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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs SUSE Linux Enterprise vs Ubuntu Linux comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 9.6%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SUSE Linux Enterprise is 7.1%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ubuntu Linux is 13.4%, down from 22.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
Dominique Locksley - PeerSpot reviewer
Has good kernel modules and upgrades
I like how the tool handles kernel modules and upgrades - we rarely have issues after upgrades, unlike with other Linux distributions like Oracle Linux or Ubuntu. The kernel module management is excellent. Changes made in one version typically work the same in other versions too, which isn't always the case with other distributions. There's also lots of information and community support available if you run into any problems, both on the official website and in forums and user groups. I know many people who use it specifically, so it's easy to get independent support if needed. I've been working with the tool for a long time, since 2003, before they became SUSE Linux Enterprise. It's always been one of the most admin-friendly Linux versions.
Kevin Haury - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux's advanced terminal empowers versatile usage and ongoing secure development
Initially, there was nothing complicated. It's easy since I have many years of experience with it. However, if I were a beginner with Linux, it could be completely disruptive compared to Windows. So, I would have to spend some time practicing with Linux to understand how it works and how I can accomplish the same tasks compared to Windows. Maybe one month, at least.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support is very helpful."
"It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements."
"Copious documentation is probably the best feature of the solution."
"Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten."
"I like its user-friendliness for the admins administering the servers and the ease of doing fix packs on the servers and upgrades with the Red Hat software. It saves time and cost because we don't need to have expensive hires to do the work. We can do it ourselves a lot of times. It's a pretty straightforward, easy-to-learn, and user-friendly operating system."
"I appreciate the simplicity of reporting in Red Hat Enterprise Linux."
"The solution's most valuable feature revolves around its simplicity, especially when maintaining it, which is an easy process."
"One pro is that at the operating system layer, like, RHEL has better support from Red Hat, and if something goes down, I found many resources for troubleshooting and stuff online."
"SUSE Linux's most valuable feature is the documentation - there is a lot of documentation about how to create custom servers."
"Out-of-the-box SLES supported all of our HBAs and hardware specific components."
"I have not experienced any issues with this operating system."
"The most valuable feature is that there is an inbuilt HANA firewall."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"The most important feature is the automatic kernel lifecycle subscription, which is critical for us because the server cannot go down once we start offering any services on the cluster."
"SUSE Linux had a clean user interface, which was a valuable feature for me."
"It is very easy to maintain, migrate and upgrade."
"Stability of our systems has only improved since moving from CentOS to Ubuntu LTS."
"Ubuntu is great because you get most of the packages or software you need. You get the latest updates and stuff fairly fast."
"I think Ubuntu's main strength, as opposed to using the other Linuxes, has been its ability to encourage user feedback."
"The solution is stable and performing very well."
"I feel the graphical interface to be very user friendly, as is first time installation."
"As we have repositories in my country, the ease of use and the open source nature of the solution are valuable features."
"There is value in the long-time supported distribution LPS."
"It is a widely used and stable solution. Community members can offer support and technical guidance."
 

