Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer comparison

Microsoft and VMware are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.2, while VMware is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft holds a 8.5% mindshare in ADC, compared to VMware’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Azure Application...

Read 46 Microsoft Azure Application Gateway reviews

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4,027 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Read 8 VMWare Avi Load Balancer reviews

2,322 Views
1,529 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Application...

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

VMWare Avi Load Balancer and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway are two leading products in the load balancing arena. VMWare Avi Load Balancer seems to have the upper hand in flexibility and analytics, while Microsoft Azure Application Gateway stands out for ease of use and integration with Azure cloud infrastructures.

Features: VMWare Avi Load Balancer is notable for its unique deployment capabilities and centralized control plane for service engines. It provides comprehensive visibility and flexible configurations across different platforms, along with strong API and application debugging tools. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway offers ease of use and robust security through its WAF capabilities. It provides flexible traffic management and supports various integrations, enhancing adaptability.

Room for Improvement: VMWare Avi Load Balancer could benefit from better integration with hyperscale environments and improved documentation. Bundling essential features into a single package instead of separate modules could also enhance its attractiveness. For Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, improvements in scalability and configuration ease, along with enhanced security features, would be valuable. Users have also cited integration issues and suggested better documentation and cost efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMWare Avi Load Balancer excels in deployment across on-premises and hybrid environments and is praised for its adaptable deployments. While its technical support is efficient, user interaction with the support team is limited. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway focuses on public and hybrid cloud deployment, showcasing strength in public cloud operations. Its customer service is generally well-received, although some users report limited support interaction, similar to Avi.

Pricing and ROI: VMWare Avi Load Balancer offers a competitive pricing model appreciated for its cost-effectiveness and flexible licensing options, leading to quick ROI according to users. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is considered relatively expensive due to its complex pay-as-you-go model, yet it offers value for integrated Azure cloud services. While its costs are higher, users acknowledge the product's affordability in comparison to other complex solutions, though feedback on ROI varies based on specific use cases and strategies.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

January 2025

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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

Microsoft Azure Application...

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

4th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (3rd)

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 8.5%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMWare Avi Load Balancer is 4.1%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

Sooryanarayan Hegde

Technical Architect at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Easy management and configuration, affordable, and has good features

We use all the features. It is very useful. Using WAF, we can control the WAF rules based on our application requirements. We can control what rules should be used and what should be disabled. The role of the tool is limited to HTTP traffic. It does exactly what it must do. It's a regional service. We know how to use it for DR scenarios. WAF has been the most valuable in protecting applications. We use at least three instances in the back end to give the best performance for our applications. The management and configuration of the solution is quite easy. All certificate renewals are automatically taken care of by Key Vault.

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Richard Polyak

Sr. Architect at NBC Universal

Easy to set up and has good integration into the host environment but needs better third party integration

I'm not sure which version number we are on. It's one of the latest, I assume. We don't run the latest. We usually are either one or two versions behind. It is something we are exploring. We do have use cases and it will compete against our existing product line. That would have to go in the second half of this year. Right now, it's more of a comparison of how we use it right now. We don't use it really in production. We are going to definitely explore it and do our comparison and more in-depth analysis of the product and compare it against our existing product line. I'd advise potential users to do a very in-depth analysis of the products in comparison. And don't just look at the cover of it - really look into the detailed backend support infrastructure and if it can be implemented the way you need it to be. I'd rate the solution five out of ten. It's not a fully mature product.

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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 is easy to set up."

"Azure Application Gateway's most valuable feature is ease of use. The configuration is straightforward. It isn't difficult to adjust the size of your instances in the settings. You can do that with a few clicks, and the configuration file is the same way. You can also set rules and policies with minimal time and effort."

"Using policies to link and manage these URL-based routing configurations is also valuable."

"Some of the key features of this solution are the low-level maintenance required, floating proxy service, and load balancing."

"We chose this solution in the first place because it has access to Layer 7. I can control the requests and the content, which I can access on my network if I want to even if it's forbidden access to other external resources. If I want to monitor, for example, traffic, and apply this rule on Layer 7, I can do so. This was our main goal when implementing this application. We wanted to take advantage of the Gateway capabilities."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway are the policies, the data store they are using, and the cloud platform it operates on."

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway gives us a lot of benefits, including domain mapping."

"I find Application Gateway’s WAF module valuable because it helps prevent layer 7 attacks."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pros

"The solution is stable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution for my organization is its UI since it allows us to see the clusters while providing a very specific and good overall understanding."

"Its visibility and login mechanism are the best parts. In addition to the great visibility it has a great dashboard and an easy to configure graphic user interface, a beautiful GUI."

"The friendly user interface is valuable."

"The WAF - the web application firewall itself - is great."

"The interface and software features are the most valuable aspects of this solution."

"The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management."

"What's most valuable in Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is its deployment capability, the ability to deploy in a dispersed service, with the service engines that can disperse and have a single control plane that can control the load balancing services across any available platform, wherever needed. The analytics of Avi Networks Software Load Balancer and flexibility of deployment are its most valuable features and the reasons why many people buy it."

Cons

"The pricing of the solution is a bit high. The solution should offer different pricing systems."

"For the first-time user, it is difficult to understand so the user-interface needs to be improved."

"The support can be improved when you are configuring the system rules. The Disaster Recovery feature can be added in the next release. The price of the solution can be reduced a bit."

"Application Gateway’s limitation is that the private and the public endpoint cannot use the same port."

"We faced some downtime while validating CNAME."

"Implementing and standardizing the solution across the IT landscape in a heterogeneous environment is painful."

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is not scalable."

