Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Windows 10 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

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
7.4
RHEL provides high ROI through reliability, cost savings, and efficiency, making it a preferred choice for organizations.
Sentiment score
3.6
Windows 10 enhances performance, security, and ease of use, achieving cost-effectiveness despite mixed ROI perceptions and reseller profitability.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has saved us time and increased productivity.
Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux can yield resource savings of 200 percent to 300 percent compared to Windows Server instances.
If you are using the service properly, especially in cloud computing, understanding the services you are using and what technology and applications are required can help manage your ROI very efficiently.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
RHEL's customer service is praised for expertise, though response times and communication gaps can lead to delays.
Sentiment score
4.5
Users often prefer online resources or community forums for Windows 10 support, finding Microsoft knowledgeable but slow responding.
They respond immediately based on the SLA level.
The technical support is excellent.
They promptly addressed my concerns regarding permission issues when I contacted them.
We have informed Microsoft, but the issue is still there, and it has been more than three to four months.
The customer service and support from Microsoft are quite responsive and generally good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in scalability, adapting to virtual and physical environments, with seamless scaling and manageable administration.
Sentiment score
7.9
Windows 10 is praised for robust scalability, supporting diverse organizational sizes and cloud deployment with ease and flexibility.
There are no issues with scalability when it comes to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Each computer has at least 24 to 72 CPUs in it, and everything runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Rocky.
Switching between vendors requires a significant migration effort.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is praised for its stability, reliability, long lifecycle, and minimal downtime, ideal for critical operations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Windows 10 offers improved stability, minimal crashes, but occasional performance and compatibility issues, remaining a reliable choice for users.
It works consistently with minimal downtime and very few bugs or glitches.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers great stability and performance compared to other operating systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very stable.
The challenges were related to third-party agents and their supportability.
 

Room For Improvement

Red Hat Enterprise Linux needs documentation clarity, offline upgrades, live patching, UI enhancements, and better automation and pricing models.
Windows 10 faces issues with updates, security, performance, compatibility, high costs, disk space, and unreliable communications.
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.
Investment in Windows 10 may not be ideal as the world is changing with advancing technology in the AI age.
The transitions within Teams are not smooth, and call quality in meetings is not great.
The areas of firewall, antivirus, and similar features could be improved as they are not very strong.
 

Setup Cost

RHEL pricing perceptions vary; it's valued for support and stability but seen as costly, needing flexible pricing models.
Enterprise buyers experience varied Windows 10 pricing, facing complexities and costs, with mixed opinions on licensing and bundled purchases.
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.
For those buying a Windows license, it might be better to buy a Windows 11 license.
Windows is considered overpriced, especially given the normal software functionalities.
 

Valuable Features

RHEL is favored for its stability, security, support, and integration capabilities, making it ideal for enterprise applications.
Windows 10 offers a user-friendly interface, rapid performance, strong security, and excellent application compatibility, favored by users and organizations.
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.
The configuration management tools, such as SACM, are effective.
Windows 11 brings some AI features for Microsoft Copilot, which probably weren't as integrated into the previous version.
Windows 10 has an inbuilt antivirus system that is quite good compared to Windows 7 or Windows 8.
 

Categories and Ranking

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
275
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 10
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
274
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Windows 10 is 2.9%, down from 4.4% 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.
Akos Szirmai - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy installation and the initial setup time is reasonable
Stability can be an issue. I have to restart it every two days. And the boot time is quite long. My laptop's old, has no SSD, and is just a traditional Winchester. Had desktops with Windows 11 and SSDs, much better performance. But hardware limitations on my current laptop lead to stability and response issues. It's more like the whole reinstall every two years thing. It makes cleaning a pain. Performance improves significantly after a fresh install, then slowly deteriorates as I add more programs. But my biggest concern with Windows 10 is actually bigger than my situation. I'm replacing my laptop anyway, but I read that Windows 10 support ends in a year or so. And with hardware limitations, many other computers won't run Windows 11. So it's not just me. A lot of people with decent, still-working Windows 10 machines will lose support and be unable to switch to 11. This will be a significant problem for individuals and institutions. Large companies with thousands of computers don't replace them every three years, and they might face issues with many computers unable to run Windows 11 and lacking support for 10.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Operating Systems (OS) for Business solutions are best for your needs.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
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 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)?
Though a bit expensive compared to competitors, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is still recommended because it works effectively and delivers value for its pricing.
What needs improvement with Windows 10?
I do not have notes for improvement.
What is your primary use case for Windows 10?
In my case, I would mostly say it's because of security reasons. At least for the typical use cases that I generally rely on Windows for, there didn't seem to be a noticeable performance difference...
 

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
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: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.