Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap comparison

openSUSE and Red Hat are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. openSUSE is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0, while Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. openSUSE holds a 6.2% mindshare in OSB, compared to Red Hat’s 8.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of openSUSE users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

5,486 Views
5,486 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

Read 366 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) reviews

19,554 Views
19,358 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 21, 2025

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and openSUSE Leap compete in the Linux operating system category, each targeting different user bases. RHEL seems to have the upper hand in enterprise environments due to its advanced features, comprehensive support, and robust security, making it suitable for complex deployments, while openSUSE Leap appeals to open-source enthusiasts with its cost-effective and flexible features.

Features: RHEL offers advanced enterprise features such as automation and containerization tools, robust security options like SELinux, and seamless integration with tools like Ansible, ensuring reliability in hybrid cloud environments. It excels in security with options facilitating system protection and supports enterprise demands with stability and comprehensive features. This combination makes RHEL a reliable choice for hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. openSUSE Leap is praised for its innovative BTRFS file system, ease of use, and strong community support, providing flexibility and efficiency, making it a cost-effective solution for smaller setups with a focus on user-friendliness and innovative features.

Room for Improvement: RHEL users express the need for enhanced documentation, simplified configuration processes, and streamlined support processes, particularly concerning TPM and encryption management. RHEL licenses are complex, and users also note concerns about image size. openSUSE Leap could improve its GUI functionality, third-party integrations, and overall documentation to better meet enterprise needs. Users suggest that enhancements in these areas, along with smoother upgrades, could make openSUSE Leap more suitable for larger deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: RHEL offers adaptive deployment across hybrid, public cloud, and on-premises configurations with reliable customer service, though response times can vary. The support it provides is reliable, accommodating enterprise demands with flexibility in deployment. openSUSE Leap benefits from its open-source community support, optimal for on-premises setups, but may experience slower response times compared to RHEL’s premium services, affecting its competitiveness in environments that require prompt support.

Pricing and ROI: RHEL’s subscription model is pricier but delivers valuable support and decreased downtime, leading to increased operational efficiency that attracts enterprise users. The subscription offers extensive enterprise features, thus providing high value for those requiring reliable, secure operations. In contrast, openSUSE Leap provides a cost-effective, free, open-source alternative, appealing to users looking for financial savings and flexibility while sacrificing premium support. RHEL users find significant returns on investment through reduced downtime and reliability, whereas openSUSE Leap attracts budget-conscious users prioritizing affordability.

To learn more, read our detailed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

September 2025

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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

openSUSE Leap

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

12th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

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

366

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 6.2%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 8.3%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)	8.3%
openSUSE Leap	6.2%
Other	85.5%

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

Nagendra Kavadi

Senior Manager at Cognizant

Provides BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots

I only use the tool for testing purposes on my team, but multiple people use it. We don't make a team effort to install the solution. When it comes to maintenance, we ask our company to buy SUSE Linux Enterprise. My team consists of 13 people. We are currently integrating the solution with Ansible to do some coding. Although not a full-fledged automation, we are integrating the solution with Ansible and executing a couple of playbooks connected to openSUSE Leap. I would recommend the solution to other users looking for an open-source solution. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Bruce Lundberg

Linux HPC Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Stable - it just runs without the necessity to reboot."

"The most valuable feature by far has been the virtualization capabilities of the operating system."

"openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman."

"The solution is easy for me to use because the backend is derived from FreeBSD and this is something I have been using for over 20 years."

"The solution is very stable after it is configured. It is hard to have a panel slow, a problem, misconfiguration, or any kind of loss function."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots."

"The most valuable feature is the Identity Management. You pay almost the same subscription cost for normal RHEL and you get the central Identity Management. You would need to pay much more if you were using other applications or products like Active Directory from Microsoft."

"The systems are just bulletproof. We do not have problems with it. Support for file system differences and migrations has been solid."

"The customer service and technical support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are very responsive."

"The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its security, which is more secure than Windows."

"The deployment is a smooth process."

"Everything's so smooth with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that it's not something we really think about."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the underlying licensing system that our third-party tool uses. It offers convenience. We can open a case when we want to escalate anything."

"The features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that I appreciate the most include the most recent iterations such as no-downtime patching, live patching, and the ability to snapshot or snapshot LVM's; these features are more of a Linux capability, however, they have been really beneficial to us."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

Cons

"It would be helpful if we could easily switch from openSUSE Leap for testing to SUSE Linux Enterprise for production."

"I would like openSUSE Leap to have better link integration with Windows."

"In the future, the Active Directory could improve."

"Somehow the change from OS12.x via 13.x to Leap was a bit bumpy and some old issues seemed to reappear."

"There is room for improvement in the console."

"Like most Linux-based operating systems, the biggest challenge Leap faces is the GUI."

"There is room for improvement in integration with different cloud platforms."

"The Cockpit interface needs improvement with more features. The information for implementing Red Hat Cluster could be also improved. And there could also be better performance monitoring."

