CentOS vs openSUSE Leap comparison

CentOS and openSUSE are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. CentOS is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.9, while openSUSE is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0. CentOS holds a 4.6% mindshare in OSB, compared to openSUSE’s 6.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of CentOS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of openSUSE users who would recommend it.

CentOS

Read 69 CentOS reviews

6,682 Views
6,682 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

6,234 Views
6,234 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

CentOS

openSUSE Leap

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

CentOS and openSUSE Leap compete in the enterprise-level operating system category. openSUSE Leap seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced features, user-friendly deployment, and higher ROI.

Features: CentOS reviews highlight stability, strong community support, and reliability. openSUSE Leap reviews emphasize advanced tools, stability, and flexibility. openSUSE Leap offers more advanced features, making it a preferred choice for users needing comprehensive tools.

Room for Improvement: CentOS can enhance its graphical management tools, software repositories, and hardware compatibility. openSUSE Leap could benefit from better hardware compatibility, a more streamlined update process, and improved software repository management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CentOS users appreciate its straightforward deployment and strong community support but mention occasional complexities in initial setup. openSUSE Leap users find deployment easier due to comprehensive documentation and efficient customer service. openSUSE Leap edges out due to its user-friendly deployment and customer service.

Pricing and ROI: CentOS is praised for low setup costs and satisfactory ROI. openSUSE Leap, while having slightly higher setup costs, is viewed as offering higher ROI due to its extensive features and support. openSUSE Leap's higher ROI makes it attractive despite the initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

July 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

CentOS

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

openSUSE Leap

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

12th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.6%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 6.4%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

Mahender Nirwan

Software developer at TAIGLE LLC

In-depth documentation available and command-line utility works well

One issue I recently faced, but I think it was due to my IT support guys, was that when the server storage gets full, the service crashes. It's very difficult to regain access and stability in that situation. That could be improved. So, the stability might be improved. But I don't think it's a CentOS-level issue. The system administrators need to come up with a solution for that, but I don't think it's CentOS's fault. I haven't done any research [R&D] on this issue. There's one thing for sure. We recently migrated from CentOS 7 to CentOS 9, and it was a bit difficult. For example, updating Windows is simple; you just download it, and it takes about 15-20 minutes. But that's not the case with migrating from CentOS 7 to 9. We had to back up the entire server, launch a new server, and then restore the backup to the new server. We couldn't directly migrate. I think that was a bit of a problem. The setup and updates are not that new in CentOS.

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Nagendra Kavadi

Senior Manager at Cognizant

Provides BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots

I only use the tool for testing purposes on my team, but multiple people use it. We don't make a team effort to install the solution. When it comes to maintenance, we ask our company to buy SUSE Linux Enterprise. My team consists of 13 people. We are currently integrating the solution with Ansible to do some coding. Although not a full-fledged automation, we are integrating the solution with Ansible and executing a couple of playbooks connected to openSUSE Leap. I would recommend the solution to other users looking for an open-source solution. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has all the features of Red Hat, but you don't have to pay for the subscription."

"You can work with the UI or in command line, if you prefer."

"The pricing is good. We pay a minimal fee."

"CentOS's most valuable features are that it's cost-saving and helps to scale down your usage."

"It is a scalable and cost-effective product compared to public cloud solutions."

"The solution is extremely stable."

"It's less expensive than Red Hat."

"It is a stable soultion."

More CentOS pros

"The solution is very stable after it is configured. It is hard to have a panel slow, a problem, misconfiguration, or any kind of loss function."

"openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots."

"The solution is easy for me to use because the backend is derived from FreeBSD and this is something I have been using for over 20 years."

"The most valuable feature by far has been the virtualization capabilities of the operating system."

"Stable - it just runs without the necessity to reboot."

Cons

"Like every operating system, it could be more secure."

"We are aware that the licensing has shifted, and it's not a change we've liked."

"Lacks sufficient security and some coding tools."

"The price of CentOS could improve."

"It would be ideal if Red Hat would continue the CentOS versions in an open-source format. They seem to be moving away from that. Now only paid versions are available."

"The price could be better. They could add more drivers in terms of peripherals and other things. Add more drivers for the Linux specifications in the next release. Right now, they are just pushing to have more drivers for Windows instead of Linux."

"The solution is stable, however, it could always be even more stable if possible."

"The server system is a little bit tough to manage."

More CentOS cons

"Somehow the change from OS12.x via 13.x to Leap was a bit bumpy and some old issues seemed to reappear."

"There is room for improvement in the console."

"Like most Linux-based operating systems, the biggest challenge Leap faces is the GUI."

"In the future, the Active Directory could improve."

"I would like openSUSE Leap to have better link integration with Windows."

"It would be helpful if we could easily switch from openSUSE Leap for testing to SUSE Linux Enterprise for production."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is a free solution."

"The price could be better. The cost depends on how the organization or a specific person licenses it. If you want the free version, there's Ubuntu which is supported by forums. You can pay for the license yearly or pay for a specific version."

"Once you buy the license, Linux will provide you with yearly or monthly patches, so your systems will be scalable for a long time."

"There are no costs for CentOS, it is open-source."

"This is an open source solution."

"It is open-source, which means it is a free product. It has a one-time deployment cost."

"It's free."

"We don’t have to pay for the system’s licenses."

More CentOS pricing and cost advice

"openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost."

"The cost of this solution was reasonable and it was within our budget."

"The solution is open-source."

"This is an open-source operating system that can be used free of charge."

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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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

16%

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

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What do you like most about CentOS?

CentOS is very easy to use, and all the commands are user-friendly.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?

CentOS is a free product with free updates. There are third-party companies available for support, but they charge varying amounts for their services.

See all answers

What needs improvement with openSUSE Leap?

Both openSUSE Leap and the SUSE Enterprise version use the same kernel. Suppose I have a lower environment where I can run openSUSE to test all my products. It would be helpful if I could easily sw...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for openSUSE Leap?

I use openSUSE Leap for testing purposes. Before officially using any server in our office, we test it using the solution. My office usually uses production servers on the SUSE Linux enterprise ver...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for openSUSE Leap?

openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost.

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle Linux vs CentOS

Compared 35% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs CentOS

Compared 11% of the time

Kali Linux vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

More CentOS Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 27% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 20% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 17% of the time

Fedora Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 10% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 5% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CentOS

July 2025

Download CentOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

July 2025

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Overview

CentOS is a versatile operating system with many use cases, including virtual spaces, scientific computing, data center servers, web-based applications, and more. Its valuable features include customization options, low memory consumption, performance, scalability, open-source nature, cost-saving, and compatibility with Red Hat packages.

The solution has helped organizations save money on licensing and improve testing capabilities for new implementations without spending additional resources. CentOS is a stable, reliable, and efficient operating system that is easy to use and integrate with other applications and services.

CentOS

openSUSE Leap is a brand new way of building openSUSE and is new type of hybrid Linux distribution. Leap uses source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), which gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions, and combines that with community developments to give users, developers and sysadmins the best stable Linux experience available. Contributor and enterprise efforts for Leap bridge a gap between matured packages and newer packages found in openSUSE’s other distribution Tumbleweed.

openSUSE

Buyer's Guide

CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

July 2025

Free Report: CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

Find out what your peers are saying about CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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