# CentOS Reviews **Vendor:** CentOS **Category:** [Operating Systems](https://www.g2.com/categories/operating-system) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 425 ## About CentOS CentOS is a community-driven, free software project that provides a robust and reliable Linux distribution, serving as a foundational platform for open-source communities, cloud providers, hosting services, and scientific data processing. Derived from Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream offers a continuously delivered distribution that tracks just ahead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), with major releases every three years and each maintained for five years. This structure allows CentOS Stream to function as a production operating system, a development environment, or a preview of upcoming RHEL releases. Key Features and Functionality: - Continuous Delivery: CentOS Stream provides a rolling-release model, delivering updates that precede RHEL's official releases, ensuring users have access to the latest features and improvements. - Community Collaboration: The project fosters a collaborative environment where Special Interest Groups (SIGs) develop and package software tailored to specific needs, such as cloud infrastructure, storage solutions, and virtualization technologies. - Enterprise Compatibility: By closely tracking RHEL, CentOS Stream ensures compatibility and stability, making it suitable for enterprise deployments and development environments. Primary Value and User Solutions: CentOS Stream addresses the need for a stable yet forward-looking Linux distribution that bridges the gap between development and production environments. It offers a reliable platform for developers to test and deploy applications that will be compatible with future RHEL releases, thereby reducing the time and effort required for migration and ensuring smoother transitions. Additionally, the active community and SIGs provide specialized solutions and support, enhancing the overall ecosystem and catering to diverse user requirements. ## CentOS Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **reliability** of CentOS, noting its stability and strong community support for production servers. (17 reviews) - Users appreciate the **stability** of CentOS, ensuring reliable performance and smooth operation for critical applications. (15 reviews) - Users enjoy the **ease of use** in CentOS, thanks to its simple setup and strong server performance. (9 reviews) - Users value the **RHEL compatibility** of CentOS, ensuring a reliable and stable server environment. (9 reviews) - Users value the **excellent community support** of CentOS, which enhances its stability and usability in server environments. (6 reviews) - Security (6 reviews) - Long-Term Support (5 reviews) - Users appreciate the **compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux** , enhancing stability and performance in production environments. (4 reviews) - Easy Setup (4 reviews) - Implementation Ease (4 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users are concerned about the **outdated technology** of CentOS, limiting software updates and overall support for new installations. (7 reviews) - Users note a **lack of features** in CentOS, particularly the slow adoption of modern software and updates. (5 reviews) - Users are concerned about the **lack of support** , especially with slow updates and deprecated status affecting usability. (5 reviews) - Users find the **slow updates** problematic, as newer software versions lag, affecting stability and functionality for production use. (5 reviews) - Users express concerns about the **limited availability** of CentOS, noting its discontinued support and outdated updates. (4 reviews) - System Instability (4 reviews) - Users find the **update frequency lacking** , as they desire more patches and announcements after CentOS 9's release. (3 reviews) - Apple Limitations (2 reviews) - Users experience **compatibility issues** with CentOS, struggling with software support and outdated packages affecting modern applications. (2 reviews) - Users find a **steep learning curve** when transitioning from Windows or Ubuntu to CentOS, requiring basic training. (2 reviews) ## CentOS Reviews ### 1. Stable Red Hat-Compatible, Ideal for Teaching **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Terry B. | CU Distingushed Professor Emeritus at U. Colorado at Colorado Springs, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I like the consistency with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and appreciate Linux as a stable operating system. RPM is a decent package manager which helps in teaching system administration tasks where students learn to add and manage packages. CentOS provides a good way for students to gain experience with Red Hat, helping them when they go into the industry. The initial setup of CentOS was easy for me due to experience with Red Hat, and we haven't encountered any issues with students installing CentOS from USB. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** The only problem I've noticed is that we sometimes have issues with NVIDIA drivers. They don't update properly with respect to the GPUs, forcing students to have to reboot the machine, which we try to teach them not to do. On Linux boxes, especially enterprise production servers, you try not to reboot at all. I'm not sure if it's really just CentOS or Red Hat in general. This would be one thing that could be improved, to have a better way of diagnosing why particular packages fail and why drivers, low level drivers, are not consistent. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use CentOS as it maintains consistency with Red Hat, serving as a stable OS for teaching and gaining enterprise experience. Its RPM package manager is useful for system administration tasks, letting students manage packages effectively. ### 2. Stable, Secure, and Free—A Great RHEL Alternative for Long-Term Servers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Abdallah M. | Solutions Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS is very stable, secure, and reliable, making it ideal for servers and long-term use. It is easy to set up and integrates well with tools like Apache, MySQL, and Docker. Another major advantage is that it provides enterprise-level performance similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux without any cost, which makes it very valuable for both learning and production environments. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** CentOS has a slower update cycle, so software packages can become outdated compared to other distributions. This can be limiting when you need the latest features or newer technologies. Additionally, the shift to CentOS Stream makes it less predictable for production environments, and official support is more limited compared to paid enterprise solutions. