We are a Red Hat Enterprise Linux partner and provide host servers for various applications, including web applications and databases.
Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Offers portability, security, and stability
Pros and Cons
- "Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable attribute is its stability."
- "A targeted package tailored for small and medium-sized businesses can help increase business."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features simplify risk reduction and compliance maintenance, making them easy to use. We utilize SA Linux, a highly secure operating system. Its risk mitigation and compliance measures are effectively implemented due to the regular delivery of patches, updates, and bug fixes. This continuous maintenance enhances the stability of the system.
We are able to maintain compliance when it comes to the security regulations.
The level of portability succeeds in keeping our organization agile.
We used several platforms, but Red Hat provides us with a more uniform installation process, a more consistent platform, and easier system maintenance. Additionally, the Ansible playbooks are now simpler to manage due to the standardization of our platform. We quickly realized the benefits of adopting a single platform instead of using multiple platforms. This decision has streamlined our operations and simplified license management for our sales department. Additionally, the purchase process has become more straightforward.
We operate a hybrid IT infrastructure consisting of both on-premises and cloud servers. We have had positive experiences with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which has enabled us to build and deploy applications with confidence and ensure their availability across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.
Red Hat Insights is a valuable tool for preventing emergencies caused by security vulnerabilities, non-compliant configurations, and unpatched systems. Although we haven't faced an emergency yet, we've noticed that the tool provides valuable advice and sometimes even playbooks to resolve security and stability issues. It's a powerful tool indeed.
Red Hat Insights provides us with vulnerability alerts and targeted guidance. All systems are stable and we have no crashes and no failouts.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable attribute is its stability.
What needs improvement?
A targeted package tailored for small and medium-sized businesses can help increase business.
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
January 2026
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable. We have been running the solution for years with no crashes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable. We have not encountered any issues. Since we are virtualized, it is merely a matter of allocating virtual CPUs, virtual memory, and so on. The limits are very high, so we are not currently experiencing any constraints.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched from our previous solution to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of the uniformity of the platform. It is also a larger organization that is well known.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment is straightforward and well-documented. The deployment time is between 15 to 30 minutes.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.
From what I've seen of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, it's well-documented. There are comprehensive notes and documentation available. I've been using it recently, and I've found that all the information I need is readily available. If we can't find what we're looking for, our support organization is there to help.
We have a virtual environment and deploy the solution from a satellite.
Currently, we require two people for the maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Master Software Engineer / Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Useful online documentation, straightforward implementation, and secure
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are the specification and technical guides, they are most important the security."
- "The accessibility to the resources could be more widespread. We have to put a lot of effort into finding indigenous information on the site. For example, the license information is convoluted. This information should be easier for customers to access."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for running solutions, such as database solutions, and enterprise, web, and network applications.
How has it helped my organization?
One of the fundamental reasons Red Hat 7 has benefited our organization is that it is fully certified. It has certifications on the DISA STG and other cybersecurity frameworks like Zero Trust. This is what the Department of Defense mandates to be used and it is feasible to receive these specifications and automate the implementation for continuous improvement. By implementing the technical guides, we can receive immediate results and protect environments according to our expectations. There are a group of technical procedures that are shared and that you can implement, if you follow the industry best practices.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the specification and technical guides, they are most important for cyber security assurance
What needs improvement?
The accessibility to the resources could be more widespread. The registration of the license information is complicated and this product registration process should be easier for customers to access.
In an upcoming release, they could improve by having more focused security.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for more than 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is perfectly scalable. You have some resource limits depending on how you're using the technologies. According to those usage patterns, the system is going to be able to give more or less. However, this depends more on the user side than on the system side.
We have approximately 10,000 enterprise users using the systems. They sporadically log into the applications and make use of the database systems and extract information.
How are customer service and support?
There is a division between the paid support and the support that is included by the website of Red Hat. I have only used the website support and there is a lot of documentation available.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward for our use case. As long as you understand what you're doing, the technologies that are involved, the proper way to style, secure, and prepare them, everything will be fine.
After you have the guide, the printed procedure, the deployment is straightforward. The operating system can be deployed in less than an hour.
Okay, and how long did the deployment take?
What about the implementation team?
The solution requires maintenance, and it is a shared responsibility. They take different maintenance actions or tasks, and sometimes it's the operating system, database system, or application front band that needs maintenance.
What other advice do I have?
The number one advice would be to keep the division between testing and production.
There's one system that you need to set up for testing purposes only, and this testing system can be obtained free of license. There's an evaluation license that can be easily applied. When developing the application on the Red Hat 7 system, stay using the evaluation version until the requirements are fully met, only then should you migrate them to a paid supported version.
The biggest lesson that you learn by using this solution is, you easily reach a point where a single person or a single team can no longer respond to the complexities and challenges of the security or the different versions of the applications. At that moment you need to rely on a serious fused team, that team that is backing the effort.
I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
A highly stable solution that is super easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "The product is super easy to use."
- "The default settings are confusing."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution to build web applications.
How has it helped my organization?
The tool provides more support, resources, and documentation than other products.
What is most valuable?
The product is super easy to use.
What needs improvement?
The default settings are confusing. I often change these settings to avoid problems.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the product is very good.
What other advice do I have?
I did not have issues finding configurations and changing settings as needed. I haven't had any issues like bugs or downtime while using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Overall, it was a good experience. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System admin at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Stable and cost-effective solution that is easy to use and manage and operates with very little down time
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is how easy it is to use."
- "When there is downtime from a system admin perspective, this solution could improve how they communicate why this down time is happening."
What is our primary use case?
For applications, we are the OS support. We build servers and deliver applications.
How has it helped my organization?
RHELs overall effect on our organization's management and efficiency has been good. It's easy to support and involves no downtime. It is simple to handle, apply patches and maintain.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is how easy it is to use.
What needs improvement?
When there is down time from a system admin perspective, this solution could improve how they communicate why this down time is happening.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution. Our machines reside on vSphere and when a server goes down, we have to find out the root cause. This requires pulling information from the vSphere.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the support for this solution an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Solaris. We moved to Red Hat because it is easier to manage and more cost-effective. It is also easier to manage patches and security using Red Hat.
How was the initial setup?
I was only involved in testing this solution during the deployment process. During testing, it was easy to make changes to configurations which also support our decision to use Red Hat.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This is a cost-effective solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. It is easy to use, manage and handle with very little downtime.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Assistant Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Provides us with good security
Pros and Cons
- "The security features are better than many other solutions offer."
- "Could include additional security fefatures."
What is our primary use case?
We are internet service providers in Bangladesh and resellers of this product to our customers to manage their network infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
I think this solution is more secure than others because it's not open source. Red Hat will ensure the details when you purchase the package. Having a certification will offer value.
We've found that there is a huge demand for it.
What needs improvement?
Although the security features are good, I'd like to see more added in the security sphere.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for just three months and still not completely familiar with it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
How are customer service and support?
The documentation is sufficient for my needs.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy, it takes around 10-15 minutes.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Digital Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easy to use operating system with good compatibility and flexibility
Pros and Cons
- "User friendly with good compatibility."
- "Security could be increased."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for different projects. It's great as a realistic training platform and we've also used it for humanoid robots. We are platinum partners of Red Hat and I'm a digital solutions architect.
What is most valuable?
We chose to go with this solution because it's easier to use than other operating systems. It provides illustration ability and better permissions. It has good compatibility which is an issue I have with other operating systems. I find it to be a more flexible product.
What needs improvement?
Most of the complaints people have about this solution revolve around security. It's not easy to increase that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this solution for almost a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We use the online community for our support and it's great. I can find the answers to all my questions there.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used CentOS, which is related to Red Hat. It was our client who decided to switch to Red Hat. I've also used Ubuntu which is an open-source solution with low security and therefore not suitable for enterprise-size organizations.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward because I'd already had some experience with Linux. Even without experience implementation is relatively easy. Deployment time depends on the project and usually takes longer with android applications because the deployment is not one process. We usually deploy on cloud, sometimes private and sometimes public.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think the licensing costs are reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend RHEL because although there's not much difference between it and CentOS, it does provide full support. If you have any issues you know where to turn and they can be solved.
I rate RHEL nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Manager IT Infrastructure at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enables us to deploy current applications and emerging workloads across all virtualized hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments
Pros and Cons
- "The best system I've ever used is Red Hat, in terms of its ability and consistency of the operating system. Other than that, the vast majority of applications that I had, you can deploy Red Hat with the support of the vast majority of applications. We don't have many issues with the OS, the support is very good."
- "I'm not sure how the support is being changed in terms of needing to pay for it. That's an area that can be improved. They should offer support without charging users for it."
What is our primary use case?
We use RHEL for database servers, a few of them run Oracle servers, and we are also using it for some of the network and infrastructure services.
How has it helped my organization?
The best operating system I've ever used is Red Hat, in terms of its ability and consistency of the operating system. Other than that, the vast majority of applications that I had, I could deploy those on Red Hat without much effort as it supported a vast majority of applications. I never faced any major issues with the OS, the support is also very good.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are:
- The stability and reliability of the OS itself
- Being open-source and leading the open-source market trends/ technologies
- The wide variety of applications we can deploy on Red Hat
- Their support
I am a big fan of the OS and the user experience. They're very good. The OS is very stable and very good in performance as well.
