Best Operating Systems in 2026
Updated
45 operating systems ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
45ranked
0free plans on this page
$50/molowest paid tier
7 Oct 2026last checked
0 of the 20 here have a free tier you can use, 0 have open-source code on record, and 0 have full bars: free, open, on most of your devices and documented.
| # | App | Signal | Free tier | Open code | Devices | From | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | OmniOSLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 27 | OpenIndianaLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 28 | Photon OSLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 29 | postmarketOSLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 30 | Raspberry Pi ImagerLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 31 | SolusLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 32 | Ubuntu TouchAndroid | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 33 | Void LinuxLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 34 | XubuntuLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 35 | Zorin OSLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.2 |
| 36 | Apache NuttXNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 37 | FreeRTOSNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 38 | HPE Morpheus VM Essentials SoftwareWeb · Linux · Self-hosted | One bar | — | — | 2 of 6 | $50/mo | 5.1 |
| 39 | KaiOSLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 40 | NetBSDNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 41 | Oracle SolarisNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 42 | TizenNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 5.1 |
| 43 | OpenWrtLinux | No signal | — | — | 1 of 6 | — | 5.0 |
| 44 | QNX Neutrino RTOSNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 4.7 |
| 45 | Sailfish OSNo platforms listed | No signal | — | — | 0 of 6 | — | 4.7 |
Compare all 20 in a table
| # | App | Score | Free plan | From | Free plan | Paid from | Device types | CPU architectures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | OmniOS | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Servers; virtual machines | x86 |
| 27 | OpenIndiana | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | x86 PCs; workstations; servers | 64-bit x86; SPARC is not currently available for Hipster |
| 28 | Photon OS | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Bare-metal systems, virtual machines, Raspberry Pi, cloud instances | x86_64, ARM64/aarch64 |
| 29 | postmarketOS | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | phones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks, single-board computers, x86_64 EFI systems | aarch64, armv7, x86_64, riscv64 |
| 30 | Raspberry Pi Imager | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Raspberry Pi computers; PC and Mac (Raspberry Pi Desktop) | 32-bit and 64-bit |
| 31 | Solus | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Personal computers (desktop and laptop hardware) | x86-64 (64-bit) |
| 32 | Ubuntu Touch | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Phones, tablets, desktop PCs, Raspberry Pi, Pinebook | — |
| 33 | Void Linux | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | PCs and laptops; ARM devices including Raspberry Pi, Pinebook Pro, Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, and Apple Silicon; containers | x86_64, i686, aarch64, armv7l, armv6l |
| 34 | Xubuntu | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | desktop computers | x86_64 (Intel or AMD 64-bit) |
| 35 | Zorin OS | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Desktop and laptop computers; Intel-based Mac computers; supported Chromebook models | 64-bit x86 Intel or AMD CPUs |
| 36 | Apache NuttX | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | Development boards and embedded devices; simulator targets are also documented | ARM, ARM64, AVR, AVR32, 8051, CEVA, ESP32 Xtensa, Intel x86/x86_64, MIPS, m68k, RISC-V, SPARC, SuperH, TriCore, Xtensa, Z80 |
| 37 | FreeRTOS | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | Microcontrollers and small microprocessors | 40+ processor architectures, including RISC-V and ARMv8-M |
| 38 | HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software | 5.1 | No | $50/mo | — | — | Servers; HP 9000 systems and HPE Integrity servers (version-dependent) | PA-RISC; Intel Itanium (Integrity); 11i v3 updates from 2021 onward are for Integrity servers only |
| 39 | KaiOS | 5.1 | No | — | — | — | Smart feature phones; non-touch mobile phones | — |
| 40 | NetBSD | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | Servers, desktop systems, embedded devices, handheld devices, legacy hardware, and emulators | amd64, arm, mips, powerpc, i386, sparc64, alpha, hppa, m68k, sh3, vax, and others |
| 41 | Oracle Solaris | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | Servers and enterprise systems | SPARC and x86 |
| 42 | Tizen | 5.1 | No | — | Yes | — | IoT, TV, mobile, wearable | ARMv7l, AArch64, x86_64 (reference build artifacts) |
| 43 | OpenWrt | 5.0 | No | — | — | — | — | — |
| 44 | QNX Neutrino RTOS | 4.7 | No | — | No | — | Embedded systems; supported applications include medical instruments, routers, telematics devices, process-control systems and air-traffic-control systems | MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, ARM, StrongARM, XScale, x86 |
| 45 | Sailfish OS | 4.7 | No | — | No | — | Smartphones; tablets; embedded devices | ARMv7 (armv7hl); ARM64 (aarch64); x86 (i486) SDK targets |
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