"It would be great if Red Hat had its cloud instead of using AWS, Azure, or GCP. RHEL should have a dedicated cloud. I would also like to see more Windows support."

"I would like to see the GNOME system monitor feature, which shows CPU usage and other aspects. It will help to save time."

"The vulnerability assessment part should also be improved. We do a lot of patching regularly. They try to fix an issue very quickly, and we also end up facing bugs that are not properly documented. When releasing the general availability for a particular solution, they need to do a lot more work on their side."

"To make Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a ten out of ten, addressing the enterprise management tools, such as SELinux policy management and firewalls, would bring it much more in line, especially regarding security features and overall operations management."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux could do better in live patching. In this day and age, vulnerabilities are constantly emerging, I feel that Red Hat Enterprise Linux has fallen backward in terms of live patching, particularly live kernel patching."

"Red Hat has several areas ripe for improvement. In the Asia Pacific region, where cost-optimization is highly valued, Red Hat's support and subscription costs are perceived as high and could be reduced."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source operating system that can be used free of charge."

"The cost of this solution was reasonable and it was within our budget."

"The solution is open-source."

"openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost."

"I'm unsure what the standard RHEL license costs for one machine. We pay for premium support that guarantees a response in two hours."

"Its licensing is pretty confusing. There are a lot of subscriptions, and it isn't always clear which subscription is the best, but with their support, it's easy to find the right one."

"It is very straightforward. We do not have to think much about having to get all the subscriptions related to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux fleet that we have because all the subscriptions came in pairs of CPUs or even for an entire bare-metal server."

"We like the model that Red Hat makes available for subscription and support. There are some free parts, subscriptions that facilitate solution development and implementation, and then, when the solution is well-defined, we move into the paid support license."

"I do not know the overall cost, but I know that Red Hat is cheaper than Windows."

"The licensing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux in Peru is very expensive."

"It seems to be fair. It is not overpriced."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is only affordable for large organizations."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user281973

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	83
Midsize Enterprise	47
Large Enterprise	249

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with openSUSE Leap?

Both openSUSE Leap and the SUSE Enterprise version use the same kernel. Suppose I have a lower environment where I can run openSUSE to test all my products. It would be helpful if I could easily sw...

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What is your primary use case for openSUSE Leap?

I use openSUSE Leap for testing purposes. Before officially using any server in our office, we test it using the solution. My office usually uses production servers on the SUSE Linux enterprise ver...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for openSUSE Leap?

openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that I strongly believe Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offers a good relationship between value and price, and despite it being quite pric...

See all answers

Comparisons

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 24% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 18% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 17% of the time

Fedora Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 10% of the time

CentOS vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 5% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 17% of the time

Windows Server vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 14% of the time

Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 9% of the time

Windows 10 vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 5% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

November 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

October 2025

Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product report

Also Known As

No data available

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS

Overview

openSUSE Leap is a brand new way of building openSUSE and is new type of hybrid Linux distribution. Leap uses source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), which gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions, and combines that with community developments to give users, developers and sysadmins the best stable Linux experience available. Contributor and enterprise efforts for Leap bridge a gap between matured packages and newer packages found in openSUSE’s other distribution Tumbleweed.

openSUSE

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers stability, security, and support for mission-critical applications with robust tools and scalable architecture, ideal for diverse environments and hybrid cloud compatibility.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides organizations with a reliable platform ideal for high-performance computing and virtualization. Known for its robust security and seamless network administration, it integrates well with OpenShift and Ansible, ensuring adaptability and scalability. Despite challenges with documentation, upgrade complexity, and cost, RHEL remains a formidable choice thanks to its comprehensive documentation and extensive community support.

What are the key features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Stability and Security: Maintains high stability and advanced security measures, critical for enterprise environments.
Extensive Support: Offers robust support through community and documentation, assisting with problem-solving and integration.
Automation with Ansible: Simplifies tasks and enhances efficiency, optimizing operations across the infrastructure.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Supports cloud environments, enabling flexibility and strategic deployments.
Scalable Architecture: Adapts to different workloads, making it suitable for growing organizational demands.

What benefits should users look for when evaluating Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Reliable Performance: Ensures consistent and secure operations across diverse environments, including cloud infrastructure.
Efficient Management: Centralized operations make it easy to manage enterprise workloads effectively.
Community and Documentation: Access to a strong community and comprehensive documentation aids in resolving issues.
Integration Capabilities: Easily integrates with technologies like OpenShift and SAP, enhancing operational versatility.
Adaptability: Supports a wide range of environments and technical requirements, improving strategic deployment.

Organizations across industries like financial services, telecommunications, and application hosting implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux for server and application management. Its compatibility with technologies such as SAP, Oracle, and Ansible supports functions including web, database, and enterprise solutions, ensuring stable and secure performance in high-pressure environments.

Red Hat

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

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

September 2025

Free Report: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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