RHEL enables us to deploy current applications and emerging workloads across all virtualized hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments. It is one of the most stable OS that are available.
We use RHEL to run multiple versions of the same applications and databases on a specific operating system. We have several deployments of database and a few of them are running on a bit older versions of Red Hat and some of them are running on newer versions. We are running different versions on different platforms. The management aspect is also very good, especially when we need updates on the different packages from the RH support network, management is easy.
We also use the tracing and monitoring tools to monitor OS as well as applications running on RHEL platform. The OpenShift is also a big plus through which you can manage and deploy enterprise-ready containerized workloads.
What needs improvement?
Being an advocate of open source technologies I always wished that Red Hat subscription/ support should be offered free of cost. Having said that, I understand the economics involved in running large enterprise like Red Hat; support cost is one area that can be improved. They should offer it at reduced prices.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using RHEL since the start of my technical career, which was around the mid of 2003. So it's been almost 18+ years. I started using RH when it was version 7.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability has always been a plus for RHEL.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is excellent. With the introduction of hybrid and multi-cloud support, one can scale up as well as scale out his workloads pretty easily. We usually scale up our traditional workloads when we need more resources i.e., during peak seasons.
Four people in my team are responsible for deployment and support of Linux based workloads.
We have around 300 virtual machines (VMs) and roughly 20% of them are running on Linux environment.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever I open a case, I believe the support team will be able to solve my problem. They are very good at it. The documentation RHEL provides is also very good. Almost all the time, I get a solution to my problem. :)
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are using other flavors of Linux OSes, that include Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) and CentOS, both of which are binary compatible with RHEL. We are also using a couple of other Linux flavors like Ubuntu and OpenSUSE.
How was the initial setup?
RHEL provides features that help speed our deployment. Installing on a physical server takes more time than installing it onto a virtual machine (VM).
Because of absence of local support in our part of the region, we did find some difficulties in the initial deployments with hardware vendors/ partners when we started in 2003. The local partners didn't have much knowledge of Linux environments at that time, and the support for hardware was also a bit tricky. The deployment took a couple of days until we got support from the hardware manufacturer.
Nowadays, it's very good. I managed to get good support from the hardware vendors after that incident.
We have our own deployment plans for the operating systems that include some baseline configurations and security checklists.
What about the implementation team?
We usually deploy in-house as we have a trained team. Occasionally, little help is sought from the vendor teams, some of them have skilled professionals.
What was our ROI?
RHEL offers an efficient, cost-effective and reliable OS environment for enterprise-level environments. Similarly cost of running operations and the scalability factors make RHEL a good choice for providing a better ROI. The feature set it offers, support for a variety of applications, ease of deployment, and an excellent level of support all result in a good ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe for an enterprise-level operating system and the feature set RHEL offers, it's like any other enterprise platform cost. The introduction of OpenShift is also a big plus in terms of deployment and management of container based workloads. Red Hat as mentioned earlier can improve a bit on support/ subscription costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We had been using a couple of Red Hat variants for some scientific experiments that included Scientific Linux CERN (SLC) and Scientific Linux (SL), which were a confidence booster for choosing and deploying RHEL for production workloads.
What other advice do I have?
Since I started with version RH 7, I believe the GUI is quite close to any other GUI operating system. There have always been a variety of tools and features that attract a non-Linux user. As already mentioned, RHEL has been a pioneer in open-source technologies; it continued to evolve with changing market needs, that has been a big success for them.
I would definitely advise choosing RHEL if you need stability, scalability, and reliability of the OS platform. I would be a big advocate for the use of Red Hat to any new person who wants to deploy his production workloads, on-prem or on cloud on a Linux environment.
I would rate it a nine out of ten. It's near perfect.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Useful Red Hat Satellite deployments, integrates well, and very stable
Pros and Cons
- "We find the Red Hat Satellite deployments very useful. It integrates well with other solutions."
- "It could be a bit more user-friendly. It could also be cheaper."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for application services.
What is most valuable?
We find the Red Hat Satellite deployments very useful. It integrates well with other solutions.
What needs improvement?
It could be a bit more user-friendly. It could also be cheaper.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. It is more stable than Windows Server.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. The number of users would be in thousands. They include IT teams and end-users who obviously don't even know that they're using it.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't call them directly, but their technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward. Our deployments are automated. To deploy a build internally, it only takes half an hour, but that's usually in automation. It would probably take a couple of months to put the infrastructure in place to be able to deploy it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a site license on a yearly basis. Generally, we're okay with its price, but everything could be cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. I would advise others to do their research before deploying it and make sure that they are up to speed with the OS and what it can do. It is fairly easy to use as long as you know what you're doing.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: January 2026
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