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Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

Kemp LoadMaster
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
8th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Kemp LoadMaster is 7.6%, up from 7.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 7.9%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

PeterForster - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly stable and scalable load-balancing software that offers great technical support
My company is really happy with Kemp LoadMaster as a product. My company is also happy with the support we receive from Kemp LoadMaster. I want Kemp LoadMaster to provide users with better reporting capabilities in relation to TCP packets. In general, the connections that are present in the system require improvement. Feature-wise, Kemp LoadMaster has everything that our company's customers require. Kemp LoadMaster also has features that have supported our company's past projects.
Ritesh-Bakhru - PeerSpot reviewer
Quick installation and very easy to manage while doing orchestration or automation
NGINX cannot be a replacement for your traditional load balancer with what we use in the network today. However, with applications going toward microservices, NGINX is definitely a way forward. F5 has many traditional load balancing features, so they still need to bring some of those features to NGINX. NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5. I think F5 is trying to implement those features in NGINX so they can improve the balancing on NGINX, but I think that will take some time. With the traditional F5 set up, the same OS can do load balancing, firewalls, and even policy enforcement. If we are able to bring some of those capabilities to NGINX, I think it would become a versatile solution and usage would definitely increase.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The configuration is really easy and the web portal is self-explanatory."
"The user interface is very easy to work with."
"The most valuable feature that I found is the load balancing feature, it is the core function of the product."
"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."
"We really like the performance of this solution."
"Using Kemp as a front-facing service appliance, it allows me to have the flexibility of swapping out real servers behind the scenes without any intervention from my network team."
"Managing and maintaining multiple servers is done in a single place."
"​Simple to install with good documentation."
"Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary."
"The overall product rating is ten out of ten."
"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."
"NGINX Plus also has NGINX App Protect. It's a separate module, which is inspired by the F5 apps."
"Its most valuable features are load balancing and application delivery. This is the most efficient application for these features because of stability and its efficiency."
"With NGINX, I appreciate its ability to route traffic geographically."
"I need to highlight that the number one thing about NGINX is that it is free."
"This solution has everything."
 

Cons

"In the next release, Kemp should include the ability for LoadMaster to create different DNS record types."
"The GUI is rather technical and complex, so it could be improved by making it simpler and more user-friendly."
"The only thing that I miss is that the TMG server was giving me live information about who is connected and what is the request about."
"The auth website of ESP is really lacking. It’s not responsive (mobile friendly) and the procedure of changing the website is difficult. We tend to avoid using pre-auth for that reason."
"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."
"SNMP and/or RESTCONF management, in order to collect many counters, for plotting in a central application need to be improved."
"If there is anything that needs to be updated, the GUI can get a refresh to make it look more like 2020, although it is just a cosmetic change."
"The ability to see live traffic is not great and can be improved."
"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."
"Improvement needed in NGINX Plus could focus on optimizing memory usage for users."
"NGINX Plus is moderately priced, but it could give better value for money."
"The solution must improve its performance."
"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."
"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. ​"
"One area of improvement could be that NGINX could provide a means to generate self-signed SSL certificates."
"It would be good if NGINX provided a graphical user interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They have multiple tiers of licensing and you can upgrade it easily."
"Nowadays, going with the virtual appliance is the easiest way and the cost is reasonable."
"​I have control on the licensing and all the prices since I work for a partner.​"
"The price is lower than other options."
"The setup cost and pricing plan is reasonable and will ultimately give you a worthy return."
"It is well-priced and licensing is very flexible."
"The price of the solution is cheap."
"Download Kemp's VLM trial and take it for a test drive; you will be impressed."
"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours.​"
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."
"​NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it.​"
"NGINX Plus is an open-source solution with limited additional features. When you try to get additional features in the solution, then you need to pay an extra amount to NGINX Plus."
"​NGINX Plus is worth it, if you need it. If you do not need the features or support, the free and open source package is more than capable. ​"
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
59%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
3%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 setup of Kemp LoadMaster is very simple.
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?
There are some challenges with updates on certain models that don't have a few features. The support team often takes a lot of time to provide resolutions for issues. Also, I could see more capabil...
Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?
IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...
What do you like most about NGINX Plus?
It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Plus?
My use case involves using the free and open-source version of NGINX, making it cost-effective as I haven't incurred any costs.
 

Also Known As

LoadMaster Load Balancer
NGINX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Kent County Council, KEMP, SMA Solar Technology AG, RT€ Player , Victrix (Quebec, Canada), Texas A&M, Macmillan Cancer Support, Cisco, Austin Bank
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about Kemp LoadMaster vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.