No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Kali Linux vs LAMP Stack CentOS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
LAMP Stack CentOS
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
38th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
2.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Kali Linux is 4.2%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LAMP Stack CentOS is 0.2%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Kali Linux4.2%
LAMP Stack CentOS0.2%
Other95.6%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

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.
FedirPlotnikov - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cloud Engineer at Globant
Reliable hosting stack has supported long-term PHP website and application development
In my opinion, the best features LAMP Stack CentOS offers include a reliable and predictable solution for hosting PHP applications. The stability of the solutions and the CentOS and Red Hat release policy make it predictable for me, which ensures that I always have a tested and stable version in the official repositories. LAMP Stack CentOS has impacted my organization positively as it was the main stack for the development and hosting of the developed solutions for some of the companies. This impacted my teams and business outcomes as the whole business was based on the ability to release PHP-based applications, so it is basically one of the core services for the business.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The interface is good and straightforward to use."
"The most valuable feature of Kali Linux is the attack it performs using a CVE script that's already on the internet."
"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 solution's most valuable feature is that it is very easy to use."
"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."
"We use the product for open-source intelligence and identifying vulnerabilities."
"Kali Linux has impacted my organization positively because it has allowed for the better security of my applications."
"If you are looking for faster, better performance or scalability, then Kali Linux is the best."
"LAMP Stack CentOS builds client trust that we can get our projects live in no time and builds credibility for the organization."
"LAMP Stack CentOS has positively impacted my organization by providing a standard, zero-license, licensing-free gateway into the Red Hat enterprise ecosystem."
"LAMP Stack CentOS has impacted my organization positively as it was the main stack for the development and hosting of the developed solutions for some of the companies."
 

Cons

"There is a significant lack of examples for Kali Linux, so you always need to go to external resources to get examples on how to use several tools that come with Kali Linux."
"There can be some lagging issues because the product gets stuck at times, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Sometimes you need a graphical interface, it would be easier to start with if the AMI already have it installed and enabled it."
"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."
"From an improvement perspective, Kali Linux could include more ML to help with academic literature, as it is one of the areas where there are shortcomings in the solution."
"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."
"While Kali Linux has gotten better over the past years, it could be improved if it was bundled in a CLI-only pack."
"Increasing the tutorials and the help inside Kali Linux would make it more useful."
"The bigger area for improvement for LAMP Stack CentOS is overall ecosystem lifecycle predictability."
"The performance of LAMP Stack CentOS when handling high-traffic websites or demanding workloads might require us to set up some load balancing."
"LAMP Stack CentOS can be improved by tracking the CVEs and releasing fixes as fast as possible."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I use it free of charge."
"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."
"I have used the free version."
"Kali Linux is open source."
"The licensing fee is expensive compared to other products."
"The price is good because Kali Linux already provides a good bundle of tools."
"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."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Operating Systems (OS) for Business solutions are best for your needs.
896,942 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
56%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Transportation Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kali Linux?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Kali Linux has been that it was free to use.
What needs improvement with Kali Linux?
I think Kali Linux is good, but there is a widespread misunderstanding related to Kali Linux because many people believe Kali Linux is a tool for hackers and that anything can be hacked using it. T...
What is your primary use case for Kali Linux?
My main use case for Kali Linux during my educational and research projects was primarily for vulnerability research and cybersecurity research. I used it for understanding the ecosystem and learni...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

No data available
LAMP Stack on CentOS
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Canonical, Rocky Linux and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business. Updated: May 2026.
896,942 professionals have used our research since 2012.