Amazon Linux vs Debian comparison

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Amazon Linux

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

Amazon Linux and Debian are both contenders in the server operating system market. Debian has the upper hand due to its stability, extensive software library, and broader community support. In terms of cloud-centric features, Amazon Linux excels with its seamless AWS integration, making it an attractive choice for cloud-focused environments.

Features: Amazon Linux offers integration with AWS services, ensuring compatibility and optimized performance for EC2 instances, enhanced security with SELinux, and scalable architecture suitable for cloud applications. Debian is known for its stability, extensive software package availability, and flexibility for various deployments, allowing users to leverage APT for easy software management.

Room for Improvement: Amazon Linux could expand its community support and improve its use beyond AWS environments, address its dependency on AWS for full functionality, and offer a broader range of pre-installed software options. Debian might consider improving its ease of configuration for new users, updating its release cycle for quicker feature rollout, and advancing interfaces to compete with cloud-centric environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Linux simplifies deployment within AWS, offering comprehensive support services tailored for cloud users. Customer service is streamlined through AWS's paid support structures. Debian's deployment is versatile, fitting traditional server environments, though it can require more technical expertise; support is largely community-driven, offering flexibility but sometimes unpredictability.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon Linux provides cost-effective solutions on AWS with potential savings through EC2 Reserved Instances and Savings Plans, appealing for long-term cloud investments. Debian is wholly open-source, entirely free to access, providing a compelling ROI for organizations with technical expertise to utilize its full capabilities without needing additional paid services.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Linux vs. Debian Report (Updated: December 2025).

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Amazon Linux vs. Debian

December 2025

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

3.9

Amazon Linux enhances ROI by reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and simplifying AWS integration, resulting in significant savings and productivity.

Sentiment score

6.5

Debian users save money through no license costs, reduced maintenance, and efficiency, with some saving up to 60%.

With Amazon Linux, selecting and launching instances on a public cloud provider means the machine spins up in fewer than ten seconds, making it efficient.

reviewer2797587

Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

One great feature is LTS, which is long-term support provided by Amazon itself.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators

We saved 30% in terms of the cloud infrastructure.

Yush Mittal

Level 2 Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

There were direct cost savings since Debian has no licensing fees, and we did not require paid support, so it saved us considerable money.

Embedded Linux / BSP Engineer at Veethree

We were able to save a substantial amount by using Linux instead of Windows and spending a lot of money on Windows licenses.

Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

I have seen a return on investment; specifically, the cost is around zero because there is no need for a license, and since my whole team uses Debian, we are fine with the number of employees needed.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

DevOps Technology Lead at TriStratus Ltd

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.4

Amazon Linux support is praised for prompt, knowledgeable service, 24/7 availability, and effective response, influenced by support plans.

Sentiment score

6.7

Debian's community support effectively aids users through forums and documentation, minimizing the need for official customer service.

Amazon has the best expertise and they are available 24/7.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators

Timely and helpful responses for performance, updates, or AWS integration issues.

Anastasiya Sousa

QA Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It offers specific advantages and constraints depending on the use case.

reviewer2738745

Cloud Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

We rely on community resources for support, such as documentation, forums, and asking questions online.

Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Whenever I had a query, I used Google to search for it and found very helpful information from public platforms.

Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

While it does not have traditional paid customer support like some commercial distributions, the Debian community and documentation are very strong.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

Embedded Linux / BSP Engineer at Veethree

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.3

Amazon Linux excels in scalability, optimizing AWS integration for efficient, reliable performance and cost-effective dynamic scaling events.

Sentiment score

7.1

Debian offers scalability and stability, ideal for cloud environments, with open-source benefits and effective management of high traffic.

The beauty here is that we can scale it immediately, which also saves cost.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators

The scalability of Amazon Linux is very good; we run it on top of scalable EC2 instances, and we do not find any issues there.

Karthikeyan Janakiraman

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Amazon Linux is highly scalable because it allows for EC2 instances to scale up and down based on what you want.

reviewer2795433

Enterprise Cloud Operations Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

We don't spin up new Debian instances arbitrarily.

Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

As the growth of our infrastructure is required, we can host many Debian servers.

Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

We decided to use Debian because we needed a more stable and predictable base, especially for long-running systems where frequent changes or upgrades could cause issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

Embedded Linux / BSP Engineer at Veethree

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.3

Amazon Linux is praised for reliability, stability, and security, ensuring minimal issues and no downtime in production environments.

Sentiment score

8.5

Debian is valued for stability and reliability, ideal for developers prioritizing long-term support over rapid updates.

My applications had a high availability (HA) environment, so even when one availability zone was down, traffic moved to a different availability zone without any issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators

We evaluated Amazon Linux, and it is very stable.

