NGINX Plus vs NetScaler comparison

NetScaler and F5 are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. NetScaler is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while F5 is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3. NetScaler holds a 16.1% mindshare in ADC, compared to F5’s 8.3% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of NetScaler users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of F5 users who would recommend it.

NetScaler

Read 85 NetScaler reviews

8,363 Views
6,374 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 28 NGINX Plus reviews

5,380 Views
4,250 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

NetScaler

NGINX Plus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between NetScaler and NGINX Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed NGINX Plus vs. NetScaler Report (Updated: September 2024).

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus vs. NetScaler

September 2024

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Helped 800,688 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

NetScaler

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

5th

Average Rating

8.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of NetScaler is 16.1%, up from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 8.3%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

Kumar Murugesan

Technical Support Engineer at Greenware Technologies LLC

Feb 15, 2023

A complete solution that is customizable, easy to configure, and has the most features

Citrix NetScaler is an Application Delivery Controller which we use to manage our gateway load balancing and web solution Citrix NetScaler supports our virtual appliance solutions. Citrix NetScaler is a complete solution that is customizable, easy to configure, and has the most features.…

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ERICO LIMA SCHUCH

Owner at Els

Sep 29, 2023

Excels at being a reverse proxy

I primarily use NGINX Plus as a reverse proxy, and it does an excellent job. NGINX Plus is a crucial tool that helps me tackle various problems and challenges. Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary. NGINX Plus is incredibly valuable…

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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 best feature of Citrix is its track record of stability in its features."

"It is simple for both IT specialists and customers."

"The solution is easy to work with and manage."

"The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN."

"Unified Gateway allows me to provide secure external access to applications for suppliers and customers while requiring Multi-Factor Authentication."

"Citrix Netscaler makes it easy to provide services to end users, offering better visibility into user sessions compared to VMware. However, instability in network or machine can cause headaches as it's hard to pinpoint issues. SSL offload feature enhances security posture by providing secure connectivity between end users and backend systems. We use additional Azure remote security solutions for comprehensive protection."

"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.)"

"We appreciate that this solution facilitates our access to Citrix internet."

More NetScaler pros

"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."

"I find the solution’s community support and documentation most valuable. Compared to HAProxy, have found a lot of documentation and community support on Quora. If you would be asking me as a developer whether to choose this product, I would recommend this since it has good community support, documentation, and signature updates. The configuration of HAProxy is also very tedious. However, NGINX’s configuration is very simple."

"Valuable features include authentication, caching, reverse proxy routing, and load balancing."

"I need to highlight that the number one thing about NGINX is that it is free."

"NGINX Plus' most valuable feature is the ingress controller."

"The most valuable features are the gateway and the ability to publish to sites."

"Zero Downtime has always been a strength in recommending infrastructure web services. NGINX allows me to execute such infrastructure with less complications and the ability to switch from server to server easily."

"NGINX works much better than HAProxy in our current hardware and architecture for HTTP/HTTPS load balancing. "

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"I would like to see support for scripting, like "iRule", which gives you the option to implement any configuration which is not available out of the box."

"It does not have a sandbox cloud service and antivirus. It should have on-prem or cloud sandboxing and antivirus."

"I think the documentation should be improved."

"ADC from Citrix has added functionalities from other products and the usability is very difficult for someone who is used to a simpler user interface, it's a little bit of a mess to use."

"There is room for improvement regarding the pricing policy for Citrix offices."

"The solution could be more secure."

"Currently, the support team's responsiveness is lacking, and the technical personnel on calls often seem unfamiliar with the issues or inadequately trained."

"Overall the price of Citrix ADC could be more competitive."

More NetScaler cons

"Improvement needed in NGINX Plus could focus on optimizing memory usage for users."

"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."

"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. "

"Lack of a feature to print data on the terminal for verification of network traffic during debugging and testing."

"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."

"The center management system could be improved."

"Make modules easier to enable or disable. The beauty and ugly side of the NGINX modules is you have to know how to compile the module. For beginners or non-very technical aspirant(s) going for NGINX, they have to learn how to compile the modules."

"The biggest room for improvement would be to allow NGINX Core machines to cluster for memory zones in some way with a plug and play module. "

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive."

"It all depends on the features that will be used and the number of accesses."

"This product is more expensive than some of the competitors."

"Our licensing fees including technical support are approximately $3,500 USD."

"It's an expensive product but it works well."

"Citrix NetScaler's pricing is slightly above average but not overly expensive. I would consider F5 BIG IP to be the most expensive, Citrix NetScaler to be the second most expensive, and then Kemp Load Balancer to be the third."

"Citrix NetScaler VPX is not the cheapest solution out there, but you get what you pay for."

"I do not have any experience with the pricing of the product."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

"It's an open source solution, so it's free."

"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."

"NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it."

"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours."

"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. "

"I use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."

"The cost is reasonable."

"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.

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800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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,...

See all answers

What do you like most about NGINX Plus?

It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Plus?

There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free. There's also NGINX Plus, which is a paid version with additional features.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NetScaler

Compared 20% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NetScaler

Compared 17% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs NetScaler

Compared 12% of the time

HAProxy vs NetScaler

Compared 11% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NetScaler

Compared 4% of the time

More NetScaler Competitors

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 19% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 19% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 14% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NGINX Plus

Compared 9% of the time

Radware Alteon vs NGINX Plus

Compared 4% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NetScaler

August 2024

Download NetScaler product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

August 2024

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX

NGINX

Learn More

NetScaler

Overview

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

NGINX Plus is a versatile solution that offers load balancing, caching, proxying, and API deployment capabilities. It can be deployed on private or public clouds and is ideal for building CDN solutions. The solution can also be used to secure web applications and replace web services like Apache.

NGINX has helped organizations improve functioning, reduce downtimes, and offer a DevOps-friendly solution. Its community support and documentation are highly regarded, and its configuration is more straightforward, making it a recommended choice over HAProxy.

Sample Customers

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk

Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus vs. NetScaler

September 2024

Free Report: NGINX Plus vs. NetScaler

Find out what your peers are saying about NGINX Plus vs. NetScaler and other solutions. Updated: September 2024.

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We monitor all Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.