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AlmaLinux vs Windows Server 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
Windows Server
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
196
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 Windows Server is 8.7%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windows Server8.7%
AlmaLinux2.9%
Other88.4%
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.
GS
Manager, Information & Cloud Systems at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Long-standing experience improves reliability and security, making it a trusted platform
It's difficult to see improvements when using it daily. They improved compatibility with other platforms, such as Linux. One improvement I was thinking about some years ago was the ability to manage an on-premises server from Azure. Now, they have created Azure Arc, and we are using it as a very good way of managing on-premises servers. What can be improved is on the Azure side. With Active Directory on the server side and Entra ID on the Azure side in our hybrid environment, we find issues with data syncing to Entra ID. In Entra ID, Microsoft omitted some parameters. In Active Directory, you can put an expiring date to an account, but you cannot do that in Entra ID. We have other means of doing that, but it's common to have consultants working for six months, requiring account expiration or renewal processes. The Entra ID Connect syncing tool could be improved. Though they moved the service to Azure and use an agent instead of having a dedicated server, it remains cumbersome to set up due to the differences between Entra ID and Active Directory.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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 provides free updates and security, unlike Red Hat, where support must be purchased separately."
"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."
"AlmaLinux has impacted our organization positively by providing a stable and reliable enterprise Linux platform without licensing cost."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to be used in a virtualized environment."
"Windows Server is very scalable."
"I like the fact that Windows Server is user friendly."
"Windows server is easy to use."
"Within 10 or 15 minutes, you can build a single Windows Server and put it on production."
"Integration with other Microsoft solutions like Exchange and System Center Configuration Manager has the great ability to manage all of the different features on system support, like upgrading, securing, and troubleshooting different Windows systems for clients."
"The most valuable feature is the performance."
"I would say Microsoft operating systems are more stable correctly than they were before, they have made some improvements over the years."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"Windows Server could be more secure."
"I used to like the graphical interface and graphical philosophy in previous versions of Windows Server. I am not able to be as fast and efficient as I used to be using a graphical interface. However, Windows has moved to the PowerShell, it is powerful, but is still limited compared to what we do can do in Linux. Linux was built at the beginning of the command line interfaces which is why they have a very powerful command line."
"The stability needs to be improved."
"Windows Server needs to improve stability and pricing."
"The scalability could be improved a bit."
"The user interface could be simplified."
"It can have more integration, which will be useful for the data integration process. More integration with different applications and different OS would be quite good."
"Windows Server could improve by having a faster browser, IE is too slow. There are better alternatives, such as Chrome."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft and the price for the license is bundled together. The solution is expensive but for the bank that is using it, the price is fine. We pay for a license every three years."
"There is not a license required for this solution."
"Its price is fine. Its licensing is on a yearly basis."
"Windows Server is highly priced."
"We pay these on an annual basis."
"There is a license required and it is on an annual basis."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"This is not an expensive product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business78
Midsize Enterprise41
Large Enterprise89
 

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 needs improvement with Windows Server?
I cannot answer regarding which metrics I use to measure the effectiveness of Microsoft Defender for IoT because I have to check with my technical team. I have been fulfilling a role as IT manager ...
What is your primary use case for Windows Server?
What suits me the most is that for all my OT environment, I can manage all those devices in one secure portal from Microsoft.
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Rakuten, Rackspace, Tyco
Find out what your peers are saying about AlmaLinux vs. Windows Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.