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HAProxy vs NGINX Service-Mesh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

HAProxy
Ranking in Service Mesh
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (3rd)
NGINX Service-Mesh
Ranking in Service Mesh
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Service Mesh category, the mindshare of HAProxy is 13.6%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Service-Mesh is 4.4%, down from 13.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Service Mesh
 

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful for for small and quick load-balancing tasks
What I like best about the product is its simplicity and speed. When you need to set up a load balancer quickly, HAProxy offers options like sticky sessions and round-robin. It's also fast to configure, including adding SSL for security. While it may have fewer options than other solutions like F5, HAProxy gets the job done for basic load-balancing tasks. The reliability features of HAProxy were particularly useful in a scenario where I needed to test load balancing between two Tomcats. Since these domains were inaccessible, I set up a third Docker with HAProxy, which had access to the Tomcat domains. I then configured HAProxy to handle the load balancing. This setup allowed the client to interact with HAProxy. The solution's integration with other elements is easy.
Fernando Silva - PeerSpot reviewer
A cost-effective and fully integrated service mesh that has good adaptability
The initial setup for NGINX Service-Mesh is straightforward. I have twenty engineers specifically for SI deployments, and we rely on gnet environments. Typically, we have many users, maybe a thousand users, and in Mexico, working with EC Telecom, we serve around five million users for the ISP solution, including internet and service provider solutions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Stability is number one."
"The VRRP redundancy is also a mission-critical feature that works seamlessly. I can bring down a server live with minimal downtime because of this."
"The ability to handle a sequence of front- and back-ends gives the user the opportunity to send traffic through different services."
"We were able to use HAProxy for round robin with our databases, or for a centralized TCP connection in one host."
"The support for all major Linux distros makes running and testing a breeze."
"It reduced the load on our main load balancers."
"Tech support is super-quick to respond, and always on target with answers specific to the current issue."
"Load balancing is valuable, and we are also using the WAF feature."
"The solution is cost-effective and has good adaptability."
 

Cons

"​It needs proper HTTP/2 support.​"
"They should introduce one feature that I know many people, including me, are waiting for: HAProxy should have provide hot-swipe for back-end servers. Also, they need a more detailed GUI for monitoring and configuration."
"There is no standardized document available. So, any individual has to work from scratch to work it out. If some standard deployment details are available, it would be helpful for people while deploying it. There should be more documentation on the standard deployment."
"Sometimes it's challenging to get through the log, and you need a log to understand what is going on. It isn't easy to map the logging with the documentation, and every time I read the log, I have to pull out the documentation to understand what I'm reading."
"We need to handle new connections by dropping, or queuing them while the HAProxy restarts, and because HAProxy does not handle split config files."
"The GUI should be more responsive and show the detailed output of logs."
"We would like to see dynamic ACL and port update support. Our infrastructure relies on randomly allocated ports and this feature would allow us to update without restarting the process."
"Dynamic update API. More things should be possible to be configured during runtime."
"NGINX Service Mesh could be improved by integrating more intelligence and stability through certifications and SSL certificates."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think that the pricing is very fair, I would definitely recommend buying the Enterprise license."
"I use the open-source version of the product. I don't have experience with the licensed version of the solution."
"Very good value for the money. One of the simplest licensing schemes in this category of products."
"The price is well worth it. HAProxy Enterprise Edition paid for itself within months, simply due to the resiliency it brings. It was a bit more expensive than we were originally interested in paying, but we are thankful we chose to go with HAProxy."
"HAProxy is free software. There are optional paid products (support/appliances)."
"We are using HAProxy as an open-source."
"When it comes to pricing HAProxy is free."
"HAProxy is free in the initial offer. However, pricing can be improved."
"The pricing for NGINX Service-Mesh is very reasonable, offering us scalability and cost-effectiveness."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend HAProxy?
I do recommend HAProxy for more simple applications or for companies with a low budget, since HAProxy is a free, open-source product. HAProxy is also a good choice for someone looking for a stable ...
What do you like most about HAProxy?
The solution is effective in managing our traffic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Service-Mesh?
The pricing for NGINX Service-Mesh is very reasonable, offering us scalability and cost-effectiveness.
What needs improvement with NGINX Service-Mesh?
NGINX Service Mesh could be improved by integrating more intelligence and stability through certifications and SSL certificates. Additionally, I need to review the solution for DDoS environments to...
What is your primary use case for NGINX Service-Mesh?
I'm using it to deliver applications and run easy telecom in Mexico. It currently helps distribute ISP, retail, and telecom environments.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

HAProxy Community Edition, HAProxy Enterprise Edition, HAPEE
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Booking.com, GitHub, Reddit, StackOverflow, Tumblr, Vimeo, Yelp
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Isito, Envoy, HAProxy and others in Service Mesh. Updated: March 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.