# Best Load Balancing Software

  *By [Tian Lin](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/tian-lin)*

   Load balancing software manages incoming network traffic and distributes workloads across multiple servers using algorithms such as round-robin, least connections, or IP hash. This ensures optimal resource utilization, prevents bottlenecks, and delivers high availability, even under heavy or fluctuating traffic conditions.

High-traffic websites and applications use load balancers to allocate requests efficiently, prevent server overload, and ensure fast response times. With features like server health monitoring, load balancers redirect traffic from underperforming servers to maintain uninterrupted service.

Industries like e-commerce, finance, and healthcare rely on load balancers to manage unpredictable traffic, minimize downtime, and ensure seamless operations during failovers or surges. Without them, organizations risk resource wastage, server failures, and degraded user experiences, jeopardizing operational continuity.

Load balancer software includes features like auto-scaling, health monitoring, secure sockets layer (SSL) offloading, session persistence, and DDoS protection. Auto-scaling adjusts resources for fluctuating traffic, while health monitoring ensures traffic is rerouted to functioning servers. SSL offloading handles encryption efficiently, reducing server load. Session persistence maintains user connections to the same server, essential for applications like banking, and DDoS protection safeguards against attacks that could overwhelm the system.

[Load testing tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/load-testing-tools) complement load balancing by simulating traffic surges and evaluating system performance under stress. These tools help organizations identify bottlenecks, test failover strategies, and fine-tune configurations, optimizing the effectiveness of the [best load balancing software](https://learn.g2.com/best-load-balancing-software).

To qualify for inclusion in the Load Balancing category, a product must:

- Monitor incoming network traffic and distribute it across multiple servers using algorithms like round-robin, least connections, random distribution, or IP hash
- Scale workloads dynamically to accommodate fluctuating traffic demands, ensuring efficient use of resources and consistent performance
- Continuously monitor server status to detect failures or underperformance and reroute traffic to available servers to maintain uninterrupted service
- Provide failover mechanisms to sustain operations by redirecting traffic during server outages or unexpected failures
- Support secure data transmission with secure sockets layer(SSL)/transport layer security (TLS) termination or seamless integration with external security tools to ensure robust encryption and decryption processes
- Manage backend server pools with the ability to dynamically add or remove servers as needed
- Perform basic server health checks to ensure traffic is only routed to operational servers





## Category Overview

**Total Products under this Category:** 75


## Trust & Credibility Stats

**Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:**

- 30 Analysts and Data Experts
- 3,800+ Authentic Reviews
- 75+ Products
- Unbiased Rankings

G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category.


## Best Load Balancing Software At A Glance

- **Leader:** [HAProxy](https://www.g2.com/products/haproxy/reviews)
- **Highest Performer:** [Azion](https://www.g2.com/products/azion/reviews)
- **Easiest to Use:** [Progress Kemp LoadMaster](https://www.g2.com/products/progress-kemp-loadmaster/reviews)
- **Top Trending:** [Cloudflare Application Security and Performance](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudflare-application-security-and-performance/reviews)
- **Best Free Software:** [HAProxy](https://www.g2.com/products/haproxy/reviews)


---

**Sponsored**

### HAProxy

HAProxy is an open-source software load balancer and reverse proxy for TCP, QUIC, and HTTP-based applications. It provides high availability, load balancing, and best-in-class SSL processing. HAProxy One is an application delivery and security platform that combines the HAProxy core with enterprise-grade security layers, management and orchestration, cloud-native integration, and more. Platform components: HAProxy Enterprise: a flexible data plane layer for TCP, UDP, QUIC, and HTTP-based applications that provides high-performance load balancing, high availability, an API/AI gateway, container networking, SSL processing, DDoS protection, bot detection and mitigation, global rate limiting, and a web application firewall (WAF). HAProxy Fusion: a scalable control plane that provides full-lifecycle management, observability, and automation of multi-cluster, multi-cloud, and multi-team HAProxy Enterprise deployments, with infrastructure integration for AWS, Kubernetes, Consul, and Prometheus. HAProxy Edge: a globally distributed application delivery network that provides fully managed application delivery and security services, a secure partition between external traffic and origin networks, and threat intelligence enhanced by machine learning that powers the security layers in HAProxy Fusion and HAProxy Enterprise. Learn more at HAProxy.com



