Amazon Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Red Hat are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.9, while Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 0.5% mindshare in OSB, compared to Red Hat’s 7.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

Amazon Linux

Read 8 Amazon Linux reviews

703 Views
408 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Read 384 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews

18,064 Views
17,703 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Amazon Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 21, 2025

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Amazon Linux compete in the enterprise Linux operating system market. RHEL generally holds the upper hand due to its enterprise-level support and comprehensive ecosystem, making it preferable in enterprise settings.

Features: RHEL offers robust security features, extensive documentation, support for large-scale IT environments. Amazon Linux integrates seamlessly with AWS, provides scalability, cloud optimization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: RHEL offers thorough customer support, deployment processes tailored for complex enterprises. Amazon Linux benefits from AWS integration, offers rapid, flexible deployment for AWS users.

Pricing and ROI: RHEL has higher setup costs due to subscription fees, but offers solid ROI through stability and vendor support. Amazon Linux is cost-effective for AWS operations, with no upfront licensing fees, quick ROI through cloud integration.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

December 2025

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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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

384

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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.6%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)	7.6%
Amazon Linux	0.5%
Other	91.9%

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

SAURAB K GANGURDE

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.

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Ray Ortega

Server administrator at Northrop Grumman

Empowers collaboration through streamlined integration and extensive documentation

Improving Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be tough, however, a significant area is collaboration tools. We have many Windows users that use Outlook and Skype or Teams to collaborate on our network. They want Linux desktops due to the fact that they want to use containers. Their biggest complaint is, 'I need two workstations to do my container work and one to collaborate.' If somehow RHEL can start introducing or collaborating with Teams and Outlook so their users can work with their Windows peers, that would be great. But I don't think that's available yet. Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, there needs to be more of an education piece to it. For instance, when purchasing 10 or 100 node licenses, they could suggest, 'We also offer this 1,000 node license instead, and it'll save you specific amounts.' Just more education on their offerings would be helpful, because usually, we're coming out with the requirements, and then they just provide it to us. They could inform us about saving by bundling it differently or using alternative approaches.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Whenever I deploy solutions on Amazon Linux, I almost never have to worry about the operating system."

"With respect to scalability, security, and reliability, these services help me significantly."

"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."

"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."

"The main benefits I receive from Amazon Linux are saving time and streamlining some work processes."

"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."

"I find Amazon Linux valuable for its direct functionality; the best features include the core capabilities that make it suitable for our operations."

"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."

"From an administrative perspective, the cloud platform is the best because we don't have to wait long."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk through our ability to patch quickly, with relatively fast reboot times, and the amount of changes applied that don't affect systems much, especially with patching, so everything works as designed with very little incompatibility issues."

"The most valuable features of RHEL are the availability, file system performance, and overall system availability."

"What I value the most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are the patching capacity and the patching capacity with Ansible."

"It is generally easy to initiate a support case with Red Hat, and there are clear escalation paths if needed. The support team responds based on the contract level."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been one of the key strategic providers offering a good price to implement automation and containerization across all of the network elements we manage with several vendors, and in the latest five years, we have observed a good investment return in terms of ROI."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by itself scales incredibly."

"Support has a fast response time."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

Cons

"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 could be improved by including additional features and continuous improvements in various areas."

"Amazon Linux can be improved by having the documentation contain more examples of use cases."

"I have honestly never had any problems with Amazon Linux, aside from disk space issues."

"The operating system might not be able to handle big scientific problems which require a highly parallel system."

"In terms of improvement, Red Hat could consider offering cheaper licensing."

"If they can make the integration with Ansible easier, that would be ideal."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be improved by adopting a feature similar to YaST from a big European competitor, which would significantly enhance Red Hat technologies."

"They should try to converge all the different product lines, in both Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CoreOS and OCP based on CoreOS, to get to a single point where it would be easier to move from one to the other."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 discontinued support for X11 and started support for Wayland. All of our machines run on X11 window manager, which creates a huge issue in our transition."

"I would like Insight to include some features from OpenSCAP, which they offer for compliance services. I played with it a little bit, but haven't gotten the updated setup to get that. It creates excellent documentation."

"Red Hat could enhance its user experience by incorporating built-in automation tools, eliminating users needing to install, set up, or configure external applications."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"I do not have much knowledge of licensing. That is handled by the procurement team, but I know that it is expensive. If they can provide more licensing options, it will be much easier for companies to buy."

