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Oracle Solaris vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Oracle Solaris enhances ROI with integration, ease of use, troubleshooting efficiencies, despite concerns about costs and limited feature benefits.
Sentiment score
6.5
RHEL boosts ROI through cost-saving automation, improved productivity, security, and reduced total ownership costs with reliable support.
In terms of ROI, there have been performance improvements because Oracle Solaris is lighter.
CIO at Clarinox Technologies
A long lifecycle is key to having a good return on investment.
Architect at KnowIT
Being able to transform common manual tasks that previously took all day into processes that take an hour, half an hour, or even less, demonstrates clear value.
Systems administrator at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has saved us time and increased productivity.
Cloud engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.2
Oracle Solaris support is reliable with 24/7 service, though some users find self-resolution faster than official assistance.
Sentiment score
7.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux support is praised for expertise and efficiency, despite occasional initial communication challenges and delays.
The technical support by Oracle is good.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) support is great, as they go beyond their duty to help resolve issues and provide solutions even for third-party software such as XRDP.
Senior Infrastructure Systems Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
When we do contact customer service, they are generally very knowledgeable and well-versed in our size.
Solutions Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Usually, I send the information, and they have something for me within hours, sometimes even minutes.
Team manager at Evertec
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Oracle Solaris offers robust scalability and adaptability, excelling in both vertical and horizontal scaling for large enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.3
RHEL excels in scalability, enabling seamless adaptation for diverse workloads across on-premises and cloud environments with high stability.
Regarding vertical scalability, Oracle Solaris is probably one of the most scalable operating systems in the industry.
System specialist at Savecore
Many of our applications scale really well, with some having several hundreds of VMs, which we couldn't accomplish on Windows.
Solutions Architect at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales very well with the growing needs of our company.
Director, DevOps at Lightedge Solutions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) handles increases in users, applications, or data smoothly, which is why we use it for all our projects, as it provides us with confidence.
Cloud Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Oracle Solaris is renowned for its high stability, reliable security, and minimal crash occurrences compared to other operating systems.
Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is renowned for its stability and reliability, excelling in uptime and handling business-critical operations efficiently.
It works consistently with minimal downtime and very few bugs or glitches.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It just works, and that's really the key factor; I can't remember the last time we had a system go down and had to restore it due to a bad patch.
Senior software engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We've not had a service outage with Red Hat in six years.
Team Lead, Linux Systems & Tools at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle Solaris users seek better compatibility, modernization, open-source support, and enhanced documentation, with improved interfaces akin to Linux.
Improving documentation, support, cost-effectiveness, upgrades, security, GUI, integration, and automation would enhance Red Hat Enterprise Linux's user experience.
Oracle Solaris needs to improve its compatibility with office tools like Excel.
CIO at Clarinox Technologies
Oracle is going to discontinue it, so I do not think any improvement is possible in Oracle Solaris.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Addressing these limitations would significantly enhance the operating system's flexibility and efficiency.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The built-in security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux were insufficient for our needs, necessitating the implementation of supplementary security measures.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
By providing pre-installed, native automation tools within the operating system, Red Hat would streamline processes and improve user efficiency.
Systems Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Oracle Solaris competitive yet costly, valuing integration and security but noting complex licensing and setup expenses.
RHEL's high pricing is offset by support and reliability, ideal for enterprises but costly for smaller businesses.
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
CIO at Clarinox Technologies
It may be considered expensive compared to other solutions like CentOS or Ubuntu, which offer some of the same features without additional costs.
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Its pricing has room for improvement because it's more expensive in the local market due to purchasing power parity in India.
Cloud engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Windows Servers base their cost on the number of users and have high licensing fees, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers free versions alongside its paid, supported versions.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Oracle Solaris excels in virtualization, security, and performance with features like Zones and ZFS, offering reliable cloud readiness.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in stability, security, and automation, making it a preferred choice with strong support and community backing.
The operating system is lightweight, which makes it easier to use on an average computer compared to systems like Windows.
CIO at Clarinox Technologies
Additionally, regarding security, you do not have to implement any antivirus software.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
Cloud Infrastructure Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
There is also no downtime.
Linux/DevOps Engineer at Ekwantu Consulting
The operating system allows for the simple addition of kernels, modules, and other applications, making it highly adaptable to various needs.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Solaris
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
52
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
382
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Oracle Solaris is 1.8%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 8.0%, down from 11.4% 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)8.0%
Oracle Solaris1.8%
Other90.2%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Prabir Kumar Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Experience robust performance and security for large organizations
For big organizations who look for performance, better security, and better manageability, I usually recommend Oracle Solaris. It is not recommended for smaller organizations because you need a specialized person to manage this operating system. Linux can be managed by anybody. However, maintaining Oracle Solaris, creating clusters, and tuning at the OS level needs a specialized resource. Smaller organizations may not have those resources, or it will be too costly for them to maintain. Everybody is moving towards the cloud. I am not sure how they are going to do that because it is going to be a dead product already compared to its competitors. I would recommend Oracle Linux instead of Oracle Solaris now. On a scale of 1-10, I rate Oracle Solaris a 9.
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.
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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
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business86
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise262
 

Questions from the Community

How does Oracle Linux compare with Solaris?
When comparing Oracle Linux and Solaris, I believe that Linux is more secure and more flexible. It is also very suitable for enterprises that are already Oracle solution users. I found Linux to be ...
What do you like most about Oracle Solaris?
We use the solution as an internal operating system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Solaris?
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
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 pricing, setup cost, and licensing, the pricing is good; however, licensing is a bit confusing.
 

Also Known As

Solaris 11, Solaris
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Siemens, IVV
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 Oracle Solaris vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.