Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer comparison

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

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Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Application...

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

3rd

Average Rating

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (2nd)

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 8.8%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMWare Avi Load Balancer is 3.7%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

Sami

Cyber Security Consultant at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Nov 29, 2022

High stability with built-in rules that reduce alerts and are easy to configure

Our company uses the solution to publish services that are on Azure. There is more than one way to publish services. You can use the Microsoft infrastructure for app services including small programming, configurations related to obligations, and publishing. Or you can publish manually by using…

Read full review

Richard Polyak

Sr. Architect at NBC Universal

Jun 24, 2022

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is an easy-to-use solution."

"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."

"The tool is easy to use and quite flexible. It has policy management features as well. The solution screens all traffic to our web applications before passing it to the application. We recently tested it on one of our poorly developed applications, and the upgrade gave us a 100% result based on our tests. It's very effective as a security measure, and people can detect threats even through the web application."

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

"I like the tool's stability and performance."

"This is a SaaS product, so it is always up to date."

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

"Good customization; able to report and take action on alerts."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pros

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

"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."

"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."

"The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management."

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

"The friendly user interface is valuable."

"The solution is stable."

"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."

Cons

"It is a bit tricky to configure. You've got to have a very specific format to configure it. They should make it a little bit easier to configure. Mapping the certificates into it isn't easy, and it could be better. Currently, you've to write a bit of automation to pull certificates directly to HTTPS."

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

"We have encountered some issues with automatic redirection and cancellation, leading to 502 and 504 gateway errors. So, I experienced some trouble with containers."

"The working speed of the solution needs improvement."

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is harder to manage than Imperva. It is not intuitive and stable compared to other products."

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

"The solution can sometimes feel a little cumbersome unless you're a professional infrastructure person."

"We faced some downtime while validating CNAME."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway cons

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is not complex. It is not expensive from our point of view."

"The solution is paid monthly. The solution is highly expensive."

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

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a pretty affordable product. My company needs to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs of the solution. The additional costs apart from the licensing costs of the solution vary."

"The cost is not an issue."

"The pricing is based on how much you use the solution."

"Between v1 and v2, there is a lot of change in the pricing. It is very costly compared to AWS."

"It is not expensive."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pricing and cost advice

"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 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."

"The tool is expensive."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

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...

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 ...

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.

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

The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management.

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.

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.

F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Comparisons

Compared 13% of the time

AWS WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 11% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 11% of the time

NetScaler vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

HAProxy 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 33% of the time

NetScaler vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 28% of the time

HAProxy vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 10% of the time

NGINX Plus vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 8% 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

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Download Microsoft Azure Application Gateway product report

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

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

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer