AWS integration for production environments.
Sentiment score
8.2
Oracle Solaris is highly stable and secure, with rare crashes and minimal disruptions, making it ideal for reliable operations.
Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Since it is purpose-built for the cloud, it lacks the bloat of traditional desktop-focused distributions, which leads to fewer crashes and higher uptime.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Compared to other Linux distributions, Amazon Linux is significantly more stable for AWS workloads because it is pre-optimized for EC2 hypervisor and includes integrated AWS tools out of the box.
FullStack Developer at EnactOn Technologies
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Linux needs better third-party support, enhanced documentation, improved integration, and expanded features to boost flexibility and usability.
Oracle Solaris needs improvements in hardware support, GUI, training, cost reduction, integration, package management, and open-source tool support.
Documentation explaining the differences between Ubuntu and Amazon Linux would be valuable.
full stack developer at 71Lbs
Since we are working in a real-time manner and need to scale things immediately, the time it takes to boot an instance and then deploy things is preventing me from giving it a perfect rating.
Senior Data Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to make sure the command line is easy and that Amazon Linux has more performance than other Linux environments and is more secure than other Linux environments as well.
DevOps Engineer at Wissen infotech
The firewall must be more capable because security is the main concern of every organization and every user.
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Oracle Solaris needs to improve its compatibility with office tools like Excel.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
Oracle is going to discontinue it, so I do not think any improvement is possible in Oracle Solaris.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Linux provides a cost-effective, flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model with no licensing fees, ideal for enterprises.
Enterprise users find Oracle Solaris pricing complex; it's beneficial for performance but costly compared to Linux, with desired pricing improvements.
With Amazon Linux itself, there is no cost associated with using it, so I would say it is very good from a pricing perspective.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
If I am a new AWS customer, the AWS Free Tier typically includes, for the first six months, micro instances such as t2.micro or t3.micro for free.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
I am paying around $300 to $400 per month because I use many services.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Linux enhances deployment with security, AWS optimizations, and tools, ensuring efficiency, scalability, and reliability for cloud-native environments.
Oracle Solaris offers superior virtualization, security, performance, ZFS features, and seamless Oracle integration, praised for stability and reliability.
Amazon Linux handles this automatically. It is optimized for EC2, AWS hardware and software, mostly secure and stable, and there is no additional cost.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
In terms of service security, there are many constraint security protocols and policies that help me create our own networks, security groups, and inline policies.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Amazon Linux's security updates have been helpful in general because I have had to be more specific in using the Identity Access Management (IAM) service so that we can have role-based permissions in preference to just keeping it open.
Fullstack Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The operating system is lightweight, which makes it easier to use on an average computer compared to systems like Windows.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
Additionally, regarding security, you do not have to implement any antivirus software.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Oracle introduced a GUI environment with Solaris 11.5.
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Solaris
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Amazon Linux is 1.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Solaris is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon Linux1.2%
Oracle Solaris2.4%
Other96.4%
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.
Shafiq Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Long-term server platform has supported secure banking operations and simplified virtualization
Oracle Solaris is a very good operating system. Most of the time, we do not need to change or replace any configuration. If at any point in time we need to change something, it is really simple and a user-friendly environment. Although it is a CLI, Oracle introduced a GUI environment with Solaris 11.5. Currently, 11.5 has the operating system GUI as well as the CLI. The technical persons working on the operating system most of the time prefer to work on the CLI. It is actually really good and easy to use. As it is a server-level operating system, most of the time you do not need any extra features in the operating system because you are not using the operating system on home machines, desktops, or laptop machines. The extra features are not needed if we are talking about the enterprise level or an official operating system.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?
I believe there is no need to improve Amazon Linux. It is definitely working in a very progressive and highly scalable way.
What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?
My use case for Amazon Linux includes web and application hosting, microservices, container, database management, and virtual desktop services. I use Amazon Linux as a lightweight base image for Do...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?
I will provide a rating of eight for Amazon Linux. I am using a long-term support version of Amazon Linux, so there is no need for any other features. Amazon Linux provides different types of servi...
How does Oracle Linux compare with Solaris?
When comparing Oracle Linux and Solaris, I believe that Linux is more secure and more flexible. It is also very suitable for enterprises that are already Oracle solution users. I found Linux to be ...
What do you like most about Oracle Solaris?
We use the solution as an internal operating system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Solaris?
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solaris 11, Solaris
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Siemens, IVV
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Oracle Solaris and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.