Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap comparison

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap

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Helped 886,174 peers since 2012

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

15th

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

7.0

Number of Reviews

393

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 5.4%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.2%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)	7.2%
openSUSE Leap	5.4%
Other	87.4%

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.

Read full review

Ray Ortega

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.

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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."

"This solution has helped my organization's security from the use of its firewall, and the features for blocking or allowing traffic are very effective and have worked well for us."

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

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

"Leap has provided me with the ability to offer what I consider Enterprise class server O/S platforms to my smaller customers who are looking to improve their competitive stances without breaking the bank."

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

"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."

More openSUSE Leap pros

"It is a reliable system that I can depend on more than anything else."

"Customer support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is rated as a ten out of ten."

"The deployment is a smooth process."

"In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we use Red Hat Satellite as part of all the patching and deployment, even from on-premises and AWS, and that's been really helpful since it is one product that can be used in a hybrid environment."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"The customer service and technical support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been wonderful so far."

"The business value of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is significant in comparison to other Linux distributions I have used, particularly because we work with banking clients that operate around the clock."

"In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I am a big fan of the command line."

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pros

Cons

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

More openSUSE Leap cons

"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."

"With on-premise Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), scalability is not easy because I cannot deploy new machines."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) needs some improvement for stability."

"I like the way the operating system works now, and I do not really see any bad functionality with it. The only thing I would say is getting rid of some aspects. That is the one part that a lot of admins probably get annoyed with."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be improved by making it lighter. By making it lighter, there should be versions for specific cases, for customers or images."

"The main concern is the price."

"Regarding scalability, it has been rational, though I do not have extensive experience with particular use cases."

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

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 solution is open-source."

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

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

"The solution's pricing is reasonable and less expensive than other products such as Windows or Oracle."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is suitably priced with various support tiers to match organizational needs and environments."

"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."

"We have a site license on a yearly basis. Generally, we're okay with its price, but everything could be cheaper."

"There are special academic offerings for academic institutes, which is pretty good. We need these offerings. In my personal opinion, the prices are okay. However, for educational purposes, they could be lower. For example, in Germany, the budget in the education sector for IT is lower compared to the huge universities in the US."

"The licensing model of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good, but lower prices are always preferable."

"We purchased it directly from Red Hat. Compared to open source, it's very pricey, but you get the support, which makes it much better."

"It's expensive."

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

19%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

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	90
Midsize Enterprise	49
Large Enterprise	268

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...

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...

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

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

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)?

Regarding the pricing of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscription, I believe the pricing is fair. The support that Red Hat provides is very good. Whenever I encounter issues, Red Hat always pro...

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Comparisons

Compared 14% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 14% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 13% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 12% of the time

AlmaLinux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 7% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 11% of the time

Windows Server vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 9% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 9% of the time

Rocky Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 8% of the time

CentOS vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Compared 5% of the time

More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Competitors

Product Reports

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap