CloudLinux Inc backs AlmaLinux, which has produced an awkward marketing situation and a clear technical one. AlmaLinux is the free, binary-compatible CentOS replacement — and for a single-tenant box, that's the end of the conversation. CloudLinux is a paid OS for shared hosting that adds tenant isolation, MySQL throttling, and per-account PHP control on top of an equivalent RHEL-compatible base.
This article is for the decision: is your workload one where AlmaLinux is genuinely enough, or one where CloudLinux's per-server fee saves more in support tickets than it costs?
Feature comparison
| Capability | AlmaLinux | CloudLinux |
|---|---|---|
| RHEL binary compatibility | Yes | Yes |
| Live kernel patching | KernelCare (paid add-on) | Included (KernelCare integrated) |
| LVE / cgroup limits per user | No (manual cgroups only) | Yes — CPU, memory, IO, processes |
| CageFS tenant filesystem isolation | No | Yes |
| MySQL Governor (per-user query throttling) | No | Yes |
| PHP Selector (alt-php, per-account version pick) | No | Yes |
| Hardened PHP (back-ported security patches for EOL versions) | No | Yes |
| AccelerateWP (per-account object cache, smart advice) | No | Yes |
| Imunify360 / ImunifyAV | Paid add-on, works on both | Paid add-on, deeper integration |
| Reseller support / SLA | Community | Vendor support + reseller SLAs |
| Licence cost per server (typical, 2026) | Free | $14-45/mo depending on tier |
| Package compatibility (EPEL, RPMFusion, etc.) | Identical to RHEL | Identical to RHEL |
The packaging story is the same. CloudLinux 9 and AlmaLinux 9 install the same httpd, mariadb, nginx RPMs from the same upstream. The differences are kernel-level and userland tooling — not the application stack.
What CloudLinux actually does that AlmaLinux doesn't
LVE is the headline feature. The CloudLinux kernel enforces per-user CPU, memory, IO, and process limits at the cgroup level, with a userland (lvectl, lveinfo, cloudlinux-top) that integrates with WHM. A runaway WordPress install hits its LVE ceiling and 508s instead of taking down the box. On AlmaLinux you can configure cgroups manually, but no panel knows how to read or report them and no per-account UI exists.
CageFS mounts each user inside a minimal chroot. They see their own home, a stripped /etc, and a curated set of binaries. They can't see other users' processes, read other users' configs, or escape to view /etc/shadow. On a shared server with 200 customers, this single feature eliminates an entire category of support ticket and security incident.
MySQL Governor sits between MariaDB/MySQL and the user's queries. It tracks per-user CPU and IO consumed by SQL and throttles or kills queries that exceed limits. Without it, one customer's SELECT * on a 50 GB table takes the database down for everyone. See MySQL Governor modes for the trade-offs between LIMIT, RESTRICT, and abusers-only.
PHP Selector and Hardened PHP. Each customer picks their PHP version (5.6 through 8.4) and extensions from cPanel without sysadmin involvement. CloudLinux back-ports security patches to PHP versions long after the PHP project drops them — so a customer still on PHP 7.4 in 2026 isn't running an unpatched interpreter.
AccelerateWP is the newest piece: per-account object cache (Redis/Memcached), CDN, image optimisation, with a "smart advice" engine that nudges customers to enable them. CloudLinux is monetising it as an add-on; AlmaLinux has nothing equivalent.
What AlmaLinux gives you that's "enough"
For these workloads, AlmaLinux is the right answer and CloudLinux is paying for features you won't use:
- Single-tenant VPS or dedicated server. No neighbours, no need for LVE or CageFS. KernelCare as a standalone add-on if you want live patching.
- Container-based hosting (one customer per container, hypervisor-isolated). The container boundary already provides isolation; LVE inside one container is wasted.
- Internal infrastructure — application servers, build runners, databases. Same logic; no untrusted tenants to isolate.
- Reseller hosting where the reseller controls the accounts and you've already capped them at a small number with manual cgroup limits.
The decision rule that holds up in practice: AlmaLinux for dedicated and single-tenant workloads; CloudLinux for any shared server with more than ~50 accounts where neighbour-noise tickets and runaway-query incidents are a measurable support cost.
Pricing maths
A mid-tier CloudLinux Solo or Admin licence runs $14-20/month per server through resellers. One support ticket about "my site is slow" that ends up being "your neighbour's plugin is eating the CPU" takes 30 minutes of L2 time. At even $40/hour fully loaded, two of those tickets pays for a month of CloudLinux. On a server with 200 accounts you'll get more than two a week.
For the LVE side specifically — what limits to set, when to raise them, when to write to the customer instead — see CloudLinux LVE tuning.
Migration paths
If you're on CentOS 7 (EOL) and choosing between the two, the conversion is one-way for both:
- CentOS 7 → AlmaLinux 8/9 uses
almalinux-deploy, straightforward, no licence required. - CentOS 7 → CloudLinux 7 → CloudLinux 8 uses
cldeploy, requires an active licence, preserves cPanel.
The migration from CentOS to CloudLinux directly preserves cPanel users, packages, and WHM configuration. The path is covered in migrate CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux on cPanel — the same script handles CloudLinux when invoked with the appropriate flag.
When the answer flips
If you start on AlmaLinux because the server is single-tenant and later add shared customers, switching to CloudLinux is a cldeploy away — no reinstall, no data loss. That makes "AlmaLinux until proven otherwise" a defensible default for small operators.
The reverse — CloudLinux to AlmaLinux — is also supported and useful when retiring a shared box into single-tenant duty. Cancel the licence, run the conversion script, and the LVE/CageFS layers cleanly remove.
Verdict
For most readers running shared hosting with more than 50 accounts, CloudLinux pays for itself in reduced support load alone — and the PHP Selector is the feature customers ask for by name. For everyone else, AlmaLinux is free and identical at the application layer.
If you've decided on CloudLinux, order a CloudLinux licence or contact sales for volume pricing across a fleet.
Next steps
- Plan your conversion with migrate CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux on cPanel.
- Set sensible defaults with CloudLinux LVE tuning.
- Buy at CloudLinux licence pricing or compare tiers on /pricing.