OmniOS vs Photon OS
| OmniOS | Photon OS | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Paid from | $41.67/mo | — |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux, self-hosted | Linux |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Device types | Servers; virtual machines | Bare-metal systems, virtual machines, Raspberry Pi, cloud instances |
| CPU architectures | x86 | x86_64, ARM64/aarch64 |
| Support lifecycle | Stable releases are supported for one year; LTS releases are supported for three years. | Security updates as needed; non-security package updates described in legacy FAQ as quarterly; no fixed duration verified |
| Built-in management | IPS package manager; digitally signed package updates; stable and LTS release tracks | tdnf package manager; Photon Management Daemon; RPM OSTree; Network Configuration Manager |
| App compatibility | IPS package repositories; Linux zones; bhyve and KVM guest virtualization | Docker and other container formats; Kubernetes; RPM packages via tdnf; RPM OSTree |
| Deployment models | Physical servers; virtual machines; AWS EC2 cloud images | Bare metal; VMware hypervisors; ISO installation; OVA appliance; AWS AMI; Google GCE image; Azure VHD; Raspberry Pi image |
Both are listed in Best Operating Systems. On Specifiction, OmniOS scores higher on our published basis.