Why there are two
CentOS Linux used to be a free rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. After its end of life, CentOS Stream became a rolling preview that sits just ahead of RHEL rather than a rebuild of it. AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux both launched to fill the gap: free, stable, enterprise-grade distributions that run software certified for RHEL.
Side by side
| AlmaLinux | Rocky Linux | |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | Non-profit foundation with elected board | Foundation led by the original CentOS founder's team |
| Compatibility goal | Application binary interface (ABI) compatible with RHEL | Bug-for-bug compatibility with RHEL |
| Source approach | Built from CentOS Stream and public sources | Rebuilt from publicly available RHEL-compatible sources |
| Support per major release | About 10 years | About 10 years |
| Migration tool | almalinux-deploy | migrate2rocky |
| Package manager | dnf | dnf |
What is really different
After Red Hat restricted public access to RHEL sources, the two projects took slightly different paths. AlmaLinux committed to ABI compatibility: software built for RHEL runs on AlmaLinux, though individual packages may differ in small ways, and AlmaLinux sometimes ships fixes before RHEL does. Rocky Linux continues to aim for one-to-one behaviour with RHEL, sourcing code through public channels.
For nearly every workload, including web stacks, databases, control panels and commercial agents certified for RHEL, both behave the same. The difference shows up mainly in edge cases where an application depends on an exact package build.
What is the same
dnf, SELinux enforcing by default,firewalldandsystemd- EPEL and most third-party RHEL repositories work on both
- Roughly ten-year support lifecycles per major version
- Same file layout and administration skills, so guides apply to either
Our firewalld guide and automatic updates guide work identically on both.
How to choose
- Pick Rocky Linux if you want the closest possible match to RHEL behaviour, for example to mirror a RHEL production estate in staging.
- Pick AlmaLinux if you value its foundation governance, its faster security patch releases or vendor support statements that name it.
- If a vendor certifies only one, follow the vendor.
Moving from CentOS 7 or 8
Both provide scripts that convert an existing CentOS installation in place. For a VPS, a clean reinstall is often simpler and safer: deploy a fresh AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux server, restore data from backup, and cut over DNS. On VeloxMedia, both images are available in one click on every plan, and older CentOS images remain available for legacy software that has not moved yet.