A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC comparison

A10 Networks and Barracuda Networks are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. A10 Networks is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0, while Barracuda Networks is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. A10 Networks holds a 5.0% mindshare in ADC, compared to Barracuda Networks’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of A10 Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Barracuda Networks users who would recommend it.

A10 Networks Thunder ADC

Read 22 A10 Networks Thunder ADC reviews

2,544 Views
1,827 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Read 5 Barracuda Load Balancer ADC reviews

540 Views
455 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

A10 Networks Thunder ADC

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

A10 Networks Thunder ADC and Barracuda Load Balancer ADC are competing products in the application delivery controller market. A10 Networks holds an advantage in robustness and scalability, while Barracuda is favored for its feature-rich interface.

Features: A10 Networks Thunder ADC is valued for its high performance, flexible device management, efficient SSL offloading, and global server load balancing. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC shines with comprehensive security features, traffic monitoring, and DDoS protection.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Deployment of Barracuda Load Balancer ADC is straightforward, with responsive support. A10 Networks Thunder ADC may require more specialized setup, potentially leading to a steeper learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: A10 Networks Thunder ADC typically involves a higher initial setup cost but is justified over time for larger enterprises. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC offers competitive pricing with a clear ROI, appealing to small to medium-sized businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

January 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

A10 Networks Thunder ADC

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of A10 Networks Thunder ADC is 5.0%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Load Balancer ADC is 1.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

SatishBabu

Vice President at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Known for its load balancing capabilities, the WAF features need to be improved

The solution's initial setup process was easy. For the installation, it takes around five minutes. One person can do the maintenance since it is not required much. So, it's a one-time solution, and its maintenance is fine. The number of people required for maintenance depends on the clients as well. One or two engineers are fine to serve around a hundred clients. If you have a number of devices, more people are needed for their maintenance because of the patching it requires during regular operations. Only for the maintenance, one engineer's fine. However, for regular operations, we need multiple people.

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Roni Wijaya

Vice President of It Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

A simple and powerful solution with WAF feature

The solution is simple and powerful. I find the Barracuda Load Balancer ADC's load balancing function most valuable. It balances the traffic well. The security features, like the Web Application Firewall, are also very helpful. I use the SSL offloading feature too. It's very helpful because it prevents overload. Our application runs on HTTP, but we upload HTTPS on the load balancer. This means there are no performance issues. I think it's very helpful.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It is very useful to have a simple dashboard where you can login and look into what your traffic patterns are, then look and see what times of day you're experiencing the heaviest traffic. You can quickly identify if you are possibly having a security issue or security breach. It makes it very easy to use the box."

"The Deterministic CGNAT feature is valuable for us."

"Being a public entity and having a public website which is highly visible with a lot of traffic, we are a target for DDoS. Within the last year, we have had a couple of DDoS attacks which could have affected our web traffic and taken down certain parts of our website. This did not happen because the A10 was able to mitigate the attacks using rate limiting that can be configured for DDoS mitigation on the box."

"A10 explained why the latency dropped significantly on a site that we have."

"Feature-wise, A10 Networks Thunder ADC is better for troubleshooting...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"For the past two and a half years, we have not had a need to open a tech support ticket. It is really stable. In the past, our experience with tech support was that they were extremely helpful."

"We do have the option of creating virtual chassis, so that gives it a bit more security. If we find an application which is not going to play well in the main pool, we can easily create a virtual chassis and have that application in that virtual chassis. With the virtual chassis we can also create system partitions and have a test system for test applications, and have the others elsewhere."

"We can control access based on the specific application. If other devices are attempting to directly access the servers, you can block them. Additionally, you can balance the load among servers to optimize performance. For example, utilizing caching can make the application run faster."

More A10 Networks Thunder ADC pros

"Barracuda's technical support is good - whenever we have an issue, they immediately connect and resolve it."

"I would rate the stability of Barracuda Load Balancer as a ten out of ten; it has high stability."

"The most useful features in Barracuda Load Balancer are its security capabilities, load balancing efficiency, and scalability."

"The solution is simple and powerful. I find the Barracuda Load Balancer ADC's load balancing function most valuable. It balances the traffic well. The security features, like the Web Application Firewall, are also very helpful."

