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AlmaLinux vs Windows 11 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 5, 2026

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
5.0
AlmaLinux offers cost savings, reduces security risks, and provides long-term support without licensing fees, increasing operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
5.7
Users found Windows 11 cost-effective, especially with free upgrades, though some questioned the ROI without noticeable enhancements.
Moving over to AlmaLinux saves a lot of time because of the long-term support, meaning I do not have to support the latest version every couple of years.
The most immediate benefit has been the elimination of licensing and subscription fees compared to commercial enterprise Linux distributions or Windows.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
AlmaLinux impacts an organization by helping you understand when there are errors or flaws that you need to mitigate by providing you the logs.
Cloud Security Engineer at Andela
Windows 11 is more stable compared to its earlier versions.
IT Manager
It has definitely saved time and generated a return on investment as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.9
AlmaLinux offers a user-friendly experience with effective support through public resources, documentation, and community expertise.
Sentiment score
6.0
Windows 11 support is generally quick and knowledgeable, though accessibility varies, especially between newer and older hardware.
The customer support for AlmaLinux is good.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
I have not had a reason to communicate with the technical support of AlmaLinux because everything has been smooth for me.
Cloud Security Engineer at Andela
I have never contacted any sort of technical support regarding AlmaLinux because I do not need it.
Junior Software Test Automation Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Everything should work perfectly if you have new hardware that matches the Windows 11 requirements.
Head of IT department at Monetars
For issues that require level three or level four support, they initiate a process with Microsoft to address the problem.
Telecom Project Consultant at Nexa Resources
The technical support team’s response time is very slow.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.4
AlmaLinux is praised for efficient scalability and adaptability, seamlessly integrating servers without architecture changes, satisfying diverse user needs.
Sentiment score
5.6
Windows 11 is praised for scalability, offering smooth installation, quick deployment, and adaptability despite some hardware challenges.
It is very scalable and performs well both on small deployments and large-scale infrastructure with many servers.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
The system is used to control the whole site and the air traffic in every city.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
We faced challenges integrating it in multi-app environments, requiring complex API setups.
Associate Vice President at Rishabh Software
The solution's scalability is good because it allows you to run a large number of virtual machines.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
AlmaLinux is stable, reliable, ideal for production with minimal disruptions, timely security patches, and excellent long-term performance.
Sentiment score
6.0
Windows 11 is praised for performance but criticized for stability issues and frequent update disruptions, with mixed user feedback.
Its security is another highlight, providing minimal disruptions, timely security patches, bug fixes, and a reduced attack surface.
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
I have not encountered such issues with AlmaLinux, making it very stable.
Since I started using AlmaLinux, I have not encountered any issue with kernel crashes or upgrading.
Junior Software Test Automation Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
With the tool, we are able to control airplane traffic.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
The solution's high level of stability ensures that the machine doesn't go down multiple times.
Senior Technical Manager at Peristent Systems
The stability can be influenced by the status and specifications of our company PCs.
IT Specialist at EMA
 

Room For Improvement

AlmaLinux users seek prompt TuxCare updates, improved docs, better cloud support, efficient resource use, and enhanced monitoring tools.
Windows 11 needs stability, security, and interface improvements as users face compatibility issues, complex installations, and high pricing.
The AlmaLinux team can look into this and see what they can improve in terms of resource consumption and monitoring tools that can actually help the users of AlmaLinux pinpoint the exact processes or services that are causing that amount of resource consumption.
DevOps at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
If something is added to AlmaLinux that allows for some subscription or makes it exactly equal to RHEL, it would be perfect.
Azure Dev Ops Engineer at a engineering company with 5,001-10,000 employees
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.
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
For a better experience, Windows 11 should be improved to take fewer resources.
Delivery Manager at Ford Motor Company
The needed improvements in Windows 11 include that the Copilot integration needs a better user interface experience with rich features, alongside making a very simple UI experience as well.
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
From an improvement perspective, the frequency of updates should be lesser.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
 

Setup Cost

AlmaLinux is a free, open-source alternative to Red Hat, offering cost-effective enterprise solutions with no licensing fees.
Enterprise users see Windows 11 pricing as high yet fair, benefiting from integrated licensing, bulk deals, and deployment advantages.
In the open-source environment, I believe a Linux distribution is always free of cost.
Junior Software Test Automation Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
AlmaLinux is free, so there are no costs there.
Currently, we have not experienced pricing with AlmaLinux, as I have used the free version so far.
DevOps Engineer at SMC Labs, LLC
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.
IT Manager
The tool is expensive.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
I have a university license, so I do not pay anything for Windows 11.
Associate Professor at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

