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HAProxy pros and cons

Vendor: HAProxy
4.1 out of 5
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1,400 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

HAProxy is valued for its effective load balancing capabilities.
It offers features like TCP/IP Layer 4 handling, allowing decisions based on the protocol level.
Users appreciate the open-source nature and the simplicity and speed of setup for HAProxy.
HAProxy is recognized for its stability and efficiency in managing network traffic.
It supports features such as session control and rule-writing for access management, enhancing security and control.

CONS

Pricing, monitoring, and reports can be improved.
There is no standardized document available, making deployment challenging.
HAProxy could improve by making the dashboards easier to use and offering better administration tickets.
HAProxy is very weak in logging and monitoring and requires improvement.
Improving the documentation with multiple examples and scenarios would be beneficial.
 

HAProxy Pros review quotes

reviewer936006 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 10, 2021
The most valuable thing for me is TCP/IP Layer 4 stuff you can do with HAProxy. You can go down to the protocol level and make decisions on something.
it_user809919 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 29, 2018
I estimate that this product has saved our company hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in possible downtime from previous load balancers. We make a lot of our money from online sales, so it is critical to have 99.9% uptime.
Bhaskar Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 26, 2022
I can't speak to all of the HAProxy features because we don't use them all, but load balancing is very good.
Learn what your peers think about HAProxy. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
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Vijay Muddu - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 4, 2024
HAProxy's TCP load balancer is excellent and super stable.
AANKITGUPTAA - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 14, 2022
It is scalable.
Roger Seelaender - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 21, 2022
The features I find valuable in this solution are session control which automatically disconnects users that forget to log off, and the ability to write rules to either allow or block certain file requests.
Tomislav Horvatović - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 18, 2023
It is a crucial tool in ensuring smooth service provision without any interruptions.
Tasos Papadopoulos - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 8, 2022
Stability is number one.
SB
Apr 12, 2018
The most important features would be the load-balancing of HTTP and TCP requests, according to multiple LB-algorithms (busyness, weighted-busyness, round robin, traffic, etc). Another important feature that we cannot live without is the username/passwd authentication for legacy systems that had none.
reviewer1633455 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 23, 2021
Load balancing is valuable, and we are also using the WAF feature.
 

HAProxy Cons review quotes

reviewer936006 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 10, 2021
Sometimes it's challenging to get through the log, and you need a log to understand what is going on. It isn't easy to map the logging with the documentation, and every time I read the log, I have to pull out the documentation to understand what I'm reading.
it_user809919 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 29, 2018
The only area that I can see needing improvement is the management interface, since it is pretty much all through the CLI or configuration. A GUI/web interface could be helpful for users who are not as experienced in the Linux shell. However, HAProxy does have another product that we evaluated called ALOHA, which has a web front-end, but we found it did not meet our needs.
Bhaskar Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 26, 2022
While troubleshooting, we are having some difficulties. There are no issues when it is running; it is stable and very good; however, if there is a troubleshooting issue or an incident occurs, we will have issues because this is open-source.
Learn what your peers think about HAProxy. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
815,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Vijay Muddu - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 4, 2024
HAProxy is very weak in the logging and monitoring part and requires improvement.
AANKITGUPTAA - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 14, 2022
The GUI should be more responsive and show the detailed output of logs.
Roger Seelaender - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 21, 2022
The solution can be improved by controlling TCP behavior better and mandating to clients what the expected outcome must be in order to avoid receiving contestant timeout logs.
Tomislav Horvatović - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 18, 2023
There is room for improvement in HAProxy's dynamic configuration.
Tasos Papadopoulos - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 8, 2022
The reconfigurability in terms of the tooling could be improved and maybe an editor plugin can be added.
SB
Apr 12, 2018
The web stats UI, which provides the status of the health and numbers, could greatly benefit from having a RESTful interface to control the load-balanced nodes. Although there is a hack around the UI (by issuing a POST request to HAProxy with parameters), a RESTful interface would greatly improve the automation process (through Chef and Ansible).
reviewer1633455 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 23, 2021
There is no standardized document available. So, any individual has to work from scratch to work it out. If some standard deployment details are available, it would be helpful for people while deploying it. There should be more documentation on the standard deployment.