"It is expensive. Everything is. I was happy to get a three-year Red Hat Enterprise Linux contract for our initial rollout."

"Its pricing and licensing are reasonable."

"Our management chain is not satisfied with the current pricing model."

"It is cost-efficient."

"Red Hat Linux is inexpensive. Linux solutions are generally inexpensive."

"One Red Hat license costs USD 131, which I find reasonable."

"We purchased the Red Hat Enterprise Linux license via Azure and the vendor."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user281973

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	87
Midsize Enterprise	48
Large Enterprise	262

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...

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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....

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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...

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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...

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What do you like most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, the pricing is good; however, licensing is a bit confusing.

See all answers

Comparisons

Debian vs Amazon Linux

Compared 37% of the time

Kali Linux vs Amazon Linux

Compared 18% of the time

CentOS vs Amazon Linux

Compared 11% of the time

More Amazon Linux Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 15% of the time

Windows Server vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 12% of the time

Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 11% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 9% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Linux

January 2026

Download Amazon Linux product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

December 2025

Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS

Overview

Amazon Linux is a secure and stable distribution for cloud environments, optimized for AWS performance. It is widely adopted by developers seeking minimal disruption in deployment and management, offering a seamless operational experience.

Developed by Amazon Web Services, Amazon Linux provides an environment streamlined for performance on AWS infrastructure. By offering long-term support and regular security updates, it ensures crucial security and reliability. It is tailored to enhance cloud-centric application development, making it a preferred choice for developers needing efficient resource management. Its compatibility with a wide range of AWS tools and services makes it highly adaptable for cloud-native solutions.

What are the key features of Amazon Linux?

Security: Offers frequent updates and security patches for a reliable operating environment.
Performance: Optimized for AWS, improving speed and efficiency.
Flexibility: Easily customizable to meet specific application needs.
Long-term Support: Provides extended software support to reduce maintenance overhead.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in Amazon Linux reviews?

Integrated AWS Tools: Improves workflow efficiency by seamless integration with AWS ecosystem.
Regular Updates: Ensures up-to-date security and performance features.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs with optimized cloud resources.
Developer Satisfaction: Enhances developer productivity with streamlined resource management.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, Amazon Linux is used to develop cloud applications that require secure data handling and robust performance. Media companies appreciate its flexibility and speed in managing high-demand scenarios, ensuring scalable content delivery and reliable performance.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers stability, security, and support for mission-critical applications with robust tools and scalable architecture, ideal for diverse environments and hybrid cloud compatibility.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides organizations with a reliable platform ideal for high-performance computing and virtualization. Known for its robust security and seamless network administration, it integrates well with OpenShift and Ansible, ensuring adaptability and scalability. Despite challenges with documentation, upgrade complexity, and cost, RHEL remains a formidable choice thanks to its comprehensive documentation and extensive community support.

What are the key features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Stability and Security: Maintains high stability and advanced security measures, critical for enterprise environments.
Extensive Support: Offers robust support through community and documentation, assisting with problem-solving and integration.
Automation with Ansible: Simplifies tasks and enhances efficiency, optimizing operations across the infrastructure.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Supports cloud environments, enabling flexibility and strategic deployments.
Scalable Architecture: Adapts to different workloads, making it suitable for growing organizational demands.

What benefits should users look for when evaluating Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Reliable Performance: Ensures consistent and secure operations across diverse environments, including cloud infrastructure.
Efficient Management: Centralized operations make it easy to manage enterprise workloads effectively.
Community and Documentation: Access to a strong community and comprehensive documentation aids in resolving issues.
Integration Capabilities: Easily integrates with technologies like OpenShift and SAP, enhancing operational versatility.
Adaptability: Supports a wide range of environments and technical requirements, improving strategic deployment.

Organizations across industries like financial services, telecommunications, and application hosting implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux for server and application management. Its compatibility with technologies such as SAP, Oracle, and Ansible supports functions including web, database, and enterprise solutions, ensuring stable and secure performance in high-pressure environments.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Travel Channel, Mohawk Industries, Hilti, Molecular Health, Exolgan, Hotelplan Group, Emory University, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, HCA Healthcare, Paychex, UPS, Intermountain Healthcare, Brinker International, TransUnion, Union Bank, CA Technologies

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

December 2025

Free Report: Amazon Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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