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---

## Top-Rated Products (Ranked by G2 Score)
### 1. [HAProxy](https://www.g2.com/products/haproxy/reviews)
  HAProxy is an open-source software load balancer and reverse proxy for TCP, QUIC, and HTTP-based applications. It provides high availability, load balancing, and best-in-class SSL processing. HAProxy One is an application delivery and security platform that combines the HAProxy core with enterprise-grade security layers, management and orchestration, cloud-native integration, and more. Platform components: HAProxy Enterprise: a flexible data plane layer for TCP, UDP, QUIC, and HTTP-based applications that provides high-performance load balancing, high availability, an API/AI gateway, container networking, SSL processing, DDoS protection, bot detection and mitigation, global rate limiting, and a web application firewall (WAF). HAProxy Fusion: a scalable control plane that provides full-lifecycle management, observability, and automation of multi-cluster, multi-cloud, and multi-team HAProxy Enterprise deployments, with infrastructure integration for AWS, Kubernetes, Consul, and Prometheus. HAProxy Edge: a globally distributed application delivery network that provides fully managed application delivery and security services, a secure partition between external traffic and origin networks, and threat intelligence enhanced by machine learning that powers the security layers in HAProxy Fusion and HAProxy Enterprise. Learn more at HAProxy.com


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 868

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [HAProxy](https://www.g2.com/sellers/haproxy)
- **Company Website:** https://www.haproxy.com/
- **Year Founded:** 2013
- **HQ Location:** Newton, MA
- **Twitter:** @HAProxy (21,271 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1032008/ (127 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** DevOps Engineer, Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 41% Mid-Market, 36% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Ease of Use (134 reviews)
- Load Balancing (124 reviews)
- Reliability (123 reviews)
- Performance (107 reviews)
- Configuration Ease (69 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Difficult Configuration (63 reviews)
- Learning Difficulty (58 reviews)
- Complex Setup (56 reviews)
- Complex Configuration (48 reviews)
- Complexity (45 reviews)

### 2. [Akamai Cloud Computing](https://www.g2.com/products/akamai-cloud-computing/reviews)
  Akamai Cloud Computing is a platform and broad set of distributed cloud and edge computing services to help businesses build, deploy, and manage applications and workloads on the world’s most distributed network. Akamai’s distributed cloud computing platform is designed for developers and built by developers. The platform empowers developers to build apps and APIs using open standards designed to maximize portability and avoid lock-in. With core, distributed, and edge services, developers can choose where to deploy and scale compute, data, and security services, based on business needs.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 387

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Akamai Technologies](https://www.g2.com/sellers/akamai-technologies)
- **Company Website:** https://www.akamai.com
- **Year Founded:** 1998
- **HQ Location:** Cambridge, MA
- **Twitter:** @Akamai (115,399 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/3925/ (10,444 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer, Founder
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 67% Small-Business, 15% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Ease of Use (108 reviews)
- Affordable (74 reviews)
- Features (64 reviews)
- Setup Ease (60 reviews)
- Easy Setup (56 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Expensive (24 reviews)
- Limited Features (18 reviews)
- Complex Setup (16 reviews)
- Difficult Setup (15 reviews)
- Missing Features (15 reviews)

### 3. [Cloudflare Application Security and Performance](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudflare-application-security-and-performance/reviews)
  Cloudflare is the connectivity cloud for the "everywhere world," on a mission to help build a better Internet. We provide a unified platform of networking, security, and developer services delivered from a single, intelligent global network that spans hundreds of cities in over 125 countries. This empowers organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to the world's largest enterprises, to make their employees, applications, and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while significantly reducing complexity and cost. Our comprehensive platform includes: - Advanced Security: Protect your online presence with industry-leading DDoS protection, a robust Web Application Firewall (WAF), Bot mitigation, and API security. Implement Zero Trust security to secure remote access, data, and applications for your entire workforce. - Superior Performance: Accelerate website and application loading times globally with our Content Delivery Network (CDN), intelligent DNS, and smart routing capabilities. Optimize images and deliver dynamic content with unparalleled speed. - Powerful Developer Tools: Empower your developers to build and deploy full-stack applications at the edge using Cloudflare Workers (serverless functions), R2 Storage (object storage without egress fees), and D1 (serverless SQL database). Cloudflare helps connect and protect millions of customers globally, offering the control, visibility, and reliability businesses need to work, develop, and accelerate their operations in today's hyperconnected landscape. Our global network continuously learns and adapts, ensuring your digital assets are always protected and performing at their best.


