Akamai Ion vs NetScaler comparison

Read 85 NetScaler reviews

8,363 Views
6,374 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Akamai Ion

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Akamai Ion and NetScaler based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about F5, NetScaler, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC).

To learn more, read our detailed Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Report (Updated: August 2024).

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Download the complete report

Helped 800,688 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Akamai Ion

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

15th

Average Rating

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetScaler

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Akamai Ion is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 16.1%, up from 12.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

Neha Shakyawar

Head of Information at a leisure / travel company with 51-200 employees

Feb 22, 2024

Helps optimize the content delivery network, but doesn’t provide much flexibility

The solution helps us optimize the content delivery network. It's one of the oldest companies. It improves the overall user experience. It has the biggest CDN We ensure that all our production domains are rooted in Akamai to improve the customer experience by shortening the lag time. We ensure…

Read full review

Mazhar Khan

Manager Spend and Alliances (RVP) at Faysal Bank Ltd

Jan 18, 2024

A effective solution for load balancing with gateway

We used Citrix NetScaler for load balancing in our application, where our users connect via the portal. This portal is load-balanced via a ServiceNet NetScaler. Additionally, our core banking application also runs on this infrastructure Citrix NetScaler has its capabilities and benefits. From a…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Akamai is easy to use and very effective."

"I found that the GUI was very easy to to navigate. If you were looking for something, it was fairly easy to find. There's a lot of third-party documentation and information available online as well."

"The maintenance of the solution is not complex."

"The flexibility in configuration options is impressive."

"The solution was very easy to deploy."

"Most of the functions are user-friendly and great."

"HTTP analysis and action. We have a lot of custom web applications that sometimes require custom header insertions. Some of these custom apps are external and, via the content switching, we can use one IP and leverage various back-end web app servers."

"For desktop application management, I recommend the NetScaler edition. This product is like a Swiss army knife. Citrix NetScaler ADC supports the education front-end."

"The solution is very stable. We don't have any downtime or issues of that nature."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"The product must provide more flexibility."

"It was challenging explaining to customers that it's no longer NetScaler but ADC, and now it's not just ADC but also the rebranding from NetScaler."

"The interface needs to be improved because the competition is coming up with ones that are more eye-catching, straightforward, and sophisticated."

"Currently, the support team's responsiveness is lacking, and the technical personnel on calls often seem unfamiliar with the issues or inadequately trained."

"The GUI should be improved."

"Technical support sometimes takes a little longer because of the multilevel ticket priority."

"The customization has always been a key area where some improvements are required. In the beginning, everything was for customizing the outer shell of it. You had to use the command-based utility and you had to do a lot of manual work. They have improved it a little bit and now there are some GUI-based functionalities that can be used. However, more can be done that doesn't require a lot of intervention. Right now there are some features, there are some customizations that can be done, but it's still very tedious, very cumbersome, a lot of work. So that could be simplified."

"I think the documentation should be improved."

"Should offer more flexible cost-effective licensing for small to medium sized organizations."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is expensive."

"I do not have any experience with the pricing of the product."

"It all depends on the features that will be used and the number of accesses."

"We have a yearly licencing fee, and there are no additional costs."

"NetScaler does the same thing as an F5 and it's cheaper."

"Citrix ADC could improve the price and make it less expensive, other competitors have a better prices. This would allow Citrix ADC to keep dominating the market."

"Citrix NetScaler VPX is not the cheapest solution out there, but you get what you pay for."

"It is true that it is a bit pricey compared to newer technologies coming to the market. For example, A10 is a load balancer that does everything that Citrix can and it does a lot more than what NetScaler does when it comes to the security space, and their prices are so cheap. Every box comes with its own license and support built into it. When you compare that with NetScaler, you have to buy licenses separately, you have to buy a support agreement that is going to be separate. A small NetScaler, even if it is a VPX which is a virtual server, could cost you close to $150,000 to $200,000 dollars. So the pricing is really high."

"Licensing is adequate. I wanted to have a more prominent license, but until I do they don't give enough support. The additional cost would be too much."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Ion?

Akamai is easy to use and very effective.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai Ion?

I rate the pricing a four out of ten. The tool is expensive. The pricing must be optimized.

What needs improvement with Akamai Ion?

The product must provide more flexibility. There are not too many permutations and combinations that we could do using Ion. The product used to provide Image Compression before. It is not a bundled...

What do you like most about Citrix ADC?

The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?

After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...

More Akamai Ion Competitors

Comparisons

NGINX Plus vs Akamai Ion

Compared 100% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NetScaler

Compared 20% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NetScaler

Compared 17% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs NetScaler

Compared 12% of the time

HAProxy vs NetScaler

Compared 11% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs NetScaler

Compared 7% of the time

More NetScaler Competitors

Product Reports

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Download Akamai Ion product report

Download NetScaler product report

Also Known As

No data available

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX

Learn More

Akamai

Overview

Ion, Akamai’s flagship performance solution, is a suite of intelligent performance optimizations and controls that helps deliver superior web, iOS, and Android app experiences. Built on the SLA-backed availability of the globally distributed Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform, Ion continuously monitors real user behavior — applying best-practice performance optimizations automatically — and adapting in real time to content, user behavior, and connectivity changes.

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

Sample Customers

Eurail, Boston Scientific

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)