Red Hat OpenShift vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.N/A
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a Linux distribution mainly used in commercial data centers.N/A
Pricing
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Considered Both Products
Red Hat OpenShift
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Nothing like OpenShift. Actually, this was our first one. We toyed with maybe doing raw Kubernetes, but with an enterprise company you need an enterprise product.
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Comparing the 2, open source Kubernetes is quicker to setup by about 75%, less restrictive, and free of course, but it lacks the security and support of Red Hat, and deploying features is much harder compared to with operators. For buisiness purposes, OpenShift is just more …
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
It definitely has additional bells and vessels like SM, UI and monitoring/logging stack
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
To benefit from premium support.
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat Quay
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
had troubles with the stability of the whole cluster system. Red Hat OpenShift worked from the beginning
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
It's a fairly different experience compared to the other environments due to the additional security
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Even though Red Hat OpenShift has more overhead than many other Kubernetes flavors, we have selected Red Hat OpenShift because of it's focus on Security and because of it's excellent vendor support.
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
It was microsoft hypervisor and vmware.
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS)
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
scalability and ease of managing deployments
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
At agency there is no other competitor that can accomplish what we've been able to put together with a partnership with Red Hat.
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift has a better security posture than EKS. I enjoy the console on Red Hat OpenShift more as well. I believe there is greater observability for Red Hat OpenShift.
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
The Tanzu Platform seemed overly complicated, and the frequent changes to the portfolio as well as the messaging made us uneasy. We also decided it would not be wise to tie our application platform to a specific infrastructure provider, as Tanzu cannot be deployed on anything …
Chose Red Hat OpenShift
Ease of use and stability in one vendor support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
RHEL provides more support and has a bigger community, RHEL is a more mature product and has Fedora and Centos as upstream products to help make it more stable.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Satellite
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Rocky Linux. CentOS, Arch about every distribution of Linux. Stability and reliability are king and the support. If something happens or you just hit a bug, that's why you go to Red Hat.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
It's superior. I mean they're all Linux so it's all that code, but I find that the intangibles that you get with Red Hat, meaning the enterprise support, the lifecycle, that's what clearly makes it better than the rest of them.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Ubuntu ssa. Most other Linux platforms I've used. It's better in some areas. It's not as good in the sum.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Windows 11 has more stability and great functionality compared to older windows versions, and the gap between windows and Linux has shortened. You can pick from different OS’s to build enterprise level software on nowadays. But Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is still among the …
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat OpenShift
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Direct competitor on an os level. RHEL just has a better feel and usability. I feel more comfortable with it. Both work. But RHEL is my preference
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
due to support options, long term experience and as certified os for sap
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
AlmaLinux OS and Oracle Linux
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Suse is too complicated once they trapped you into using the UI for configuration.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Satellite
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Far better vendor experience and support compared to Oracle. Better security and update cadence compared to CentOS. Better docs with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and the ability to bring data together though Red Hat Insights is a powerful tool. This helps feed into other …
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
RHEL because of more wide adoption, stability, general knowledge on the platform and less nonsensical approach to various platform functionalities
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
I much prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) over Windows. There is way more customization and flexibility, and being able to use Linux as the OS over Windows gives additional flexibility for various use cases. I prefer the intuitive use cases of Mac, but the lack of …
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
RHEL helps us provide better service to our customers and to help them to make the best decisions for their business in order to achieve better customer satisfaction in the future and in the long run to achieve better outcomes for the company in the future.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
There isn't a big difference but they do not have the same level of support. Linux overall has come a long way
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
RHEL Enterprise support is better than Ubuntu.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Debian OS, Ubuntu and openSUSE YaST
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
We haven't used anything comparable to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). We are a WIndows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL )shop. We only support those two
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Features
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Platform-as-a-Service
Comparison of Platform-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
Red Hat OpenShift
8.2
Ratings
3% above category average
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
-
Ratings
Ease of building user interfaces8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Scalability9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform management overhead7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow engine capability7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform access control8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Services-enabled integration8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Development environment creation8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Development environment replication8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Issue monitoring and notification7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Issue recovery7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Upgrades and platform fixes8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Small Businesses
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda
Score 8.7 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM Cloud Private
IBM Cloud Private
Score 9.6 out of 10
IBM AIX
IBM AIX
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Cloud Private
IBM Cloud Private
Score 9.6 out of 10
IBM AIX
IBM AIX
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
5.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.3
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Red Hat OpenShiftRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Likelihood to Recommend
Red Hat OpenShift, despite its complexity and overhead, remains the most complete and enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform available. It excels in research projects like ours, where we need robust CI/CD, GPU scheduling, and tight integration with tools like Jupyter, OpenDataHub, and Quiskit. Its security, scalability, and operator ecosystem make it ideal for experimental and production-grade AI workloads. However, for simpler general hosting tasks—such as serving static websites or lightweight backend services—we find traditional VMs, Docker, or LXD more practical and resource-efficient. Red Hat OpenShift shines in complex, container-native workflows, but can be overkill for basic infrastructure needs.
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is well suited for cloud environments, fast deployments and to run non-intensive apps/tools (with low memory and low cpu consumption).Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) might not be suited for really huge databases and intensive CPU processing.
