Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between openSUSE Leap and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Operating Systems (OS) for Business solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"I use openSUSE Leap as the base for the Kubernetes cluster we run in-house.""The solution is very stable after it is configured. It is hard to have a panel slow, a problem, misconfiguration, or any kind of loss function.""Stable - it just runs without the necessity to reboot.""The most valuable feature by far has been the virtualization capabilities of the operating system.""openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman.""The solution is easy for me to use because the backend is derived from FreeBSD and this is something I have been using for over 20 years."

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"We use RHEL in our infrastructure, which consists of VM and Linux. We use it to create clusters.""Technical support is excellent.""The knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good. It is easy to parse through all of the knowledge base.""The most valuable feature is the Identity Management. You pay almost the same subscription cost for normal RHEL and you get the central Identity Management. You would need to pay much more if you were using other applications or products like Active Directory from Microsoft.""Management is portable and easily automated so deploying or installing packages and running updates is seamless.""There are some nice integrations with scanning for vulnerabilities. That is the feature I have enjoyed the most because I am a security person, and that is my bread and butter.""Until now, RHEL has been the most stable OS I have ever seen. Nothing seems to break, with frequent updates. I have been running it 24/7 for the past 18 months and it runs flawlessly.""The graphical user interface is useful. However, we prefer to use the command line as we can do many more things."

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Cons
"Like most Linux-based operating systems, the biggest challenge Leap faces is the GUI.""I would like openSUSE Leap to have better link integration with Windows.""There is room for improvement in the console.""Somehow the change from OS12.x via 13.x to Leap was a bit bumpy and some old issues seemed to reappear.""The initial system setup or network configuration of the solution is not straightforward and can be improved.""In the future, the Active Directory could improve."

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"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.""Their pricing and documentation can be improved.""It is challenging to use the knowledge base and the deployment documentation.""This solution could be improved if it was easier to set up and run in cloud environments. It can also be costly to manage a large OpenShift environment.""The GUI has room for improvement. It needs to be managed by many administrators. It has basic command lines. They could improve it with better automation. We'd like to be able to create a script, and then have the ability to deploy it where we don't need to write everything manually. That part can be useful for automating.""Red Hat Enterprise Linux's documentation could be improved.""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.""The labor required to maintain the on-premises storage systems has room for improvement."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "This is an open-source operating system that can be used free of charge."
  • "The cost of this solution was reasonable and it was within our budget."
  • "The solution is open-source."
  • "openSUSE Leap is a free and open-source solution."
  • More openSUSE Leap Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing is a bit on the expensive side, mainly because of the support they provide. However, it is quite affordable if you are an organization. If, as a small company or individual, this is an expensive option, I would recommend CentOS, which is an exact replica of RHEL, minus the customer support."
  • "In terms of the solution’s single subscription and install repository for all types of systems, we can have as many RHEL installations as we want because we have a specific subscription that entitles us to have as many RHEL services as we want. We pay for a subscription and with that we get RHEL and Satellite as well."
  • "Red Hat Linux is inexpensive. Linux solutions are generally inexpensive."
  • "RHEL is expensive."
  • "Because it is a subscription, you can go elastic. This means you can buy a year, then you can skip a year. It is not like when you buy something. You don't buy it. You are paying for the support on something, and if you don't pay for the support on something, there is no shame because there are no upfront costs. It changes the equation. However, we have such growth right now on the Linux platform that we are reusing and scavenging these licenses. From a business standpoint, not having to buy, but just having to pay for maintenance, changes a lot of the calculations."
  • "We have a site license on a yearly basis. Generally, we're okay with its price, but everything could be cheaper."
  • "The licensing with Red Hat is on par with other organizations like Microsoft. We have a site license, which gives us a certain number of servers, perhaps 25,000, for the type of license that we have. That works really well for us."
  • "We are an educational institution and as such, what we pay is less than the average company."
  • More Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman.
    Top Answer:There is room for improvement in the console. In additional features, I would like to see more automation and integration with popular community-developed applications.
    Top Answer:I use it for DevOps. openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:My company has acquired five to ten licenses from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
    Ranking
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    Average Words per Review
    271
    Rating
    9.5
    Views
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    Average Words per Review
    793
    Rating
    8.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
    Learn More
    Overview

    openSUSE Leap is a brand new way of building openSUSE and is new type of hybrid Linux distribution. Leap uses source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), which gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions, and combines that with community developments to give users, developers and sysadmins the best stable Linux experience available. Contributor and enterprise efforts for Leap bridge a gap between matured packages and newer packages found in openSUSE’s other distribution Tumbleweed.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a stable and reliable open-source operating system for running application servers, databases, web servers, and production systems. It is also used for cloud infrastructure services, BI, and disaster assistance. Its valuable features include support and subscription, ease of management and troubleshooting, integration with existing infrastructure, security updates and hardening tools, scalability, and flexibility. 

    Red Hat has helped organizations accelerate deployment, provide stability, control, and reliable updates, and enable the deployment of current applications and emerging workloads across different environments.

    Sample Customers
    Information Not Available
    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
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Educational Organization9%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm27%
    Government14%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise66%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    openSUSE Leap is ranked 11th in Operating Systems (OS) for Business with 6 reviews while Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is ranked 1st in Operating Systems (OS) for Business with 167 reviews. openSUSE Leap is rated 9.0, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of openSUSE Leap writes "Good virtualization capabilities, stable, and cost-effective ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) writes "Highly stable, good knowledge base, and reasonable price". openSUSE Leap is most compared with SUSE Linux Enterprise, Ubuntu Linux, Rocky Linux, CentOS and Windows 10, whereas Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is most compared with Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Windows 10 and Flatcar Container Linux. See our Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. openSUSE Leap report.

    See our list of best Operating Systems (OS) for Business vendors.

    We monitor all Operating Systems (OS) for Business reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.