Karthikeyan Janakiraman

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Amazon Linux is very stable and is continually maintained by Amazon.

reviewer2795433

Enterprise Cloud Operations Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

I rate Debian an eight out of ten because it excels in stability, reliability, and package management, which are very important for long-running production systems.

Embedded Linux / BSP Engineer at Veethree

That long-term support has helped me and my customers by being stable and running well.

reviewer2797047

Embedded Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

In my experience, Debian is very stable.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Room For Improvement

Amazon Linux requires improvements in vendor integration, community support, GUI, documentation, flexibility, and package management for enhanced usability.

Debian needs improvements in package management, installer, cloud integration, hardware support, GUI updates, and contributor support for better usability.

Documentation explaining the differences between Ubuntu and Amazon Linux would be valuable.

Tim Robles

full stack developer at 71Lbs

Since we are working in a real-time manner and need to scale things immediately, the time it takes to boot an instance and then deploy things is preventing me from giving it a perfect rating.

Yush Mittal

Level 2 Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to make sure the command line is easy and that Amazon Linux has more performance than other Linux environments and is more secure than other Linux environments as well.

Arjun Parmar

DevOps Engineer at Wissen infotech

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

I believe security on Debian is top-notch due to its long history and the many individuals and organizations that rely on it, meaning there are many eyes on it.

reviewer2774178

Founder at a media company with 1-10 employees

If Debian had a memory-based distribution, similar to Alpine, that would be great, as we could get benefits in terms of memory or embedded systems.

DevOps Technology Lead at TriStratus Ltd

Debian was easy to set up.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers favor Amazon Linux for its cost efficiency, free-tier usage, and reduced expenses with Graviton instances.

Debian's open-source nature offers cost savings on software, making it a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Windows and Ubuntu.

With Amazon Linux itself, there is no cost associated with using it, so I would say it is very good from a pricing perspective.

reviewer2795433

Enterprise Cloud Operations Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

I am paying around $300 to $400 per month because I use many services.

Jagadeesh J

Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The pricing is free compared to many other operating systems that charge.

reviewer2797587

Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

My experience with Debian's pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that it is all free.

reviewer2796165

IT Support Manager at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees

As long as I remain within the limit of that credit, I can create machines as much as I want without exceeding the monthly limit.

Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is quite favorable; since Debian is totally free, it is one of my first options.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

DevOps Technology Lead at TriStratus Ltd

Valuable Features

Amazon Linux excels in AWS integration, security, and performance, featuring fast boot, auto-scaling, and efficient resource management.

Debian offers stability, flexibility, and efficiency, providing cost-effective operations with strong support and extensive software options for organizations.

Amazon Linux handles this automatically. It is optimized for EC2, AWS hardware and software, mostly secure and stable, and there is no additional cost.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon Linux report

Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators

In terms of service security, there are many constraint security protocols and policies that help me create our own networks, security groups, and inline policies.

Jagadeesh J

Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Amazon Linux's security updates have been helpful in general because I have had to be more specific in using the Identity Access Management (IAM) service so that we can have role-based permissions in preference to just keeping it open.

Steven Alila

Independent Contractor at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Debian's stability helps me in my daily work because my work relies on stability; I'm trying to deploy production workloads, and Debian offers that stability for me.

DevOps Technology Lead at TriStratus Ltd

Debian has kept my workflow secure by maintaining system stability with day-to-day or monthly updates with security patches, securing the system from external attacks.

For more quotes and insights, download the Debian report

Cloud Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Debian has positively impacted my organization primarily in cost-efficiency, with on-premises hardware running faster and cheaper.

reviewer2796165

IT Support Manager at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Debian

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

14th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Amazon Linux is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Debian is 5.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Debian	5.5%
Amazon Linux	0.5%
Other	94.0%

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

“Amazon Linux delivers automated security updates— including live kernel patching in AL2023—ensuring protected workloads with minimal manual effort and zero-downtime patching.”

Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators

One improvement for Amazon Linux would be stronger support for running it outside AWS. Although Amazon provides local VM images for VirtualBox and VMware, they are intended mainly for development and testing. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian, or Red Hat, Amazon Linux is not designed or fully supported as a production OS in on-prem or hybrid environments. Expanding official support outside AWS would offer more flexibility for teams that maintain mixed infrastructure. Another area for improvement is the community ecosystem. Compared to Ubuntu or Red Hat, Amazon Linux has a smaller community and fewer third-party resources or tutorials. A larger ecosystem would make troubleshooting and adoption easier. Finally, improving backward compatibility between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023—especially around package management (DNF vs yum) and updated toolchains—would simplify upgrades for teams managing large fleets.

