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Flatcar Container Linux vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 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

Flatcar Container Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
40th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
433
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Flatcar Container Linux is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 7.0%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)7.0%
Flatcar Container Linux0.9%
Other92.1%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

YD
Senior Consultant at Capgemini
The solution is stable and allows us to make needed changes
The development teams could sharpen their skills.  They should offer applications on the net I have eight years of experience with Flatcar Container Linux. The version of Flatcar Container Linux that I am using is stable. The scalability of this product is fine. It allows us to make the needed…
CC
Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Automation has transformed daily operations and supports secure, continuous infrastructure
When considering improvements to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I see one primary area. Within your portal, if you provided more study material along with demonstrations similar to the sessions we are attending, which feature a user-friendly guide, you could incorporate this into your Red Hat console. When I want to install an agent or something else, typing in the console should provide me with clear step-by-step instructions. Throughout the years, installation steps have been available, but regarding AI agents or Ansible automation, I need to verify whether clear information exists. Including this information would be beneficial. Additionally, if you add the sessions that have occurred to your portal or another location, this would help us review them multiple times to gain better understanding. Time is limited, and many sessions occur simultaneously, making it impossible to attend everything. Making these sessions available on your website would be very helpful.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Flatcar's support is good, and the version I am using is stable and allows us to make needed changes."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux is easy to manage, update, and integrate. I also like Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features. You need to enable them by default or keep them enabled if you want your system to be secured. It protects most of the system components."
"The built-in security features are quite good."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps me solve pain points by being more reliable and easier to work on than Windows."
"The valuable features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for on-premises are its flexibility and compatibility; it works exceptionally with JBoss."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 's most valuable feature is its reliability. I don't have to worry about the operating system. It's one of the easiest operating systems for databases, and the integration is excellent. It gives me peace of mind because I can focus on my database work without worrying about my OS. I want to ensure I have applications that run on the OS without searching for temporary fixes or workarounds."
"The automation is great."
"The most valuable aspects of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are the security and stability it provides."
"The customer service and technical support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) have been phenomenal."
 

Cons

"The development teams could sharpen their skills. They should offer applications on the net."
"I'm also using IBM AIX, which supports a tool called Smitty. You just put Smitty, and you can do anything."
"If I see that one of my runs for any workload is taking five days, I immediately question why it is not completing within a day."
"If the migration process was seamless without backing up data and restoring data, that would probably be the biggest improvement, as managing over 3,400 servers manually is quite substantial."
"I am still trying to figure out the features it has. There is so much that it can do."
"If they can make the integration with Ansible easier, that would be ideal."
"There are times when the latest and most exciting releases available online are not included in the version of Red Hat that we have."
"I like the way the operating system works now, and I do not really see any bad functionality with it. The only thing I would say is getting rid of some aspects. That is the one part that a lot of admins probably get annoyed with."
"I would rate the customer service and technical support a seven because sometimes it takes a bit to reach someone at your level."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"From a management point of view, it's quite good, but everyone is complaining that it's more expensive than the other operating systems."
"The pricing is great for virtual systems."
"We are coming from CentOS, so technically, our total cost of ownership has gone up, but it is still cheaper than Windows for a database server and things like that."
"It is expensive. Everything is. I was happy to get a three-year Red Hat Enterprise Linux contract for our initial rollout."
"The licensing model of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good, but lower prices are always preferable."
"For the basic operating system, its price is fair. It is not cheap, and it is also not expensive. For the OpenShift or OpenStack implementation, the cost is a little higher than what I would expect, but it is doable. For a storage solution, it is almost impossible to pay. In comparison to open-source competitors, RHEL has the most cost-effective open-source subscription model."
"Its licensing is pretty confusing. There are a lot of subscriptions, and it isn't always clear which subscription is the best, but with their support, it's easy to find the right one."
"The product is on the expensive side."
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage and VMware Expert at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 24, 2017
It's improved our company's system environments that run Oracle databases.
Red Hat is mission critical to our environment Red Hat has improved the mission critical environments running Oracle databases, while CentOS has improved our web environment and MySQL. Oracle and SAP Environment and all HPC environments. 10 years No issues Very stable i don´t find any problem…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
18%
University
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business92
Midsize Enterprise50
Large Enterprise309
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
Which would you choose - RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or CentOS?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is fantastic. It is an inexpensive solution that has excellent security, performance, and stability, and also lots of features. I specifically like that the solution has fe...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
My experience with the pricing, the setup cost, and the licensing of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been pretty good. I have no complaints.
What needs improvement with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
I've never really thought about how Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) could be improved, but the only thing I wish they had that I've asked Red Hat for so far is something resembling managed service ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CISCO, mettle, Microsoft, Upguard, GMX
Travel Channel, Mohawk Industries, Hilti, Molecular Health, Exolgan, Hotelplan Group, Emory University, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, HCA Healthcare, Paychex, UPS, Intermountain Healthcare, Brinker International, TransUnion, Union Bank, CA Technologies
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat, Canonical, Rocky Linux and others in Operating Systems (OS) for Business. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.