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CentOS vs Windows 10 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 3, 2025

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
4.0
CentOS is valued for efficiency, reducing downtime and costs, saving time, and enhancing business operations without detailed financial tracking.
Sentiment score
1.4
Windows 10 enhances performance, security, and compatibility, reducing crashes and break-even in 1.5 years, despite mixed ROI perceptions.
We have saved approximately 50% of our revenue by using CentOS.
It saved a lot of time through troubleshooting, which gives us substantial room for improvement in terms of fixing things.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.2
CentOS depends on community support, with users utilizing forums and resources, while Red Hat offers paid technical service.
Sentiment score
4.6
Users often use online forums and resources for Windows 10 support, experiencing mixed satisfaction with Microsoft's technical support.
I would rate the customer support for CentOS a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
I've seen many people across the globe interacting, and when users encounter issues, the community provides solutions.
I would rate the documentation about eight in terms of usefulness.
We have informed Microsoft, but the issue is still there, and it has been more than three to four months.
The customer service and support from Microsoft are quite responsive and generally good.
The Office 365 support is good, it takes a while sometimes to point to the problem, but they're good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
CentOS efficiently scales for diverse users, adaptable for extensive growth in industries like scientific computing and microservices.
Sentiment score
5.2
Windows 10 is widely seen as scalable for diverse organizations, supporting both personal and enterprise environments efficiently.
CentOS is scalable and user-friendly without requiring complex configurations.
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.
CentOS's scalability for my organization has handled growth and changing needs smoothly.
For scalability, I would rate it a nine or ten because performance-wise, Windows 10 has never given me those issues.
I can increase the licensing amount easily when there is company growth or when new people join.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
CentOS is reliable and stable, with recent versions improving past issues, earning favor for its simplicity and consistent performance.
Sentiment score
6.4
Windows 10 is stable and reliable with minimal issues, though updates may sometimes temporarily affect performance and stability.
CentOS is stable, reliable, flexible, and very useful.
CentOS's simplicity and stability make it easy to use.
I believe CentOS is stable, but we are gradually moving away from it.
The challenges were related to third-party agents and their supportability.
I would rate the stability of the product an eight.
 

Room For Improvement

CentOS requires enhanced user-friendliness, stability, support, and updates to address compatibility, security, and usability concerns.
Windows 10 needs better update management, intuitive design, stronger security, improved performance, platform integration, flexible pricing, and support.
The documentation and support could be improved, along with compatibility with newer hardware as hardware continually evolves over time.
Kernel parameters, sysctl config details, tuned profiles, process prioritization, optimized disk, and input scheduler choice are all points for performance optimization.
CentOS removed long-term support, and version releases every two to three years are not ideal for production environments because they necessitate frequent updates.
Microsoft can improve their Teams product because everybody uses Teams, and it's very clunky and unfriendly in terms of scrolling back, downloading files, and moving back and forth within the different teams.
Investment in Windows 10 may not be ideal as the world is changing with advancing technology in the AI age.
The transitions within Teams are not smooth, and call quality in meetings is not great.
 

Setup Cost

CentOS offers a cost-effective, open-source solution, praised for affordability and low total cost of ownership compared to Windows.
Enterprise Windows 10 pricing varies widely, influenced by licensing models, with users seeking simpler, more transparent and affordable options.
There was no cost in terms of deploying it or getting the license for it.
CentOS is a free product with free updates.
The enterprise subscription cost is at a certain level, but CentOS saves customers from paying additional money, optimizing costs for enterprises and startups involved in application development.
For those buying a Windows license, it might be better to buy a Windows 11 license.
Windows is considered overpriced, especially given the normal software functionalities.
Windows 10 is cost-effective when compared to other competitors available such as Mac and Linux.
 

Valuable Features

CentOS is a stable, secure, and cost-effective open-source OS offering compatibility, performance, and robust community support for organizations.
Windows 10 features a user-friendly interface, robust security, high performance, and enhances productivity with intuitive multitasking and seamless integration.
The update cycle changed when CentOS was prioritized for updates, causing stability issues.
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.
The best feature CentOS offers is that it's free.
When using mapping software such as QGIS or ArcGIS, the system remains stable, especially when handling heavy files.
The configuration management tools, such as SACM, are effective.
Windows 11 brings some AI features for Microsoft Copilot, which probably weren't as integrated into the previous version.
 

Categories and Ranking

CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 10
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.7
Number of Reviews
283
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of CentOS is 4.5%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 10 is 2.8%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
CentOS4.5%
Windows 102.8%
Other92.7%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Wasif - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Arjun Meda - PeerSpot reviewer
User appreciates ease of use but desires improvements in pricing and update process
I do not find Windows 10 compatible with my applications as I am not using any legacy applications. Regarding my experience with Windows 10, I was annoyed with updates that constantly make my PC restart. Additionally, the user interface could be more intuitive because it is sometimes too hard to find specific items.
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business126
Midsize Enterprise63
Large Enterprise119
 

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 do you like most about CentOS?
CentOS is very easy to use, and all the commands are user-friendly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CentOS?
My experience with CentOS in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is an open-source operating system, so there was no cost in terms of deploying it or getting the license for it.
What needs improvement with Windows 10?
I do not find Windows 10 compatible with my applications as I am not using any legacy applications. Regarding my experience with Windows 10, I was annoyed with updates that constantly make my PC re...
What is your primary use case for Windows 10?
Regarding features such as Cortana voice activation, I am not using that; it is not AI, it is more similar to Siri in iPhones. Regarding the initial setup, it is not difficult to set up Windows 10 ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

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

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about CentOS vs. Windows 10 and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,778 professionals have used our research since 2012.