Top CentOS alternatives: Comparison table

In the following chart, we note how five CentOS alternatives compare in terms of performance, migration tools and resources, security and compliance, supported architectures, support and lifecycle, and pricing.

1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux
   • Performance: Highly reliable and robust.
   • Migration tools and resources: Yes.
   • Security and compliance: Yes, built-in and automated tools.
   • Supported architectures: x86, ARM, IBM Power, IBM Z, IBM LinuxONE and more.
   • Support and lifecycle: 24-7 support is free with the paid plan, 10-year lifecycle, Upgrade extensions available.
   • Pricing: Starts at $179.
2. Oracle Linux
   • Performance: Advanced performance and reliability.
   • Migration tools and resources: Yes.
   • Security and compliance: Yes, built-in tools.
   • Supported architectures: x86 (32-bit), x86-64 (64-bit), and aarch64 (64-bit).
   • Support and lifecycle: 24-7 support must be purchased, 10-year lifecycle, Upgrade extension available.
   • Pricing: Free to download, use and distribute. Paid versions include Oracle Linux support, Oracle Cloud, and Oracle.
3. Rocky Linux
   • Performance: Reliable but under intense development.
   • Migration tools and resources: Yes, but requires advanced knowledge.
   • Security and compliance: Yes, but requires advanced knowledge.
   • Supported architectures: x86-64-v2, ARM64, ppc64le, and s390x.
   • Support and lifecycle: Community support and commercial support available, 10-year support and upgrade cycle.
   • Pricing: Free to download, use, and distribute.
4. AlmaLinux
   • Performance: Enterprise-grade but under development.
   • Migration tools and resources: Yes, but requires advanced knowledge.
   • Security and compliance: Yes, but requires advanced knowledge.
   • Supported architectures: x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, and s390x.
   • Support and lifecycle: Free community support, Upgrades and year-support lifecycle vary depending on versions.
   • Pricing: Free to download, use, and distribute.
5. Fedora
   • Performance: Enterprise-grade, reliable, and secure.
   • Migration tools and resources: Yes, built-in advanced features.
   • Security and compliance: Yes, built-in, advanced features.
   • Supported architectures: x86-64, ARM, PowerPC: PowerPC64 and PowerPC64le, s390x, and RISC-V: F.
   • Support and lifecycle: Forums, documents, bug programs, mailing lists, and chat support, Supports upgrade from one version to the next.
   • Pricing: Free to download, use, and distribute.
     

     What are the best CentOS alternatives?
     

     Since the IBM-owned company decided to restrict the free use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a divide has been growing among users. The main question is whether to migrate to commercial Linux providers or open-source, non-commercial community-developed enterprise operating systems.

     Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Best for large enterprises
     

     The first name that emerges as an alternative to CentOS is naturally Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as it’s the open-source operating system on which CentOS is based. Therefore, many users think that going directly to the source is naturally a good idea, and they’re not wrong.

     RHEL has gained its reputation among big enterprises for providing a modern, security-oriented OS. Companies with advanced digital resources, technology stacks and workloads use the OS to scale and perform on-premises, on virtual machines or containers and in the cloud. The OS is certified on hundreds of clouds and with thousands of hardware and software vendors.

     Features

   • Stability and community support: RHEL is a very stable OS designed to be used in mission-critical environments. There is also a large and active community of RHEL users and developers to offer support.
   • Security: Security is at the core of RHEL. The system includes a great number of advanced security features.
   • Official support and benefits: Red Hat provides 24/7 support for RHEL, and all versions have a 10-year life cycle. Plus, Red Hat connects users with its extensive hardware, software, and cloud partner ecosystem.
   • Supported architectures: It runs on servers and workstations and supports a wide range of hardware architectures like x86, ARM, IBM Power, IBM Z, and IBM LinuxONE.
   • Automation and management: The OS includes Red Hat Insights, a managed service for analytics and remediation that delivers continuous vulnerability alerts and guidance.
   • Security and compliance: RHEL can simplify risks and automate security and compliance with built-in features like live kernel patching, security profiles, security standards certification, and a trusted software supply chain.
   • Migration: From installing to migrating or updating, the vendor offers tools to streamline the processes, whether users are coming from CentOS Linux or another OS.

     Pros

   • Stable and reliable software.
   • High-performing security and compliance.
   • Well-supported OS.
   • Wide range of features.
   • Large and active community.

     Cons

   • Not free; commercial pricing can be expensive for small companies.
   • Can be complex to manage.
   • Not as flexible as some other Linux distributions.

     Pricing
     RHEL variants include the Server edition and RHEL Workstations, which are optimized to run on high-performance workstations. Additionally, other versions are Linux for Virtual Datacenters, Linux for IBM Power Little Endian, and Linux for SAP Solutions.

     Pricing starts at $179 for the Workstation, and the most expensive solution, Linux Virtual Datacenters, starts at $2,499.

     SEE: For more information, read Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

roosho Senior Engineer (Technical Services)

I am Rakib Raihan RooSho, Jack of all IT Trades. You got it right. Good for nothing. I try a lot of things and fail more than that. That's how I learn. Whenever I succeed, I note that in my cookbook. Eventually, that became my blog. 

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