Operating Systems · pricing
openSUSE pricing
openSUSE publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the operating systems tools listed alongside it.
As of 31 August 2026, openSUSE pricing is free. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open source, no licence fee
- Tiers
- 1
- Free tier
- Yes
openSUSE plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE | Free | 4 | Entry tier |
Where openSUSE stops being free
openSUSE, Free
- Leap, Tumbleweed, Slowroll, Aeon and Kalpa at no cost
- No registration or subscription
- Community support via forums and mailing lists
- Paid support only through SUSE Linux Enterprise, sold separately
No paid tier on record
openSUSE lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full openSUSE feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Snapper snapshots
- openQA gating
- Leap and SLE shared base
- Zypper
- Open Build Service
- Immutable desktops
People bring openSUSE in for workstations that need current packages but cannot tolerate an unrecoverable update, standardising development machines on the same base as a suse linux enterprise production fleet, sites in europe with existing suse relationships that want a free tier with a paid upgrade path, packaging software for several distributions at once through the open build service. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to openSUSE are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Operating Systems
Too few operating systems tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | |
| Alpine Linux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs openSUSE |
| Rocky Linux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs openSUSE |
| AlmaLinux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs openSUSE |
| NixOS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs openSUSE |
| Qubes OS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs openSUSE |
| OpenWrt | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs openSUSE |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the openSUSE badges page.
Before you pay for openSUSE
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: a single tier at Free. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
openSUSE runs on x86-64, arm64, ppc64le, s390x, risc-v, raspberry pi, and is published by openSUSE Project, sponsored by SUSE of Nuremberg, Germany. The full record is on the openSUSE review, and the rest of the category is under best operating systems tools.
openSUSE pricing questions
- How much does openSUSE cost?
- openSUSE publishes a single tier, openSUSE, at Free.
- Does openSUSE have a free plan?
- Yes. The openSUSE tier costs nothing and covers leap, tumbleweed, slowroll, aeon and kalpa at no cost, no registration or subscription, community support via forums and mailing lists.
- Which operating systems tools can I use without paying?
- 7 of the 8 operating systems tools listed alongside openSUSE have a free tier: Alpine Linux, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, NixOS, Qubes OS.
- What am I actually paying for with openSUSE?
- The record lists 6 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for workstations that need current packages but cannot tolerate an unrecoverable update, standardising development machines on the same base as a suse linux enterprise production fleet, sites in europe with existing suse relationships that want a free tier with a paid upgrade path.
- Does openSUSE charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these openSUSE prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare openSUSE against before paying?
- The closest operating systems tools in this directory are Alpine Linux, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, NixOS. Each has a side-by-side comparison with openSUSE covering price, platforms and features.