# Red Hat Enterprise Linux Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Red Hat Enterprise Linux the right Operating Systems solution for you? Explore 26 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/229025/Red-Hat-Enterprise-Linux/reviews --- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5 (26) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/229025/Red-Hat-Enterprise-Linux/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated December 13th, 2025 # Reviews of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Ease of use 4.3 Customer Service 4.4 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews MS Maha S Assistant ProfessorComputer Software, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Very smooth network configuration processes makes RHEL a perfect server platform that abstracts a lot of the Linux intricate configuration complexities.“ August 13, 2023 Jeff T ManagerHospitality, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Subscription cost and licensing complexity can feel heavy, especially for smaller teams or simpler use cases.“ February 7, 2026 MS Maha S Assistant ProfessorComputer Software, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “My main encounter with RedHat Enterprise Linux is when I worked on the development and deployment of a home automation server with IoT integration support.“ August 13, 2023 GC George C CAE Engineer Automotive, Self-employedUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Is it a bit expensive for a small business and is it difficult to administrate by a beginner in Linux system administrator.“ February 14, 2023 Jonathan Alexander C IT infrastructure analystHospital & Health Care, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “We currently use this distribution to manage interface services between LIS and clinical analysis equipment, which has been very useful since it is a stable system with good performance that knows how to take advantage of the assigned resources to manage tasks.“ July 14, 2022 MR Mbonjo R Network Engineer Computer & Network Security, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Red Hat Enterprise Linux stability, reliability, and security features makes it an excellent choice for organizations that need a secure and stable operating system..also it's high level of compatibility and customization is top notch and not forgetting it's top security level“ February 16, 2023 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 26 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Jim C. Lead application support analyst Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Using redhat in MES testing module." October 26, 2025 5.0 Our team use php and mysql5.6 in Redhat as manufacturing MES QA modules in our vendor product line,very old architecture but stable,already used for over 10 years. Pros The stability and enterprise support let us can confidentially use it in our manufacturing MES testing module in the vendor manufacturing product line. Cons It did not provide default repo configuration,I need to use local ISO dvd to set up myslef,took ke some time. You also need basic familiarity with Linux command. Review Source Miguel D. IT Manager Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Red hat linux, the way to go" February 4, 2025 5.0 Red hat has been my favorite linux compilation since several years now, and continue to use it every day Pros Easy of use, great support and online forums /community Cons Some functions depending of server role can be difficult to configure Alternatives considered [SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop](https://www.capterra.com/p/229040/Suse-Linux-Enterprise-Desktop/) Reason for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Because of the greater forums support and online community Review Source VR Verified Reviewer System Engineer Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Enterprise Linux distro for companies, safety and reliability" March 27, 2026 5.0 I've been using this product for over 15 years and am extremely satisfied. I enjoy using it in my daily work. I really appreciate how Red Hat is maintaining the product's life cycles. Pros Its security and lightweight design make it one of the best OS. It includes numerous tools for configure and manage services, develop applications, and, if necessary, troubleshooting and finding the right way to resolve problem. The quality of Red Hat Support is the top, all software is maintained and supported, security patches are released regularly . Cons For small businesses, the only downside is the cost, but at the same time I can confirm the quality of the product and support. Review Source SB Sreerekha B. Senior Developer Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Usage of redhat linux" May 21, 2025 3.0 It is good to use. It can be used as windiws adter installing the compatible software as windiws skins depending on customers choice, so to get windows commandlibe capabilities Pros The redhat linux is convenently can be used as sn operating sysyem to develop applications and maintain files Cons It has shell in its core operating system. May not be used applicable to be used in wiindiws directly Review Source Jeff T. Manager Hospitality Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best OS Reliability in the Market" February 7, 2026 4.0 A highly reliable, secure enterprise OS with strong support and stability, though it comes with higher cost and complexity. Pros Excellent stability, security and support is ideal for enterprise environments that demand reliability and predictable performance. Cons Subscription cost and licensing complexity can feel heavy, especially for smaller teams or simpler use cases. Review Source JH Justin H. CTO Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Works well with VMWare / VMs but choosing and acquiring the right subscription is expensive and time consuming" January 14, 2025 4.0 Pros Trusted supplier in the space with alternative versions like centos for non-production environments. Very capable and updated frequently OS and support for our x86 systems including VMs. It is very VMWare ESXi friendly. Cons The subscription pricing made it difficult for us to roll this out wide-scale. Further, finding the right subscription and actually acquiring it was not easy or straightforward. Alternatives considered [CentOS Linux](https://www.capterra.com/p/229026/CentOS-Linux/)[Debian](https://www.capterra.com/p/229027/Debian/) Reason for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux For enterprise level support - the others only have community support. