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

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), Kemp LoadMaster, 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)

August 2024

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Helped 805,335 peers since 2012

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is 15.3%, down from 16.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kemp LoadMaster is 7.3%, down from 7.8% 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

Rakesh Joshi

General Manager at Seriti Resources

Sep 27, 2023

Easy to deploy, offers good stability and customer support

It is easy to deploy. It took us a few hours to deploy because we had experience with the solution. A few hours will be sufficient if you have already studied how to deploy. Configuration and deployment depend on the GUI. F5 has a different GUI, so it takes some time to get used to it. Kemp, on the other hand, has a single page where you can access everything. With F5, you have to go to different sections for configuration. For example, to deploy a certificate, you import it, create a profile, go to the virtual service section, and link the profile. Kemp simplifies this process by allowing a static import of the certificate, making it more straightforward. GUI plays a significant role in the ease of configuration.

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it_user426051

Chief Consuntant/KEMP VIP at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees

Jul 29, 2017

Technical support is very good. They are quick to answer questions and provide online help.

When patching Skype for Business Enterprise, we experienced no downtime at all for internal users Skype for Business Reverse proxy Web application firewall Multi-factor authentication There is a Forefront TMG replacement together with Skype for Business which even Microsoft recommends for DNS…

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reviewer1010148

Security Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Dec 22, 2021

Seamless virtual desktop integration, but not suitable for largescale enterprises or complicated uses

If they are going to use it with the VDI, it is a very good product, but it has weaknesses in application firewall development. So if they are going to only do load balancing in an SMB solution, it is a good product. But if they're consulting as an enterprise product and in a very large scale deployment enterprise, Citrix is not a complete solution. But for an SMB product and a basic cloud balance, it is a good product. On a scale of one to ten, I would give Citrix ADC a seven. It does what it does. It is a product for some simple tasks, but just not suitable for the complex tasks.

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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

"The solution has good load balancing capabilities."

"The capability is at a seven or eight out of ten."

"What we like best about this solution is its stability. It is extremely stable."

"We have multiple solutions we can deploy through the F5."

"The most valuable feature is being able to manipulate the iRules, so you can send traffic to different avenues."

"It is a stable product from a stable company. Recently, they have been more focused on security as well."

"You can create multiple virtual servers on F5 BIG-IP technology, and within multiple virtual servers you can have multiple nodes, where a node equals two application servers."

"F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is very easy to use, from SSL Management to enabling, disabling loads, applications, systems, and monitoring. Overall the solution keeps our application functional from a client's perspective 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros

"The pricing of the solution is valuable."

"The feature I find most valuable is load balancing with different algorithms."

"Load-balancing is a great feature that is very easy to configure and it is always working fine."

"Edge Security Pack is valuable because of the way it separates between critical infrastructure and the public internet."

"Great web balancing and remote access balancing."

"The security features, load balancing, built-in templates, and the easy to implement virtual IPs are great."

"From my personal experience, many firewalls provide Load Balancing functionalities, but Kemp Loadmaster has a lot of features and functionalities like what you can configure. So there are a lot of features but we use only five percent of it."

"The most valuable features are synchronizing email with mobile devices and synchronizing with Outlook."

More Kemp LoadMaster pros

"Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature."

"Its customer support service is good."

"This solution allows the user to easily scale out application delivery, and provides secure remote access."

"Load Balancing and SSL offloading are key features."

"Content Redirection and SSO integration with Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop. The GUI was wonderful."

"Compared to other solutions, Citrix ADC is much more robust in terms of the native integration to cloud platforms. It is far more robust from an operational point of view as well."

"I like app flows and custom flows. They integrate with multiple flows."

"Load balancing, cache redirection, content switching, all connected with traffic management."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"In terms of native integrations, there is a lot of instability. Also, integration is not robust with F5."

"The logging features are too limited and do not give us a solid understanding of what's happening."

"Security and Reporting."

"The license terms for "non-commercial" will be a challenge for us."

"The GUI needs improvement."

"A more hybrid approach would be beneficial for users."

"They need to improve the interface and some of the functionalities."

"If they made it easier for engineers to get F5 training then it would be better."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) cons

"I want to have the ability to pull a particular server. The DevOps portion was challenging for me, like if I needed to redirect from one IP to another URL. I needed to look that up, and the knowledge base is not well organized. When I look for information about Kemp on the Internet, I don't find many articles or something like that."

"I would like to see more automation and control of overactive and inactive resources. If I could schedule these around our updates then it would be all automated. I would like to set up an automated script to coincide with the scripts I use to update resources and servers."

"Over the last several major versions, the GUI has remained virtually unchanged and still seems lacking."

"Certificate installations could be simplified and modernized, and allowed to be monitored for expirations/issues."

"In my opinion, the layer seven loads balancing that we're mainly using for web servers, doesn't seem to pick up when there are issues at the application level."

"In the next release, they can introduce 360 views in the same dashboard to make it easier for users to view. The graphical information should be displayed on the dashboard."