"The support provided for the solution has certain shortcomings that need improvement, especially when it comes to the response time from the support team."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway cons

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"In terms of improvement, the pricing and documentation need improvement. We have had problems getting the documents."

"One struggle with Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is its integration with other VMware products. Integration could be improved in the solution so that you have a more unified control plane with it and other data center security and networking products that VMware sells. There has been a bit of a lag on the roadmap of new features that have come out there recently, but better interoperability with the hyperscale environments such as the AWS, Azure, GCPs of the world, and simpler deployment and interoperability with those existing tools, are areas that are receiving attention and could use additional attention today. These are the areas for improvement in Avi Networks Software Load Balancer."

"It doesn't match the development structure or user community of our existing product. It pales in comparison to that."

"I did not go with it because their APM module is a different product altogether. It's a common thing that companies do. They sell something and then they add on top of it as a different product. It is a type of marketing strategy. But when it comes to the overall management, it takes a lot of time to really look into it."

"Avi Networks Software Load Balancer needs to improve its documentation."

"The network analytics and monitoring features are not effective."

"IDS and IPS sites need to be more progressive."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the price of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway an eight out of ten."

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is expensive."

"The cost is not an issue."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

"Every solution comes with a license and cost. Microsoft provides the license and the total cost is for the maintenance every year."

"The tool's pricing model is pay-as-you-go."

"Regarding pricing for Azure Application Gateway, I would rate it at seven."

"We use the tool's basic subscription. Its licensing costs are monthly."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pricing and cost advice

"I rate the solution price a four to five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high, since it is an affordable tool."

"With Avi Networks, you can buy a 10-Gig license and, if your primary data center goes down, in the flick of a switch you can move that license to your backup data center and it will generate the traffic... there are a lot of cost-effective measures."

"The tool is expensive."

"The licensing costs for Avi Networks Software Load Balancer are really variable. The product can be sold from a bandwidth utilization perspective. It can be sold from a per CPU perspective, depending on if you're looking at on-premises or hyperscale environments. Licensing costs vary quite a bit if you're familiar with the AWS Calculator, where you can see that it can widely vary per licensing model. On a scale of one to five, with one being not very good value for the money and five being great, I would rate the pricing for Avi Networks Software Load Balancer a five because its pricing is extremely competitive. Not all features are included with the license, for example, there's single licensing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

See all answers

How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the performance side of things, which is why we use it.

See all answers

What do you like most about Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?

The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?

The tool is expensive. It is not cheap. The product must be cheaper.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?

The network analytics and monitoring features are not effective. The product does not provide deep troubleshooting features. The solution must provide public IP features. F5 provides such features.

See all answers

Comparisons

F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 14% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 11% of the time

AWS WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 9% of the time

NetScaler vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 9% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Competitors

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 34% of the time

NetScaler vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 26% of the time

HAProxy vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 11% of the time

NGINX Plus vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 9% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 3% of the time

More VMWare Avi Load Balancer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

January 2025

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Download Microsoft Azure Application Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

December 2024

Download VMWare Avi Load Balancer product report

Also Known As

Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway

Avi Software Load Balancer

Learn More

Microsoft

VMware

Overview

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is an application delivery controller (ADC) platform. The solution provides scalable application delivery across any infrastructure and allows your organization to deliver multi-cloud application services, such as load balancing, autoscaling, application security, container networking, and web application firewall. It is designed with 100% software load balancing to ensure a fast and secure application experience. Additionally, Avi Networks Software Load Balancer offers elasticity and delivers intelligence across any environment.

The Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is unique because

It can scale from 0 to 1 million SSL transactions per second in minutes.
It can achieve 90% faster provisioning and 50% lower TCO than a traditional appliance-based approach.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer Product Highlights

Troubleshoots application issues in less than a minute.
Alerts you of potential risks with SSL certificates and TLS versions used.
End-to-end timing for each transaction to help solve end-user experience issues.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer Features

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Automated application delivery
Seamless integration with the CI/CD
Built-in analytics
End-to-end visibility
Actionable insights
Security
“Network DVR”-like capability to record and replay specific transactions
Google-like search filters transactions based on device, location, errors, etc.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Avi Networks Software Load Balancer. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Multi-cloud application services: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer provides consistent, enterprise-grade application services, including load balancing, WAF, and container networking across heterogeneous environments. The multi-cloud application services can be deployed on bare metal, VMs, or containers in any data center or public cloud environments.

Faster application provisioning: With this solution, you gain automation with 100% REST APIs and self-service like public cloud.

Better business decisions: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer uses analytics to deliver application insights and help you drive more intelligent decisions.

Containerized applications: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is a proven solution to deploy container-based workloads in production environments using Kubernetes/OpenShift/Tanzu clusters. It includes multi-cluster, multi-site support for containerized applications.

Lower TCO: The solution is 100% software, and does not require any proprietary hardware. In addition, because it offers on-demand autoscaling, there is no over-provisioning. Lastly, point-and-click application troubleshooting means there is no need for a black box.

Software-defined architecture: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is designed with a software-defined architecture with a centralized control plane (Avi Controller) and distributed data plane (Avi Service Engine). Because of this, elastic autoscaling is made easy.

Better end-user visibility: The solution gives you granular visibility into end-user experiences and server response in real time. It also empowers application owners with end-user stats to optimize and improve apps.

Application health score: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer summarizes analytics information into a helpful health score that provides a quick snapshot of the overall applications. The health score it provides is determined by server response time, resource usage, anomalous traffic, and security posture.

Sample Customers

Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell

Palo Alto Networks, DGDean, Swisslos

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

January 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

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