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer System Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Linux for Enterprise applications" June 30, 2022 5.0 It's easy to use and you will get every possible support. Overall the best OS for application development. Pros The support from the red hat enterprise is very good. The enterprise-level features offered by RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX makes it one of the best candidate for enterprise applications. The memory management is quite well and it is almost compatible with every major enterprise-level software available in the market. Cons The GUI and support can be improved. Different official customizable GUI should be available. Official RHEL Desktop (GUI) container should be made available. Alternatives considered [Ubuntu](https://www.capterra.com/p/229058/Ubuntu/) Reason for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL provides a dedicated support which helps you to configure and maintain the OS in the best way possible. Review Source Jonathan Alexander C. IT infrastructure analyst Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A secure, stable Linux distribution for robust and stable services" July 14, 2022 5.0 We currently use this distribution to manage interface services between LIS and clinical analysis equipment, which has been very useful since it is a stable system with good performance that knows how to take advantage of the assigned resources to manage tasks. secure, stable and above all manageable operating system Pros What I like most about this distribution is how stable it can be once implemented. Also that it is very secure when it comes to data handling, vulnerability and unauthorized access, it is a distribution for server and business use Cons That it is a complex distribution as far as the user is concerned, it is not for users with little experience, but for advanced users of linux Alternatives considered [Oracle Linux](https://www.capterra.com/p/229031/Oracle-Linux/)[SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop](https://www.capterra.com/p/229040/Suse-Linux-Enterprise-Desktop/) Reason for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux We needed a more stable distro that can balance the hardware resources allocated in a more efficient way. Review Source Ronald C. Software developer Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "A stable distribution, with good performance and adapted to developers" August 1, 2022 5.0 It was very pleasant and a unique experience to be able to install, configure and prepare the development environment in this distribution. It was very fast to be able to do this deployment and especially the performance that the system has Pros What I liked most about this distribution is that it has a very friendly interface and as a web designer and developer it was very pleasant to use this operating system, also that it has a very robust file system with libraries 100% adaptable to the tools I use to develop. , where it was easy to create and set up my environment. Cons Which can be a bit pricey, but it's worth it for the amount of features it has Review Source Mahendra G. Office Clerk Government Administration Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Linux os " July 30, 2021 5.0 I am switch to linux from windows because i am a govt servent and i need the safety of data first so i choose the red hat enterprise linux as my primary os and really happy to have best fastest performance and safety of my data Pros Red hat is more powerfull and all the features are upgraded from ubuntu interface is clean and easy to use and even who don't have powerfull machine they also run and test this os in Virtual machine as they gives lot of features that made our life easier i really happy to using rhel in my administration Rhel provides various os like server side os,home os , command line ui Cons This is open source operting system but many of the websites allow to download this os and they include viruses in the file so i wanto to request rhel to check the websites that providing this file and stop them to avoid the customer loss of data Review Source IM Ibrahim M. System Engineer Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Red Hat Enterprise linux review " August 16, 2021 5.0 Very satisfied Pros \-Support :Redhat support having very professional calibers that handle customer cases professionally and find needed issues solutions quickly. -Stability -Frequently updates -Ease of use GDevelopment and its an Opensource project. Cons Desktop GUI need to be more light and stable Reason for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Support is the most selling point that's make Redhat the first choice for you. Review Source WI Wassim I. Associate Professor Computer Networking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Redhat Enterprise Linux: A big name for Developing and Deploying Enterprise Servers" August 2, 2023 4.0 I realized very good performance when running client/server applications on top of