SUSE Linux Enterprise vs openSUSE Leap comparison

openSUSE and SUSE are both solutions in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category. openSUSE is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0, while SUSE is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.3. openSUSE holds a 6.3% mindshare in OSB, compared to SUSE’s 6.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of openSUSE users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of SUSE users who would recommend it.

openSUSE Leap

Read 6 openSUSE Leap reviews

5,740 Views
5,740 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SUSE Linux Enterprise

Read 32 SUSE Linux Enterprise reviews

7,725 Views
7,648 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

openSUSE Leap

SUSE Linux Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 3, 2025

SUSE Linux Enterprise and openSUSE Leap both compete in the Linux distribution category, with SUSE Linux Enterprise having the upper hand due to its enterprise-grade features like SAP and Oracle support, which cater to businesses requiring comprehensive solutions.

Features: SUSE Linux Enterprise includes an offline repository in DVD media and boasts strong support for the Oracle product stack and integration with SAP HANA and Windows Active Directory. Its YaST tool simplifies server management and pacemaker cluster management adds to its robustness. openSUSE Leap provides ease of use and server management capabilities, supported by the BTRFS file system for stability and ease of snapshots.

Room for Improvement: SUSE Linux Enterprise could enhance integration with Autodesk and improve the initial setup process. The complexity of updates and package conflicts and need for better cloud interaction are areas for improvement, alongside cost-effectiveness and clearer documentation. openSUSE Leap users highlight the need for improved GUI stability and better Active Directory integration along with more comprehensive documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SUSE Linux Enterprise offers deployment flexibility in public, private, and hybrid cloud environments and strong technical support praised for responsiveness. openSUSE Leap focuses on on-premises deployment with support mainly from community forums, providing a collaborative support experience.

Pricing and ROI: SUSE Linux Enterprise, as a paid solution, includes a support subscription and offers significant value, especially for SAP deployments compared to competitors like Red Hat. Despite recent pricing increases, it continues to be favored for its comprehensive enterprise capabilities. openSUSE Leap, being open-source and free, is an economical choice for users or organizations not needing extensive enterprise support, benefiting from community-driven support.

To learn more, read our detailed SUSE Linux Enterprise vs. openSUSE Leap Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs. openSUSE Leap

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,295 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

SUSE Linux Enterprise

Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 6.3%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SUSE Linux Enterprise is 6.9%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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.

Read full review

Naveen Venugopal

Research Engineer at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

Efficient IT management with crucial automatic updates but needs developer-friendly configuration

Sometimes it is a bit of work for developers to change the configurations. Some kernels will not fit with some packages, and this aspect could be improved. Furthermore, the system's rigidity when updating packages and services needs improvement. Additionally, there should be more loosely bound functionalities to improve developer experience.

Read full review

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."

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

"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."

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

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"The initial setup is simple and takes five minutes for deployment and if you have automation in place, it will take four minutes."

"Out-of-the-box SLES supported all of our HBAs and hardware specific components."

"From a functionality perspective, the suite is quite rich. We like that."

"The return on investment has been significant, especially considering its cost-effectiveness compared to other solutions."

"SUSE Linux was stable for me. I did not experience any problems with its stability."

"SUSE Linux Enterprise is stable."

"SUSE Linux Enterprise is scalable."

More SUSE Linux Enterprise pros

Cons

"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."

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

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

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

"There is room for improvement in the console."

"The price of SUSE Linux Enterprise could improve, it is too expensive."

"The only stability issues that I can recall encountering with SUSE would be with KDE. However, that is limited to just the desktop environment as I have not had stability issues with most server functions."

"The free version sometimes has security holes."

"When working in a Department of Defense environment, Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) have to be followed. SLES is not really addressed directly here. It did make following security policy difficult."

"They should probably just make clustering a bit simpler and also provide more descriptive log files for cluster services."

"The software management side was a bit difficult, especially compared to Ubuntu."

"The platform doesn't support certain APMs."

"If you want to do something simple like changing an IP number, you have to be quite aware of all the configuration files where you will change that."

More SUSE Linux Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"The solution is open-source."

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

"Anyone can use Linux because it is open-source."

"The license we pay is for Oracle. We make use of the community edition."

