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Loadbalancer.org vs NetScaler comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Loadbalancer.org
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetScaler
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (4th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Loadbalancer.org is 3.4%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 15.8%, up from 13.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Roger Seelaender - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 21, 2022
Great WAF - low-maintenance solution that performs as advertised
The solution can be improved with the development of a SIP engine because it is difficult to manage SBCs. All SBCs are really tough to write rules for. If we could put this in front of an SBC to have the right rules to possibly block the traffic, that would be very helpful. The solution can also improve the relationship between Loadbalancer.org and Metaswitch, or now, Microsoft because Metaswitch was purchased by Microsoft. They both position themselves as certified but don't always talk to each other. I wish there would be closer integration between the solution and the vendors when either release new upgrades to their product line. Often we find issues on either end post upgrades.
DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 7, 2024
A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking
Citrix ADM provides centralized management for various internal programs, including inventory and sales tracking, communication tools, and office programs such as Teams and Azure We wouldn't have comprehensive insights into our system without Citrix ADM. It provides us with essential information.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The load balancers have an easy installation and a relatively simple, easy user interface to use."
"I found scalability in Loadbalancer.org valuable."
"The performance is good."
"It helps us to route the traffic to the available servers. If we didn't have Loadbalancer we would fail to set the end-user and it would cause a failure in the cluster."
"It's pretty much a Swiss Army knife for managing all the load balancing techniques."
"For now, it's stable."
"It does what it’s supposed to do which is balancing an important intranet site we are using, so if one server dies, the second becomes active straight away."
"The connection that this solution helps our servers maintain has been most useful."
"Its customer support service is good."
"Enables a Web service that offers persistent client-server connections, IP restriction, URL rewrite (such as remove "/assets/" path from client-side URL path), and cache for CSS or JS files... You can easily use the GUI to set up all these requirements on the same network device within 20-30 minutes. (If you do the same steps on CLI, it might take less time.)"
"One of its most valuable features is fundamental load balancing, supporting both basic load balancing and database teams."
"This solution allows the user to easily scale out application delivery, and provides secure remote access."
"Citrix Director has been great. It gives us one pane of glass to be able to monitor what's going on with the user sessions as well as to keep on top of the virtual desktops, any servers that may be offline or behaving suspiciously, or any troublesome spots like disconnections. We also use Citrix Studio for maintaining the actual servers that are hosting these applications. We use it for delivery groups in case we need to modify delivery groups in regards to which groups have access to which applications. It has been very helpful."
"Citrix NetScaler offers robust security features, including SmartAccess and customizable policies, making it a reliable choice for safeguarding user data."
"It is the best product out there."
"The maintenance of the solution is not complex."
 

Cons

"An area for improvement in Loadbalancer.org is that sometimes it works fine, but sometimes, it has issues. The setup for Loadbalancer.org is also complex, so that's another area for improvement."
"Compared to the physical products, the solution's throughput is a little less."
"There is room for improvement in Loadbalancer.org in certain areas."
"​I would like a notification when a new version of the software is available. They told me to sign up for their newsletter, but I have not received any notification for a newer software version.​"
"The interface from Loadbalancer.org should be improved."
"You can run into an issue when one engineer passes the case over to another engineer after their shift and they don't know what the first engineer worked on up to that point."
"The configuration is somewhat complicated. Someone who does not know the solution may find this challenging."
"It doesn't have the bonding capability feature."
"An area for improvement would be the difficulty in finding information about standard licensing costs over the internet. They should provide some reference prices on the net to be quickly referred to."
"Citrix NetScaler has been recently acquired by another company and the support has been negatively impacted, the solution is at its end of life. The support for the solution could improve. The sales team needs to be improved."
"Currently, it is not easy to use the configuration capabilities of the product."
"Mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity."
"Maybe creating policies with simple regular expressions."
"The interface could be improved, some customers struggle with that."
"Citrix should improve the documentation. It is not really clear how to set up many features to our advantage. When we setup Citrix NetScaler ADC, we have to figure it out by ourselves without a lot of documentation."
"Their upgrades are not very backward compatible, and sometimes they mess up."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They're not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but I think value-wise, they're 100%."
"It's worth the cost. It's not cheap, but it's a good solution. If you're looking for a good solution, this is a good solution. Is it cheap? No. Is it worth the money? Yes, I think it is."
"Loadbalancer.org is based on open-source products, but it requires money for support and other activities."
"I love that they do not price on some arbitrary throughput rating where you are guessing at what the load balancer is going to handle."
"It was easy to upgrade the license for unlimited clusters and servers. Pricing is fair."
"It is inexpensive, and even their “unlimited” version, the VA MAX is still far cheaper than competitors."
"Licensing fees are paid annually."
"For now, it's stable."
"The pricing could be lower."
"Citrix Web App and API Protection are in the middle when we talk about pricing and licensing"
"NetScaler does the same thing as an F5 and it's cheaper."
"In Turkey, everything is good, but it seems expensive for us due to the currency exchange. I don't have a specific rating scale, but if I had to rate the price, I would say it's around a six out of ten."
"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."
"The solution is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"We get value for money. Its price is fair. I don't think it is overpriced."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Educational Organization
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Loadbalancer.org?
Since Loadbalancer.org is an open-source solution, I would recommend this solution for smaller businesses that don’t have major scaling requirements and don’t have the budget for a commercial solut...
What do you like most about Loadbalancer.org?
Existing customers are trying to migrate from the physical F5 load balancer to the AVI load balancer because it is scalable and easily managed.
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 ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Vodafone, NASA, Mercedes, NBC, Siemens, AT&T, Barclays, Zurich, Penn State University, Fiserv, Canon, Toyota, University of Cambridge, US Army, US Navy, Ocean Spray, ASOS, Pfizer, BBC, Bacardi, Monsoon, River Island, U.S Air Force, King's College London, NHS, Ricoh, Philips, Santander, TATA Communications, Ericcson, Ross Video, Evertz, TalkTalk TV, Giacom, Rapid Host.
ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk
Find out what your peers are saying about Loadbalancer.org vs. NetScaler and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.