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Amazon Linux vs Security Onion 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Operating Systems (OS) for Business (13th)
Security Onion
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (23rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Amazon Linux and Security Onion aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Amazon Linux is designed for Operating Systems (OS) for Business and holds a mindshare of 0.7%, up 0.0% compared to last year.
Security Onion, on the other hand, focuses on Log Management, holds 3.1% mindshare, down 5.7% since last year.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon Linux0.7%
Rocky Linux10.2%
Ubuntu Linux8.8%
Other80.3%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Security Onion3.1%
Wazuh7.5%
Splunk Enterprise Security6.8%
Other82.6%
Log Management
 

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.
Jörg Kippe - PeerSpot reviewer
Scientist at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
A mature and affordable solution that is easy to install and easy to update
The product takes time to learn, it's not that easy. In the beginning we had a lot of questions. If you want to use such a tool in an real (industrial) environment, you have to ask how to get the network data. Can we do a full packet capture? Can we provide agents to our end systems? There are no simple solutions to these questions. It's a general problem when running such systems in an industrial environment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The outcomes combine massive savings of over one million in under a year by migrating workloads to Graviton-based instances running Amazon Linux, as AL two thousand twenty-three is optimized for ARM at the compiler level, allowing applications to run more effectively and function on smaller instances."
"Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization as we have set up production microservices requiring integration with Amazon Linux and AWS cloud workloads, providing us with peace of mind since we don't need to worry about security issues."
"Being able to ship services to our customers efficiently and ensuring service reliability is a key benefit delivered by Amazon Linux."
"Amazon Linux is really easy to use, and almost all of the packages and third-party applications are available just one command away, with security kernel patches released very quickly compared to other distributions."
"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 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."
"Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization by providing a great solution for hosting all of my applications, and it has helped my team focus only on the development of my applications since we do not have to worry about maintaining any base image."
"Amazon Linux provides a secure, stable, and high-performance environment that is optimized for the AWS ecosystem itself."
"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."
"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."
 

Cons

"Amazon Linux can be improved by having the documentation contain more examples of use cases."
"Amazon Linux could be improved by providing more third-party software packages."
"I choose nine out of ten because it could use a bit more options."
"Sometimes we cannot find some modern application packages; I tried to install a PostgreSQL server and I was unable to find the latest version available from the package registry, so I had to compile it myself."
"Compared to Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, Amazon Linux has worse support, which often leads us to rely heavily on documentation."
"I believe the response time and quality of support could be better, so I see quality as a single point of feedback."
"Amazon Linux can be improved with better integrations in applications."
"While Amazon Linux worked very well overall for us, there could be a few areas for improvement."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"The product is not easy to learn."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Security Onion is a free solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
12%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise18
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?
Amazon Linux can be improved by providing security updates more frequently.
What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?
My main use case for Amazon Linux is to host my company's applications, internal applications, and automations. For example, I host my own application called IriusRisk on Amazon Linux. I also deplo...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?
I would rate Amazon Linux a 10 out of 10. I chose a 10 because it helps speed up deployments, it is really scalable, and it saves me a lot of headaches. I do not purchase Amazon Linux through the A...
What do you like most about Security Onion?
The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?
Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Security Onion?
The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Security Onion and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
885,837 professionals have used our research since 2012.