Oracle Linux vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Oracle Linux
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Oracle Linux, which is application binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is free to download, use, and share. There is no license cost, no need for a contract, and no usage audits. 24/7 enterprise-grade support is available for business critical environments. A single support offering includes virtualization, management, HA, and cloud native computing tools such as Kubernetes and Kata Containers, along with the Linux operating system. The vendor states that as the only Linux…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
Oracle LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Oracle LinuxRed 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
Oracle LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
TrustRadius Insights
Oracle LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Oracle Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are both distributions of the Linux open-source operating system. Oracle Linux is a free distribution used mainly by small to mid level outfits with existing Oracle databases, while RHEL is favored by enterprise-level businesses that prioritize stability and uptime. 

Features

Though Oracle Linux and RHEL have similar uses, there are standout features of each. 

Oracle Linux comes pre-configured for Oracle database systems, so businesses who already use Oracle products will be happy with how well Oracle Linux integrates with their existing system. Users cite support as Oracle Linux’s biggest strength, as support is readily available and can help even with complicated issues. For those using multiple Oracle products, different support departments from each product can work together to solve difficult problems quickly. Security and bug fixes are another strength of the distribution, and installation is relatively simple. Oracle Linux is also compatible with many types of hardware.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a lighting-fast Linux distribution used mostly at the enterprise level. Users report replacing their entire Windows systems with RHEL and cutting their tech support requirements considerably, due to RHEL’s near-complete stability and unprecedented uptime. For those running servers that absolutely must stay up and running at all costs, RHEL is second to none. Security is top-notch as well, and security patches are released regularly. 

Limitations

Each of these products has its own set of limitations that may be considered when choosing between them.

Though Oracle Linux is stable and well supported, users report that the graphical interface for desktop users is lacking and could be improved. While it works well in an Oracle database environment, it can be difficult to configure and use alongside competing brands of software. Bug fixes and feature upgrades can take a long time to arrive, and Oracle Linux for cloud environments needs work 

In prioritizing its rock-hard stability, RHEL has acquired a reputation for sacrificing innovation. New features and upgrades that would keep it competitive with other Linux distributions are not a priority for RHEL, and it shows. It’s designed mostly for high-level systems, so it’s not very user friendly for the layperson or newbie. The cost of RHEL can add up over the years, especially at the higher pricing tiers with more robust support. And if you want to switch between RHEL products or pricing tiers, upgrade/downgrade policies can be overly complex. 

Pricing

Oracle Linux is free to download, use and share. Support can be purchased at various tiers: $1200 per year for basic support, and $2300 for premier support. Contact Oracle for lifetime support pricing. 

RHEL offers yearly pricing for the different versions of its operating systems. Prices range from $99 per year for a barebones, no-support dev environment to $10,000 per year for a fully-featured version with four-hour support response times. 

Best Alternatives
Oracle LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Small Businesses
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.3 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Oracle LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Oracle LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Likelihood to Recommend
As a result of the migration from Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Oracle Linux, overall application performance was improved significantly. Oracle Enterprise Linux is pretty much based on the Red Hat Linux code, although it receives faster and more regular updates from Oracle. They have better security configurations. However, it is also missing a lot of packages that are usually available in other distributions.
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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
  • Oracle Linux is a clone of Red Hat Linux, a well-known version of Linux and is very stable. This helps in maintaining fairly error-free systems.
  • The operating system kernel can be updated without having to reboot the system, a potential time saver.
  • Oracle Linux comes in fairly easy to implement packages that work well with Oracle databases.
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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
  • TigerVNC needs some fine tuning in Oracle Linux 8.4.
  • AutoTuning of Kernal Parameters for Oracle Databases based on the available hardware resources.
  • Embedded IPA Solutions to manage large number of Oracle Linux Systems.
  • Simple commands for LUN management.
  • Proactive SELinux policy violation message to administrator's mailbox.
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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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
Product support and regular patches.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
As with any OS enhanced testing will need to be done prior to application integration.
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Support Rating
Quick & [on-point] response is what I would say for the support team. There hasn’t been trouble ever since we get in touch with them and ask for help for any major or minor trouble we have been facing. Moreover, the team is very accurate with their solutions and detailed orientated. With such [a] high-performance application and agile environment, a team as such is great at hand.
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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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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Don't be afraid of it, its easy to install and configure for the tasks needed.
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Alternatives Considered
Oracle Linux became the obvious choice amongst its competitors due to its speed, agility, flexibility, and support from Oracle engineers. The ease of use was one of the major reasons for choosing Oracle Linux over the above-operating systems. Also, the cost of operations, management, and retention were significantly quite low. This made Oracle Linux a very easy and quick choice for our organisation.
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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.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
Operational ease of use backed by support
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Return on Investment
  • Zero-downtime automated patching for kernel, hypervisor, and critical user-space libraries.
  • Optimized–out of the box–for Oracle software.
  • A single support offering includes Linux, virtualization, management, HA, and cloud-native computing tools.
  • Available on-premise, in the cloud, and as Autonomous Linux.
  • The system has a graphical and command-line interface, which makes it very complete and superior to other similar products.
  • Security
  • Compatible with multiple types of hardware. If we need to upgrade our hardware, the idea of not having to change OSs or platforms is a huge benefit.
  • Managing Memory usage.
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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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