  **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 576

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Cloudflare, Inc.](https://www.g2.com/sellers/cloudflare-inc)
- **Company Website:** https://www.cloudflare.com
- **Year Founded:** 2009
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, California
- **Twitter:** @Cloudflare (276,983 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/407222/ (6,898 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Web Developer, Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 62% Small-Business, 26% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Security (54 reviews)
- Ease of Use (50 reviews)
- Features (45 reviews)
- Performance (36 reviews)
- Reliability (36 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complex User Interface (24 reviews)
- Expensive (24 reviews)
- Complex Setup (19 reviews)
- Complexity (18 reviews)
- Learning Curve (15 reviews)

### 4. [AWS Elastic Load Balancing](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-elastic-load-balancing/reviews)
  Elastic Load Balancing automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses. It can handle the varying load of your application traffic in a single Availability Zone or across multiple Availability Zones. Elastic Load Balancing offers three types of load balancers that all feature the high availability, automatic scaling, and robust security necessary to make your applications fault tolerant.


  **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 87

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Amazon Web Services (AWS)](https://www.g2.com/sellers/amazon-web-services-aws-3e93cc28-2e9b-4961-b258-c6ce0feec7dd)
- **Year Founded:** 2006
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Twitter:** @awscloud (2,223,984 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon-web-services/ (156,424 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NASDAQ: AMZN

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer, DevOps Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 46% Mid-Market, 28% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Security (12 reviews)
- Ease of Use (11 reviews)
- Scalability (11 reviews)
- Cloud Storage (7 reviews)
- Features (7 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complexity (8 reviews)
- Learning Difficulty (6 reviews)
- Expensive (5 reviews)
- Not User-Friendly (4 reviews)
- Complex Configuration (3 reviews)

### 5. [Progress Kemp LoadMaster](https://www.g2.com/products/progress-kemp-loadmaster/reviews)
  Progress Kemp LoadMaster is a high-performance load balancer and ADC (Application Delivery Controller) that maximizes application security availability and resilience in the cloud, as a virtual appliance or as an optimized hardware appliance. LoadMaster offers simplicity of deployment and operations, is backed by a world-class support team and delivers the best value in the market.


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 202

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Progress Software](https://www.g2.com/sellers/progress-software)
- **Company Website:** https://www.progress.com/
- **Year Founded:** 1981
- **HQ Location:** Burlington, MA.
- **Twitter:** @ProgressSW (48,853 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/progress-software/ (4,205 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** IT Manager
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Financial Services
  - **Company Size:** 52% Mid-Market, 36% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Customer Support (27 reviews)
- Ease of Use (26 reviews)
- Easy Setup (21 reviews)
- Simple (19 reviews)
- Load Balancing (18 reviews)

**Cons:**

- GUI Improvements (11 reviews)
- Complex Configuration (9 reviews)
- Difficult Setup (9 reviews)
- UX Improvement (9 reviews)
- Expensive (8 reviews)

### 6. [F5 NGINX Ingress Controller](https://www.g2.com/products/f5-nginx-ingress-controller/reviews)
  NGINX Ingress Controller provides Kubernetes traffic management with API gateway, identity, and observability features. NGINX Ingress Controller provides a feature set to secure, strengthen, and scale containerized apps, including: Advanced app‑centric configuration – Use role‑based access control (RBAC) and self‑service to set up security guardrails (not gates), so teams can manage their apps securely and with agility. Enable multi‑tenancy, reusability, and simpler configs. Visibility and performance monitoring – Pinpoint undesirable behaviors and performance bottlenecks to simplify troubleshooting and make fixes faster. NGINX Ingress resources – A native, type‑safe, and indented configuration style to simplify capabilities like circuit breaking, sophisticated routing, header manipulation, mTLS authentication, and NGINX App Protect Web Application Firewall (WAF).  For users of NGINX, NGINX Ingress resources is designed to make it easy to adapt existing configuration from other environments.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 17

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [F5](https://www.g2.com/sellers/f5-f6451ada-8c47-43f5-b017-58663a045bc5)
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, Washington
- **Twitter:** @F5Networks (1,385 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/4841/ (6,133 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services
  - **Company Size:** 65% Mid-Market, 24% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Configuration Ease (1 reviews)
- Integrations (1 reviews)
- Scaling (1 reviews)
- Traffic Management (1 reviews)


### 7. [Azure Traffic Manager](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-traffic-manager/reviews)
  Azure Traffic Manager is a cloud-based load balancing service that allows you to control the distribution of user traffic for service endpoints in different datacenters.


