HAProxy Reviews

Name: HAProxy
Brand: HAProxy
Rating: 4 (42 reviews)

Vendor: HAProxy

4.1 out of 5

42 reviews
91% willing to recommend

1,399 followers

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What is HAProxy?

HAProxy is considered by many in the industry to be one of the fastest and most popular and trusted software load balancer products in the marketplace today. Organizations are able to immediately deploy HAProxy solutions to enable websites and applications to optimize performance, security, and observability. HAProxy solutions are available to scale to any environment.

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HAProxy is the #4 ranked solution in top Application Delivery Controllers and #5 ranked solution in top Service Mesh solutions. PeerSpot users give HAProxy an average rating of 8.2 out of 10. HAProxy is most commonly compared to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway: HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway. HAProxy is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 57% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 20% of all views.

Helped 814,572 peers since 2012

Featured reviews

Mehdi El Filahi

Co-Founder at tenekit

What I like best about the product is its simplicity and speed. When you need to set up a load balancer quickly, HAProxy offers options like sticky sessions and round-robin. It's also fast to configure, including adding SSL for security. While it may have fewer options than other solutions like F5, HAProxy gets the job done for basic load-balancing tasks. The reliability features of HAProxy were particularly useful in a scenario where I needed to test load balancing between two Tomcats. Since these domains were inaccessible, I set up a third Docker with HAProxy, which had access to the Tomcat domains. I then configured HAProxy to handle the load balancing. This setup allowed the client to interact with HAProxy. The solution's integration with other elements is easy.

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Vijay Muddu

Manager server admin and security at Vivaconnect

If a Linux user who is fairly good with Linux products takes care of HAProxy's installation part, it can be done easily. It is possible to deploy the product within one to three hours with a fair amount of knowledge. The product's deployment process is straightforward, as it can be easily managed with the help of HAProxy's document, which is available on its website. Users should be familiar with some Linux commands. The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises models. HAProxy is similar to engine NGINX, especially if you have a small company since you need only one or two people to take care of the deployment process. If you have a big enterprise, five to ten people are required to take care of the deployment phase.

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AANKITGUPTAA

Consultant at Pi DATACENTERS

The product is an open-source load balancer. We deploy it for our application as a front-end server where all the users come on that particular HAProxy server, and it is redirected to our back-end servers It helps include the reverse proxy or more security modules for enhancing security. It helps…

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HAProxy mindshare

Product category:

As of November 2024, the mindshare of HAProxy in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category stands at 12.9%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Key learnings from peers

Last updated Sep 9, 2024

Valuable Features

Users find HAProxy valuable for application load balancing, TCP/IP Layer 4 functionality, protocol-level decisions, ease of deployment and scalability, open-source benefits, customization, stability, user-friendly interface, simplicity, and cost savings. They appreciate features like WAF, forwarding proxy, blocking non-applicable requests, and integration ease.

"We use the solution for load balancing."
"What I like best about the product is its simplicity and speed. When you need to set up a load balancer quickly, HAProxy offers options like sticky sessions and round-robin. It's also fast to configure, including adding SSL for security. While it may have fewer options than other solutions like F5, HAProxy gets the job done for basic load-balancing tasks."
"The solution is effective in managing our traffic."

Room for Improvement

HAProxy needs better documentation, improved pricing, and enhanced monitoring and reporting. Users find customization and troubleshooting challenging and seek more programming integration. The dashboards and user interface require improvements for better visibility and functionality. Logging and dynamic configuration changes can be tough to manage and require enhancements for clarity. Stability issues arise under heavy traffic, and better security models are needed. Integrations and support for multiple languages are also areas requiring attention.

"The solution's dashboards and reports could be improved."
"Improving the documentation with multiple examples and scenarios would be beneficial. Most users encounter similar situations, so having a variety of scenarios readily available on the tool's website would be helpful. For instance, if I were part of the HAProxy team, I'd create a webpage with different scenarios and provide files for each scenario. This way, users wouldn't have to start from scratch every time."
"The product does not have any new technologies."

ROI

The ROI from HAProxy is rated four out of five. It offers a good return by replacing OEM solutions with an open-source option, saving on traditional load balancer costs. It aids in customer retention and is preferred for managing traffic without high-end expenses.

Pricing

HAProxy is predominantly free, as it is open-source software. Many users leverage the freeware version, finding it fits well within their tech stack. The setup is straightforward, typically taking a day for completion. Some respondents mentioned inexpensive licensing models but did not provide specific costs. Overall, enterprises appreciate the cost-effectiveness and flexibility offered by HAProxy due to its open-source nature.

"HAProxy is an open-source solution."
"The tool is open-source."
"The product is open source."

Popular Use Cases

The primary use case of HAProxy is for load balancing across various applications and environments, including production, UAT, and financial trading systems. It is also employed for managing Redis clusters, controlling IP addresses, blocking invalid requests, SSL termination, and handling high-traffic API gateways. HAProxy is used as a reverse proxy for different environments, balancing HTTP and TCP traffic, and forwarding traffic for SMTP, SMPP, and email services.

