Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

openSUSE Leap and Rocky Linux are both strong contenders in the Linux distribution market. Users generally prefer the flexibility and advanced tools of openSUSE Leap, whereas Rocky Linux is often favored for its stability and long-term support.

Features: openSUSE Leap is praised for its integrated YaST tool, Zypper package manager, and comprehensive system management capabilities. Rocky Linux is valued for its extensive compatibility with RHEL, stability, and high performance under enterprise workloads.

Room For Improvement: For openSUSE Leap, users mention the need for better documentation and support for newer hardware. Rocky Linux users suggest improvements in community support and software repository updates.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: openSUSE Leap's deployment is often considered straightforward with comprehensive customer support and community forums. Rocky Linux benefits from easy integration with RHEL environments and has a responsive community.

Pricing and ROI: openSUSE Leap is generally seen as cost-effective due to its free and open-source nature, with good ROI tied to its advanced features. Rocky Linux similarly offers a strong ROI with no cost, thanks to its RHEL compatibility and long-term stability.

To learn more, read our detailed Rocky Linux vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: September 2025).

Rocky Linux vs. openSUSE Leap

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Helped 869,832 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:

Categories and Ranking

openSUSE Leap

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

12th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Rocky Linux

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 6.1%, up from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rocky Linux is 14.3%, up from 12.2% 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 (%)
Rocky Linux	14.3%
openSUSE Leap	6.1%
Other	79.6%

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Featured Reviews

Nagendra Kavadi

Senior Manager at Cognizant

Provides BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots

I only use the tool for testing purposes on my team, but multiple people use it. We don't make a team effort to install the solution. When it comes to maintenance, we ask our company to buy SUSE Linux Enterprise. My team consists of 13 people. We are currently integrating the solution with Ansible to do some coding. Although not a full-fledged automation, we are integrating the solution with Ansible and executing a couple of playbooks connected to openSUSE Leap. I would recommend the solution to other users looking for an open-source solution. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Massimiliano Adamo

Linux architect at European Commission

Has supported seamless migrations and enabled running complex data workloads securely

The best features Rocky Linux offers include clustering and all the packages from Red Hat.Rocky Linux has impacted my organization very positively because we migrated everything from CentOS and Windows servers to Rocky Linux. Everything is clear, with good packaging, and now it's version 9.6, which is very important for us due to security problems since we are in Europe. Rocky Linux is very good for security and other aspects. Since migrating to Rocky Linux, I've seen specific outcomes such as improved security because CentOS stopped the project, and security patches aren't being released. We need to maintain a system similar to Red Hat, which is very stable and has many features such as file system, topology, and containers.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots."

"The most valuable feature by far has been the virtualization capabilities of the operating system."

"The solution is very stable after it is configured. It is hard to have a panel slow, a problem, misconfiguration, or any kind of loss function."

"The solution is easy for me to use because the backend is derived from FreeBSD and this is something I have been using for over 20 years."

"Stable - it just runs without the necessity to reboot."

"Rocky Linux has impacted my organization very positively because we migrated everything from CentOS and Windows servers to Rocky Linux, everything is clear, with good packaging, and now it's version 9.6, which is very important for us due to security problems since we are in Europe."

"The experience of working with Rocky Linux is the same as with other Linux distributions; there was no difficulty for me in learning how to work with it."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its stability."

"It helps us keep our workstations in sync and ensures consistent settings across most of our machines."

"Rocky Linux performs excellently in low-latency live streaming and content packaging workflows, as we use it for optimizing compatibility with the streaming platforms, utilizing an optimized kernel for networking, tuning profiles, IRQ affinity, security, reliability, and hardware and driver support."

"The solution is free and open source."

"Rocky Linux is best for someone who wants good scalability, enterprise-grade stability, substantial community engagement, compatibility with RHEL, and strong security."

"I haven't needed to use customer service or support, which speaks volumes about their product's reliability and ease of use."

More Rocky Linux pros

Cons

"I would like openSUSE Leap to have better link integration with Windows."

"There is room for improvement in the console."

"Somehow the change from OS12.x via 13.x to Leap was a bit bumpy and some old issues seemed to reappear."

