CentOS vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 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 #14 with an average rating of 9.0. CentOS holds a 4.4% mindshare in OSB, compared to openSUSE’s 5.6% 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

6,293 Views
6,230 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

5,723 Views
5,723 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Read 393 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews

19,529 Views
19,138 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

CentOS

openSUSE Leap

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and openSUSE Leap based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Rocky Linux, Canonical and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business.

To learn more, read our detailed Operating Systems (OS) for Business Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

March 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.4%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 5.6%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.4%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)	7.4%
CentOS	4.4%
openSUSE Leap	5.6%
Other	82.6%

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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Ray Ortega

Server administrator at Northrop Grumman

Empowers collaboration through streamlined integration and extensive documentation

Improving Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be tough, however, a significant area is collaboration tools. We have many Windows users that use Outlook and Skype or Teams to collaborate on our network. They want Linux desktops due to the fact that they want to use containers. Their biggest complaint is, 'I need two workstations to do my container work and one to collaborate.' If somehow RHEL can start introducing or collaborating with Teams and Outlook so their users can work with their Windows peers, that would be great. But I don't think that's available yet. Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, there needs to be more of an education piece to it. For instance, when purchasing 10 or 100 node licenses, they could suggest, 'We also offer this 1,000 node license instead, and it'll save you specific amounts.' Just more education on their offerings would be helpful, because usually, we're coming out with the requirements, and then they just provide it to us. They could inform us about saving by bundling it differently or using alternative approaches.

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

"The most valuable features of CentOS are it is built from Linux, has good performance, and can we can create scripts. The scripts are you to do minor work automatically."

"I find the solution's stability to be the most valuable feature of it since I have been using a virtual machine with the help of the solution since 2015, and it still works on all the laptops in my organization."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is free."

"It’s scalable."

"CentOS' best feature is that it's the standard product for Linux, so it's well-supported."

"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"

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

"The scalability of CentOS is good, and we can deploy the operating system on many types of hardware, laptops, and servers."

More CentOS pros

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

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

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

"Leap has provided me with the ability to offer what I consider Enterprise class server O/S platforms to my smaller customers who are looking to improve their competitive stances without breaking the bank."

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

"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."

"This solution has helped my organization's security from the use of its firewall, and the features for blocking or allowing traffic are very effective and have worked well for us."

"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."

More openSUSE Leap pros

"Why I like it in general is that I know what it is doing. I can figure out what it is doing, and I can make it do what I want. I am not delving into arcane registry things."

"From my perspective, the best features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) lie in its ease of use, especially compared to AIX, which has a lot of functionalities requiring extensive learning."

"The security it provides is one of the most important features, as are the support and the documentation. The latter helps me to do everything."

"My decision to go with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was influenced by three main factors: 1. The IT team’s familiarity with Red Hat due to its previous deployment in other units. 2. Competitive pricing, which was 25 to 30 percent lower than other options. 3. The perception that Red Hat offered long-term service pack support for an additional fee; something that other providers like SUSE may not have offered."

"It is compatible with most Java microservices applications."

"RedHat Enterprise Linux has been running mission critical systems in my organization now for nearly 8 years, in a 24 x 7 environment, and during this time we have never, ever had any of our servers fail to function as needed."

"Technical support from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been very good."

"Compared to any other product, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a stable backported solution for a long time."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

Cons

"The price of CentOS could improve."

"CentOS could be improved with more user-friendly monitoring."

"If you are an IT technician or an apprentice, I would recommend this solution, however, if you are a regular user, I cannot recommend it because I find it confusing and difficult to use."

"In the future, CentOS will no longer be compatible with Red Hat. I would prefer that it remains compatible because when it changes, we will no longer be using it."

"This solution is no longer supported and will not receive any updates going forward."

"They could build more options into the wizard."

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

"I think CentOS can be improved, but it's not really a viable option anymore."

More CentOS cons

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

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

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

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

"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."

More openSUSE Leap cons

"SUSE offers more flexibility in managing multiple environments, as their product can manage Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). However, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Satellite server can only patch Red Hat and CentOS, not Ubuntu or SUSE."

"Being an advocate of open source technologies I always wished that Red Hat subscription/support should be offered free of cost."

"As such, there are no specific features that we are looking for. We have frequent meetings with them. We have had some issues on the application side and the OS side for which we opened cases and discussed those concerns and questions in the meetings offered by Red Hat."

"It is not very easy to manage because it has a command line interface, and it can be a little bit confusing from one version to another."

