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CentOS vs Docker on Ubuntu comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 15, 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
6.0
CentOS offers significant ROI through cost savings on servers, time efficiency, and community support, benefiting IT budgets.
Sentiment score
4.6
Companies achieve cost and time savings with Docker on Ubuntu via faster builds, deployments, and reduced storage and resource needs.
I have seen a return on investment, particularly in terms of money saved because I do not pay for the servers.
Technical Lead InfraOps at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The money saved was significant, approximately fifteen percent of our IT budget.
Senior Support Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
It saved a lot of time through troubleshooting, which gives us substantial room for improvement in terms of fixing things.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
The main return is time-saving, as it provides less setup time, fewer errors, and improved developer productivity.
DevOps at Chill Flow
You need some type of operating system and a container engine, and these two are best in class.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
There is a pipeline for it, and the time saving occurs because whenever a developer pushes anything, that goes into the Docker container and builds it.
Senior Dev Ops Engineer at 11 East Capital
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
CentOS depends on community support and internet resources for issue resolution, contrasting with Red Hat's commercial support model.
Sentiment score
5.8
Most Ubuntu Docker users rely on strong documentation and community support, requiring minimal direct support from Canonical.
I would rate the customer support for CentOS a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
I've seen many people across the globe interacting, and when users encounter issues, the community provides solutions.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
I would rate the documentation about eight in terms of usefulness.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
The customer service for Docker on Ubuntu and their technical support are pretty good, especially since the documentation is pretty robust.
Founder at Asynka
Amazon's customer support is brilliant, with very quick response times.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The documentation is good, especially when using AI tools that utilize Docker's information for support.
Chief Technology Officer at ML Cloud LLC
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
CentOS is scalable, cost-effective, and adaptable, excelling in both small and large deployments across diverse applications.
Sentiment score
6.0
Docker on Ubuntu provides scalable, flexible integration with Kubernetes, suitable for diverse applications and seamless CI pipeline integration.
CentOS is scalable and user-friendly without requiring complex configurations.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
It allows users to scale resources vertically for upgrading hardware and horizontally by adding more servers, making it suitable for modern web hosting and containerized applications.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Trigyn Technology
CentOS's scalability for my organization has handled growth and changing needs smoothly.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
In some cases, Docker on Ubuntu is not enough for all the complexity of the applications, and I have to go to the next level with Kubernetes.
Founder at Asynka
Ubuntu is very stable as an operating system, and Docker scales well when used properly across projects and environments.
DevOps at Chill Flow
Using Docker on Ubuntu together is a common configuration, and you can deploy it directly on server hardware using virtual machines or in the cloud, scaling however you wish.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
CentOS is highly stable and reliable, with excellent performance and continuous uptime, making it ideal for stable environments.
Sentiment score
8.0
Docker on Ubuntu provides stable, reliable performance for container deployment, with minor connection challenges and differences in version settings.
CentOS is stable, reliable, flexible, and very useful.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Trigyn Technology
CentOS's simplicity and stability make it easy to use.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
I believe CentOS is stable, but we are gradually moving away from it.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
Docker on Ubuntu is very stable.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Docker is continually optimized by the Docker company, and Ubuntu is also continually optimized.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Docker on Ubuntu is very much stable; it is one of the most stable solutions that you can find.
Senior Dev Ops Engineer at 11 East Capital
 

Room For Improvement

CentOS users seek better support, security, stability, and user interface due to recent changes, prompting interest in alternatives.
Docker on Ubuntu requires UI, networking, and storage simplifications with improved documentation, security, and Kubernetes integration.
The documentation and support could be improved, along with compatibility with newer hardware as hardware continually evolves over time.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
Kernel parameters, sysctl config details, tuned profiles, process prioritization, optimized disk, and input scheduler choice are all points for performance optimization.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Trigyn Technology
CentOS RADIUS server handles sensitive authentication data, so improving security is the priority.
Technical person at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Code sharing ability exists in GitHub and other tools, but in Docker on Ubuntu, other users we are sharing with do not have options like edit and update the code.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
While Docker itself has no cost, the Docker repository and Docker Hub could improve their pricing, especially for startup companies.
Chief Technology Officer at ML Cloud LLC
It is completely complex to understand the networking in Docker on Ubuntu and Kubernetes clusters, as well as the ephemeral nature of the network and storage.
Founder at Asynka
 