Cons

"As such, there are no specific features that we are looking for. We have frequent meetings with them. We have had some issues on the application side and the OS side for which we opened cases and discussed those concerns and questions in the meetings offered by Red Hat."
"To improve standardization, deprecate YUM and transition to DNF."
"The upgrade procedures are a little bit cumbersome. It would be nice if they are not because every three or four years we have to update, and I find that to be a bit on the cumbersome side. We have been able to automate most of it, but we still run into things where the job does not finish. There are things that require additional steps. There are things that need to be removed and that always require manual intervention."
"The only issue we have had with it is around the SELinux configuration because the way Ansible installs, it sticks the platform passwords in a flat file. We want that locked down more strongly than what is there currently with SELinux."
"I have seen that the upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 can be a bit problematic since I have seen some issues during the upgrade of libraries, along with some conflicts with the other libraries in the tool."
"Linux overall needs improvement. They cannot go much beyond what Linus Torvalds's kernel implementation can do. I come from AIX, and there were very cool things in AIX that I am missing dearly, e.g., being able to support not only adding, but also reducing memory and number of processors. That is not supported on Linux right now, and it is the same for the mainstream file systems supported by Red Hat. There is no way of reducing a file system or logical volume. Whereas, in AIX, it was a shoo-in. These are the little things where we can say, "Ah, we are missing AIX for that.""
"Having an image that includes all the necessary software and provisioning it so that subsequent updates provide the updated image, would significantly enhance the developer experience. It would be great if teams could make modifications and changes to the image, like rebasing. I think it would be an awesome feature."
"I would like a more straightforward process for extending file systems without the need to write all the names of volume groups and logical volumes, to simplify automation."
"The initial setup could be simplified."
"The solution has to be fine-tuned with better documentation."
"Sometimes it is a bit of work for developers to change the configurations."
"The software management side was a bit difficult, especially compared to Ubuntu."
"The quality of support offered by SUSE Linux Enterprise is not that great, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The free version sometimes has security holes."
"SUSE Linux could provide more information about cost and the details of how clustering works."
"SUSE could make more APIs available."
"When you upgrade the core of this operating system, it can crash. This is the only problem I had. It needs more stable upgrades."
"Ubuntu Linux could improve by having more out-of-the-box functionality for common plug-and-play devices, such as printers. It's sometimes more difficult to plug-and-play printers with Ubuntu Linux. You need to work a bit and make some drivers work. They need to work a bit on plug-and-play devices."
"The encryption of the partition regarding software systems could be improved."
"The vendor must provide an official support team."
"I would like to see the group policies and the GUI improved in the next release."
"On the gaming side, things are happening but there are some games that should be ported to Ubuntu."
"The documentation is very poor."
"Stability could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you don't buy the Red Hat subscription, you don't get technical support, and you don't have all the updates. To have everything working like a charm, the cost that you pay for it is worth it. In Bolivia, we don't have the best internet connection. Therefore, we have a local service with all the packages, repositories, etc. We manage them locally, and because we have a subscription, we can update them. So, we have local repositories with all the packages and other things to make it easy for us to update all the servers. Without the Red Hat subscription, we cannot update anything."
"I find the cost of this solution expensive."
"We purchased our license from Red Hat."
"I'm unsure what the standard RHEL license costs for one machine. We pay for premium support that guarantees a response in two hours."
"The solution can get pretty pricey depending on how many machines we're licensing but for a good reason."
"The licensing is a bit odd because we need to procure the licenses from a third party."
"I did some research on pricing a long time ago, and at that time, it was much cheaper than Windows. I do not have current details about pricing, but it is affordable."
"It's pretty expensive, but I'm not familiar with the pricing of other vendors for their operating systems. I'd rate it a seven out of ten in terms of pricing. Red Hat Enterprise Linux's main advantage is the support that you get by purchasing their subscriptions."
"The license we pay is for Oracle. We make use of the community edition."
"Regarding pricing, everybody would want it to be cheaper."
"SUSE Linux Enterprise is reasonably priced compared to other operating systems. I find it's a much better option for us than Oracle, for example, because of the pricing structure. The pricing is easier to explain to clients and makes it easier to get clients' commitment. The licensing is also simpler to manage and keep track of. Their responsiveness is great - they give feedback very quickly when we ask questions about licensing or other aspects. This helps ensure we're always at the gold standard regarding licensing and everything related to SUSE Linux Enterprise."
"The product is expensive. We purchase its yearly license."
"The tool is expensive compared to Red Hat. I rate its pricing a nine out of ten."
"The platform is affordable."
"There is no license for this solution, there is only a subscription of support available."
"The product's licensing options align well with the evolving landscape of Linux variants."
"It is open source, so it is free. There is no licensing fee."
"Ubuntu Linux is more affordable than its competitors."
"I am using the free version of the solution."
"There is no licensing cost for the product."
"There are no licensing fees, it's an open-source solution."
"This is a free solution."
"We are using the free and open-sourced version of the solution."
"I use Ubuntu Linux free of cost."
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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
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
University
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 st...
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)?
Though a bit expensive compared to competitors, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is still recommended because it works...
What do you like most about SUSE Linux Enterprise?
The initial setup is simple and takes five minutes for deployment and if you have automation in place, it will take f...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SUSE Linux Enterprise?
I used the open-source version, so there were no setup costs.
What needs improvement with SUSE Linux Enterprise?
The software management side was a bit difficult, especially compared to Ubuntu. The software manager was different, ...
Which would you choose - Ubuntu Linux or Oracle Linux?
Ubunto Linux is a complete Linux operating system that is freely available with both community and professional suppo...
What do you like most about Ubuntu Linux?
It has a good support system for loading databases.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Ubuntu Linux?
The cost is not much, and I am not sure about the licensing cost because a separate team handles it.
 

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
No data available
Ubuntu
 

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
Air India, Akademicki Szpital Kliniczny (ASK), Allone, Altran, Apollo, ARCHIVA, Asia Innovatory Management School, ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH, AutoData Norge AS, Baldor Electric, Business Connexion, CASIO, Ciclum Farma, Delta Lloyd, Edumate , HPE,  SAP SE,  Lenovo, BMW, T-Systems, UCX, Turners & Growers, Shenzhen Development Bank, Bosch Group, JK Tyres & Industries, IOCL, European Space Agency, Daimler AG, China Minsheng Banking Corp, Café Coffee Day, Unisys,  Petrochina Company Ltd, Fitch Ratings, ABeam Consulting Co Ltd, Tyro Payments, Rackspace, Pacific Textiles, ...
Samsung, eBay, AT&T, Walmart, Cisco, Time Warner Cable, Bloomberg, Best Buy, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Ericsson, Orange, Wells Fargo
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Canonical, Oracle and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business. Updated: May 2025.
851,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.