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CentOS vs LAMP Stack 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
6.6
Open-source components saved $30,000-$50,000 annually, improved efficiency by 60%, and enhanced user experience for over 100 students.
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
We do not need to worry about setting up each component individually.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
LAMP Stack Ubuntu is very easy to use and it's free.
EdTech Project manager at Aulab
I have seen a return on investment because the company benefits greatly from deploying on the data centers and providing access to customers' websites on the World Wide Web.
Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

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
5.1
Canonical offers enterprise support, while users often rely on community resources for stable and reliable Ubuntu LAMP Stack assistance.
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
I do not pay Canonical for enterprise-tier OS support, but the public community support for LAMP Stack Ubuntu is unmatched.
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
The customer support for LAMP Stack Ubuntu is very supportive due to its popularity and community support.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
There is no formal customer support for LAMP Stack Ubuntu, but there is a great global IT community.
EdTech Project manager at Aulab
 

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
7.1
LAMP Stack Ubuntu offers vertical and horizontal scaling, enhanced by cloud integration, but database layers may limit scalability.
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
We can simply set up enterprise applications, and it includes tools like mod_cache and reverse proxies to improve performance.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
LAMP architecture specifies the software components for each layer, so developers can replace them as they see fit.
EdTech Project manager at Aulab
The stateless design of LAMP Stack Ubuntu allows easy horizontal scaling because no state is stored.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 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
8.4
LAMP Stack Ubuntu is praised for reliability, strong MySQL support, minimal crashes, and stability with proper configuration and updates.
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
MySQL is a rock-solid database that supports compliance, ACID, and works out of the box quite well.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Once system memory allocations are tuned, an Ubuntu LAMP server can run continuously for months without a single daemon crash or memory leak.
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Regarding the stability of LAMP Stack Ubuntu, I have not seen any kind of disruptions.
Solution And Software Architect at AppEvolve
 

Room For Improvement

CentOS users seek better support, security, stability, and user interface due to recent changes, prompting interest in alternatives.
Enhance LAMP Stack with Nginx, PHP-FPM, Docker, SSL/TLS, Apache optimizations, modern UI, cloud support, and automated security.
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
To make LAMP Stack Ubuntu enterprise-ready, one must switch from MPM Prefork to MPM Event and pair it with PHP-FPM.
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
We cannot use other languages like Python or Ruby to deploy our application over LAMP Stack Ubuntu.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
PHP is just slower than Go, Rust, or .NET, and it is just suitable for non-performance critical applications; it is much slower than compiled languages.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

CentOS is seen as a cost-effective enterprise solution, due to its open-source nature, eliminating licensing fees.
LAMP Stack Ubuntu users save money with its open-source nature, simple setup, and hassle-free licensing and configuration management.
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
We do not need to worry about licensing costs since it is open source.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
LAMP Stack Ubuntu is completely open source, so there is no pricing, no cost, and no licensing.
EdTech Project manager at Aulab
The licensing part is very convenient and does not incur additional costs, allowing us to have planned calculations.
System Engineer at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

CentOS is favored for enterprise use due to its stability, ease of use, scalability, and strong community support.
LAMP Stack Ubuntu provides cost-effective, scalable, and secure open-source solutions with extensive community support for easy application deployment.
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
The best features LAMP Stack Ubuntu offers are easy installation, stability, security, and being open source, so we do not need to worry about licensing costs.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Being entirely open source eliminates the licensing cost and all the other costs that are required for startup and enterprise companies, while it also provides Ubuntu stability.
Associate System Engineer at Dhanyaayai enterprise private limited
Out of those features, the one that stands out to me the most in my day-to-day work is horizontal scaling simplicity; this is LAMP's superpower.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

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
LAMP Stack Ubuntu
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
18th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
10
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 LAMP Stack Ubuntu is 0.2%, 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%
LAMP Stack Ubuntu0.2%
Other94.8%
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.
HS
Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
DevOps experience has delivered reliable web hosting and ongoing optimization for client sites
Regarding how LAMP Stack Ubuntu can be improved, several improvement areas exist. The default Apache performance is an area of concern, as standard Apache deployments can become RAM-heavy under certain traffic spikes if left on default multi-processing modules. To make LAMP Stack Ubuntu enterprise-ready, one must switch from MPM Prefork to MPM Event and pair it with PHP-FPM. This is crucial because an unoptimized stack will choke under load. Additionally, there are security hygiene limitations and state dispersal and auto-scaling issues. Traditionally, LAMP Stack Ubuntu houses application logic, PHP, temporary files, sessions, and databases on a single local OS layer, creating horizontal scaling limits. Offloading MySQL to AWS RDS and using shared S3 or EFS paths for core storage is required for modern cloud elasticity.
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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%
Construction Company
38%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

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 Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LAMP Stack Ubuntu?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing includes using a free version, as I did not acquire any enterprise version of LAMP Stack Ubuntu.
What needs improvement with LAMP Stack Ubuntu?
Regarding how LAMP Stack Ubuntu can be improved, several improvement areas exist. The default Apache performance is an area of concern, as standard Apache deployments can become RAM-heavy under cer...
What is your primary use case for LAMP Stack Ubuntu?
LAMP Stack Ubuntu is primarily used to deploy applications, specifically WordPress applications on clients' AWS accounts. I began learning this stack at the start of my career, studying how to inst...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

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