Difference between useradd and adduser in Linux System

May 14, 2025

1. Purpose

In this post, I will explain the key difference between the useradd and adduser commands in Linux Operating Systems.

2. Environment

Ubuntu System

3. What is the difference between the `useradd` and `adduser` in Linux?

3.1 What is `useradd`?

The Linux useradd command is used to create user accounts. With useradd, you can establish new user accounts. After creating an account, you can set its password using the passwd command. Additionally, the userdel command can be used to delete user accounts.

Just as the following diagram shows:

You can see that the useradd command is atomic, you must manually call the passwd command to set user’s password after the account creation.

The syntax of the useradd command is:

useradd [options] username

The most frequently used options of useradd are:

-c, --comment: Add a comment/description for the user.
-d, --home: Specify the user’s home directory.
-g, --gid: Specify the user’s initial group.
-G, --groups: Specify the user’s supplementary groups.
-m, --create-home: Create the user’s home directory during user creation.
-s, --shell: Specify the user’s login shell.
-u, --uid: Specify the user’s user ID.

for example, if you want to create a user named john, you can just type:

useradd john

however, you should know that the above command does NOT create home directory and password for john, you must type:

passwd john

to set his password manually.

After the account creation, you can see /etc/passwd to check its status:

root@launch-advisor-20141217:~# cat /etc/passwd|grep john
john:x:1000:1000::/home/john:/bin/sh

you can see that john’s shell is not /bin/bash, which is more sophisticated,

3.2 What is `adduser`?

The adduser command is typically a Perl script that serves as a higher-level wrapper, providing a more user-friendly interactive frontend for useradd. It may exhibit some differences across various Linux distributions, particularly between the Debian/Ubuntu and Red Hat/CentOS families. On Debian/Ubuntu systems, adduser offers more extensive functionality and stronger interactivity. In some Red Hat-based distributions, adduser might simply be a symbolic link to useradd.

Here is a diagram shows adduser is more interactive and more advanced command than useradd:

Here is an example of using adduser:

Adding user `john' ...
Adding new group `john' (1000) ...
Adding new user `john' (1000) with group `john' ...
Creating home directory `/home/john' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for john
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
  Full Name []: john
  Room Number []: 11
  Work Phone []: 1
  Home Phone []: 1
  Other []: 1
Is the information correct? [Y/n] Y
root@launch-advisor-20141217:~#

You can see that when executing adduser username, the script will sequentially complete a full process including password setting, user information collection, home directory construction, and environment configuration, significantly reducing the complexity of manual operations. The interactive process includes prompts such as password confirmation and full name input, enabling junior administrators to complete account configuration quickly.

To summarize: The adduser will successively prompt for the following inputs:

1. Password and password confirmation
1. User’s full name
1. Information such as contact details (optional)

And User group handling: adduser will create a user group with the same name by default.

3.3 The difference

Feature	useradd	adduser
Type	Low-level binary tool	High-level script (usually a Perl script)
Interactivity	Non-interactive (requires options)	Usually interactive (provides prompts)
Home Directory	Not created by default (requires -m option)	Created by default
Password Setup	Not set by default (requires passwd)	Usually prompted during creation
Default Config	Depends on /etc/default/useradd file	Depends on /etc/adduser.conf file (on Debian/Ubuntu etc.)
Portability	Good (common across distributions)	May vary depending on distribution
Use Case	Script automation, precise control over user attributes	Manual user creation, new administrators, quick standard user creation

4. Summary

In this post, I explained the differences between the useradd and adduser commands in Linux. While both commands are used to create user accounts, adduser offers more advanced interactivity and automation compared to useradd. Understanding these differences can help you choose the right tool for managing user accounts on your Linux system.

Final Words + More Resources

My intention with this article was to help others who might be considering solving such a problem. So I hope that’s been the case here. If you still have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me by email: Email me

Here are also the most important links from this article along with some further resources that will help you in this scope:

👨‍💻 Linux useradd command official manual
👨‍💻 Linux adduser command official manual

Oh, and if you found these resources useful, don’t forget to support me by starring the repo on GitHub!