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 15

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.6/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Microsoft](https://www.g2.com/sellers/microsoft)
- **Year Founded:** 1975
- **HQ Location:** Redmond, Washington
- **Twitter:** @microsoft (13,105,844 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/ (227,697 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** MSFT

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 61% Enterprise, 28% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Cost Saving (1 reviews)
- Ease of Use (1 reviews)
- Setup Ease (1 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Slow Performance (1 reviews)

### 8. [Google Cloud Load Balancing](https://www.g2.com/products/google-cloud-load-balancing/reviews)
  High performance, scalable load balancing on Google Cloud Platform


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 26

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Google](https://www.g2.com/sellers/google)
- **Year Founded:** 1998
- **HQ Location:** Mountain View, CA
- **Twitter:** @google (31,885,216 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1441/ (336,169 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NASDAQ:GOOG

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services
  - **Company Size:** 48% Small-Business, 30% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Ease of Use (3 reviews)
- Integrations (3 reviews)
- Cloud Computing (2 reviews)
- Application Development (1 reviews)
- Azure Services (1 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complexity (2 reviews)
- Limited Customization (1 reviews)
- Security Issues (1 reviews)

### 9. [Azure Load Balancer](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-load-balancer/reviews)
  Azure Load Balancer is a cloud-based service designed to distribute incoming network traffic across multiple virtual machines (VMs) or virtual machine scale sets (VMSS), ensuring high availability and scalability for applications. Operating at Layer 4 of the OSI model, it efficiently manages both inbound and outbound traffic, providing low latency and high throughput for TCP and UDP applications. Key Features and Functionality: - High Availability: Distributes traffic across VMs within and across availability zones, enhancing application resilience. - Scalability: Handles millions of flows for TCP and UDP applications, supporting up to 1,000 instances in a backend pool. - Low Latency: Utilizes pass-through load balancing for ultra-low latency performance. - Health Monitoring: Employs health probes to monitor the status of backend instances, ensuring traffic is directed only to healthy VMs. - Flexible Configuration: Supports multiple front-end IP configurations, inbound and outbound rules, and integration with Network Security Groups (NSGs) for enhanced security. - IPv6 Support: Enables load balancing of IPv6 traffic, catering to modern networking requirements. Primary Value and Problem Solved: Azure Load Balancer addresses the critical need for distributing network traffic efficiently, preventing any single server from becoming a bottleneck. By balancing loads, it ensures applications remain responsive and available, even during high traffic periods or in the event of server failures. This service is essential for businesses aiming to build scalable, high-performance applications without the complexity of managing traffic distribution manually.


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 28

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Microsoft](https://www.g2.com/sellers/microsoft)
- **Year Founded:** 1975
- **HQ Location:** Redmond, Washington
- **Twitter:** @microsoft (13,105,844 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/ (227,697 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** MSFT

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 40% Mid-Market, 37% Small-Business


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Ease of Use (3 reviews)
- Features (3 reviews)
- Scalability (3 reviews)
- Automation (2 reviews)
- Flexibility (2 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complexity (2 reviews)
- Learning Difficulty (2 reviews)
- Billing Issues (1 reviews)
- Cost Issues (1 reviews)
- Poor Customer Support (1 reviews)

### 10. [Azure Application Gateway](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-application-gateway/reviews)
  Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Unlike traditional load balancers that operate at the transport layer (Layer 4), Application Gateway operates at the application layer (Layer 7), allowing it to make routing decisions based on attributes such as URL paths and host headers. This capability provides more control over how traffic is distributed to your applications, enhancing both performance and security. Key Features and Functionality: - Layer 7 Load Balancing: Routes traffic based on HTTP request attributes, enabling more precise control over traffic distribution. - Web Application Firewall (WAF): Protects applications from common web vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting by monitoring and filtering HTTP requests. - SSL/TLS Termination: Offloads SSL/TLS processing to the gateway, reducing the encryption and decryption overhead on backend servers. - Autoscaling: Automatically adjusts the number of gateway instances based on traffic load, ensuring optimal performance and cost efficiency. - Zone Redundancy: Distributes instances across multiple availability zones, enhancing resilience and availability. - URL Path-Based Routing: Directs requests to backend pools based on URL paths, allowing for efficient resource utilization. - Host Header-Based Routing: Routes traffic to different backend pools based on the host header, facilitating multi-site hosting. - Integration with Azure Services: Seamlessly integrates with Azure Traffic Manager for global load balancing and Azure Monitor for centralized monitoring and alerting. Primary Value and User Solutions: Azure Application Gateway provides a scalable and highly available solution for managing web application traffic. By operating at the application layer, it offers intelligent routing capabilities that enhance application performance and reliability. The integrated Web Application Firewall ensures robust security against common web threats, while features like SSL/TLS termination and autoscaling optimize resource utilization and reduce operational overhead. This comprehensive set of features addresses the needs of organizations seeking to build secure, scalable, and efficient web front ends in Azure.


