--- title: CentOS Reviews meta\_title: 'CentOS Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta\_description: Filter 425 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how CentOS works for a business like yours. aggregate\_rating: rating\_value: 4.4 review\_count: 425 scale: '5' date\_modified: '2026-08-09' parent\_category: name: IT Infrastructure url: https://www.g2.com/categories/it-infrastructure --- # CentOS Reviews & Product Details 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. * * * Seller [CentOS](https://www.g2.com/sellers/centos) Discussions [CentOS Community](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/discuss) Solution Type Best-of-Breed Overview by Benn Solomon Show More ## Value at a Glance Averages based on real user reviews. ### Time to Implement 2 months ### Return on Investment 12 months [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/pricing) ## Top-Rated Alternatives [ ![Ubuntu](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Ubuntu") Ubuntu 4.5/5(2,399) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews) [ ![Red Hat Enterprise Linux](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Red Hat Enterprise Linux") Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6/5(977) ](https://www.g2.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/reviews) [ ![Windows 7](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Windows 7") Windows 7 4.2/5(903) ](https://www.g2.com/products/windows-7/reviews) [ View All Alternatives ](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/competitors/alternatives) ## User Insights Average based on 425 real user reviews. Implementation Time 2 months Perceived Cost $$$$$ [Log in to unlock pricing and user insights](/login) ## CentOS Integrations (13) What do users say about integrations? Integration information sourced from real user reviews. [ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") ActiveDirectory Domain Controller for Windows 2016 ](https://www.g2.com/products/activedirectory-domain-controller-for-windows-2016/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Apache Maven ](https://www.g2.com/products/apache-maven/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Chrome OS ](https://www.g2.com/products/chrome-os/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") cPanel ](https://www.g2.com/products/cpanel/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Fortinet IPS Rules for AWS Network Firewall ](https://www.g2.com/products/fortinet-ips-rules-for-aws-network-firewall/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Kubernetes ](https://www.g2.com/products/kubernetes/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Magento Open Source ](https://www.g2.com/products/magento-open-source/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Make ](https://www.g2.com/products/integromat-by-celonis-make/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") MySQL ](https://www.g2.com/products/mysql/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") ownCloud ](https://www.g2.com/products/owncloud/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Splunk Enterprise ](https://www.g2.com/products/splunk-enterprise/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") WordPress.org ](https://www.g2.com/products/wordpress-org/reviews)[ ![Product Avatar Image](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Product Avatar Image") Zammad ](https://www.g2.com/products/zammad/reviews) Show More ![Luca B.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Luca B.") LB Luca B. CTO Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 12/9/2025 "Great for Testing New Features, But Not Ideal for Enterprise Use" 3/5 What do you like best about CentOS? Similarity to Red Hat Enterprise. Rolling release. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you? Enterprise OS in controlled laboratory environment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Our network of Icons are G2 members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions and commitment to helping others through their expertise.G2 IconValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite UD Utkarsh D. Sr. SDR Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 10/16/2025 "Great for Stability in Production Environments" 5/5 What do you like best about CentOS? It focuses on stability, not bleeding-edge features, which makes it perfect for production environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about CentOS? Not ideal for production servers where you need guaranteed stability. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Information Technology and Services](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Information Technology and Services") UI Verified User in Information Technology and Services Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 12/9/2025 "Highly Customizable and Perfect for Linux Beginners" 4.5/5 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Yusuf D.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Yusuf D.") YD Yusuf D. IT Lead Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 7/30/2025 "Centos Hero for critical app hosting!!" 4.5/5 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about CentOS? Support ended for Old Centos and compatibility issue to migrate to Centos 10 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: Organic VP Varun P. Deputy General Manager - IT Real Estate Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 12/10/2025 "Stable and Reliable for Long-Running Servers" 3.5/5 What do you like best about CentOS? Stable, secure and reliable for long running servers Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about CentOS? slow updates and support ending made planning harder Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you? it helps run apps reliablywith fewer crashes and simple maintenance Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Kevin A.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Kevin A.") KA Kevin A. Ingeniero de aseguramiento de la calidad Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 8/11/2025 "indispensable" 4/5 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerSource: OrganicAI Translated CM Chamod Malshan M. Engineer - System and Security Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 3/11/2025 "Minimal and simple" 4.5/5 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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about CentOS? High customizability lead to misconfigurations sometimes Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you? I use Cent OS as a Zimbra mail server Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic Review from User Profile ![Akash S.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Akash S.") AS Akash S. consultant Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 1/31/2025 "best os" 5/5 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about CentOS? in terms of support comparison to ubuntu is less in the market. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is CentOS solving and how is that benefiting you? creating secure server, easy installation of packages on it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Akshit P.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Akshit P.") AP Akshit P. Learner Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4/5/2024 "Perfect for starting out in Linux!" 4.5/5 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite AK Andeep k. software developer Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 4/19/2024 "CentOS Linux machine review" 3.5/5 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 . Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. 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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ## Questions about CentOS? Ask real users or explore answers from the community Get practical answers, real workflows, and honest pros and cons from the G2 community or share your insights. [ Ask about CentOS ](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/discussions/new) ![Aditya J.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Aditya J.") AJ Aditya Joshi • Last activity over 4 years ago how can I install and use CentOS 1 Upvote 1 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-can-i-install-and-use-centos) ![Ahmed S.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Ahmed S.") AS Ahmed Shehata • Last activity over 4 years ago How to install package? 1 Upvote 1 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-install-package) [ View all Discussions ](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/discuss) ## Pricing Insights Averages based on real user reviews. ### Time to Implement 2 months ### Return on Investment 12 months ### Average Discount 12% [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/pricing) CentOS Comparisons ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_3f5575e82b67a95d23834e8db8dabb67/oracle-linux.png "Product Avatar Image") Oracle Linux 4.4/5(349) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/centos-vs-oracle-linux) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_46bd9233d89c58c6dbdf99f99bd301dc/ubuntu.png "Product Avatar Image") Ubuntu 4.5/5(2,399) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/centos-vs-ubuntu) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_3146bdd0defa39278b58727400f0a807/linux-mint.jpg "Product Avatar Image") Linux Mint 4.5/5(190) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/centos-vs-linux-mint) ##### ##### CentOS Features Memory Management - Operating System RAM management Device Management - Operating System I/O management Backup and Recovery - Operating System Data backup Error Detection - Operating System System operations monitoring [ View More Features ](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/features) ##### Categories on G2 [AWS Marketplace](https://www.g2.com/categories/aws-marketplace)[Operating System](https://www.g2.com/categories/operating-system) ##### Explore More [Best ERP solution for growing software firm](https://www.g2.com/discussions/best-erp-solution-for-growing-software-firm)[Top tools for identifying and securing digital assets](https://www.g2.com/discussions/top-tools-for-identifying-and-securing-digital-assets)[Where to find the best VoIP service for ecommerce business](https://www.g2.com/discussions/where-to-find-the-best-voip-service-for-ecommerce-business) [Which Quote-to-Cash software enables accurate revenue recognition and ASC 606 compliance for a finance team that cannot afford to get deferred revenue reporting wrong?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-quote-to-cash-software-enables-accurate-revenue-recognition-and-asc-606-compliance-for-a-finance-team-that-cannot-afford-to-get-deferred-revenue-reporting-wrong)[Top-rated ASM tools for continuous security scanning](https://www.g2.com/discussions/top-rated-asm-tools-for-continuous-security-scanning)[Pros and Cons Details](https://www.g2.com/products/centos/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [Show MoreShow Less](javascript:void(0);)