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NetScaler vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer comparison

NetScaler and VMware are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. NetScaler is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while VMware is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.3. NetScaler holds a 16.1% mindshare in ADC, compared to VMware’s 3.5% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of NetScaler users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of VMware users who would recommend it.
NetScaler
Read 85 NetScaler reviews
  • 8,363 Views
  • 6,374 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
VMWare Avi Load Balancer
Read 8 VMWare Avi Load Balancer reviews
  • 2,618 Views
  • 1,687 Comparison Views
71% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between NetScaler and VMWare Avi Load Balancer 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.

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To learn more, read our detailed NetScaler vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer Report (Updated: September 2024).
Buyer's Guide
NetScaler vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer
September 2024
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Categories and Ranking

NetScaler
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMWare Avi Load Balancer
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 VMWare Avi Load Balancer is 3.5%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Mazhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 18, 2024
A effective solution for load balancing with gateway
We used Citrix NetScaler for load balancing in our application, where our users connect via the portal. This portal is load-balanced via a ServiceNet NetScaler. Additionally, our core banking application also runs on this infrastructure Citrix NetScaler has its capabilities and benefits. From a…
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AANKITGUPTAA - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 14, 2022
Reliable, robust, and easily expandable
Avi Load Balancer is the next-generation load balancer, which VMware provides. Earlier, we used a traditional type of load balancer. Due to the limitation of this traditional load balancer, we deployed this next-generation load balancer. This has very advanced capabilities like a web application…
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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

"It is the best product out there."
"Load balancing, cache redirection, content switching, all connected with traffic management."
"Global load balancing between data centers."
"Its flexibility, agility, and robustness are the most valuable. Its management and implementation are also quite easy."
"Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature."
"SSL Offload"
"Its customer support service is good."
"The load balancing feature of this solution is very good."
More NetScaler pros
"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 WAF - the web application firewall itself - is great."
"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 friendly user interface is valuable."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management."
"The interface and software features are the most valuable aspects of this solution."
"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

"It does not have a sandbox cloud service and antivirus. It should have on-prem or cloud sandboxing and antivirus."
"The technical support could be better. Whenever I contacted support, I rarely got the solution that we needed. And most of the time, I finished fixing the problem by looking on the internet or by finding documents about the problem on Google."
"In terms of what could be improved, I would say the user interface because sometimes it can be complicated."
"They can improve the scalability and the multi-tenancy feature. We recently tried to configure an authentication, and we ran into some issues while using the web-based GUI. It was very slow when you log in with your credentials in the web-based GUI. Each time we clicked on the menu, it tried to do the authentication. It works properly in the console."
"It can be difficult to setup."
"We had some bugs in the previous firmware. These were not big issues, but more testing on the firmware would be key to happier customers."
"The licensing model and technical support of the solution could be improved."
"Citrix ADC can be really complex. It isn't very simple like some other appliances that I've worked with. You need a lot of skill and experience to manage it. I'm not talking about a year or two. You need at least four years to understand it very well. It is not that easy to learn. They should make it a lot simpler for users to understand the management of it. They can also provide some additional training. The material they have on the site is not sufficient enough for you to understand how to manage it. Their training is expensive, and not everyone has the funds and experience for it. Citrix isn't very popular around these parts of the world. So, it can use some more marketing, sales, enlightenment, and advertisement. These could bring more market for them. Basically, there are just a few companies that really go for Citrix. Most of the companies go for VMware because they marketed themselves more than Citrix. There isn't much difference between Citrix and VMware. VMware is a little more robust than Citrix. Citrix has focused more on desktops rather than server virtualization, and that's the advantage VMware has over Citrix. Citrix also needs to educate and inform users about the infrastructure that is supported with a version. Currently, if the customers don't look at the datasheet, they might miss this important information."
More NetScaler cons
"In terms of improvement, the pricing and documentation need improvement. We have had problems getting the documents."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"IDS and IPS sites need to be more progressive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have been evaluating F5, Citrix, and other ADC products. Citrix is the most expense of all of them."
"After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive."
"This product is more expensive than some of the competitors."
"It all depends on the features that will be used and the number of accesses."
"Our licensing fees including technical support are approximately $3,500 USD."
"You can do CapEx and then a yearly monthly fee, or you can do a subscription model, whether that's one month, month-to-month, or three-year subscription model."
"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."
"The solution is undoubtedly very good, but it is expensive."
More NetScaler pricing and cost advice
"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."
"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."
"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
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
9%
University
6%
 

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
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

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Compared 17% of the time
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Compared 12% of the time
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Compared 11% of the time
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Compared 6% of the time
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Compared 31% of the time
HAProxy vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer Logo
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Compared 9% of the time
NGINX Plus vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer Logo
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Compared 8% of the time
Kemp LoadMaster vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer Logo
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Compared 5% of the time
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More VMWare Avi Load Balancer Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
NetScaler
August 2024
NetScaler reportDownload NetScaler product report
Buyer's Guide
VMWare Avi Load Balancer
August 2024
VMWare Avi Load Balancer reportDownload VMWare Avi Load Balancer product report
 

Also Known As

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX
Avi Software Load Balancer
 

Learn More

NetScaler
VMware
 

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.

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

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk
Palo Alto Networks, DGDean, Swisslos
Buyer's Guide
NetScaler vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer
September 2024
Free Report: NetScaler vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer
Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer and other solutions. Updated: September 2024.
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