"In the web interface, there are a lot of settings in the different menus and it would be helpful if there were an interactive help system or tooltips to help the administrators find and configure the right settings."

"Some of the support documentation seems to make assumptions that the person installing or configuring is experienced with the product or concepts."

More Kemp LoadMaster cons

"Development team's response time could be better."

"Does not include security. A web application firewall would be a nice addition."

"I will try to migrate all the tools to the cloud because there is more lab and more VPN scalability available in the cloud. It is not available on-premises."

"In every release - and it doesn't matter if it's a minor release or a major release - they keep moving things around and they keep changing the mechanism. So certain things can work in one version one way, and everything works really well, then when you upgrade it to the next version, it breaks everything because they have a new way of doing it."

"Citrix should offer a demo or free-trial version of NetScaler. Several other vendors do, but Citrix does not. Pricing should also be more readily available."

"We face challenges with the solution's firmware upgrades frequently."

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

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

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model of F5 BIG-IP LTM is highly complex. The operation cost of the solution is high. The overall cost is high."

"F5 BIG-IP is a stable solution. It is quite mature and does not have many concerns."

"Though functionality is high, its cost can be considered slightly higher than its competitors."

"I would recommend that the cost be lowered."

"When we purchased additional licenses for our other locations, we received a discount of between 20% and 25%."

"I use a yearly subscription, which is the most expensive one now compared to its competitors."

"F5 is expensive."

"It is cheaper than the average on the market."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pricing and cost advice

"Setup is easy, the cost is affordable, and the licensing is quick and simple."

"The product definitely provides what the organization needs and its cost is reasonable considering the value it brings."

"It has a very attractive ratio of price/performance."

"Any decent product will cost money and if you want great support and a great product, then you will want to spend the money on it."

"The price of the solution is cheap."

"At $2,500 USD, this is absolutely a fantastic buy for the money!"

"The Kemp LoadMaster is a tremendous value."

"Currently, no cost is involved with a virtual load balancer. They have used open source. We did not pay for software. We paid for the expertise. We are only paying the consulting charges, which are very reasonable, that is, around a thousand dollars."

More Kemp LoadMaster pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, I feel that the solution is a little bit expensive."

"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."

"Regarding pricing, while it's expensive, I can't comment on the exact ROI without a budget analysis. However, in terms of service quality, it's worth the price."

"It is very pricey, but we get it. If you need the best, money shouldn't be a problem."

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

"The solution is undoubtedly very good, but it is expensive."

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

"F5 BIG-IP is much more expensive than Citrix ADC. For example, If we choose two platforms, Citrix ADC, 3000 version, and we choose F5, F4200 version. F5 BIG-IP has connections, timers, and throughput similar to Citrix ADC, but the price is very expensive."

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.

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805,335 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

62%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP?

The support from F5 BIG-IP LTM is good.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP?

There are a few licensing options available for F5 BIG-IP LTM. You can have a perpetual license which is a lifetime l...

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?

In the LTM solution, it would be beneficial to have more algorithms for traffic segmentation or the ability to create...

What do you like most about Kemp LoadMaster?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten...I rate the technical support a ten out of ten...The initial ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kemp LoadMaster?

LoadMaster is cheaper than some other solutions. It has a perpetual license, so it's a one-time cost.

What needs improvement with Kemp LoadMaster?

My company is really happy with Kemp LoadMaster as a product. My company is also happy with the support we receive fr...

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 ente...

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...

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexi...

Fortinet FortiADC vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Comparisons

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

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

Compared 7% of the time

NGINX Plus vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 6% of the time

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

Compared 2% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Competitors

HAProxy vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 25% of the time

NGINX Plus vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 22% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 13% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 5% of the time

More Kemp LoadMaster Competitors

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NetScaler

Compared 19% 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

Amazon Elastic Load Balancing vs NetScaler

Compared 4% of the time

More NetScaler Competitors

Product Reports

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

September 2024

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) product report

Download Kemp LoadMaster product report

Kemp LoadMaster

September 2024

Download NetScaler product report

August 2024

Also Known As

F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP

LoadMaster Load Balancer

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX

Learn More

Progress Software

Overview

F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.

BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.

Kemp LoadMaster is a powerful load balancing solution that also serves as a web application firewall. Its primary use case is load balancing and application load balancing, making it an ideal solution for organizations that must distribute traffic across multiple servers. Kemp's integration with an active directory for ESP usage, hosting/deployment of SSL certificates, and pricing are some of its most valuable features.

Using Kemp has helped organizations mitigate cross-scripting vulnerabilities, cookie-related issues, and content security policy issues. It has also allowed them to handle everything with Kemp instead of working on each application individually.

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

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.

Kent County Council, KEMP, SMA Solar Technology AG, RT Player , Victrix (Quebec, Canada), Texas A&M, Macmillan Cancer Support, Cisco, Austin Bank

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