"The price is very good, and it's not very expensive."

Cons

"The setup depends on certain situations. In certain scenarios, it may be more complex than others. For example, while the initial configuration may be easy, the environment itself may be complex and that may limit the ease of deployment. It is easy for those who understand their environment."

"In my opinion, they need to improve their cloud support. There is support for cloud, but not all functions are there, such as high-availability."

"They need to make the user interface (GUI) a bit more usable and intuitive. Some features can be a little difficult to find at times. Sometimes, the workflow in the GUI doesn't match the workflow of an actual workflow. E.g., if I want to create a load balancer application, sometimes you've got to do things a bit out of order in the GUI in order to make it work right."

"The solution does logging, but the logging capacity is really small. Because we have a bunch of traffic here, we usually get a logging-side warning that "This many logs were lost because of the heavy traffic." If the logging was better, that would be very good."

"There is two-factor authentication built-in, but it could be more robust."

"The solution should add automation features in the next release."

"The interface and integrated custom applications can be a bit difficult."

"The user interface is what people complain about most of the time, particularly if they don't use it very often. Then they complain that it's a bit clunky."

More A10 Networks Thunder ADC cons

"The Barracuda Load Balancer ADC could be improved with more customization features. For example, F5 uses iRules for custom configurations. I haven't found something similar in Barracuda yet. The load balancer and WAF's basic and common features are enough, but we need more customization options."

"There are areas of Barracuda Load Balancer's security that have room for improvement, particularly concerning handling traffic."

"The quality of the solution's performance could be improved."

"Load Balancer ADC is competitively priced, but it's not feature-rich, and its technology is not that advanced."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is a third of the price of the F5 competition."

"It is $7000 per unit for the support annually."

"The pricing is fine, considering the features they are providing. If you are an individual user, they'll price the product differently compared to how they price the product that is sold to an organization."

"We previously had F5 and switched because of costs."

"For the hardware and license, we paid $35,000 per box, which was a one-time cost. Then, for the Gold Support on the two boxes, we pay $9400 annually."

"We did try out the solution’s Harmony analytics and visibility controller for its one-year trial. Due to the cost, we chose not to keep it onsite."

"Pricing is one of the features of the product that influence customers to use the product."

"There were budgetary constraints that keep us from investing in the single pane of glass traffic management feature. We saw a demo of this feature about a year to a year and a half ago."

More A10 Networks Thunder ADC pricing and cost advice

"Load Balancer ADC is cost-effective and is about half the price of F5."

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Retailer

11%

Educational Organization

10%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

I would recommend A10 Networks due that it delivers high performance in a small form factor to reduce OPEX with significantly lower power usage, rack space, and cooling requirements compared to oth...

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Do you recommend A10 Networks Thunder ADC?

I do recommend A10 Networks Thunder ADC. It's very user-friendly, easy to configure, and flexible. It is a very useful solution - especially now, when a lot of employees are working remotely. I hav...

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What do you like most about A10 Networks Thunder ADC?

A10 Networks Thunder ADC is an easy-to-use and flexible solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC?

Pricing for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC can be a consideration. However, it offers good value with its cost-saving benefits and efficient operation, balancing the initial financial outlay.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda Load Balancer ADC?

There are areas of Barracuda Load Balancer's security that have room for improvement, particularly concerning handling traffic. Also, more could be done to enhance the initial setup, as it can be c...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC?

The typical use case for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC involves managing and distributing network traffic efficiently to maintain system performance. Clients use Barracuda Load Balancer ADC for its a...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 25% of the time

NetScaler vs A10 Networks Thunder ADC

Compared 16% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs A10 Networks Thunder ADC

Compared 15% of the time

Radware Alteon vs A10 Networks Thunder ADC

Compared 10% of the time

More A10 Networks Thunder ADC Competitors

NetScaler vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 28% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 27% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 14% of the time

HAProxy vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 10% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 9% of the time

More Barracuda Load Balancer ADC Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

A10 Networks Thunder ADC

February 2025

Download A10 Networks Thunder ADC product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