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 138

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Microsoft](https://www.g2.com/sellers/microsoft)
- **Year Founded:** 1975
- **HQ Location:** Redmond, Washington
- **Twitter:** @microsoft (13,105,844 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/ (227,697 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** MSFT

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** DevOps Engineer, Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 47% Enterprise, 33% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Ease of Use (6 reviews)
- Scalability (5 reviews)
- Cost Efficiency (4 reviews)
- Features (4 reviews)
- Integrations (4 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complexity (5 reviews)
- Cost Issues (3 reviews)
- Learning Difficulty (3 reviews)
- Not User-Friendly (3 reviews)
- Complexity Issues (2 reviews)

### 11. [FortiAppSec Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/fortiappsec-cloud/reviews)
  FortiAppSec Cloud - the next evolution of FortiWeb Cloud - simplifies and strengthens web application security and delivery across your cloud environments. This SaaS platform secures network availability and accelerates application performance while delivering consistent security against web-based threats. The AI-driven engine detects zero-day exploits and unknown threats, maximizing detection accuracy while securing the user experience and minimizing false positives. FortiAppSec Cloud is unified platform that provides comprehensive web application and API protection (WAAP) with a single management interface. It includes: • GenAI-ready protection for known and zero-day threat detection • ML-driven bad bot behavioral analysis to fend off sophisticated bots • Advanced API discovery and security • Built-in DAST allows for vulnerability scanning and patching in advance • Global server load balancing and CDN provide optimized application availability and performance. • Threat analytics helps prioritize security events for operational efficiency.


  **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 31

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Fortinet](https://www.g2.com/sellers/fortinet)
- **Company Website:** https://www.fortinet.com
- **Year Founded:** 2000
- **HQ Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
- **Twitter:** @Fortinet (151,464 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/6460/ (16,112 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer & Network Security
  - **Company Size:** 58% Mid-Market, 18% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Security (13 reviews)
- Protection (10 reviews)
- Cybersecurity (8 reviews)
- Ease of Use (8 reviews)
- Features (8 reviews)

**Cons:**

- UX Improvement (9 reviews)
- Slow Performance (8 reviews)
- User Interface Issues (8 reviews)
- Complex Configuration (7 reviews)
- Complex Setup (7 reviews)

### 12. [Azion](https://www.g2.com/products/azion/reviews)
  Azion is the web platform that enables businesses to build, secure, and scale modern applications on a fully managed global infrastructure, with a robust suite of solutions for Application Development, cybersecurity, and AI. Azion allows developers to deploy applications closer to users, ensuring ultra-low latency and high availability. With Functions, you can run distributed serverless code, enhancing performance and reducing costs. For enhanced security, Azion’s Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects against cyber threats. Azion also provides SQL Storage, Object Storage and KV Storage, enabling fast, distributed data storage and retrieval. With Real-Time Metrics and Real-Time Events, businesses gain actionable insights into their applications and infrastructure, ensuring optimal performance and security. Global leaders like Prime Video, Neon, Global Fashion Group, and Radware trust Azion to deliver high-performance, secure digital experiences worldwide. Whether you're building AI-driven applications, securing your digital assets, or scaling globally, Azion provides the fastest path to modern applications. Discover how Azion can transform your digital experiences and empower your business to thrive in the digital age. Visit www.azion.com to learn more about our innovative solutions.


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 31

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Azion](https://www.g2.com/sellers/azion)
- **Year Founded:** 2011
- **HQ Location:** Palo Alto, California, United States
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/aziontech (194 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Retail
  - **Company Size:** 34% Enterprise, 28% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Customer Support (10 reviews)
- Ease of Use (8 reviews)
- Easy Integrations (7 reviews)
- Reliability (7 reviews)
- Performance (6 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Missing Features (2 reviews)
- Complexity (1 reviews)
- Difficult Learning (1 reviews)
- Difficult Learning Curve (1 reviews)
- Expensive (1 reviews)

### 13. [F5 NGINX Plus](https://www.g2.com/products/f5-nginx-plus/reviews)
  NGINX Plus is the all-in-one load balancer, reverse proxy, web server, content cache, and API gateway.