RHEL using the Java platform. Even when the communication is secured using SSL/TLS, the concurrency support was really impressive compared to other Linux distributions such as Kali and Ubuntu. Pros I used Redhat Enterprise Linux for developing and deploying custom client/server applications using the Java Socket API. The main motive behind this development is to test the performance of SSL Sockets compared to normal Sockets using the Java Server Socket Extension API. We deployed the client and Server code on separtate Linux VMs and we managed the virtualization using the Vmware VSphere virtualization server. We realized a very good server concurrency of the JVM on RHEL compared to Kali and Ubuntu. This is the main advantange we depicted in RHEL that made it a very suitable enterprise platform for server-side code. The plan is to test with other programming languages for developing the server code such as in Python and C++ to see if we can generalize the performance enhancement compared to other Linux platforms. Cons RHEL is a bit laggy when loading a GUI desktop environment. Although this is not the duty of an Enterprise Server environment to provide sophisticated desktop services, we believe that this could enhance the user experience during the development and deployment phases of the enterprise application. Review Source YJ Yashovardhan J. Researcher Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "best for to remotely managing servers" December 29, 2022 5.0 I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about more than 2 years, and I have found it to be a very reliable and stable operating system. It has a wide range of features and options that make it a very flexible and customizable platform, and it is very easy to use. I have never had any major problems with it, and it has always been very responsive and stable. Overall, I am very happy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and would recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable and stable operating system. Pros The most appealing aspect of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its stability. With Red Hat Server, you get a 10-year support life cycle. This means you can deploy a server and not have to worry about upgrading it for a decade. This is a big selling point for businesses that want to avoid the hassle and expense of regular upgrades. Additionally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is backed by a team of expert developers who are always working to improve the software and address any security issues that arise. Cons There were a few things that I didn't like about Red Hat Enterprise Linux. First, the documentation was not always clear. Second, I found the package management system to be confusing. Finally, I didn't like the way that the system handled updates and security patches. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior Data Engineer Telecommunications Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Highly secured operating security from Red Hat Linux !" March 16, 2023 5.0 Highly secured operating system from Linux ! Pros The Linux OS provides various features to use it as a server to host large web applications . The OS has got best security and always get regular updates. The memory management is something which is handled exceptionally well. Cons The UI could have been better comparing it to the other OS providers in the market. Review Source MS Maha S. Assistant Professor Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "RedHat Enterprise Linux: Versatile Platform for Deploying Network Servers" August 13, 2023 4.0 Great server deployment experience and performance with multi-threading and extensive probabilistic sketches and polling in IoT environments. Pros My main encounter with RedHat Enterprise Linux is when I worked on the development and deployment of a home automation server with IoT integration support. I used RHEL for managing the communication with the IoT gateway and in the statistical analysis of collected sensor data. I applied many probabilistic sketching techniques on top of it and with huge amounts of IoT data the server performed dramatically well even with several IoT polling mechanisms and multi-threaded server functions. Very smooth network configuration processes makes RHEL a perfect server platform that abstracts a lot of the Linux intricate configuration complexities. Highly recommend it for enterprise server deployments even on a large scale. Cons Many functions are still command-line based which makes dealing with it by Linux beginners a bit hard. Review Source RH Raihan H. Full Stack Developer Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A compact distro with all features" October 22, 2022 5.0 I am a long-time Red Hat user and I have tried several different Linux distros. There is something about RHEL that just feels right. It's less cluttered than other distros and offers more stability and reliability than any of the others. If you're looking for an enterprise class Linux distro, you can't go wrong with Red Hat Enterprise Linux! Pros I have been using this Linux distro for 2 years and I can't say that there's anything it doesn't do well. The installation is quick and straightforward and you know what you're getting with a Red Hat. Its always reliable, up to date & works on both my laptop and desktop without any additional configuration. Cons I recently switched to RHEL and couldn't be happier. I've been a Linux user for years now, and I was looking for something that would provide me with stability and flexibility. It's not perfect, but it's everything I need. Review Source DZ Daniele Z. Senior Unix System Administrator Medical Practice Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Distribuzione enterprise storica ma tendente alla chiusura" November 2, 2023 3.0 