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS solves the problem of having a stable, secure, and free operating system for servers. Benefit: I can run websites, apps, or databases reliably without paying for expensive enterprise software, and it stays secure with updates. ### 3. Great RHEL Preview, but No Longer a Reliable RHEL Clone for Production **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joseph M. | Network Administrator & IT Security Officer, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 16, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS has become a test platform for RHEL. Since it exists upstream from RHEL it is a sneak preview of what is coming later from Red Hat. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** I dislike that CentOS moved upstream from RHEL. It was a good free alternative to RHEL when it was a clone of RHEL, but since moving upstream it is no longer appropriate for production use. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows you to see what changes are coming to RHEL before they go live. It is more bleeding edge than RHEL, but not as bleeding edge as Fedora. So it falls between those two projects. ### 4. Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** enrico d. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 ### 5. Enterprise Reliability at Open-Source Cost **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Warling S. **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I appreciate CentOS's ability to eliminate exorbitant proprietary enterprise OS licensing costs without sacrificing RHEL-grade reliability. This cuts our enterprise OS licensing costs by over 80% while maintaining stability, security, and patch management for our mission-critical workloads. I love the rock-solid, predictable enterprise stability that CentOS offers, especially since it results in zero unplanned downtime for production workloads. CentOS being built from RHEL’s stable source code and following a long-term support model with minimal breaking changes is a big strength for us. Additionally, I enjoy the robust, natively integrated security tooling that aligns with global enterprise compliance. The initial setup of CentOS is straightforward and accessible, making it convenient to get started. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** I find the slow adoption of modern cloud-native and DevOps features in CentOS to be a downside. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use CentOS to eliminate expensive enterprise OS licensing costs without losing RHEL-grade reliability. It offers rock-solid stability for mission-critical workloads and robust security tools aligned with global compliance, supporting my hybrid cloud infrastructure effectively. ### 6. CentOS: Rock-Solid Stability and Enterprise-Grade Reliability **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ravin L. | Co-founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** What I like best about CentOS is its stability and reliability. It’s very close to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so you get enterprise-grade performance without the licensing cost. Once it’s set up, it runs for long periods with minimal issues, which makes it ideal for servers and production environments. It’s also well supported by the community, and most hosting providers and server tools work seamlessly with it. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** What I dislike about CentOS is that updates and newer software versions can be quite slow, which makes it less ideal if you need the latest features or packages. After the shift from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream, there’s also some uncertainty for users who prefer a strictly stable, long-term production OS. Additionally, troubleshooting can sometimes be challenging for beginners due to limited official documentation compared to some more user-friendly distributions. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS solves the problem of running a stable, enterprise-grade server environment without high licensing costs. It provides a reliable platform for hosting applications, databases, and services where uptime and consistency matter more than having the latest features. This benefits me by reducing system crashes and maintenance effort, offering predictable performance, and allowing me to run production workloads confidently while keeping infrastructure costs low. ### 7. Enterprise-Grade Stability with RHEL Compatibility and Strong Security **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nar Kaji G. | System Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** 1. Enterprise Grade Stability. 2. Binary Compatable with RHEL. 3. Security and Update. 4. Familiar Server Ecosystem like Redhat **What do you dislike about CentOS?** 1. Centos EOL and Centos Stream Instability Risk. 2. Limited formal Support. 3. GUI and Multimedia Limitations **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1. High License cost for Enterprise OS minimized to SMB and Mid Sized Organizaitons. 2. Meeting Security and Compliance Requirements. 3. Compatability with RHEL Ecosystem ### 8. A Stable Enterprise Linux Platform for Production Server Infrastructure **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nabin P. | CEO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I like CentOS for its long-term stability, strong security model, and close compatibility with enterprise Linux. It provides a predictable, low-maintenance environment that's ideal for production servers, critical services, and infrastructure that needs to run reliably for years. The initial setup is straightforward and reliable, with clean and stable installation. CentOS is valuable because it offers a stable, secure, and predictable server environment, reducing downtime and making long-term infrastructure management and scaling easier. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** CentOS can feel slow to adopt newer software versions, and the shift away from traditional CentOS releases reduced long-term stability for some use cases. Hardware and package support can also lag compared to more rapidly updated Linux distributions. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS solves stability and reliability issues in production, ensuring a secure and predictable server environment. It helps run long-term services with minimal downtime, consistent performance, and strong compatibility with enterprise software. ### 9. User-Friendly Yet Robust for Hosting **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Muralidhar K. | IT Manager, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I like CentOS because it's very easy to use and configure. It's user-friendly, which is great. Most of the applications are configured on CentOS, making it a reliable choice for application hosting. The initial setup was easy for us since we were familiar with the OS. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** CentOS could be improved by offering more stronger native user administration features, and simpler network configuration for enterprise environments. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS makes it easy to use and configure applications, helping with application hosting. ### 10. Stable and Secure, but Discontinued **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rodrigo Z. **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Stability is undoubtedly the most striking feature of CentOS. In a production environment, several factors are important, but the main ones are stability and security. CentOS is an operating system that brings both, allowing us to focus on our business without needing a large team to take care of stability. The initial installation and configuration process was very smooth and simple, with excellent documentation and community support as well. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** The biggest problem with CentOS is that it was discontinued in 2024, replaced by CentOS Stream, which caused a disruption in the stability and philosophy of the original project. I would also like critical package updates to be maintained for a few more years. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS offers essential stability and security in production environments, allowing focus on business without needing a large maintenance team. ### 11. Rock-Solid Stability and Security for Enterprise Servers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Georgi D. | Managing Partner, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 22, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Stability and reliability are key strengths here. This platform offers a consistent, enterprise-grade environment that is ideal for servers. Its extended support cycles, robust security features, and compatibility with RHEL make it a strong option for production systems. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** As a hosting provider, my main concern with CentOS is the uncertainty that arose after the transition to CentOS Stream. Moving away from a stable, fixed-release model to a rolling-release system has made it more difficult to plan for the long term and maintain predictable server management. For production environments that demand consistent stability, this change has forced us to spend extra time evaluating other options and rethinking our infrastructure strategy. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a hosting provider, We find that the primary challenges with CentOS stem from its end-of-life versions, the transition to CentOS Stream, and the increased maintenance required to ensure systems remain secure and compatible with current software. While CentOS continues to offer stability, managing it in a production environment now demands more effort than before. ### 12. Lightweight and Works Very Well with Integrations **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saruul N. | Information Security Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 17, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Lightweight and straightforward, with very minimal system requirements. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Nothing much to add— it works very well and integrates smoothly with everything. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Some Linux operating systems can feel complex and hard to develop on, but CentOS is the opposite—it’s straightforward and developer-friendly. ### 13. Lightweight, Efficient Hosting and Backend Performance **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** jatin r. | Cloud backup engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** lightweight and efficient for hosting and backend systems **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Compared to earlier versions, the roadmap is more aligned with upstream development **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS provides an enterprise-grade platform similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux without subscription fees. ### 14. Free OS That Stays Compatible With Most Apps and Servers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gonzalo A. | Manager of infraestructure IT, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Free operating system, compatible with most current applications and servers. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It has a somewhat unintuitive interface; everything is configured via the CLI console. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** If you don't have the budget to invest in Windows licenses, CentOS allows you to install most apps officially without licenses. ### 15. Stable OS for server applications that just worked before **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Oleksandr G. | CTO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 13, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It was a free alternative to RHEL that was supported within 10 years **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It is now a rolling release distributive and it does not have stable ABI **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Stable OS for server applications that just works ### 16. Good UI and Lightweight Performance, but Some Gaps **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It has a good UI, it's easy to use, and it's lightweight so it has good performance. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It was discontinued, so its former version is no longer supported. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed a lightweight OS that’s free and easy to set up, and this fit what I was looking for. ### 17. Stable and Reliable But Now Deprecated **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Febin K. | Product Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 29, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I used to use CentOS to host my servers and found it to be a very stable distribution with very few hiccups. I appreciate its stability and reliability, which I think are absolutely mandatory for a server. Another aspect I liked is that it's basically RHEL, which I know is battle-tested. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** I don't like how CentOS is deprecated. The operating system was discontinued a few years back, and there is no support now, so it ideally shouldn't be used. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used CentOS to host my servers because it's a very stable and reliable distribution, which is crucial for servers. ### 18. A solid choice for Linux Operating system **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Praveen K. | Lead Software Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 01, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS is stable and reliable. It inherits RHEL's stability which is ideal for enterprise solutions where uptime and consistency is critical. It is an open source OS which is a cost effective option for business. It is easy to use and implement. It has a very good customer support options. It is easy to integrate and run to any systems with ease. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It has limited commercial support unlike RHEL. It doesn't offer latest features as it prioritizes stability over cutting edge features. Finding latest libraries may be a challenge. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS provides a free, community supported alternative to RHEL using the same source code. Organizations can use it for free without worrying about the licensing costs. It's a stable environment which is perfect for production servers. It is binary compatible with RHEL. It receives regular security patch and updates which form a secure system. ### 19. Ubuntu-Like Simplicity That’s Perfect for Running Servers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Abhinav K. | Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 23, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It’s easy to use because it feels a lot like Ubuntu itself, and I find it more helpful for running servers. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** There aren’t really any cons to mention; it’s perfect for server use. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps me manage our web server more easily. ### 20. CentOS: Reliable Stability with Long-Term Support **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Photography | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS is very reliable and long term support. Using for base image for Docker containers **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Delays in packaging compared to other releases **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps developing using docker containers which is now pretty big ### 21. Stable and dependable for server use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Prashant P. | Google Workspace Administrator , Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 18, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I like that CentOS is stable and reliable for long-term use. It doesn’t break after updates, and it runs smoothly even on older hardware. It’s easy to manage once you get used to it and works well for servers. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** The only downside is that updates and newer packages arrive slower compared to other distros. Sometimes I need to add extra repos to get recent software, which can be a bit inconvenient. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** it helps me run stable and secure server environments without licensing costs. It’s reliable for hosting apps, running backend services, and managing long-term workloads without unexpected issues. ### 22. Robust, Reliable OS for Production Servers with Great Package Management **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sanooj M. | Co-Founder, CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Robust and reliable OS for production servers with good package managers for diverse set of software requirements. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Currently the distribution is not getting updated as earlier. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** While running production servers of high availablility and heavy throughput nature, centos ensures to provide a robut OS that can act as a strong basement for the prodcut. Also its package manager is great for any kind of software requirements. ### 23. "CentOS: The Unsung Hero of Stable Enterprise Linux" **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bhavesh P. | Senior Engineer (CloudOps/DevOps), Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 24, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS provides enterprise-level stability and performance without licensing fees. Its compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux makes it perfect for production environments. I like how predictable and secure it is—once set up, it just works, with minimal maintenance. It’s my go-to OS for servers due to its reliability and strong community support. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** The main downside of CentOS is the sudden shift in its support model with the move to CentOS Stream, which created uncertainty for long-term users. It disrupted the trust many had in its stability for production use. Additionally, software packages are often older compared to other distributions, which can be limiting for newer tech stacks. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS helps us maintain stable and secure server environments without the cost of commercial licensing. It solves the problem of needing a reliable OS for running production workloads—web servers, databases, CI/CD pipelines—while keeping resource usage low. Its predictable update cycles and strong community support reduce downtime and simplify long-term system maintenance, ultimately saving us time and operational costs. ### 24. Solid for Servers, but with Limited Support **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** JAVIER P. | Professor Associate, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I like the solidity of CentOS and the collaborative community. I also appreciate that its initial setup is easy thanks to its GNOME base. Additionally, I use a very popular Linux stack, including LAMP, Apache, and MySQL, which I value a lot. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** The main support stopped working and only the user community provides support, but it recommends switching to a different operating system. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use CentOS for server configuration and the management of computational resources such as RAM, CPU, and storage. ### 25. Excellent Package Management and Integration Support **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Prashant J. | Software Development Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** The package manager and dependency handler work well, and there is also support for various build tools. I am able to use it frequently to integrate multiple components. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Shipping packages is challenging, and at times, certain logs in the daemons unexpectedly stop working without any warning. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** This is an ultra low latency software development and trading suite. It is designed for those who require extremely fast performance in both software creation and trading activities. ### 26. CentOS is in EOL, New Installations at your own Risk **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS was Linux distro with focus on server environment **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Centos was in EOL since 2024 so it's not a good idea proceed with new installation **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Stable, light and easy to implent linux distro ### 27. Open Source, Highly Stable OS with Great Community Support **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tej D. | Secretary, Telecommunications, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Open source and highly stable product. Resources and packages are properly managed. Fast and great community support for this OS. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Packages are being OLD and outdated. Upgrading to a newer version is very difficult. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** the os is fast and stable os. great and strong security and high performance. ### 28. CentOS: easy to use, clear, and simple to maintain **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 02, 2026 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS is an easy-to-use and very clear operating system. Additionally, it is easy to maintain. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** To be honest, I haven't found anything specific that I don't like. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is a business-type platform, free and open-source. It helps solve licensing costs and provides stability. ### 29. Very stable. Free OS but powerfull. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leo S. | Technical Lead, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 06, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It's powerful. Very stable. It's easy to deploy. Very low maintenance required. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It's similar to Red Hat but different from Ubuntu which we used before. So there is a bit of learning needed. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is replacing our Windows Server OS. We migrated a lot of production server VMs to CentOS. We don't need to worry about the issues that Windows Server had anymore. It's much smaller, more secure, more stable, less efforts need for patching, and less resources is needed for running. ### 30. Unmatched Stability Makes CentOS a Top Choice **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zafar U. | VP Information Security, Broadcast Media, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 11, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS has always stood out for its rock-solid stability **What do you dislike about CentOS?** When Red Hat transitioned from CentOS 8 to CentOS Stream, it encouraged teams to rethink their platform strategy and explore newer, more future-focused options. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Removes the burden of licensing costs in enterprise setups ### 31. Great for Testing New Features, But Not Ideal for Enterprise Use **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luca B. | CTO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Similarity to Red Hat Enterprise. Rolling release. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Rolling release allows me to test new features and updates, but does not allow me to properly use the OS as an Enterprise OS **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Enterprise OS in controlled laboratory environment. ### 32. Great for Stability in Production Environments **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Utkarsh D. | Sr. SDR, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 16, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It focuses on stability, not bleeding-edge features, which makes it perfect for production environments. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Not ideal for production servers where you need guaranteed stability. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS inherits SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) from RHEL, offering mandatory access controls for processes and users. Regular security patches and updates make it resistant to vulnerabilities. Stable repositories ensure verified and safe packages — reducing malware or dependency risks. ### 33. Highly Customizable and Perfect for Linux Beginners **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It is highly customizable, and it is one of the best distros to begin with in the Linux world. And also the community. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Maybe the UI could be a bit more modern it still as that old school vibe, although i like it **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It was the first distro I installed as a Linux user, and it was really straightforward, not complicated at all, a good one to start with ### 34. Centos Hero for critical app hosting!! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yusuf D. | IT Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Its very stable and awesome community support with good support for integration.Security updates available and vast repository. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Support ended for Old Centos and compatibility issue to migrate to Centos 10 **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy to deploy and maintain also a reliable stable OS.As open source saving license fee.Work on old hardware and don’t hog up CPU and RAM ### 35. Stable and Reliable for Long-Running Servers **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Varun P. | Deputy General Manager - IT, Real Estate, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 10, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Stable, secure and reliable for long running servers **What do you dislike about CentOS?** slow updates and support ending made planning harder **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** it helps run apps reliablywith fewer crashes and simple maintenance ### 36. indispensable **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kevin A. | Ingeniero de aseguramiento de la calidad, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** What I like most about CentOS is that it combines the stability and robustness of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the advantage of being free and open source. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** very outdated packages: by following the RHEL cycle, many software versions fall quite behind the latest features, which is not ideal for environments that need the most recent. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** This benefits those who offer migrations and support, as many companies are looking for alternatives like Rocky or AlmaLinux. ### 37. Minimal and simple **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chamod Malshan M. | Engineer - System and Security, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I can customize almost anything when I use Cent OS and can utilize in most use cases related to implement services **What do you dislike about CentOS?** High customizability lead to misconfigurations sometimes **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Cent OS as a Zimbra mail server ### 38. best os **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akash S. | consultant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2025 **What do you like best about CentOS?** it spackage manager yum have wide features, good support in terms of implementation. it is most frequnetly used in servers. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** in terms of support comparison to ubuntu is less in the market. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** creating secure server, easy installation of packages on it. ### 39. Perfect for starting out in Linux! