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To prevent a service from starting at boot, the command to use is `systemctl disable [service_name]`. This command modifies the service's symbolic links in the system's `multi-user.target.wants` directory to ensure that it does not start automatically when the system boots up. It effectively tells the system manager (systemd) to ignore this service during the startup process.

The `systemctl` command is part of the systemd system manager, which is the initialization system used by RHEL and many other modern Linux distributions. By disabling a service using this method, you can manage system resources more efficiently and reduce boot time, particularly if a service is not needed for your system's intended operation.

While other options involve manipulating services, they do not achieve the same outcome or are based on different service management systems. For example, stopping a service with `systemctl stop [service_name]` only halts the service temporarily; it does not prevent it from starting again the next time the system restarts. The `service [service_name] disable` command is an older method used in SysV init systems rather than with systemd, which is why it's not applicable in this situation. Finally, `chkconfig [service_name] off`