Pros Distribuzione molto solida, con una buona gestione delle risorse ed una velocità generale tutto sommato buona, sia per piccoli progetti che per architetture complesse Cons La tendenza ad eliminare applicazioni opensource per virare verso soluzioni proprietarie al fine di far pagare nuove licenze di uso non ci piace molto (vedi tomcat/jboss, portainer/docker, ansible). Le alternative sono comunque installabili ma non rientrano nei pacchetti che vengono patchati e aggiornati dal team redhat. Review Source JAT Jane Alam T. Frontend Engineer Apparel & Fashion Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "An honest review of a linux distro" October 18, 2022 5.0 As a longtime user and advocate of Linux, I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to anyone who asks. It's the best enterprise-grade operating system out there! I've used it in production environments for over 2 years, and it has never let me down. RHEL is the best in its class. Pros As a Linux enthusiast, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been my favorite operating system for years. I love its reliability, improved security features, and how it gives me the tools to customize it to my liking. I've used many different distributions in the past, but none quite as impactful as this one! Cons I never felt bad for using this. So I can recommend it. Review Source MR Md R. Founder Broadcast Media Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A feature rich OS" October 18, 2022 5.0 Pros I have been running RHEL on my server for 2 years now and it has been rock solid. I was a little worried about the move to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, but the upgrade process was painless and the new features are really good. Cons I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for years. It's one of the most stable and reliable operating systems I know of. I recommend it to all my friends who need a great OS. Review Source RHN Rakib Hasan N. Theme Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "For security researcher this one is a good choice" October 19, 2022 5.0 Pros I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for years. I tried Ubuntu a couple of times and was always frustrated by the lack of support or stability. Now that Red Hat Enterprise Linux has joined the Open Source world, I'm cautiously optimistic this will change. Cons When it comes to open source operating systems, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the best one. It has a long history of use and updates. You'll also never have to worry about your data being stored in proprietary formats. Review Source rJ rahul J. Junior technical Associate International Trade and Development Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Strong platform Oerating system" March 24, 2023 3.0 Pros It's an open source, Kernel is good, This is safe and secure OS. OS installation is very easy also. Easy to understand, Services installation process are easy and commands are understandable also. Cons I have been using this OS on server level since from long time. I have faced OS Stuck (Lack) issues many times. Faced the lacking issue same more time while uninstalling any Program or services. Review Source GC George C. CAE Engineer Automotive Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Red Hat Linux" February 14, 2023 4.0 Pros A robust and professional software with a long tradition and used by developers. Was it first platform to administrate s server for calculation. Cons Is it a bit expensive for a small business and is it difficult to administrate by a beginner in Linux system administrator. Alternatives considered [Oracle Solaris](https://www.capterra.com/p/246752/Oracle-Solaris-10/) Review Source AS Alex S. Analyst Telecommunications Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Trust" July 28, 2022 5.0 Operation System with high performance, security, stable and many other gains. Pros Operation System with high performance, security, stable and many other gains. Cons No cons, very well, nothing cons, but the price is a little expensive. Alternatives considered [SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop](https://www.capterra.com/p/229040/Suse-Linux-Enterprise-Desktop/) Reason for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Trust Review Source MR Mbonjo R. Network Engineer Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best and outstanding Enterprise operating system for Businesses and Organizations " February 16, 2023 5.0 Using RHEL has been an amazing journey..This is extremely one of the best Softwares for organizations who need are in need of security and best usability Pros Red Hat Enterprise Linux stability, reliability, and security features makes it an excellent choice for organizations that need a secure and stable operating system..also it's high level of compatibility and customization is top notch and not forgetting it's top security level Cons I haven't encountered any problems or negative effects using Red Hat Enterprise linux Review Source FRS Fayzur Rahman S. Head of Marketing Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "One of the best OS that exists" September 28, 2022 5.0 Pros I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for years and it has always served me well. It's in my opinion the best version of Linux on the market and worth every penny. I have never had any issues with it, which makes everything so much easier. The updates are always speedy and flawless and I never worry about downtime because of a security flaw or something like that. Cons Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the best Linux. So there is no downside as my point of view. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Related categories [Operating Systems](https://www.capterra.com/operating-systems-software/)