Service and Support

Customers find that HAProxy's customer service and support are mostly reliant on self-service and community resources due to its open-source nature. Some users opt for premium support, which is responsive but could benefit from improved documentation. Several customers express a preference for self-research through available online resources. Support is described as good but impacted by communication delays and global shift changes. Many would appreciate better online documentation and knowledge bases.

Deployment

HAProxy's initial setup is generally straightforward and easy, especially for those with container and VMware knowledge. Documentation is useful but may require customization. Most setups are quick, ranging from minutes to a few days. Some find it as simple as other load balancers, while others consider it challenging and comparable to F5. Users with Linux expertise can deploy HAProxy swiftly, but larger enterprises might need more personnel for deployment. Automation tools like Terraform can expedite the process.

Scalability

HAProxy is considered highly scalable, supporting various user loads effectively. Users have reported it can efficiently handle thousands of connections daily. Many find it suitable for small to large enterprises, with some scaling up using multiple servers. Performance depends on the underlying hardware, but no significant issues with load handling have been mentioned. Users rate its scalability features positively, highlighting its adaptability and ease of scaling both the application and backend environments.

Stability

HAProxy is frequently updated as it is open-source. Users describe it as rock solid, generally stable, and reliable. Stability issues are rare, often linked to configuration or compatibility with other products. HAProxy efficiently handles failures, maintaining stability even if nodes go down. Users rate its stability highly, often eight or nine out of ten. It passes stability tests and is deemed very stable by infrastructure teams. Stability improvements are occasionally suggested.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our HAProxy Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

University

Educational Organization

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Retailer

Media Company

Non Profit

Real Estate/Law Firm

Hospitality Company

Transportation Company

Wholesaler/Distributor

Construction Company

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Pharma/Biotech Company

Legal Firm

Outsourcing Company

Logistics Company

Performing Arts

Compare HAProxy with alternative products

Learn more about HAProxy

HAProxy is an open-source product and has a robust, active, reliable community. The solutions are continually tested and improved on by the community. HAProxy offers a dynamic design to support the most modern architectures, microservices, and deployment environments (appliances, containers, virtual, and cloud).

HAProxy utilizes a cloud-native protocol, which makes it a complete solution for cloud services such as Red Hat OpenShift, OVH, Rackspace, Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and more. It also can be used as the reference load balancer in OpenStack.

HAProxy Products

HAProxy One: This is a next-gen end-to-end application delivery platform created to secure and streamline modern application architectures. It offers a complete suite of solutions, such as application delivery software, turnkey, and appliance services observed and administered through a central control plane. The product supplies application acceleration, CDN, DDoS, bot management, WAF capabilities, and load balancing.

HAProxy Fusion Control Plane: This product enables organizations to streamline workflows, arrange traffic routing and security protocols, enhance the speed of delivery, and scale out of the organization’s applications. HAProxy Fusion Control Plane offers an intuitive user interface to observe and control the complete product lineup and API for administering numerous fleets of HAProxy Enterprise servers, either in the cloud or on premises.

HAProxy Edge: This product offering is an application delivery network (ADN) that provides a broad array of turnkey application services with amazing scale and complete visibility. Services include application and content acceleration, advanced security, and load balancing.

HAProxy ALOHA Hardware or Virtual Load Balancer: This product is a virtual load balancer or plug-and-play hardware constructed upon HAProxy Enterprise that is designed to support proxying at Layer 4 and Layer 7. It has a user-friendly GUI, simple deployment, and no limit on backend servers, making it a complete product for organizations desiring a reliable system to provide high-end load distribution for critical services.

HAProxy Enterprise Kubernetes Ingress Controller: This product is designed to facilitate smooth traffic flow into a Kubernetes cluster. It is able to automatically discover anomalies and changes in an organization's Kubernetes infrastructure and provide precise distribution of traffic to healthy pods, with no downtime caused by poor pod health or scaling changes. The product comes with an embedded WAF to optimize the security of an organization’s applications running in Kubernetes.

HAProxy Enterprise: This product is the enterprise-class edition of HAProxy offering a dynamic and sturdy code base with next-generation features, an enterprise suite of add-ons, professional services, and trusted support.
- Cluster-wide tracking and rate limiting
- Advanced DDoS and bot management
- Web application firewall
- Reliable expert support
- High performance modules
- Device detection and geolocation
- Real-time dashboard

Reviews from Real Users

“Having the right load balancing solution – which is what HAProxy is – and protection in place gives organizations peace of mind.” - Nathanel S., Platform Architect at SES

“I use HAProxy for individuals who can not buy low balancers. I built NFV in a box and send individuals a pathway into an HAProxy VM. The setup was not difficult; it usually takes a day to complete for a VPC. When it comes to pricing, HAProxy is free.” - Nasir O., Network & Cloud Architect at Koala Compute Inc.

HAProxy was previously known as HAProxy Community Edition, HAProxy Enterprise Edition, HAPEE.