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akshit P. | Learner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I'd wager that the open source nature of the CentOS Enterprise distribution is arguably the best feature there is to it, encompassing all it has to offer. However, to name a few, I have seen CentOS as the OS of choice for new Interns in the industry due to the os being an enterprise version. Another great feature is the small size of the CentOS minimal which allows me to spin up a new VM easily whenever I want. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Despite all the great features that CentOS has to offer, there is a particular hurdle which one needs to overcome to finally accept CentOS. This is that everytime we create a new installation, we need to manually setup and configure all the DHCP settings, without which, the OS cannot update. I have seen a lot of people frustrate over this and I have had my fair share of this problem. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** For me, CentOS solves the problem of getting my hands on Enterprise systems for learning purposes. With this in my hands, I can learn and hone my skills for the right kind of environment which I'll be working in as an employee. So for me, it provides a great headstart into learning Linux! ### 40. CentOS Linux machine review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andeep k. | software developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** As a linux administrator CentOS, is the first linux distribution that I have used and I must say that it is easy to use as compared to other linux distribution. It is more stable and reliable taking the fact that it is community supported distribution. It is having vast repository which help me install many packages. It is easy to install . **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Centos is less user-friendly as compared to other distribution. Some useful packages are not present in Centos repo. Also faced some compatability issue with certain software. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Since this is an open source distribution, it is freely available for downloading and installation. For me if I have to test any new feature or to test the integration with other software i can download and install it freely in virtual box test the features and remove this. ### 41. My Experience with CentOS as Operating system **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Samshitha V. | Quality Engineering Enabler, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 09, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** Best part about centos is its stable nature, whihc avoid crashes and don't block the system. As it is linux based red hat os , the computing becomes fast and easy. We also have constant security updates, making it more secure. This is opted as computing os to run our kubernetes applications **What do you dislike about CentOS?** As said this is only used for computing at smaller application levels as its functionality is smaller compared to other linux systems. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Centos is used in our devops area to run applications related to kubernetes ### 42. CentOS Experience **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sachidanand P. | Cloud Administrator, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 29, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It is an Open Source OS. I can use based on custimizes scprit with the help BASH shell. It is easing to integerate with other application. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** I am not getting any annoucemtnt new version after Cent OS 9 starem. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mostly using for budget purpose in a web server. Insted windows I need to pay some short of amount infra level and cloud plateform. ### 43. Centos: An honest review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Azhar M. | Support engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 16, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It is very stable and reliable OS with a very good community support. Dependancy management using yum is really good. Easy to do patching and installation of packages. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It will not support all the linux compatible applications compared to ubuntu. I personally had an issue with Reminna installation where the application didn't run in my Centos 7 version. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Freely available since it is open source OS. Works well on older hardwares as well as newer ones. Booting time is also really great. ### 44. CentOS is an excellent choice for mission-critical servers with high security. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sharin S. | Team Lead - Azure and Windows server, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS enables us to utilize software that has been tested and developed without any licensing fees. It simplifies dependency management through YUM. Easily integrate with other endpoint solutions like Sophos Intercept X. Good community support. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Packages may not be up to date compared with other distributions like Ubuntu. CentOS recent changes bring some uncertainty in the community. Regular security patches are not available as of now so we require another third-party software for security. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** In my organization, CentOS addresses the issues of licensing cost and security. ### 45. My Experience on Centos **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shiva B. | Data Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 27, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** One of best linux servers avialble in the market. Especially in organizations like us we need stable and consistent platform over period which is offered by Centos. It has user friendly Interface and can implement various integrations with ease. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Main dis advantage is that there are other OS in market with better updates , which needs to be taken care of, but performance wise Centos beats them. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Firstly it is free and can build scalable servers . My concern about security issues is gone with Centos in place. ### 46. Robust and widely used with free of charge **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vikasteja V. | Data Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 27, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** It offers built-in security features, including firewalls, encryption, and SELinux. CentOS versions are supported for up to ten years.It requires less initial configuration than other operating systems due to its out-of-the-box security features. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** It’s best suited for users who don’t require a powerful processor, as it may not fully utilize high-end capabilities.Update support extends up to five years, which is longer than the typical term for other Linux-based operating systems **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS strikes a balance between reliability, security, and cost-effectiveness, making it a solid choice for web hosting, development, and server environments. ### 47. Review CentOS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Neeraj G. | Data Engineer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 01, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** I like the interface provided by the CentOS and the YUM (or DNF) package manager is very helpful for software installation, removal, and management. These features in CentOS is very helpful for my workflow. The implementation of new featurs are very useful. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** There is nothing to dislike about CentOS but sometimes the customer support is not that much responsive. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It provides a stable and relevant enviornment to run the applications. Also the navigation through the commands are very useful for my work it saves a lot of time. ### 48. CentOS: The Ultimate Operating System **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dhaanish Sahal D. | Software Development Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 26, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS offers exceptional features in an operating system, such as seamless team account creation for shared login across multiple users and customizable snap GPT settingds. These features have significantly enhanced my workflow. The platforms user friendly interface and smooth implementation of features make it a standout choice for many users. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Slower pace of updates comapred to some other operating system. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS benefits me by providing a dependable platform for running applications, managing data and conducting various computing tasks efficiently and securely. ### 49. CentOS: Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dhaanish S. | Software Development Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 20, 2024 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS is reliable and easy to use. It has many useful features which are related to my work. Customer support is very responsive. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** Slower updates and some times feels lag while executing long commands. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CentOS solves the problem of expensive licesing fees associated with proprietary operating systems by providing a robust, open source alternative. This benefits me by reducing operating costs without sacrificing reliability and functionality. ### 50. CentOS free and log term support operating systems. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jimmy L. | Dev ops, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2023 **What do you like best about CentOS?** CentOS versions typically have a long support cycle, which is beneficial for enterprises and organizations that require a stable and consistent platform over an extended period. CentOS is free and open-source, which is advantageous for users and organizations that prefer to avoid the costs associated with proprietary operating systems. **What do you dislike about CentOS?** The most significant source of dissatisfaction was the decision to transform CentOS from a downstream rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to CentOS Stream, a rolling-release distribution closely tied to the RHEL development process. This change meant that CentOS would receive updates and features ahead of RHEL, making it more of a development preview rather than a stable, production-ready distribution. Some users preferred the traditional CentOS model, which provided a stable and predictable platform. **What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Like RHEL, CentOS emphasizes security, and the distribution provides regular security updates and patches. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of servers and systems. ## CentOS Discussions - [how can I install and use CentOS](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-can-i-install-and-use-centos) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How to install package?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-install-package) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Bolehkah ini digunakan untuk acara pembelajaran?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/can-this-be-used-for-learning-events) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Where did you go to learn how to use CentOS?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/51381-where-did-you-go-to-learn-how-to-use-centos) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How can I acheive client isolation ?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-can-i-acheive-client-isolation) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View CentOS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+09%3A52%3A03+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=845c3098-ac2a-4fe2-a985-bf44fe54e14d&secure%5Btoken%5D=ac8084f79597ef3a80bd69a1687b309b6db763d685b0a9c3eb669a1b98ca21b1&format=llm_user) ## CentOS Integrations - [ActiveDirectory Domain Controller for Windows 2016](https://www.g2.com/products/activedirectory-domain-controller-for-windows-2016/reviews) - [Apache Maven](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-maven/reviews) - [Chrome OS](https://www.g2.com/products/chrome-os/reviews) - [cPanel](https://www.g2.com/products/cpanel/reviews) - [Kubernetes](https://www.g2.com/products/kubernetes/reviews) - [Magento Open Source](https://www.g2.com/products/magento-open-source/reviews) - [Make](https://www.g2.com/products/integromat-by-celonis-make/reviews) - [MySQL](https://www.g2.com/products/mysql/reviews) - [ownCloud](https://www.g2.com/products/owncloud/reviews) - [Splunk Enterprise](https://www.g2.com/products/splunk-enterprise/reviews) - [WordPress.org](https://www.g2.com/products/wordpress-org/reviews) - [Zammad](https://www.g2.com/products/zammad/reviews) - [Zimbra Collaboration Enterprise Collaboration](https://www.g2.com/products/zimbra-collaboration-enterprise-collaboration/reviews) ## CentOS Features **Memory Management - Operating System** - RAM management **Agentic AI - AWS Marketplace** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration **Device Management - Operating System** - I/O management **Backup and Recovery - Operating System** - Data backup **Error Detection - Operating System** - System operations monitoring ## Top CentOS Alternatives - [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (2,315 reviews) - [Red Hat Enterprise Linux](https://www.g2.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (928 reviews) - [Windows 7](https://www.g2.com/products/windows-7/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (865 reviews)