CentOS vs openSUSE Leap comparison

CentOS and openSUSE are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. CentOS is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.8, while openSUSE is ranked #13 with an average rating of 9.0. CentOS holds a 4.4% mindshare in OSB, compared to openSUSE’s 5.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of CentOS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of openSUSE users who would recommend it.

CentOS

Read 77 CentOS reviews

5,945 Views
5,886 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

5,572 Views
5,516 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

CentOS

openSUSE Leap

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 15, 2026

CentOS and openSUSE Leap compete in the open-source Linux distribution category. CentOS seems to hold an advantage due to its stability and compatibility with RHEL.

Features: CentOS is known for its adherence to standards like Linux Standards Base and POSIX. It offers compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages, providing enterprises with stability and minimal updates. Users also commend its security and low resource consumption. openSUSE Leap features the BTRFS filesystem, enabling easy snapshots for backup and recovery. It ensures stability with a kernel similar to its enterprise version, facilitating a smooth transition to SUSE Linux Enterprise when needed.

Room for Improvement: CentOS users seek better official support and improvements in its package manager and security features, especially after recent changes in development focus. openSUSE Leap users desire a more intuitive user interface, improved version upgrades, and better documentation and support for video and hardware configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CentOS is widely deployed on-premises and in hybrid and cloud environments, benefiting from flexibility and strong community support, which relies heavily on forums and documentation. openSUSE Leap, while also community-reliant, gains an advantage from SUSE's knowledge base for users transitioning to enterprise solutions.

Pricing and ROI: Both CentOS and openSUSE Leap are cost-effective as open-source solutions without licensing fees. CentOS users report notable cost savings by offering RHEL-like features at no cost, emphasizing its stability and integration capabilities. Similarly, openSUSE Leap is value-rich, appealing to users within the SUSE ecosystem.

To learn more, read our detailed CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

February 2026

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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

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

openSUSE Leap

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

13th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.4%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 5.7%, down from 6.0% 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 (%)
CentOS	4.4%
openSUSE Leap	5.7%
Other	89.9%

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Wasif

IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

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.

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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.

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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

"Very robust and easy to work with."

"It has minimal updates compared to other distributions."

"CentOS adapts well to many software and applications, providing good compatibility."

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

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"The user interface of CentOS is intuitive, we can also use the command prompt."

"We particularly like that we can remove the graphic user interface to minimize attack settings for the operating system."

"The product offers a free community-based version."

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."

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

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

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

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

Cons

"CentOS should provide updates more regularly. Kernel parameters, sysctl config details, tuned profiles, process prioritization, optimized disk, and input scheduler choice are all points for performance optimization."

"As an open-source solution, there isn't much technical support."

"CentOS is not easy."

"When comparing the GUI of CentOS to Microsoft Windows or Mac, it could improve."

"It could be more secure."

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

"The solution might be discontinued but I hope that IBM will continue to develop it and improve on the functionally and features."

"The solution must improve its security."

More CentOS cons

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

"There is room for improvement in the console."

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

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

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

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs involved."

"CentOS is an expensive solution. There are other solutions that are rated at the top that are not expensive, such as Red Hat."

"There is no license required for this solution."

"The solution is free of cost to use."

"The solution is open source so is free."

"I use the free version."

"It's freeware, so we can use it without worrying about licensing."

More CentOS pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

"The solution is open-source."

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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

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

19%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	28

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?

I am not entirely sure about the license I purchased for my local machine, but I assume it is the community version, while for the AWS one, I do not entirely remember the pricing.

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 17% of the time

Kali Linux vs CentOS

Compared 16% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs CentOS

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs CentOS

Compared 7% of the time

Windows Server vs CentOS

Compared 5% of the time

More CentOS Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 20% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 15% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 14% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 12% of the time

Windows 10 vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 2% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CentOS

February 2026

Download CentOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

February 2026

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Also Known As

CentOS 7 (x86_64) - with Updates HVM

No data available

Overview

CentOS offers a stable, secure, and compatible environment with Red Hat packages, providing robust performance and cost efficiency. Its lightweight, scalable design and strong community support make it ideal for handling heavy workloads with limited resources.

CentOS is a popular choice for organizations seeking reliable server and virtualization solutions. Known for its robust stability and security, it offers seamless integration and maintenance. However, after a shift from Red Hat, some challenges emerged, including weak NFS client performance and a more complex interface, which beginners find challenging alongside insufficient documentation. Despite these, CentOS remains a favored option for deploying web applications, server installations, and supporting cloud solutions, thanks to its efficient use in monitoring, databases, and telecommunications.

What are CentOS's key features?

Stability: Maintains a consistent performance, essential for mission-critical environments.
Security: Offers robust safeguards, aligning with Red Hat's trusted security packages.
Compatibility: Seamlessly integrates with Red Hat ecosystems, enhancing versatility.
Cost Efficiency: Open-source approach reduces expenses compared to proprietary systems.
Community Support: Access to extensive resources and assistance from a dedicated user base.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Performance: Efficient resource management even under heavy workloads.
Integration Ease: Smooth integration with existing IT infrastructures.
Scalability: Ability to grow with changing requirements, supporting diverse applications.
Flexibility: Adaptable to a wide range of industries and use cases.
Reliability: Trusted for critical operations and consistent service delivery.

CentOS is widely used in industries requiring robust infrastructure, such as web hosting, scientific computing, and telecommunications. In data centers, companies deploy it to support virtual environments, testing, and development. The OS powers business applications, email servers, and cloud solutions, offering a cost-effective alternative to Red Hat.

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

February 2026

Free Report: CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

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