"Sometimes the solution deletes our archives or other features that were useful to us."

"The Cockpit interface needs improvement with more features. The information for implementing Red Hat Cluster could be also improved. And there could also be better performance monitoring."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux has affected our HA systems in a negative way. We're working through some of those issues."

"Improvement is needed for supporting Kubernetes clusters because it is less supported by Red Hat according to my experience."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"I'm not required to pay a licensing fee."

"CentOS is cheaper compared to Windows."

"The solution is open-source and does not have any costs or licensing fees."

"The product is free."

"We use the free, open-source solution because we cannot afford the price for Linux."

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

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

More CentOS pricing and cost advice

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

"The solution is open-source."

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

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

"I have purchased the license via hyperscalers and transferred it as well. I purchased the license from the marketplace and also from Red Hat. Pricing is something that can always be better."

"The Red Hat Enterprise Linux automation platform subscriptions are quite expensive."

"We purchased it directly from Red Hat. Compared to open source, it's very pricey, but you get the support, which makes it much better."

"We are coming from CentOS, so technically, our total cost of ownership has gone up, but it is still cheaper than Windows for a database server and things like that."

"Our client has a direct subscription to Red Hat."

"This is a cost-effective solution."

"I like my developer account. The free sixteen licenses that they give with the developer account are great because that gives me the ability to keep using it at home instead of trying CentOS or something like that."

"I did some research on pricing a long time ago, and at that time, it was much cheaper than Windows. I do not have current details about pricing, but it is affordable."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pricing and cost advice

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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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

19%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	90
Midsize Enterprise	49
Large Enterprise	268

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 st...

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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, ...

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What needs improvement with CentOS?

I do not find anything that can be improved in CentOS. I am a huge fan of it, and there is hardly anything that Linux...

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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 ca...

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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 solu...

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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

What do you like most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

Regarding the pricing of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscription, I believe the pricing is fair. The support tha...

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What needs improvement with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

I would suggest that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) improve the graphical user interface-based experience in a much ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Kali Linux vs CentOS

Compared 14% of the time

Oracle Linux vs CentOS

Compared 12% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs CentOS

Compared 8% of the time

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs CentOS

Compared 6% of the time

Windows Server vs CentOS

Compared 5% of the time

More CentOS Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 15% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 14% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 14% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 3% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 12% of the time

Windows Server vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 10% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 9% of the time

Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 8% of the time

Windows 11 vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 5% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CentOS

April 2026

Download CentOS product report

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

March 2026

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

March 2026

Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report

Also Known As

CentOS 7 (x86_64) - with Updates HVM

No data available

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers stability, security, and support for mission-critical applications with robust tools and scalable architecture, ideal for diverse environments and hybrid cloud compatibility.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides organizations with a reliable platform ideal for high-performance computing and virtualization. Known for its robust security and seamless network administration, it integrates well with OpenShift and Ansible, ensuring adaptability and scalability. Despite challenges with documentation, upgrade complexity, and cost, RHEL remains a formidable choice thanks to its comprehensive documentation and extensive community support.

What are the key features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Stability and Security: Maintains high stability and advanced security measures, critical for enterprise environments.
Extensive Support: Offers robust support through community and documentation, assisting with problem-solving and integration.
Automation with Ansible: Simplifies tasks and enhances efficiency, optimizing operations across the infrastructure.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Supports cloud environments, enabling flexibility and strategic deployments.
Scalable Architecture: Adapts to different workloads, making it suitable for growing organizational demands.

What benefits should users look for when evaluating Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Reliable Performance: Ensures consistent and secure operations across diverse environments, including cloud infrastructure.
Efficient Management: Centralized operations make it easy to manage enterprise workloads effectively.
Community and Documentation: Access to a strong community and comprehensive documentation aids in resolving issues.
Integration Capabilities: Easily integrates with technologies like OpenShift and SAP, enhancing operational versatility.
Adaptability: Supports a wide range of environments and technical requirements, improving strategic deployment.

Organizations across industries like financial services, telecommunications, and application hosting implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux for server and application management. Its compatibility with technologies such as SAP, Oracle, and Ansible supports functions including web, database, and enterprise solutions, ensuring stable and secure performance in high-pressure environments.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Travel Channel, Mohawk Industries, Hilti, Molecular Health, Exolgan, Hotelplan Group, Emory University, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, HCA Healthcare, Paychex, UPS, Intermountain Healthcare, Brinker International, TransUnion, Union Bank, CA Technologies

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

March 2026

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