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AlmaLinux vs Oracle Linux comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 4, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AlmaLinux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
17th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
131
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of AlmaLinux is 2.9%. The mindshare of Oracle Linux is 6.0%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Linux6.0%
AlmaLinux2.9%
Other91.1%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Reliable long-term hosting has reduced server migrations and lets me focus on projects
One area for improvement with AlmaLinux is the use of SELinux to secure and harden my server, which I find to be a complicated beast. Better documentation on that part could be useful, although there is a lot of material out there. I choose a nine because nothing is ever perfect. For example, coming from Ubuntu, I found their firewall software easy to use, while with AlmaLinux's entire ecosystem, I always have to look up how to use firewall-cmd. These are just little preferences. I cannot think of anything else AlmaLinux could improve; it serves me well, and I have not been missing anything.
LM
Cloud Solutions Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Managed platform has reduced our operations workload and delivers faster cluster startups
I wouldn't say it's specifically an Oracle Linux pro, but when using Oracle Linux with a Kubernetes engine, it provides you with all the necessary libraries that it needs for a startup. This means quicker startup time and quicker joining to the cluster. It's just fast when you use Oracle Linux because it's optimized for your OKE engine. When I mention quicker startup time and easier joining to the cluster, it means you have a pretty good startup when you want to scale, you don't have to wait longer times just for your nodes to come up. When you have your traffic spiking, you don't want to wait that two to three minutes extra for a node to join the cluster, so that's where you have that advantage. And even for the customers when we give them access, it's a better startup since it's optimized and has all the necessary libraries. When I mention our workload is reduced because it's managed and optimized, it is approximately 80 to 90 percent of our workload is reduced because Kubernetes also releases frequent updates. You don't have to migrate to a new one; when you're migrating, it's pretty quick. All the security patches are handled by Oracle. The newer updates are provided by Oracle, and you don't have to test it. You will need to do some rounds of testing, but way less than managing your own Linux.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"AlmaLinux provides free updates and security, unlike Red Hat, where support must be purchased separately."
"The long-term support provided by AlmaLinux helps my business by ensuring that we do not have to renew our servers every four to five years."
"Positively, I can say that AlmaLinux has brought a sense of stability, and besides the security patches, we also noticed better virtualization for our use cases."
"The most valuable feature I find in AlmaLinux is the binary compatibility with RHEL and the long-term stability, which makes it a predictable, rock-solid system behavior, while also having small and safe packaging for subsystems or systems that run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week."
"AlmaLinux has impacted our organization positively by providing a stable and reliable enterprise Linux platform without licensing cost."
"One of the main features of this solution is it is secure."
"The tool's performance is good."
"I like the product's stable distribution. The tool offered us very good experience since it was very stable."
"Oracle Linux is very secure making it one of the most valuable features. Additionally, it is easy to manage."
"Oracle Linux has positively impacted my organization because it is a great tool and great software."
"The good thing about Oracle Linux is that it's free, as long as you don't want support."
"The platform is stable, and there is no risk of viruses, unlike the Microsoft platform."
"It is a good solution, and the performance is good."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement with AlmaLinux is the use of SELinux to secure and harden my server, which I find to be a complicated beast."
"After six months of migration, we ended up using more resources for the same websites, and that's not acceptable."
"If AlmaLinux could provide ten to twenty years of fixes, that would be an improvement because I do not want to update the system all the time, as it becomes more challenging for me as a system administrator to track all the patches and everything I should patch on the system."
"The solution could be less costly."
"It could also have a more user-friendly interface."
"Oracle Linux performs best on Linux or Unix. However, you cannot get the same performance or stability in Windows."
"I think Oracle Linux's outage management can be improved to better handle outages."
"Pricing could be improved."
"The technical support for Oracle Linux is just okay. It is not as helpful or friendly as their application support."
"The solution can be improved by making it more user-friendly for basic users to reduce the time it takes to learn the commands and to reduce the dependencies that come with the OS so the deployment time can be reduced."
"The security could improve in the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing and licensing are good."
"Oracle Linux license and support are far more expensive than Red Hat or SUSE."
"The solution is less expensive than Solaris and allows for use of existing hardware."
"The licensing cost is expensive. It should be reduced by at least half."
"The licensing is expensive."
"There is a license required for this solution and we are on an annual license."
"The licensing for this solution is based on the number of calls running Oracle databases, and are purchased either annually, or every three years."
"Oracle Linux is very cheap at this time."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise75
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlmaLinux?
AlmaLinux is free, so there are no costs there. The open source licensing helps a lot, and the setup cost is just my own time invested in learning the platform.
What needs improvement with AlmaLinux?
I would like to see better tools in terms of memory consumption with AlmaLinux. I would like to know what processes exactly are consuming how much memory and have better core dumps or system core d...
What is your primary use case for AlmaLinux?
I provide hosting and email services for customers using AlmaLinux. Most of our customers are using Plesk for managing their domains, and some servers end up having 300 or 400 domains, while others...
How does Oracle Linux compare with Solaris?
When comparing Oracle Linux and Solaris, I believe that Linux is more secure and more flexible. It is also very suitable for enterprises that are already Oracle solution users. I found Linux to be ...
Which would you choose - Ubuntu Linux or Oracle Linux?
Ubunto Linux is a complete Linux operating system that is freely available with both community and professional support. This solution is suitable for both desktop and server use. It has a very app...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

AlmaLinux OS 8 (x86_64), AlmaLinux OS 10 (x86_64)
Oracle Enterprise Linux
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
See here
Find out what your peers are saying about AlmaLinux vs. Oracle Linux and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.