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Debian vs Kali Linux comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

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

Debian
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
15th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Debian is 5.0%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kali Linux is 3.3%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Kali Linux3.3%
Debian5.0%
Other91.7%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2774055 - PeerSpot reviewer
cybersecurity engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Has reduced licensing costs and helped the team focus on implementation instead of compatibility workarounds
The best features Debian offers include compatibility and the wide range of software available on it, along with flexibility. The commands and most tutorials or documentation online for anything you need are always mainly built for Debian. It's much easier to find resources for Debian compared to other Linux distributions. Debian's compatibility and flexibility have significantly helped me in my work. For example, if I want to install any prerequisites for software on Debian, it's very easy to use the default commands for installing software such as APT-get, and I always find the package I want to install compatible and available in any of Debian's libraries or repos. When I try the same on Kali Linux or CentOS, I almost always struggle to find the packages easily, but for Debian, I always find what I need. Debian has positively impacted my organization by making it much easier for the technical team. If we had forced our team to use Kali Linux or any other Linux-based distributions, they would struggle more to complete projects that rely on Linux. Debian is the most straightforward and compatible option, which greatly simplifies our engineers' tasks. This ease of use with Debian has translated into results for our team by saving time and reducing errors. For example, when deploying a Linux-based application or software for one of our customers, since it's most likely compatible with Debian, the team can concentrate on implementing the product and installing it without working around limitations or compatibility issues.
Ciyagi Ciyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solution Architect & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Runs efficiently across devices and streamlines penetration testing workflows
Kali Linux could be improved by including more tools. I would personally like to see improvements in Kali Linux, particularly regarding Grub issues that sometimes occur when installing the VM. Additionally, I have experienced problems when updating Kali Linux from a higher version to a lower version, which resulted in crashes. These Grub issues should be resolved. I face significant challenges with Kali Linux regarding a major issue with the Grub loader becoming corrupted, which makes it very difficult to recover data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best features Debian offers are its low weight, lightweight architecture, and faster response to services."
"Debian's stability helps me in my daily work because my work relies on stability; I'm trying to deploy production workloads, and Debian offers that stability for me."
"Debian is the most straightforward and compatible option, which greatly simplifies our engineers' tasks."
"Debian offers the best features in that it is open source, simple, and battle-tested, with a good release cycle."
"Kali Linux offers excellent features including being lightweight with low memory usage, easy installation, portability, and multiple architectures such as ARM architecture and server architecture."
"The most effective features of Kali Linux include its stability as a Linux operating system, its flexibility in configuring resources such as partitions, its powerful and stable file system, and its multi-user capability, which allows for setting user privileges and rights. Additionally, Kali Linux provides access to a wide range of free and open-source applications for testing and development purposes."
"Kali Linux positively impacts my organization by allowing us to monitor changes and security posture for the company."
"Additionally, it now includes comprehensive migration analytics and reporting capabilities."
"Kali Linux has positively impacted my work by facilitating and simplifying the setup for an operating system and installing tools."
"The solution's stability is very good."
"Kali Linux has positively impacted my organization significantly as it aids in red team work and penetration testing."
"I'm mostly using for the web security web application, so end map and the troubleshoot will it's my price, and it's available in ColliNX."
 

Cons

"It seems there should be a more deterministic way to do that. It does seem that you are running a lot of random install scripts to install things or relying on another two or three package management services, so there could be better software installation methods."
"I believe Debian can be improved by adding more containerization features out of the box, and it should make some updates when it comes to the UI."
"I wish the company responsible for Debian would send communications about updates and new features to keep people informed and to give Debian the recognition and praise that it deserves."
"I cannot say that I have seen a return on investment with Debian because I am a DevOps engineer, and it is my job to do this."
"I think Kali Linux can be improved because it is not a beginner-friendly operating system."
"However, something about it might be improved, maybe the overall smoothness of it, because there are sometimes when I try to run a lot of applications, it tries to hang up on me."
"Unfortunately, my current tool runs on Windows 10, and its use is restricted to enterprise versions. Integrating this tool or similar functionalities into Kali Linux for non-enterprise users would be incredibly valuable."
"The product should integrate AI and GPT capabilities."
"The tool is slightly difficult to learn."
"I face significant challenges with Kali Linux regarding a major issue with the Grub loader becoming corrupted, which makes it very difficult to recover data."
"There are areas for improvement in Kali Linux, particularly regarding its use of the Linux kernel, which requires external additional patching, and the fact that network services are disabled by default, which complicates usage; enhancing user-friendliness through more GUI-based tools and better integration could be beneficial."
"I would like for them to offer more features for the free version in order for users to test them in their internal environment before purchasing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is an open-source tool."
"I use it free of charge."
"I have used the free version."
"Kali Linux is a free product, and you don't have to pay for a license."
"The licensing fee is expensive compared to other products."
"The tool is open-source."
"There is no need to make any payments towards the licensing costs since it is a solution that is available for free."
"Kali Linux offers a perpetual license, meaning you pay for it once and can use it. While free versions of Linux are available, Kali Linux, being an enterprise edition, usually comes with a perpetual license. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Educational Organization
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Debian?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is quite favorable; since Debian is totally free, it is one of my first options.
What needs improvement with Debian?
I believe Debian can be improved by adding more containerization features out of the box, and it should make some updates when it comes to the UI. In addition to the needed improvements, I think if...
What is your primary use case for Debian?
As a DevOps engineer, my main use case for Debian is that it is my daily driver. I use Debian in my daily work most of the time for tasks such as installing daemons and servers like Nginx, hosting ...
What do you like most about Kali Linux?
I use the tool with Nmap to perform network audits. We use it to find vulnerabilities in our network through attacks. It's for those who want to launch or create viruses or perform attacks on syste...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kali Linux?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been good because I am using the free version.
What needs improvement with Kali Linux?
I think there are a lot of efforts which are really great for improving Kali Linux. Increasing the tutorials and the help inside Kali Linux would make it more useful.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Debian 12
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Debian vs. Kali Linux and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.