What Is Red Hat Enterprise Linux? Versions & Licensing

This is a working reference on Red Hat Enterprise Linux — the same material our Red Hat server support team uses when assessing systems. It covers what RHEL is, the current versions and their lifecycle dates, how the subscription model and red hat support tiers work, the no-cost developer option, and how RHEL relates to CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux.

What is Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial Linux distribution built and maintained by Red Hat, an IBM subsidiary since 2019. It is the most widely certified enterprise Linux platform: hardware vendors (Dell, HPE, Lenovo), cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), and software vendors (SAP, Oracle, and thousands of others) test and certify their products against specific RHEL releases. The product pages are at redhat.com.

Technically, RHEL is assembled from open-source components — the Linux kernel, systemd, glibc, and thousands of packages — that Red Hat freezes, patches, and supports for a decade per major version. The distinguishing feature is not the software itself but the stability contract: within a major release, kernel and library ABIs stay compatible, security fixes are backported rather than delivered as version upgrades, and every erratum is documented. The distribution's history, from its 2002 launch onward, is covered in Wikipedia's RHEL entry.

RHEL uses the RPM package format with dnf as the package manager, SELinux enabled by default for mandatory access control, and firewalld for host firewalling. Major releases ship on a roughly three-year cadence, with minor releases (9.4, 9.5, 10.1, and so on) every six months.

Current versions and lifecycle dates

Each RHEL major version follows a ten-year lifecycle split into two production phases: five years of Full Support (new features, hardware enablement, all fixes) and five years of Maintenance Support (security and critical bug fixes only). Authoritative dates are on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle page.

After Maintenance Support ends, an Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) add-on is available as a paid extension — RHEL 7 ELS runs to 2028 with renewal options beyond that. Red Hat has also introduced Extended Life Cycle and Long-Life add-ons for eligible even-numbered minor releases that can push total coverage past 14 years. In practice: RHEL 8 is maintenance-only, RHEL 9 is the most common production target, and RHEL 10 is the current release for new deployments.

The subscription model

RHEL is licensed by subscription, not perpetual license. The software is open source; what you pay for is access to Red Hat's tested binaries, the update streams, certifications, and support. Subscriptions are sold per system — physical servers are typically priced per socket-pair, virtual machines per node — and renewed annually. Details and current pricing are on the Red Hat store.

The server subscriptions come in three support tiers:

A lapsed subscription does not stop installed systems from running, but they lose access to the update repositories and to support. Variants beyond the base server product include RHEL for SAP Solutions, RHEL for Edge, and RHEL Workstation, each with its own subscription terms.

Free option: the Developer Subscription

Since February 2021, the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals allows one person to run full RHEL — identical binaries to the paid product, including updates — on up to 16 systems, physical or virtual. Red Hat's terms permit development, testing, and small production use. It is self-support only, and it is tied to an individual Red Hat account, not an organization; the conditions are spelled out in the no-cost RHEL FAQ.

RHEL vs. CentOS Stream vs. Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux

For two decades, CentOS Linux was the free, binary-compatible rebuild of RHEL. That ended in stages: Red Hat shifted CentOS to CentOS Stream in December 2020, terminated CentOS Linux 8 on December 31, 2021, and CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life on June 30, 2024 — the same day as RHEL 7 maintenance support. CentOS Stream still exists, but it sits upstream of RHEL: it is a rolling preview of what the next RHEL minor release will contain, not a rebuild of a released version, and it has no ten-year lifecycle.

Two projects took over the downstream-rebuild role in 2021:

• Rocky Linux — founded by CentOS co-founder Gregory Kurtzer, governed by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation. Covered in our Rocky Linux overview.
• AlmaLinux — started by CloudLinux, governed by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation. Since Red Hat restricted public source access in June 2023, AlmaLinux targets ABI compatibility with RHEL rather than 1:1 binary reproduction. Covered in our AlmaLinux overview.

Both are free, track RHEL major versions with roughly ten-year community support windows, and run the same package base. Neither carries Red Hat certifications or support entitlements.

How updates work

Systems register with Red Hat Subscription Management (subscription-manager register), which attaches the entitlement and enables the content repositories on the Red Hat CDN. From there, patching is standard dnf: dnf check-update lists pending errata and dnf update applies them. Security errata carry CVE mappings, so dnf update --security can apply security fixes alone.

Larger estates typically add Red Hat Satellite, which mirrors the CDN locally, stages content views through dev/test/prod lifecycle environments, and reports patch compliance across every registered host. In-place major-version upgrades (8 to 9, 9 to 10) are handled by the leapp utility, which Red Hat supports for defined upgrade paths.

When RHEL makes sense vs. a rebuild

The decision usually reduces to a few checkable facts:

• Vendor support requirements. SAP, Oracle Database, and many commercial applications list specific certified operating systems in their support matrices. If the vendor certifies RHEL and not Rocky or Alma, running a rebuild can void application support regardless of technical compatibility.
• Compliance and certifications. RHEL carries Common Criteria and FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic modules; validation applies to the exact certified builds, not to rebuilds of the same source.
• Support entitlement. Only a paid subscription includes Red Hat engineering support and the ability to file cases. Rebuild users rely on community channels or third-party support contracts.
• Cost at scale. For large fleets of internal workloads with no certification requirement, rebuilds remove the per-system subscription cost while keeping the same package base and tooling.

Mixed estates are common: RHEL on the systems where certification or support entitlement matters, Rocky or Alma elsewhere, all managed with the same tooling.

FAQ

Is Red Hat Enterprise Linux free?

Not in general — it is subscription-licensed. The exception is the Developer Subscription for Individuals: full RHEL at no cost on up to 16 systems, self-support only, tied to one person's Red Hat account.

How long is a RHEL version supported?

Ten years: five years of Full Support plus five of Maintenance Support. Paid ELS and Long-Life add-ons can extend eligible releases further — past 14 years in some cases.

What replaced CentOS?

CentOS Linux ended (CentOS 8 on December 31, 2021; CentOS 7 on June 30, 2024). CentOS Stream continues as RHEL's upstream development branch. Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux are the free downstream rebuilds that fill CentOS Linux's former role.

What is the difference between RHEL and Fedora?

Fedora is the fast-moving community distribution where new technology lands first. Changes flow from Fedora into CentOS Stream and then into RHEL. Fedora releases are supported for about 13 months; RHEL releases for ten years.