January 2025

Download Barracuda Load Balancer ADC product report

Also Known As

Thunder ADC, AX Series

Barracuda Load Balancer

Overview

A10 Networks Thunder ADC is a dynamic application delivery controller and advanced load balancer. Thunder ADC is a value-added solution provided by A10 Networks specializing in robust, trusted, scalable application services for cloud, hybrid, edge cloud, and on-premise environments focused on improving business processes and keeping infrastructures safe. The solution consistently provides server availability, improves content delivery, and protects at-risk applications. A10 Networks Thunder ADC easily controls hybrid and multi-cloud deployments using a Polynimbus strategy to minimize difficulties and costs for IT processes, facilitating overall improved business results.

A10 Networks Thunder ADC is effective for small to medium businesses (SMBs) to large enterprises. Service providers and cloud operators are all using A10 Network ADC to manage their large and fast-growing group of business-critical applications.

A10 Networks Thunder ADC supplies L4-7 load balancing with numerous layers of security using DNS and web app firewalls, comprehensive support for advanced encryption, single sign-on (SSO) authentication, and high-performance Perfect Forward Secrecy and Error Correction Code (PFS/ECC). Thunder ADC is designed upon A10 Networks Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS®) platform to provide consistent, efficient application performance and trusted security for any environment.

A10 Networks Thunder ADC Benefits

Consistently accessible: A10 Networks Thunder ADC employs numerous load balancing protocols to evenly distribute workloads to all servers and works to ensure constant application functionality. User requests are monitored to ensure loads are directed to the appropriate server so that there is always a proper response delivery to content. This process ensures the applications are consistently available.
Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB): To ensure business processes are fully optimized at all times, A10 Networks Thunder ADC employs a dynamic Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) process to augment server load balancing capabilities throughout global data centers for high availability and improved user experience and application tolerance.
Fast content delivery: A10 Networks Thunder ADC conquers the general WAN latencies, chatty policies, and redundant software programs to ensure quick and responsive service. Employees receive a fast, excellent end-user experience while the organization's business leaders get exceeded SLA mandates and increased productivity with teams working remotely and a step up on the competition.

A10 Networks Thunder ADC Features

Detailed Analytics: When deployed with A10 Networks Harmony Controller, Thunder ADC delivers a large selection of detailed aggregate and per-request reports in real time. The reports include popular URLs, error and health indicators, latencies, and end-to-end response times. The data is further dissected to deliver per-app reporting, availability alerts, and performance.
API Coverage: Thunder ADC utilizes A10 Networks REST-based aXAPIs to structure all features with 100 percent API coverage. The resulting interface is then used to seamlessly integrate custom or third-party management solutions, such as VMware or other SDN platforms, OpenStack, Microsoft SCVMM, or other cloud orchestration systems. There are also software plug-ins available for private clouds utilizing VMware’s vRealize Orchestrator.
Comprehensive Management Controls: Thunder ADC is fully supported by A10 Networks Harmony Controller and can be deployed in software or as a software-as-a-service (SaaS). This controller functions as a native management platform that organizes and distributes application-centric service protocols and configuration data to numerous Thunder appliances and device cluster infrastructures throughout numerous multi-cloud environments. Users can instantly identify, audit and track every appliance using critical operational metrics, such as CPU, disk usage, device partitions, and end users. The A10 Networks Harmony Controller will also complete configuration backups and restore operations, and will schedule regular software upgrades.

A10 Networks

Barracuda Load Balancer is ideal for organizations looking for a high-performance, yet cost-effective application delivery and security solution. With the broadest range of hardware and virtual models, Barracuda Load Balancer provides maximum flexibility for organizations looking to build highly secure and scalable application infrastructure, whether it's deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

Barracuda Networks

Sample Customers

123inkt.nl, Bentley University, Box, Brainshark, Buienradar, Capgemini, CGN/LSN & NAT64, Chengdu Telecom, Club One, Code Ready, CRC Health Group, Cyso, Deutsche Telekom, Earth Class Mail, Excite, FFF Enterprises, Florence County, Framingham State University, From30

Fenwal Blood Technologies

Buyer's Guide

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

January 2025

Free Report: A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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