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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Rocky Linux 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
6.9
RHEL enhances ROI with competitive pricing, stability, automation, and security, reducing costs and increasing operational efficiency for users.
Sentiment score
3.9
Switching to Rocky Linux saved costs and time, enhanced problem resolution, and supported increased employee onboarding and organizational growth.
A long lifecycle is key to having a good return on investment.
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.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has saved us time and increased productivity.
When it comes to return on investment, a lot of money is saved since we moved from a purchased license to the open source provided by Rocky Linux.
ROI has been good as we have significant open source community involvement.
I have seen a return on investment since there was definitely money saved at the time due to the lack of need for licensing since Rocky is available openly.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux support is responsive and effective, though some suggest improvements for quicker resolution of complex issues.
Sentiment score
4.1
Rocky Linux customer service is reliable, with quick responses, good documentation, and high user satisfaction despite limited official reliance.
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.
When we do contact customer service, they are generally very knowledgeable and well-versed in our size.
Usually, I send the information, and they have something for me within hours, sometimes even minutes.
The support level is extraordinary, providing on-time assistance.
We have not yet needed to contact a vendor regarding Rocky Linux.
Even if we raise a support ticket, we receive a resolution or a reply from the team within two business days.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in scalability, seamlessly managing large infrastructures and integrating with diverse cloud and on-premises environments.
Sentiment score
5.3
Rocky Linux is scalable and user-friendly, with organizations recommending automation tools for efficient setup and expansion.
Many of our applications scale really well, with some having several hundreds of VMs, which we couldn't accomplish on Windows.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales very well with the growing needs of our company.
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.
Even if the server is not responding and we want to attach the volume on another instance or a temporary instance, it is very easy and straightforward with no hiccups.
It has handled growth or changing needs well.
The scalability is quite good, though there are some issues with Rocky Linux.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is favored for stability, security, and support, ideal for business-critical operations despite occasional third-party issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
Rocky Linux is praised for its stability, ease of use, scalability, and reliable performance on low-resource systems and hardware.
It works consistently with minimal downtime and very few bugs or glitches.
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.
We've not had a service outage with Red Hat in six years.
Rocky Linux is stable, scalable, and it is very much easier to use.
Rocky Linux is stable.
 

Room For Improvement

RHEL requires improvement in upgrade simplicity, application compatibility, support, cloud integration, training accessibility, and transitioning from CentOS.
Rocky Linux needs identity clarity, better integrations, faster updates, improved security, API tools, documentation, and enhanced community support.
Addressing these limitations would significantly enhance the operating system's flexibility and efficiency.
The built-in security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux were insufficient for our needs, necessitating the implementation of supplementary security measures.
By providing pre-installed, native automation tools within the operating system, Red Hat would streamline processes and improve user efficiency.
It is based on customer requirements, as they might want to use Rocky Linux or Ubuntu, depending on their needs.
Rocky Linux could be improved by having more integration with Kubernetes.
Currently, it takes more than one month to release a new package or kernel, so speeding that up would help reduce reported vulnerability remediations.
 

Setup Cost

RHEL pricing and licensing are costly for small businesses, but offer value and stability for larger enterprises.
Rocky Linux is praised for its affordability and streamlined licensing, appealing to cost-conscious enterprises and AWS users.
It may be considered expensive compared to other solutions like CentOS or Ubuntu, which offer some of the same features without additional costs.
Its pricing has room for improvement because it's more expensive in the local market due to purchasing power parity in India.
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.
We switched to Rocky Linux because of the license price, and in our business, we don't need to have a higher cost as that is not a good idea.
There is no extra cost for a license if we are purchasing Rocky Linux from the AWS Marketplace.
Rocky Linux is free, and I can download it and deploy it in whatever environment I have, whether it be H3C, VMware, or Hyper-V.
 

Valuable Features

RHEL is favored for its stability, security, automation, and integration, benefiting businesses with efficient management and compliance.
Rocky Linux offers stability, cost savings, easy integration, and strong community support, making it ideal for critical systems management.
It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
There is also no downtime.
The operating system allows for the simple addition of kernels, modules, and other applications, making it highly adaptable to various needs.
Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization, specifically through cost savings, because we did not have to buy any licenses or extra licenses of other distros, such as Oracle or Red Hat.
For production deployment, Rocky Linux is a great choice because it offers full RHEL compatibility without licensing costs, along with strong community support.
Since migrating to Rocky Linux, I've seen specific outcomes such as improved security because CentOS stopped the project, and security patches aren't being released.
 

Categories and Ranking

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
Rocky Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 8.6%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rocky Linux is 14.3%, up from 12.2% 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)8.6%
Rocky Linux14.3%
Other77.1%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Massimiliano Adamo - PeerSpot reviewer
Has supported seamless migrations and enabled running complex data workloads securely
The best features Rocky Linux offers include clustering and all the packages from Red Hat.Rocky Linux has impacted my organization very positively because we migrated everything from CentOS and Windows servers to Rocky Linux. Everything is clear, with good packaging, and now it's version 9.6, which is very important for us due to security problems since we are in Europe. Rocky Linux is very good for security and other aspects. Since migrating to Rocky Linux, I've seen specific outcomes such as improved security because CentOS stopped the project, and security patches aren't being released. We need to maintain a system similar to Red Hat, which is very stable and has many features such as file system, topology, and containers.
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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
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business83
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise249
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

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)?
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...
What do you like most about Rocky Linux?
It's very simple to work with, easy to learn, and know where things are.
What needs improvement with Rocky Linux?
Currently, I have nothing to say about how Rocky Linux can be improved. The rolling update for Rocky Linux is very limited and focused on stability, so the software may not always be the latest ver...
What is your primary use case for Rocky Linux?
For the last two years, I have been using Rocky Linux for our project. I do all the things: installations of Rocky Linux, coding in Rocky Linux, and using Rocky Linux as a platform. We use Rocky Li...
 

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Rocky Linux and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.