AlmaLinux offers stability, enterprise support, and compatibility, benefiting organizations with reduced costs, compliance, and high-performance infrastructure.
Windows 11 offers a user-friendly interface, enhanced security, productivity features, and seamless integration with Microsoft tools, boosting its appeal.
The tooling stability for DevOps is also significant, allowing easy use of infrastructure as code with Ansible or scripting playbooks that remain valid for years, making it especially important for the CI/CD pipelines.
system administration | DevOps | Softrware Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Because AlmaLinux is binary compatible with Red Hat, it provides a very stable and reliable operating system suitable for production environments.
Ingénieur Systéme at Groupe Open SA
The prompt patching and OS updates with AlmaLinux have helped our team by improving our FedRAMP compliance and vulnerability scan reports.
Cloud Software Engineer at Coupa Software
The tool's most valuable feature is its stability.
Telecom Project Consultant at Nexa Resources
Windows is one of the best operating systems an enterprise or user can use.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
The solution's most valuable feature stems from the fact that it has been a huge product for Australia's air traffic control system for many years.
Software Integration Engineer at Thales
 

Categories and Ranking

AlmaLinux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 11
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of AlmaLinux is 3.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 11 is 8.1%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windows 118.1%
AlmaLinux3.4%
Other88.5%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Naim Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at SMC Labs, LLC
Private cloud practice has become seamless and deployments run smoothly for my projects
I follow the documentation for AlmaLinux, which I believe could be more extensive for enterprise setups. My primary use case remains deploying private cloud infrastructure using OpenStack Yoga, thus suggesting improvements to cater to specific cloud instances like AWS Graviton or Azure NVMe. Driver or kernel updates for new hardware or cloud instances like AWS Graviton or Azure NVMe tend to arrive a little later in AlmaLinux than they do in the Red Hat distribution. Therefore, I suggest that faster releases of cloud-optimized images and updated hardware drivers could enhance AlmaLinux's competitiveness. Additionally, I find it sometimes difficult to find answers on forums due to the community not being as large as that of Red Hat or CentOS. My suggestion is to create an active forum or Q&A session where developers can directly address user problems, growing the community and providing optional enterprise support tiers for large organizations. Additionally, I have continued to consider improvements. For server administration and language runtime management, I encountered conflicts on production servers with older and newer versions of tools such as Python and Node.js. Simplifying the application space management would reduce the friction in multi-language development environments. Moreover, including more pre-configured or auto-remediation scripts like CIS Benchmark or STIG compliance would be immensely helpful for enterprise security hardening.
Naveenkumar Lakshman - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Engineer at Crayon AS
Daily work has become smoother and organized as I manage calls, notes, and files efficiently
The best features that Windows 11 offers in my opinion are Notepad++ and the integration, as I could use Microsoft 365 on it and I could also run many applications. If I want to use Linux, then I could use Windows Subsystem for Linux as well. Most of the industry-wide applications are easily installable on Windows 11 and user-friendly as well. Windows 11 has definitely impacted my organization positively because you could see that all the day-to-day activities, most of our professionals would use a Windows system itself. In terms of productivity, Windows 11 has made a positive difference as we use a mail inbox with its links and Microsoft Teams, which is available. Windows 11 is natively installable and very friendly with the compatible operating system, and alongside, we have other applications that are available. Edge browser, which is the default browser for Windows 11, is also a good browser and a very decent option. Additionally, we have other features available for the day-to-day activities. You can see it gives you a basic calendar, calculator, and camera options, and you have the File Explorer. You get a pretty decent operating system for a layman to work on a day-to-day basis. While there are certain tasks that consume a certain amount of time, Windows 11 reduces the time. The usability and architecture, how it is built, makes a user get into a state where they don't need to spend excessive effort on the task to be done. You can get everything through a UI-based interface, and everything is sorted and very simple. Over the period of time, the operating system evolution by Microsoft is good for the individual workspace.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
 

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...
What do you like most about Windows 11?
We use Windows 11 for our workstation’s daily operations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows 11?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Windows 11 is that it is bundled with the hardware. It comes with a pre-installed license in the operating system. When the laptop or deskt...
What needs improvement with Windows 11?
One area where Windows 11 can be improved is the Copilot that has been added. It should have a good, decent user interface experience. The user interface experience should be enhanced in terms of C...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

AlmaLinux OS 8 (x86_64), AlmaLinux OS 10 (x86_64)
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about AlmaLinux vs. Windows 11 and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,664 professionals have used our research since 2012.