Add-on services
Will these distributions serve you well on a budget?
Unlike the other distributions featured in this Roundup, Debian and Centos don’t provide official commercial support services. Debian provides a country-specific list of consultants, which firms and organisations can hire to provide commercial support for their Debian deployments.
You can configure Clearos in the role of server or gateway. The support option you opt for depends on your own skillset; for instance, Tier II support would suffice for those who have technical know-how. Many of the apps in the Marketplace, too, come with their own support packages. Many of the apps in the Marketplace are only available to users who have opted for one of the subscription options.
Zentyal’s comprehensive customer support guide details the levels of support options and typical response time, based on the plan you opt for, and the security level assigned to the requested task – though you’ll need to contact them directly for pricing. You can think of its Community edition as the same as Centos, aimed at experienced users capable of ensuring maximum uptime on their own, without needing support.
A key area where it differs, however, is support. While Zentyal’s premium edition has a long support life, the community edition is only supported until the next iteration ships.
Nethserver subscription plans start at around £43/year and go up to £800/year. The cheapest option grants you access to the stable updates repository and nothing else, while the priciest option additionally provides professional support over phone, email or SSH, access to a monitoring portal to administer your Nethserver instances and the ability to raise 12 tickets per year.