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Flatcar Container Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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

Flatcar Container Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
39th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
393
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Flatcar Container Linux is 0.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.1%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)7.1%
Flatcar Container Linux0.9%
Other92.0%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

YD
Senior Consultant at Capgemini
The solution is stable and allows us to make needed changes
The development teams could sharpen their skills.  They should offer applications on the net I have eight years of experience with Flatcar Container Linux. The version of Flatcar Container Linux that I am using is stable. The scalability of this product is fine. It allows us to make the needed…
RO
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Flatcar's support is good, and the version I am using is stable and allows us to make needed changes."
"Flatcar's support is good. The version I am using is stable and allows us to make needed changes."
"RHEL gives our customers the abilities and security of an enterprise application, enabling them to centralize development, integrate with a lot of Red Hat tools like OpenShift and Insights, and ultimately make things easier while increasing their productivity and uptime."
"It's a very stable and secure platform with support options."
"We're very happy with the amount of security customization we've been able to do with RHEL. The fact that Red Hat is really on top of security issues is also valuable. We get daily emails from Red Hat letting us know of possible issues and fixes, which is incredibly helpful for us."
"The documentation is excellent."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that the upgrade in the patching area is really easy."
"Next year, I will recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because they have a lot of features and functions, especially for the enhancements."
"The best feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that I appreciate is that it provides consistent configuration setups with step-by-step configuration, which is easier."
"The most valuable feature is the security insight and the internal firewall, which are common in all the machine tests that we use a lot."
 

Cons

"The development teams could sharpen their skills. They should offer applications on the net."
"The development teams could sharpen their skills. They should offer applications on the net."
"If I had to imagine one thing that could be even better about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it would be more information in the man pages."
"The price for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is more expensive than other operating systems, especially when compared to other cloud versions."
"I do not have anything to improve for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but CentOS could be open-source again."
"The solution should provide demos so that users can learn to use it and improve their environments."
"The most common challenges faced with the deployment are mostly enterprise related, such as resource compatibility and making automation instead of active compatibility."
"To become more competitive, they might consider changing their licensing model, for instance, by offering an instance-based payment for cloud computing services."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux's ability to run containerized applications is not optimized and has room for improvement."
"I have seen that the upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 can be a bit problematic since I have seen some issues during the upgrade of libraries, along with some conflicts with the other libraries in the tool."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We purchased our license from ITM, our local provider."
"It's expensive."
"For me, it is not too bad, but my company pays the bill, so I do not worry too much about it."
"We are an educational institution and as such, what we pay is less than the average company."
"The licensing makes perfect sense for the amount of stuff you get with the operating system."
"We still have a few with one-to-one standard server licensing, but we are utilizing the virtualization host licensing. We license it based on the host, not based on VMs, which is cool. I was very happy that there was certain licensing with SAP to have access to SAP repos. Its cost was the same as the regular one, so I was happy about that."
"Pricing is something that needs to be worked out with the vendor. The more you have, the less you pay. That is the model nowadays in IT, but it is very cost-effective. You get what you pay for."
"I have very little experience with pricing and getting quotes. The whole VMware thing happened, and everybody is looking at different alternatives. At this point, any competitor is probably a good choice based on the cost."
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
University
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business90
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise270
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
I am happy with the pricing that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offers. I come from a technical background, so I do not have much insight into the business side, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL...
What needs improvement with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
I believe improvements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are required. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) should explore integrating AI, as many systems are currently incorporating AI. I believe that...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CISCO, mettle, Microsoft, Upguard, GMX
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Rocky Linux, Canonical and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business. Updated: May 2026.
893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.