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Kali Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

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
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
14
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
7.1
Number of Reviews
364
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Kali Linux is 2.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 9.0%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)9.0%
Kali Linux2.7%
Other88.3%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

NilutpalDutta - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides valuable real-time data scanning for vulnerability assessment
We don't know if Kali Linux has the port scanning capability yet, but that is an area of improvement because we are working with DMZ zones and customized ports. If we can add featured customized port scanning and DMZ zone capability, then it will be a very great tool. It might be there, but we are not exploring it yet. We are not exploring 100% of Kali Linux capabilities. If real-time customized port scanning can be added, for example, instead of a default port such as 8080 or 443, if we can use a customized port such as 9876, that capability would be great. The only point that I didn't find on Kali Linux for now is the ability to customize port scanning.
Bruce Lundberg - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable patch management, high uptime, and incredible knowledge base
In terms of security, it does a lot of things that most people still turn off. SELinux is turned on by default. They have pretty good firewall rules in their defaults. The audit rules always take tweaking, but, overall, it comes out of the box not too bad. I used to write scripts to harden them from there. There are multiple ways to provision and patch. You have everything from local repositories to doing it by hand. Their knowledge base is incredible. There is so much information out there. It has never taken me longer than 30 minutes to find an answer to anything, even very tough ones. One company I worked for was a security company, and we did a lot of patching on everything. It was designed around security and email hosting, and uptime was pretty much whatever we wanted it to be. I have had a couple of times when the uptime was bad, but it was caused by a third-party solution. In fact, the Norton antivirus was definitely the worst. Red Hat had nothing to do with it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Additionally, it now includes comprehensive migration analytics and reporting capabilities."
"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."
"In general, Kali Linux is used for hosting applications, developing new applications, and operating systems. It's also used in containers and nodes. The tool offers a smaller footprint than Windows because it lacks the functionality of graphical user interfaces. One advantage of Kali Linux is its lower maintenance requirements than Windows, with slower update cycles and easier maintenance procedures."
"The interface is good and straightforward to use."
"Kali Linux has the capability of real-time data scanning for vulnerability assessment for backend services, and that is actually very far more valuable."
"Kali Linux is much better than other OS because it gives you a good set of tools. It is preferred for vulnerability assessments and cybersecurity."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of Kali Linux is the attack it performs using a CVE script that's already on the internet."
"One of the valuable features is that it's convenient."
"Things like packaging and the stability you get from things being downstream are valuable. A lot of times, upgrades are more security-based and not feature-based, so things do not break API-wise as we go forward a lot of times"
"My experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in terms of stability and reliability is excellent."
"The file system is very good. We also have flexibility. We can scale the file system and add the mounts on the go without any downtime."
"The benefits I get from this operating system are that it's secure, easy to use, and stable."
"With Red Hat, the community is so robust. Most of the time, while waiting for a Red Hat engineer to call us back, the solution to the issue is already provided."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a good file system type and good kernels."
"My favorite feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that it's a Linux server with Linux commands, which have benefited my company by making it feel lightweight and allowing developers who know Linux commands to jump on it immediately."
 

Cons

"Any new user or someone without deep expertise won't be able to understand how to scale or manage it"
"The tool is slightly difficult to learn."
"I would like to have automation in Kali Linux instead of manually configuring or setting up something in case of an upgrade."
"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."
"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."
"The product should integrate AI and GPT capabilities."
"The product should improve its security features."
"From an improvement perspective, it should be made possible for users to learn about the product easily."
"We wish we could upgrade from version 6 to 9 directly instead of having to go from 6 to 7, then 7 to 8, and finally 8 to 9."
"One area for improvement is the Subscription Manager, which is sometimes an inconvenience, especially when it doesn't work well with Satellite."
"If we can update certain parts internally without having to remove them from the entire server, that would be fantastic since, else, there will be downtime, and we will need to reboot."
"To improve standardization, deprecate YUM and transition to DNF."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux's monitoring could be improved. I would like additional monitoring features, like a greater ability to monitor services and workloads running. Satellite can provide centralized monitoring of subscriptions and deployments. You can build a monitoring console, but there is no native monitoring."
"The product should be made available on Oracle Cloud."
"Personally, I don't see good benefits from their support and paid licensing compared to completely free and well-documented Linux distributions, as I find RHEL excessively expensive."
"The performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) could be improved, especially under high load scenarios or when running applications involving AI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Kali Linux is open source."
"I use it free of charge."
"There is no need to make any payments towards the licensing costs since it is a solution that is available for free."
"Kali Linux is a free product, and you don't have to pay for a license."
"The tool is open-source."
"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."
"The price is good because Kali Linux already provides a good bundle of tools."
"The licensing fee is expensive compared to other products."
"Our client has a direct subscription to Red Hat."
"They knew we would buy tons of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so they were a little bit more relaxed. We wanted a thousand licenses, and we could pick those up. We true up. Our license experience has been positive with the exception of having to deal with all of the broken-up accounts, which is as much our fault as anybody's."
"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."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable and less expensive than other products such as Windows or Oracle."
"While the cost of Red Hat Enterprise Linux may seem high, it's necessary to support Red Hat's extensive research and development, which includes maintaining long update cycles for the operating system."
"Switching to Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to subscription costs can be a significant financial step."
"In terms of the solution’s single subscription and install repository for all types of systems, we can have as many RHEL installations as we want because we have a specific subscription that entitles us to have as many RHEL services as we want. We pay for a subscription and with that we get RHEL and Satellite as well."
"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side, mainly because of the support they provide. However, it is quite affordable if you are an organization. If, as a small company or individual, this is an expensive option, I would recommend CentOS, which is an exact replica of RHEL, minus the customer support."
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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
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
University
13%
Educational Organization
10%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business84
Midsize Enterprise46
Large Enterprise248
 

Questions from the Community

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?
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 perpetua...
What needs improvement with Kali Linux?
We don't know if Kali Linux has the port scanning capability yet, but that is an area of improvement because we are working with DMZ zones and customized ports. If we can add featured customized po...
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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
I can say about pricing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is maybe a two on a scale where ten is a high price.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Kali Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.