CentOS vs openSUSE Leap comparison

CentOS and openSUSE are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. CentOS is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.8, while openSUSE is ranked #11 with an average rating of 9.0. CentOS holds a 4.4% mindshare in OSB, compared to openSUSE’s 6.0% 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

5,601 Views
5,545 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

5,454 Views
5,454 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

CentOS

openSUSE Leap

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

CentOS and openSUSE Leap are prominent contenders in the Linux distribution market, each offering unique advantages in stability and versatility. CentOS appears to have an edge with its extensive hardware compatibility and enterprise-level support, appealing to businesses seeking robust and stable solutions.

Features: CentOS provides robust stability and compatibility aligned with Linux standards such as LSB, POSIX, and Freedesktop.org. It excels in providing excellent performance, low memory consumption, and a stable long-term support cycle. On the other hand, openSUSE Leap is recognized for its BTRFS file system, offering snapshot capabilities that enhance system versatility and rollbacks.

Room for Improvement: CentOS faces challenges with extensive kernel tuning required for NFS applications, limited user-friendly interfaces, and uncertain future compatibility with Red Hat. openSUSE Leap struggles with software integration and documentation, making the learning curve steeper; enhancing Active Directory integration and hardware compatibility could be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CentOS supports diverse deployment environments, including on-premises and hybrid cloud setups, but relies on community resources for technical support, resulting in varying responsiveness. openSUSE Leap offers easier on-premises management, also depending on its active online community for problem-solving, with limited formal technical support.

Pricing and ROI: Both CentOS and openSUSE Leap present cost-effective solutions as open-source platforms without licensing fees. CentOS users report significant cost savings and reduced downtime, which contribute to strong ROI, particularly for startups and enterprises. openSUSE Leap adds value by offering enterprise-level features at no cost, promoting wider adoption in budget-conscious settings.

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

Buyer's Guide

CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

December 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

7th

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

11th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.4%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 6.0%, up from 5.9% 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	6.0%
Other	89.6%

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

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

"CentOS has positively impacted my organization in several ways: stability, reliability, and performance have improved our company cost-wise, especially moving out of paid operating systems for running distributed software."

"The product is free to use."

"The product is based on Red Hat and very stable."

"The initial setup is very easy."

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

"There are a lot of sources on the internet that you can use to solve any issues, and people share their experiences. It's not a closed system"

"The most valuable feature of CentOS is that it is easy to use."

More CentOS pros

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

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

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

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

"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."

Cons

"The interface could be improved."

"CentOS could improve by having troubleshooting logs."

"Sometimes it is quite difficult to find drivers when I have CentOS locally on my machine."

"I think CentOS should introduce more security patches to fix different vulnerabilities."

"CentOS can be somewhat difficult for beginners, as it has a complex UI, especially for those not in the IT field."

"We would like Red Hat to keep supporting the solution but they have decided to get rid of it and there isn't much we can do about it."

"The solution must improve its security."

"The solution could improve by being more user-friendly."

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."

"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."

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"CentOS is free."

"It's free."

"For the enterprise version of CentOS, there is a license required. However, for personal use, I do not need a license."

"There are no licensing costs for CentOS."

"This is an open source solution."

"There are no licensing fees for CentOS."

More CentOS pricing and cost advice

"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."

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

"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%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

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 21% of the time

Kali Linux vs CentOS

Compared 17% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs CentOS

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

Windows Server vs CentOS

Compared 6% of the time

More CentOS Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 22% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 15% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 15% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 11% of the time

Windows 11 vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 4% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CentOS

January 2026

Download CentOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

January 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

December 2025

Free Report: CentOS vs. openSUSE Leap

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