  **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 27

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.2/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [F5](https://www.g2.com/sellers/f5-f6451ada-8c47-43f5-b017-58663a045bc5)
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, Washington
- **Twitter:** @F5Networks (1,385 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/4841/ (6,133 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services
  - **Company Size:** 57% Small-Business, 29% Enterprise


### 14. [Load Balancer Enterprise ADC](https://www.g2.com/products/load-balancer-enterprise-adc/reviews)
  The Loadbalancer.org Enterprise appliance is an easy to use, secure and fully functional ADC. When people rely on your business, downtime simply isn't an option. Talk to us about load balancing that's simple, unbreakable and designed around your system needs. We make it our business to understand yours, inside and out. And well be there every step of the way, to make sure your data keeps flowing so your business can too.


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 32

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.6/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Loadbalancer.org](https://www.g2.com/sellers/loadbalancer-org)
- **Year Founded:** 2003
- **HQ Location:** Wilmington, Delaware
- **Twitter:** @loadbalancerorg (1,555 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/loadbalancer-org (45 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 47% Mid-Market, 38% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Customer Support (9 reviews)
- Load Balancing (6 reviews)
- Reliability (5 reviews)
- Helpful (4 reviews)
- Configuration Ease (3 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complexity (2 reviews)
- Difficult Setup (2 reviews)
- Expensive (1 reviews)
- Limited Compatibility (1 reviews)
- Limited Customization (1 reviews)

### 15. [FortiADC and FortiGSLB](https://www.g2.com/products/fortiadc-and-fortigslb/reviews)
  Fortinet Application Delivery Controller (ADC) appliances optimize the availability, user experience, and scalability of enterprise application delivery.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 10

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Fortinet](https://www.g2.com/sellers/fortinet)
- **Year Founded:** 2000
- **HQ Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
- **Twitter:** @Fortinet (151,464 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/6460/ (16,112 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NASDAQ: FTNT

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 40% Small-Business, 30% Mid-Market


### 16. [TR7 ASP](https://www.g2.com/products/tr7-asp/reviews)
  An application security platform (ASP) designed by IT users angry and frustrated with the time-to-manage complex legacy application delivery and WAF products. TR7's friendly design, dynamic flow-panel, and rich reporting makes it very easy for IT Teams to increase application performance, improve resilience, and prevent cyber attacks faster. The core components of the platform are: ⚖️ Load Balancer 🚪 Access Policy Manager 🌐 Global Traffic Manager 🛡️ WebApp Firewall (WAF) Effective user access controls make it simple to provide the right access and visibility to the right people, enabling IT Network, Application, and Security teams to work more effectively together, and on their respective priorities. Deploy as physical or virtual appliance, or both, depending on your scope and requirements. Friendly cluster options and attractive economies of scale are designed for you to architect resilience and best practice affordably.


  **Average Rating:** 4.9/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 22

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.6/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.9/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [TR7](https://www.g2.com/sellers/tr7)
- **Year Founded:** 2020
- **HQ Location:** Ankara, TR
- **LinkedIn® Page:** http://www.linkedin.com/company/tr7-asp (36 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 50% Enterprise, 41% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Customer Support (11 reviews)
- Load Balancing (8 reviews)
- Ease of Use (7 reviews)
- Reliability (7 reviews)
- Configuration Ease (6 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Complexity (1 reviews)
- Complex Setup (1 reviews)
- Difficult Setup (1 reviews)
- Limited Customization (1 reviews)
- Limited Features (1 reviews)

### 17. [Hostwinds](https://www.g2.com/products/hostwinds/reviews)
  Hostwinds provides dependable cloud solutions at a competitive price. Since founded in 2010, our primary compassion has been providing the best customer service and products to worldwide hosting customers. Our professional support remains available to our customers 24/7 and boasts a 99.9999% uptime guarantee. Hostwinds customers can rest assured knowing their hosting remains in dependable hands.