"It would be helpful if we could easily switch from openSUSE Leap for testing to SUSE Linux Enterprise for production."

"Like most Linux-based operating systems, the biggest challenge Leap faces is the GUI."

"In the future, the Active Directory could improve."

"To improve Rocky Linux, providing releases for each package, firmware, and kernel more quickly would be beneficial."

"The package versions can be quite older compared to other distributions such as Ubuntu."

"I have certain problems with the tool's DNS part, making it an area where improvements are required."

"One of the potential issues is that if you don't pay for support, you may need to manage certain aspects on your own and rely on the community for assistance."

"I see some performance-related issues, but we are still checking on that, and we don't know if it is related to the OS or the resource; that is something still to be checked from our end."

"The only drawback we have seen is that even though there are timely deliveries of security patches and vulnerability fixes, the Rocky Linux Security Advisor or RLSA updates via the DNF utilities are broken or delayed."

"To be honest, Rocky Linux is almost similar to each Linux distribution, so I have no specific reason why it should offer me its features."

"Improved integration with Windows, particularly Active Directory, would be beneficial for the product. Currently, this aspect requires additional effort."

More Rocky Linux cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source operating system that can be used free of charge."

"openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost."

"The cost of this solution was reasonable and it was within our budget."

"The solution is open-source."

"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a three."

"Compared to the market prices of other tools, the solution has a very competitive pricing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

12%

University

11%

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with openSUSE Leap?

Both openSUSE Leap and the SUSE Enterprise version use the same kernel. Suppose I have a lower environment where I can run openSUSE to test all my products. It would be helpful if I could easily sw...

What is your primary use case for openSUSE Leap?

I use openSUSE Leap for testing purposes. Before officially using any server in our office, we test it using the solution. My office usually uses production servers on the SUSE Linux enterprise ver...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for openSUSE Leap?

openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost.

What do you like most about Rocky Linux?

It's very simple to work with, easy to learn, and know where things are.

What needs improvement with Rocky Linux?

I have no suggestions regarding how Rocky Linux can be improved. I haven't identified any areas that need improvement yet.

What is your primary use case for Rocky Linux?

As a Cloud Ops Engineer, we are setting up the server on the EC2 machine with Rocky Linux, while also doing some setup related to the frameworks for Ruby. We are installing their dependencies relat...

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap

Comparisons

Compared 25% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 18% of the time

Fedora Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 11% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 6% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

Fedora Linux vs Rocky Linux

Compared 26% of the time

Debian vs Rocky Linux

Compared 18% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs Rocky Linux

Compared 17% of the time

Oracle Linux vs Rocky Linux

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Rocky Linux

Compared 7% of the time

More Rocky Linux Competitors

Product Reports

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Download Rocky Linux product report

Overview

openSUSE Leap is a brand new way of building openSUSE and is new type of hybrid Linux distribution. Leap uses source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), which gives Leap a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions, and combines that with community developments to give users, developers and sysadmins the best stable Linux experience available. Contributor and enterprise efforts for Leap bridge a gap between matured packages and newer packages found in openSUSE’s other distribution Tumbleweed.

openSUSE

Rocky Linux is a robust and secure enterprise-grade operating system designed as a drop-in replacement for CentOS. Its primary use case is to provide a stable and reliable platform for organizations to run their critical workloads and applications.

The most valuable functionality of Rocky Linux lies in its compatibility with CentOS, ensuring a seamless transition for organizations already using CentOS. It offers long-term support, regular security updates, and a predictable release cycle, providing stability and reliability for mission-critical systems.

Rocky Linux helps organizations by offering a free and open-source alternative to CentOS, which was discontinued by Red Hat. It allows businesses to continue using their existing CentOS-based infrastructure without the need for costly migrations or vendor lock-in. With its strong community support and active development, Rocky Linux ensures a sustainable and community-driven future for CentOS users.

Moreover, Rocky Linux is built with security in mind, providing robust features like SELinux and secure defaults. This helps organizations protect their data and systems from potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Rocky Linux vs. openSUSE Leap