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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Windows 10 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
6.4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers cost savings and efficiencies with stability, reliability, competitive pricing, management ease, security, and innovation.
Sentiment score
1.3
Windows 10 increases efficiency with fewer crashes, better security, and user-friendly features, achieving ROI within 18 months.
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
7.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux users appreciate expert support but note room for improvement in response times and initial resolutions.
Sentiment score
4.8
Windows 10 users often prefer online resources over Microsoft support, despite its helpfulness and knowledgeable staff, due to faster solutions.
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
We have informed Microsoft, but the issue is still there, and it has been more than three to four months.
Technology\Cloud Architect | IT Infrastructure Security & Compliance at IDFC Bank
The customer service and support from Microsoft are quite responsive and generally good.
Senior Manager at Morgan Stanley
The Office 365 support is good, it takes a while sometimes to point to the problem, but they're good.
IT Administrator at a university with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
RHEL excels in scalability, seamlessly adapting to cloud and on-premises needs, supporting large workloads and diverse technological integrations.
Sentiment score
5.4
Windows 10 is adaptable and scalable for diverse organizations, offering seamless expansion and cross-device compatibility with regular updates.
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
We can focus fully on our work without pressure or concerns about issues on our own PCs.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
For scalability, I would rate it a nine or ten because performance-wise, Windows 10 has never given me those issues.
Senior Engagement Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I can increase the licensing amount easily when there is company growth or when new people join.
Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and dependable performance, praised for its robust support.
Sentiment score
6.5
Windows 10 is appreciated for stability and reliability, despite occasional update issues and third-party software compatibility challenges.
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
The challenges were related to third-party agents and their supportability.
Technology\Cloud Architect | IT Infrastructure Security & Compliance at IDFC Bank
Windows 10 is stable for my daily development work, providing frequent security updates and user-friendly updates, which are excellent.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
I would rate the stability of the product an eight.
Senior Engagement Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Red Hat Enterprise Linux needs improved documentation, support, security, user-friendliness, pricing, compatibility, cloud integration, and AI capabilities.
Windows 10 requires improvements in updates, security, user interface, stability, resource usage, pricing, and compatibility for better user experience.
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
Microsoft can improve their Teams product because everybody uses Teams, and it's very clunky and unfriendly in terms of scrolling back, downloading files, and moving back and forth within the different teams.
Senior Engagement Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Investment in Windows 10 may not be ideal as the world is changing with advancing technology in the AI age.
DevOps Engineer at CipherTV Corp.
The transitions within Teams are not smooth, and call quality in meetings is not great.
Senior Manager at Morgan Stanley
 

Setup Cost

RHEL's pricing is considered high, but valued for support, stability, and compliance; discounts available through bulk purchases.
Enterprise buyers find Windows 10 licensing flexible but desire clearer pricing and competitive adjustments for better affordability.
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
For those buying a Windows license, it might be better to buy a Windows 11 license.
DevOps Engineer at CipherTV Corp.
Windows is considered overpriced, especially given the normal software functionalities.
Design engineer at a construction company with 201-500 employees
Windows 10 is cost-effective when compared to other competitors available such as Mac and Linux.
BI developer at Jubilee Life Insurance Company Ltd
 

Valuable Features

RHEL is valued for its stability, performance, security, and flexibility, offering extensive support and integration with automation tools.
Windows 10 is popular for its user-friendly interface, enhanced security, fast performance, and strong application and hardware compatibility.
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
When using mapping software such as QGIS or ArcGIS, the system remains stable, especially when handling heavy files.
Co-Founder at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Device encryption is a main priority for us as developers in a FinTech company because we have the most secure user data.
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
The configuration management tools, such as SACM, are effective.
Technology\Cloud Architect | IT Infrastructure Security & Compliance at IDFC Bank
 

Categories and Ranking

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
385
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 10
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
284
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.6%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 10 is 2.9%, down from 3.5% 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)7.6%
Windows 102.9%
Other89.5%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

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.
R Pranavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Collaborative development has become more secure and efficient for our team
We have faced some issues with Windows OneDrive because if one developer has a folder in a common OneDrive folder, it took some time to show it to others. It becomes somewhat difficult to work, as there is latency on that, so if you update that, it will be more efficient and useful for the developers. My main focus on Windows 10 is the giving of regular updates, so it might take some time to update Windows, which is also mandatory. As a developer, when we are working with Windows 10, if it takes more time to update and restart the PC, it affects our efficiency at work. If we could stop the updates on a regular basis or if they were delivered faster, it would be easier. As a developer, the frequent updates are too annoying for working on it, so it would be better if we stop the frequent updates and only provide the most important ones. Performance issues over time due to background apps and programs piling up and using an SSD instead of a hard disk are also concerns.
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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
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business87
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise263
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business125
Midsize Enterprise64
Large Enterprise120
 

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)?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, the pricing is good; however, licensing is a bit confusing.
What needs improvement with Windows 10?
We have faced some issues with Windows OneDrive because if one developer has a folder in a common OneDrive folder, it took some time to show it to others. It becomes somewhat difficult to work, as ...
What is your primary use case for Windows 10?
As a developer, we can work collaboratively, and Windows 10 is also good from a UI perspective. I chose to rate it an eight because I have faced issues when updates come in, which can be annoying. ...
 

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. Windows 10 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.