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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) 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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
388
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm)
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
20th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

RO
Server administrator at Northrop Grumman
Empowers collaboration through streamlined integration and extensive documentation
Improving Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be tough, however, a significant area is collaboration tools. We have many Windows users that use Outlook and Skype or Teams to collaborate on our network. They want Linux desktops due to the fact that they want to use containers. Their biggest complaint is, 'I need two workstations to do my container work and one to collaborate.' If somehow RHEL can start introducing or collaborating with Teams and Outlook so their users can work with their Windows peers, that would be great. But I don't think that's available yet. Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, there needs to be more of an education piece to it. For instance, when purchasing 10 or 100 node licenses, they could suggest, 'We also offer this 1,000 node license instead, and it'll save you specific amounts.' Just more education on their offerings would be helpful, because usually, we're coming out with the requirements, and then they just provide it to us. They could inform us about saving by bundling it differently or using alternative approaches.
reviewer2775897 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Admin at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Runs consistently in production and supports reliable backend infrastructure workflows
Compared to any other offering in the Linux world, to me personally, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) is quite similar and doesn't really matter; it usually just works. The differences are usually in support and the Ubuntu Pro plan, which I do not have, but the same applies with Red Hat—you can run it free of charge, but then you lack the support, which is what I do with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) as well, so it runs the same as any other Linux distro. In terms of stability and reliability, I've had none worth mentioning or caused by something that wasn't in my own hands, so that's been fine so far. In my team, I have about seven people managing about 60 to 70 VMs across four different clusters and about 16 nodes. I spread them out very evenly and very thinly. User-wise, I don't really serve a company internally; I sell my service on the open market. I have no idea on the numbers of how many customers I have, but it's in the several thousands that use the machines or the service I host through my infrastructure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the flexibility RHEL offers in terms of permissions. The patch management is much shorter and easier."
"The solution provides more detailed control."
"It's the flexibility, almost the one-stop-shop nature, that Red Hat provides, that really creates an administrative-friendly environment."
"I like the speed of the OS data and the ease of Ansible automation. I don't need to spend much time managing everything."
"Red Hat's support is valuable for our employees who are new to OpenShift."
"We are saving more costs because we are getting immediate support; if any issue arises, we do not have to wait for someone to respond and can get immediate quick responses from the support team."
"The customer service and technical support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are very responsive."
"In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I am a big fan of the command line."
"Infrastructure as code, especially with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) or any other Linux distro, is key; if you don't have your IaC, you're going to spend forever maintaining it."
"Honestly, if I had to say the best thing about Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm), as opposed to other Linux distributions, is that there is a lot of software that explicitly recommends running it on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) rather than other Linux distributions."
 

Cons

"I have seen that the upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 can be a bit problematic since I have seen some issues during the upgrade of libraries, along with some conflicts with the other libraries in the tool."
"There are performance issues with the response time when accessing the console, but I'm unsure if that's RHEL's fault or if it's due to the lack of CPU or memory on our machines. The enterprise interface could be improved. I can only use the keyboard to transfer files from one system to another. I want to use my mouse on the interface, not just scroll up and down. I would also like my logs archived as an RAR and sent to me."
"One area for improvement is the Subscription Manager, which is sometimes an inconvenience, especially when it doesn't work well with Satellite."
"If I had to imagine one thing that could be even better about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it would be more information in the man pages."
"Overall, I am happy with it, but I believe, security-wise, it could be better."
"Customer service varies. I would rate their support a five out of ten, as it depends on the person at the other end."
"One area for improvement could be moving towards a more agile DevOps way of working. Other technologies out there have enabled agile and DevOps practices, and this is something Red Hat Enterprise Linux could focus on."
"SUSE offers more flexibility in managing multiple environments, as their product can manage Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). However, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Satellite server can only patch Red Hat and CentOS, not Ubuntu or SUSE."
"The only thing I would say maybe could see some improvement is that every once in a while it can be a little bit of a hassle keeping the NVIDIA drivers up to date to prevent any kind of crashes or issues with the NVIDIA drivers."
"I would like to see repository clearance and clarity in the repository, as if you try to get anything from the canonical repo, there tends to be ambiguity in the descriptions and especially the versioning, which makes very little sense."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are a huge VMware shop. Our licensing cost works well with Red Hat. We license based on the data center. The way our license works is that we can run as many Red Hat VMs as we want and pay for a single license. On the VMware side, we gain a lot, and it makes much more sense."
"The pricing and licensing are a bit higher for Red Hat Enterprise because we're able to get 70% of its features with the CentOS version. For the 30% of features that Red Hat provides, I think they need to reduce the licensing fee."
"If Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can reduce its pricing, then it would be easier to convince others that there is not much difference between open-source solutions while still receiving several features for a licensing cost."
"In terms of the solution’s single subscription and install repository for all types of systems, we can have as many RHEL installations as we want because we have a specific subscription that entitles us to have as many RHEL services as we want. We pay for a subscription and with that we get RHEL and Satellite as well."
"RHEL has a decent pricing model. It's a subscription, which makes sense. The OS itself is free, but you pay for the support. I have never heard any complaints about the pricing."
"I do not know the overall cost, but I know that Red Hat is cheaper than Windows."
"It is cost-efficient."
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux licensing is not cheap, but it is worth it, especially considering the compliance and support it provides."
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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
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business87
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise266
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, the pricing is good; however, licensing is a bit confusing.
What needs improvement with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm)?
Regarding room for improvement, I would like to see repository clearance and clarity in the repository, as if you try to get anything from the canonical repo, there tends to be ambiguity in the des...
What is your primary use case for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm)?
I'm using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm). I've been working with Ubuntu for about seven to eight months now, and before that, I had a mix of Windows and Linux system administration, mainly with Red...
What advice do you have for others considering Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm)?
My advice or recommendation for organizations considering Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) is to always automate. There is a reason I always push for Ansible, Packer, and similar tools. Many firms st...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

Information not available
 

Sample Customers

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
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