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Pros
  • One thing is the way how it works with the GitHubs model on an enterprise business, how the hub and spoke topology works. Hub cluster topology works the way how there is a governance model to enforce policies. The R back models, the Red Hat OpenShift virtualization that supports the cube board and developer workspace is one big feature within. So yes, these are all some features I would call out.
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  • Virtualization, like the operating system level task. I see this product is very good and it blends very well with the middleware components like all the JBoss and other things. And other than that, either you install it or a virtual machine or physical servers, it works seamlessly anywhere. And if you want to go further, like Red Hat OpenShift or those things also work very nice with it.
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Cons
  • So I don't know that this is a specific disadvantage for Red Hat OpenShift. It's a challenge for anything that Kubernetes face is. There's an extremely large learning curve associated with it and once you get to the point where you're comfortable with it, it's really not bad. But beating that learning curve is a challenge. I've done a couple presentations on our implementation of Red Hat OpenShift at various conferences and one of the slides I always have in there is a tweet from years ago that said, "I tried to teach somebody Kubernetes once. Now neither of us knows what it is."
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  • Well, one of the things, this ties right back to my previous answer from what it sounds like, the cloud platform for Insights doesn't currently have an easy way to generate CVE compliance reports, or do scans for where you have remediations required, but it does not currently produce those reports in a way that I could just hand off to our security team and be like, here's our compliance, here's where all the things are specifically because Red Hat does backporting of patches and a lot of security tools don't know how to handle that and think that we're vulnerable when we're not. So from everything I've heard, it's possible. That's why I'm excited for it. But it's not easily pushed button generated report yet. So we're working with them to get that in there.
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Likelihood to Renew
This is the current strategy for the company, most of the products in the organisation are aligning to Openshift and various use cases it support. Also lot of applications are being developed for AI use case, openshift.AI provides opportunity to host and leverage the AI capabilities for these applications
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We find RHEL to be a superior OS with stable operations and long life. It is also easier to use and fix then most other OS's.
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Usability
The virtualization part takes some getting used to it you are coming from a more traditional hypervisor. Customization options are not intuitive to these users. The process should be more clear. Perhaps a guide to Openshift Virtualization for users of RHV, VMware, etc. would ease this transition into the new platform
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The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distro is the simplest enterprise version of Red Hat that is enterprise supported and when you deploy as many VMs as we do, it is vital to have that enterprise support. On top of the enterprise support, having access to a commercially supported backbone for updates and upgrades is a huge plus.
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Reliability and Availability
Redhat openshift is generally reliable and available platform, it ensures high availability for most the situations. in fact the product where we put openshift in a box, we ensure that the availability is also happening at node and network level and also at storage level, so some of the factors that are outside of Openshift realm are also working in HA manner.
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Product support and regular patches.
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Performance
Overall, this platform is beneficial. The only downsides we have encountered have been with pods that occasionally hang. This results in resources being dedicated to dead or zombie pods. Over time, these wasted resources occasionally cause us issues, and we have had difficulty monitoring these pods. However, this issue does not overshadow the benefits we get from Openshift.
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As with any OS enhanced testing will need to be done prior to application integration.
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Support Rating
Every time we need to get support all the Red Hat team move forward looking to solve the problem. Sometimes this was not easy and requires the scalation to product team, and we always get a response. Most of the minor issues were solved with the information from access.redhat.com
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Red Hat support has really come a long way in the last 10 years, The general support is great, and the specialized product support teams are extremely knowledgeable about their specific products. Response time is good and you never need to escalate.
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In-Person Training
I was not involved in the in person training, so i
can not answer this question, but the team in my org worked directly
with Openshift and able to get the in person training done easily, i did not
hear problem or complain in this space, so i hope things happen
seamlessly without any issue.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
We went thru the training material on RH webesite, i think its very descriptive and the handson lab sesssions are very useful. It would be good to create more short duration videos covering one single aspect of openshift, this wll keep the interest and also it breaks down the complexity to reasonable chunks.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
The learning curve is quite high but worth it.
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Don't be afraid of it, its easy to install and configure for the tasks needed.
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Alternatives Considered
We utilized the Thycotic Secret Service to manage all our application secrets, resulting in seamless integration with our applications. We developed all the applications using Red Hat Fuse (currently migrated to Quarkus). We used the built-in Kali Linux support of OpenShift to manage and configure the services and API. Additionally, the Red Hat Developer Studio facilitates faster development.
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It's superior. I mean they're all Linux so it's all that code, but I find that the intangibles that you get with Red Hat, meaning the enterprise support, the lifecycle, that's what clearly makes it better than the rest of them.
Read full review
Scalability
This is a great platform to deployment container applications designed for multiple use cases. Its reasonably scalable platform, that can host multiple instances of applications, which can seamlessly handle the node and pod failure, if they are configured properly. There should be some scalability best practices guide would be very useful
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Operational ease of use backed by support
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Return on Investment
  • It has allowed us to see where we need to be in the container world. I'm going to call it a net neutral impact, not negative or positive. It has given us a sense of what we are ready for and what we're not ready for. You know where you stand.
  • You don't know what you don't know, so it helps us know what we want to know.
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  • RHEL provides a good base OS and additional tool sets for various deployments.
  • We are able to use Satellite to manage hundreds of OS's behind our corporate firewall. No other OS provides the level that RHEL does.
  • It is a known good quantity. Their support for the OS is amazing.
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ScreenShots