Setup Cost

CentOS is seen as a cost-effective enterprise solution, due to its open-source nature, eliminating licensing fees.
Enterprise users find Docker on Ubuntu cost-effective, with potential expenses mostly related to staff training and infrastructure.
There was no cost in terms of deploying it or getting the license for it.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing for CentOS, there is no cost for licensing or setup pricing.
Devops Engineer at EDAG
CentOS is a free product with free updates.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
99.9% of people will be happy with the open source version, which is open source and free.
Site Reliability Engineer Ii at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
I find the pricing for Docker on Ubuntu is not expensive because basically, it is zero.
Founder at Asynka
Docker does not have licensing.
Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

CentOS is favored for enterprise use due to its stability, ease of use, scalability, and strong community support.
Docker on Ubuntu enhances scalability, efficiency, and deployment with process isolation, portability, YAML configuration, and strong community support.
CentOS has helped me most through its enterprise-level stability.
Technical person at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The update cycle changed when CentOS was prioritized for updates, causing stability issues.
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
In my experience, the best feature that CentOS offers is the network configuration of a device from the command-line interface, which is exceptionally clean.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Docker is the heart of many AI tools that are used, and I have an AI workstation that uses Docker to package up certain capabilities for AI engineering.
Chief Technology Officer at ML Cloud LLC
The best features that Docker on Ubuntu offers are container isolation, fast startup time, portability, and strong integration with the Ubuntu Linux ecosystem, making it easy to package applications with their dependencies and run them consistently across systems.
embedded software engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Docker on Ubuntu has positively impacted my organization by making our CI/CD pipeline faster because of the multi-stage build, multi-arch build, and the strategy of layering.
Senior Dev Ops Engineer at 11 East Capital
 

Categories and Ranking

CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Docker on Ubuntu
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
16th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
16
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 CentOS is 5.0%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Docker on Ubuntu is 0.7%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CentOS5.0%
Docker on Ubuntu0.7%
Other94.3%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Wasif - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure Engineer at Trigyn Technology
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.
AnilKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Devops Engineer at EDAG
Containerization has streamlined testing workflows and reduces server resources for our builds
The best features that Docker on Ubuntu offers in my experience are ease of usability and performance. Ease of usability and performance with Docker on Ubuntu have helped me because Ubuntu is a Debian-based OS that can operate in both server and desktop modes, so when using Docker on Ubuntu on a server base, I need to install a few packages to convert the machine to GUI mode, making Docker on Ubuntu easy to use. While I think security is not a standout feature, ease of usability and performance remain the main highlights for me since it's only environment-specific and involves local testing along with monitoring only internal servers. Docker on Ubuntu has positively impacted my organization through resource savings, as for our NOC server, we are using a dedicated 30-core server with 256 GB of RAM, but with the help of Docker on Ubuntu, we can run multiple containers on the same server. In terms of resource savings, we reduced the number of servers from around 100 to 70 after using Docker on Ubuntu within our private cloud, where we have numerous servers located in multiple locations in the US.
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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
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
23%
Construction Company
22%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise30
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing for CentOS, there is no cost for licensing or setup pricing, so it is easy to set up and scale up the server.
What needs improvement with CentOS?
CentOS can be improved, but I have not yet faced any kind of issue or hectic problem.
What needs improvement with Docker on Ubuntu?
Since we have everything in-house, we are using self-managed solutions. We are using this operating system for deployment purposes. Docker on Ubuntu and the Kubernetes cluster provide deployment sp...
What is your primary use case for Docker on Ubuntu?
Docker on Ubuntu is installed on our Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. Our infrastructure is running on a Linux-based operating system where Docker on Ubuntu and Kubernetes are working because w...
What advice do you have for others considering Docker on Ubuntu?
I would like to suggest to people who are going to be in Docker on Ubuntu-based applications that since it is lightweight, it does not cause any trouble to use or any performance level or any kinds...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

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

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about CentOS vs. Docker on Ubuntu and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.