"The product is expensive. We purchase its yearly license."

"When we first implemented this product, we had licenses for support."

"I have to pay for a license in order to get support."

"The product's licensing options align well with the evolving landscape of Linux variants."

"As far as licensing goes, there is nothing unusual here. The price and model have worked fine for my organization."

"Regarding pricing, everybody would want it to be cheaper."

More SUSE Linux Enterprise pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Operating Systems (OS) for Business solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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

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

See all answers

What do you like most about SUSE Linux Enterprise?

The initial setup is simple and takes five minutes for deployment and if you have automation in place, it will take four minutes.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SUSE Linux Enterprise?

I used the open-source version, so there were no setup costs.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SUSE Linux Enterprise?

The software management side was a bit difficult, especially compared to Ubuntu. The software manager was different, making it challenging to install certain applications. Additionally, I encounter...

See all answers

Comparisons

Ubuntu Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 20% of the time

Rocky Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 16% of the time

Fedora Linux vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 6% of the time

Debian vs openSUSE Leap

Compared 6% of the time

More openSUSE Leap Competitors

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 28% of the time

Ubuntu Linux vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 19% of the time

Rocky Linux vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Linux vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

CentOS vs SUSE Linux Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

More SUSE Linux Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Operating Systems (OS) for Business

July 2025

Download openSUSE Leap product report

Buyer's Guide

SUSE Linux Enterprise

July 2025

Download SUSE Linux Enterprise product report

Also Known As

No data available

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP3

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

SUSE Linux Enterprise offers features like YaST for server management, seamless integration with Oracle and SAP, and a robust security setup. Renowned for stability, it efficiently supports workstations, SAP workloads, and cloud migrations across diverse industries.

SUSE Linux Enterprise is known for its lightweight design, high performance, and ease of installation. Its flexible architecture supports extensive documentation and efficient patching. The system uses the BTRFS file system for effective virtualization, and community support is significant. However, challenges include package updates causing conflicts, difficult initial setup and software management, high pricing, and support response times. Improvements in security compliance, cloud integration, hardware compatibility, and documentation are also needed.

What are SUSE Linux Enterprise's important features?

YaST Server Management: Simplifies server setup and configurations.
Oracle & SAP Integration: Enhances performance with major enterprise applications.
HANA Firewall: Provides robust security measures.
BTRFS File System: Supports advanced storage management and snapshots.
Virtualization: Efficiently runs multiple operating systems on a single machine.

What benefits should users expect from using SUSE Linux Enterprise?

Stability & Performance: Reliability for critical applications and workloads.
Lightweight Design: Reduces resource consumption while maintaining efficiency.
Community Support: Access to extensive user and developer collaboration.
Automated Upgrades: Simplifies system maintenance and updates.

Industries like healthcare and banking use SUSE Linux Enterprise for secure transactions and structured application deployment. It is also a choice for organizations involved in testing, automation, and web development, offering support for SAP HANA integration and facilitating cloud migrations.

SUSE

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Air India, Akademicki Szpital Kliniczny (ASK), Allone, Altran, Apollo, ARCHIVA, Asia Innovatory Management School, ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH, AutoData Norge AS, Baldor Electric, Business Connexion, CASIO, Ciclum Farma, Delta Lloyd, Edumate , HPE, SAP SE, Lenovo, BMW, T-Systems, UCX, Turners & Growers, Shenzhen Development Bank, Bosch Group, JK Tyres & Industries, IOCL, European Space Agency, Daimler AG, China Minsheng Banking Corp, Café Coffee Day, Unisys, Petrochina Company Ltd, Fitch Ratings, ABeam Consulting Co Ltd, Tyro Payments, Rackspace, Pacific Textiles, ...

Buyer's Guide

SUSE Linux Enterprise vs. openSUSE Leap

July 2025

Free Report: SUSE Linux Enterprise vs. openSUSE Leap

Find out what your peers are saying about SUSE Linux Enterprise vs. openSUSE Leap and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our SUSE Linux Enterprise vs. openSUSE Leap report.

See our list of best Operating Systems (OS) for Business vendors.

We monitor all Operating Systems (OS) for Business reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.