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Reliable platform has supported long-term on-prem deployments and predictable OTA updates

Embedded Linux / BSP Engineer at Veethree

If I consider how Debian can be improved, it could be more accessible in making newer software versions available for users who need recent features while still maintaining default stable behavior. While backports help, the workflow could be streamlined. The release cycle can feel slow for rapidly evolving tools, and better guidance around mixing stable, backports, and testing would help. Regarding hardware support, Debian can be improved by supporting multiple BSPs, making it more versatile in the embedded domain. Hardware support for new devices can sometimes lag behind, which is understandable given Debian's focus on stability. Clearer guidance on handling newer hardware or firmware would be beneficial.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

15%

Government

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?

Right now, I don't think there are any specific areas to improve in Amazon Linux.

What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?

The use cases for this in our company is that we have a customer that internally uses it for several applications, and they are a telecommunications company that has virtual machines and Linux mach...

What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?

I use AWS, Azure, and I'm starting to use GCP, Google Cloud Platform. I have also used ZoomInfo. I have been using the product since its creation. I have not used the ZoomInfo product. With Amazon,...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Debian?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing seems acceptable. We have also used Ubuntu. Comparing to Ubuntu, Debian is cheaper.

What needs improvement with Debian?

In terms of improvements, I think Debian is fine as it is. I'm not an expert, so for me, it is acceptable.

What is your primary use case for Debian?

I have been using Debian for a while now. My main use case for Debian is running PostgreSQL and related infrastructure. A specific example of an application I'm running on Debian is PostgreSQL.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Amazon Linux

Comparisons

Compared 31% of the time

Kali Linux vs Amazon Linux

Compared 18% of the time

CentOS vs Amazon Linux

Compared 12% of the time

Alpine Linux vs Amazon Linux

Compared 8% of the time

More Amazon Linux Competitors

Rocky Linux vs Debian

Compared 41% of the time

openSUSE Leap vs Debian

Compared 11% of the time

Alpine Linux vs Debian

Compared 8% of the time

AlmaLinux vs Debian

Compared 6% of the time

Windows 11 vs Debian

Compared 2% of the time

More Debian Competitors

Product Reports

Download Amazon Linux product report

Amazon Linux

January 2026

Download Debian product report

January 2026

Also Known As

No data available

Debian 12

Overview

Amazon Linux is a secure and stable distribution for cloud environments, optimized for AWS performance. It is widely adopted by developers seeking minimal disruption in deployment and management, offering a seamless operational experience.

Developed by Amazon Web Services, Amazon Linux provides an environment streamlined for performance on AWS infrastructure. By offering long-term support and regular security updates, it ensures crucial security and reliability. It is tailored to enhance cloud-centric application development, making it a preferred choice for developers needing efficient resource management. Its compatibility with a wide range of AWS tools and services makes it highly adaptable for cloud-native solutions.

What are the key features of Amazon Linux?

Security: Offers frequent updates and security patches for a reliable operating environment.
Performance: Optimized for AWS, improving speed and efficiency.
Flexibility: Easily customizable to meet specific application needs.
Long-term Support: Provides extended software support to reduce maintenance overhead.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in Amazon Linux reviews?

Integrated AWS Tools: Improves workflow efficiency by seamless integration with AWS ecosystem.
Regular Updates: Ensures up-to-date security and performance features.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational costs with optimized cloud resources.
Developer Satisfaction: Enhances developer productivity with streamlined resource management.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, Amazon Linux is used to develop cloud applications that require secure data handling and robust performance. Media companies appreciate its flexibility and speed in managing high-demand scenarios, ensuring scalable content delivery and reliable performance.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Debian is a reliable open-source operating system ideal for servers and desktops. With its wide array of packages and stable releases, it suits developers and organizations seeking dependable performance and security.

Debian stands out for its stability and extensive package repository, making it a go-to choice for developers. Its open-source nature ensures transparency and flexibility. Debian's package management system, APT, simplifies software installation and updates. Its security updates are regular and prompt, ensuring systems are protected. With support for multiple architectures, Debian caters to various environments from desktops to large-scale servers.

What are the key features of Debian?

Package Management: APT tool for efficient software installation and updates.
Security: Regular security updates maintain robust protection.
Open Source: Community-driven with transparency and flexibility.
Architecture Support: Compatibility with diverse hardware systems.
Stability: Reliable performance across server and desktop configurations.

What benefits and ROI should be considered in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Free distribution reduces expenses.
Performance: Stable and reliable for demanding applications.
Customizability: Open-source nature allows tailored solutions.
Community Support: Extensive community for troubleshooting and advice.

Debian is widely used in industries such as web hosting, scientific research, and education, where reliability and long-term support are priorities. Its flexibility allows it to be adapted for specialized applications in scientific computing or educational environments, ensuring it meets industry-specific technical requirements.