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Amazon Linux vs Oracle Solaris comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
4.9
Amazon Linux saves organizations money and time with no licensing costs, AWS integration, and reduced maintenance efforts.
Sentiment score
4.6
Oracle Solaris offers high ROI with stability, integration, reduced downtime, performance boosts, and cost benefits, enhancing operational efficiency.
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.
Cloud Solution Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
By switching the compute fleet from a paid distribution to Amazon Linux, we have reduced our OS-related overhead cost by 100%.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Some wins commonly seen after switching, particularly when moving from general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu, include approximately twenty to forty percent better price-performance ratio.
configuration and management deployment at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In terms of ROI, there have been performance improvements because Oracle Solaris is lighter.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Amazon Linux's 24/7 support is efficient and responsive, with knowledgeable engineers and praised documentation, enhancing user experience.
Sentiment score
4.6
Oracle Solaris support is 24/7, efficient yet sometimes slow, with helpful tools and mixed user ratings on effectiveness.
Amazon has the best expertise and they are available 24/7.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Timely and helpful responses for performance, updates, or AWS integration issues.
QA Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Customer support provided excellent assistance, resolving the issue and getting the setup back to working order fast.
Software Engineer at cypherox technologies pvt. ltd
The technical support by Oracle is good.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Amazon Linux excels in scalable, efficient operations with AWS, offering reliable performance and rapid scaling to meet demand.
Sentiment score
6.1
Oracle Solaris excels in scalable performance, efficiently handling extensive workloads with robust file systems and virtualization, despite hardware dependencies.
Since it is tightly integrated with AWS services, I can easily scale instances up or down based on demand using EC2 auto-scaling and load balancing.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Automatic scaling adds or removes servers based on CPU traffic, which is optimal for production applications, while load balancing helps distribute traffic across servers, preventing overloads and delivering stable performance.
Software Engineer at cypherox technologies pvt. ltd
The compatibility of container scalability with Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS, along with performance optimizations and low latency for workloads.
Technical Trainer at DIEMS, chh. Sambhajinagar
Regarding vertical scalability, Oracle Solaris is probably one of the most scalable operating systems in the industry.
System specialist at Savecore
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon Linux ensures stability, security, and efficiency for AWS environments with version locking and regular updates for seamless cloud performance.
Sentiment score
8.2
Oracle Solaris is highly stable and secure, with rare crashes and minimal disruptions, making it ideal for reliable operations.
Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Since it is purpose-built for the cloud, it lacks the bloat of traditional desktop-focused distributions, which leads to fewer crashes and higher uptime.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Compared to other Linux distributions, Amazon Linux is significantly more stable for AWS workloads because it is pre-optimized for EC2 hypervisor and includes integrated AWS tools out of the box.
Full Stack Developer at EnactOn Technologies
 

Room For Improvement

Enhancing third-party integrations, UI, documentation, and security patches can improve Amazon Linux user experience and deployment ease.
Oracle Solaris needs improvements in hardware support, GUI, training, cost reduction, integration, package management, and open-source tool support.
Documentation explaining the differences between Ubuntu and Amazon Linux would be valuable.
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.
Senior Data Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 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.
DevOps Engineer at Wissen infotech
The firewall must be more capable because security is the main concern of every organization and every user.
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Oracle Solaris needs to improve its compatibility with office tools like Excel.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
Oracle is going to discontinue it, so I do not think any improvement is possible in Oracle Solaris.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Linux is cost-effective for enterprises, with no licensing fees and flexible pay-as-you-go AWS service pricing.
Enterprise users find Oracle Solaris pricing complex; it's beneficial for performance but costly compared to Linux, with desired pricing improvements.
With Amazon Linux itself, there is no cost associated with using it, so I would say it is very good from a pricing perspective.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
If I am a new AWS customer, the AWS Free Tier typically includes, for the first six months, micro instances such as t2.micro or t3.micro for free.
Software Engineer at INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
I am paying around $300 to $400 per month because I use many services.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Linux offers seamless AWS integration, cost-effectiveness, quick scaling, and strong security, ideal for consistent cloud deployment.
Oracle Solaris offers superior virtualization, security, performance, ZFS features, and seamless Oracle integration, praised for stability and reliability.
Amazon Linux handles this automatically. It is optimized for EC2, AWS hardware and software, mostly secure and stable, and there is no additional cost.
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.
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.
Fullstack Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The operating system is lightweight, which makes it easier to use on an average computer compared to systems like Windows.
Technology Consultant at Clarinox Technologies Kenya
Additionally, regarding security, you do not have to implement any antivirus software.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Oracle introduced a GUI environment with Solaris 11.5.
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Solaris
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Amazon Linux is 1.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Solaris is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon Linux1.2%
Oracle Solaris2.4%
Other96.4%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Yatin Parmar - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at cypherox technologies pvt. ltd
Cloud platform has boosted secure web hosting, automation, and rapid backend deployment
To improve Amazon Linux, optimizing performance by choosing the right instance type for Amazon EC2, utilizing load balancers such as ELB, and monitoring with CloudWatch can lead to faster applications and better user experiences while reducing costs. Stopping unused EC2 instances and employing reservation spots as needed for storage on S3 saves money for clients and companies. It is also crucial to improve security through IAM roles without root access and properly configuring security settings. Implementing backups and encryption results in enhanced data safety and trust. Automation is key; using CI/CD pipelines allows for quicker deployments and reduced errors. Moreover, employing scalable architectures with auto-scaling and using microservices to distribute traffic effectively can effortlessly manage high traffic scenarios. By leveraging managed services such as RDS, S3 for storage, and Lambda for serverless computing, maintenance requirements are reduced and my organization can focus more on development. The ultimate goal of improving AWS usage must center around optimizing performance, minimizing costs, enhancing security, and automating deployments to build efficient cloud architecture.
Shafiq Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Long-term server platform has supported secure banking operations and simplified virtualization
Oracle Solaris is a very good operating system. Most of the time, we do not need to change or replace any configuration. If at any point in time we need to change something, it is really simple and a user-friendly environment. Although it is a CLI, Oracle introduced a GUI environment with Solaris 11.5. Currently, 11.5 has the operating system GUI as well as the CLI. The technical persons working on the operating system most of the time prefer to work on the CLI. It is actually really good and easy to use. As it is a server-level operating system, most of the time you do not need any extra features in the operating system because you are not using the operating system on home machines, desktops, or laptop machines. The extra features are not needed if we are talking about the enterprise level or an official operating system.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Linux?
I believe there is no need to improve Amazon Linux. It is definitely working in a very progressive and highly scalable way.
What is your primary use case for Amazon Linux?
My use case for Amazon Linux includes web and application hosting, microservices, container, database management, and virtual desktop services. I use Amazon Linux as a lightweight base image for Do...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Linux?
I will provide a rating of eight for Amazon Linux. I am using a long-term support version of Amazon Linux, so there is no need for any other features. Amazon Linux provides different types of servi...
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 ...
What do you like most about Oracle Solaris?
We use the solution as an internal operating system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Solaris?
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solaris 11, Solaris
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Siemens, IVV
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Linux vs. Oracle Solaris and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.