NGINX Plus vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer comparison

F5 and VMware are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. F5 is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3, while VMware is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5. F5 holds a 8.5% mindshare in ADC, compared to VMware’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of VMware users who would recommend it.

NGINX Plus

Read 28 NGINX Plus reviews

4,885 Views
3,959 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Read 8 VMWare Avi Load Balancer reviews

2,446 Views
1,608 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between NGINX Plus 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.

To learn more, read our detailed NGINX Plus vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

October 2024

Download the complete report

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Categories and Ranking

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

5th

Average Rating

8.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (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 NGINX Plus is 8.5%, down from 9.4% 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

Ritesh-Bakhru

Major Account Manager at Check Point Software

Jul 12, 2022

Quick installation and very easy to manage while doing orchestration or automation

NGINX cannot be a replacement for your traditional load balancer with what we use in the network today. However, with applications going toward microservices, NGINX is definitely a way forward. F5 has many traditional load balancing features, so they still need to bring some of those features to NGINX. NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5. I think F5 is trying to implement those features in NGINX so they can improve the balancing on NGINX, but I think that will take some time. With the traditional F5 set up, the same OS can do load balancing, firewalls, and even policy enforcement. If we are able to bring some of those capabilities to NGINX, I think it would become a versatile solution and usage would definitely increase.

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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.

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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

"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."

"This solution has everything."

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

"When I worked in a security research center, we tested NGINX to support DoS and DDoS attacks, and its results were great."

"Its most valuable features are load balancing and application delivery. This is the most efficient application for these features because of stability and its efficiency."

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

"Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is simple to configure."

More NGINX Plus 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 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 is stable."

"The friendly user interface is valuable."

"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."

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

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

Cons

"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."

"It would be great if there was even more automation to make it even easier to maintain."

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

"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. "

"The scaling should be built into the software rather than configured from an outside source."

"I would suggest adding GUI-based configuration panels to NGINX Plus to simplify setup and management tasks."

"I would like it to have a more user-friendly graphical interface."

"NGINX Plus is moderately priced, but it could give better value for money."

More NGINX Plus cons

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

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

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

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"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."

"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."

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free, but you can spend a lot of money with a complex solution."

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

"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. "

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

"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."

"NGINX Plus is an open-source solution with limited additional features. When you try to get additional features in the solution, then you need to pay an extra amount to NGINX Plus."

"You pay for each feature that you want."

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

More NGINX Plus 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

18%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

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

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 19% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 18% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 13% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NGINX Plus

Compared 2% of the time

More NGINX Plus 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 27% of the time

HAProxy vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 10% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 5% of the time

Radware Alteon vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 4% of the time

More VMWare Avi Load Balancer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

November 2024

Download NGINX Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

VMWare Avi Load Balancer

October 2024

Download VMWare Avi Load Balancer product report

Also Known As

NGINX

Avi Software Load Balancer

Learn More

VMware

Overview

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.

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

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

Palo Alto Networks, DGDean, Swisslos

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

October 2024

Free Report: NGINX Plus vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Find out what your peers are saying about NGINX Plus vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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