  **Average Rating:** 4.9/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 419

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.9/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.9/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.9/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.9/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Hostwinds](https://www.g2.com/sellers/hostwinds)
- **Year Founded:** 2010
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Twitter:** @HostWinds (3,525 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/2797536/ (20 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Manager, Admin
  - **Top Industries:** Internet, Consumer Electronics
  - **Company Size:** 105% Small-Business, 0% Enterprise


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Customer Support (4 reviews)
- Helpful (3 reviews)
- Problem Solving (2 reviews)
- Reliability (2 reviews)
- Reliable (2 reviews)


### 18. [F5 NGINX](https://www.g2.com/products/f5-nginx/reviews)
  NGINX, Inc. is the company behind NGINX, the popular open source project trusted by more than 400 million sites. We offer a suite of technologies for developing and delivering modern applications. The NGINX Application Platform enables enterprises undergoing digital transformation to modernize legacy, monolithic applications as well as deliver new, microservices‑based applications. Companies like Netflix, Starbucks, and McDonalds rely on NGINX to reduce costs, improve resiliency, and speed innovation. NGINX investors include Blue Cloud Ventures, e.ventures, Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, MSD Capital, NEA, Runa Capital, and Telstra Ventures. NGINX, Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with an EMEA head office in Cork, Ireland and APAC head office in Singapore. Learn more at https://www.nginx.com/


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 106

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 7.6/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.4/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [F5](https://www.g2.com/sellers/f5-f6451ada-8c47-43f5-b017-58663a045bc5)
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, Washington
- **Twitter:** @F5Networks (1,385 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/4841/ (6,133 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 42% Small-Business, 40% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Configuration Ease (1 reviews)


### 19. [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Load Balancing](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-cloud-infrastructure-load-balancing/reviews)
  Increase application availability and performance with highly-available and provisioned bandwidth load balancing.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 10

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Oracle](https://www.g2.com/sellers/oracle)
- **Year Founded:** 1977
- **HQ Location:** Austin, TX
- **Twitter:** @Oracle (827,310 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/1028/ (199,301 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NYSE:ORCL

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 57% Enterprise, 36% Mid-Market


### 20. [Fastly CDN](https://www.g2.com/products/fastly-fastly-cdn/reviews)
  Fastly is an extension of your infrastructure - speeding up and optimizing the delivery of your web apps, mobile traffic, APIs, and AI workloads, allowing you to scale globally, improve performance, and save on costs. Fastly gives you the control to serve more dynamic, personalized content and to accelerate your content delivery. Deliver your website, apps, video, downloads and more from a single, secure, high performing, global network


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 83

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.6/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Fastly](https://www.g2.com/sellers/fastly)
- **Year Founded:** 2011
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Twitter:** @fastly (28,995 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/2602522/ (1,362 employees on LinkedIn®)
- **Ownership:** NYSE: FSLY

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Who Uses This:** Software Engineer
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 48% Mid-Market, 30% Small-Business


### 21. [F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)](https://www.g2.com/products/f5-big-ip-local-traffic-manager-ltm/reviews)
  F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your applications via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on application and server conditions, extensive connection management, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. LTM's full proxy architecture give users protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM also tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers, ensuring that applications are not just always on, but also are easier to scale and manage. BIG-IP LTM delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server. With BIG-IP LTM, you get an enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.


  **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 33

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.9/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [F5](https://www.g2.com/sellers/f5-f6451ada-8c47-43f5-b017-58663a045bc5)
- **HQ Location:** Seattle, Washington
- **Twitter:** @F5Networks (1,385 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/4841/ (6,133 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Banking
  - **Company Size:** 67% Enterprise, 21% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Configuration Ease (1 reviews)
- Features (1 reviews)
- Load Balancing (1 reviews)
- Reliability (1 reviews)
- Security (1 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Debugging Issues (1 reviews)
- Difficult Setup (1 reviews)
- Expensive (1 reviews)

### 22. [Traefik](https://www.g2.com/products/traefik/reviews)
  Traefik is a leading modern reverse proxy and ingress controller that makes deploying services and APIs easy. Traefik integrates with your existing infrastructure components and configures itself automatically and dynamically. Traefik is designed to be as simple as possible to operate, but capable of handling large, highly-complex deployments across a wide range of environments and protocols in public, private, and hybrid clouds. It also comes with a powerful set of middlewares that enhance its capabilities to include load balancing, API gateway, orchestrator ingress, and more. About Traefik Labs Traefik Labs helps organizations adopt and scale cloud-native architectures by providing a modern, intuitive, and open platform that reimagines application connectivity and API management, paving the way for seamless operations and enhanced productivity. Traefik’s flagship open source project, Traefik Proxy has surpassed 3 billion downloads and 45,000 GitHub stars continuing to be one of the fastest-growing technologies in the cloud native ecosystem. It has maintained a 6-year streak as the #1 API Gateway by OSS Insight, and ranked among the top 15 most downloaded images from Docker Hub.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 32

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 8.2/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Traefik Labs](https://www.g2.com/sellers/traefik-labs)
- **Company Website:** https://traefik.io/
- **Year Founded:** 2016
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Twitter:** @traefik (11,147 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/17887475/ (37 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Computer Software, Information Technology and Services
  - **Company Size:** 54% Small-Business, 29% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Configuration Ease (2 reviews)
- Customization (1 reviews)
- Documentation (1 reviews)
- Ease of Implementation (1 reviews)
- Ease of Use (1 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Navigation Issues (1 reviews)
- Poor Documentation (1 reviews)

### 23. [Edgenexus ADC (Application Delivery Controller)](https://www.g2.com/products/edgenexus-adc-application-delivery-controller/reviews)
  Edgenexus ADC (Application Delivery Controller) is an advanced, software-based solution designed to optimize, secure, and accelerate the delivery of applications across various network environments. This innovative technology focuses on enhancing application performance while ensuring security and reliability, making it an essential tool for organizations that require their applications to remain highly available and responsive, even in demanding conditions. The Edgenexus ADC serves a diverse audience, including enterprises, service providers, and public sector organizations. It is particularly beneficial for IT teams involved in application delivery, network operations, and DevOps initiatives. By providing a robust platform for managing application traffic, Edgenexus ADC addresses a range of use cases, from load balancing and SSL offloading to web acceleration and application-layer security. Its versatility allows it to be deployed on-premises, in cloud environments, or as a virtual appliance, catering to the unique needs of various infrastructures. One of the standout features of Edgenexus ADC is its intuitive user interface, which simplifies the configuration and management of traffic policies. Users can visually manage their settings without the need for complex scripting, thanks to the built-in flightPATH traffic management engine. This user-friendly approach not only reduces the learning curve for new users but also enhances operational efficiency for experienced teams. Additionally, real-time analytics and health monitoring capabilities provide valuable insights into application performance, enabling proactive management and quick adjustments as needed. Security is another critical aspect of Edgenexus ADC, as it includes powerful Web Application Firewall (WAF) capabilities to safeguard against Layer 7 threats. This feature is particularly important for organizations that prioritize both application performance and security. By integrating these security measures, Edgenexus ADC ensures that applications are not only fast and reliable but also protected from potential vulnerabilities and attacks. Overall, Edgenexus ADC is designed for mission-critical environments where downtime is not an option. With its high throughput, rapid deployment capabilities, and enterprise-grade support, it provides a comprehensive solution for organizations looking to deliver secure, always-on applications. The combination of performance, flexibility, and security makes Edgenexus ADC a valuable asset for any organization aiming to enhance its application delivery strategy.


  **Average Rating:** 4.8/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 11

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.7/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Edgenexus](https://www.g2.com/sellers/edgenexus)
- **Company Website:** https://www.edgenexus.io/
- **Year Founded:** 2007
- **HQ Location:** Marlow, GB
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/edgenexus (14 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 36% Enterprise, 27% Small-Business


### 24. [GCore Load Balancer](https://www.g2.com/products/gcore-load-balancer/reviews)
  Ensure the availability of web applications during spikes or bursts of traffic.


  **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 21

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.6/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 7.5/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Gcore](https://www.g2.com/sellers/gcore)
- **Year Founded:** 2014
- **HQ Location:** Luxembourg, Europe
- **Twitter:** @gcore_official (2,936 Twitter followers)
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/g-core (475 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Company Size:** 50% Small-Business, 36% Mid-Market


### 25. [Portkey](https://www.g2.com/products/portkey/reviews)
  Portkey is the essential control panel for AI-powered applications, trusted by thousands of dev teams worldwide. Our comprehensive suite includes: - AI Gateway: Seamlessly manage and route your AI requests - Guardrails: Ensure reliability and security in your AI operations - Observability Suite: Gain deep insights into your AI app performance - Prompt Management: Create, manage, version, and deploy prompts with ease across all AI providers. Improve your AI app development process with Portkey's reliable and cost-effective solution, designed for speed and performance.


  **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0
  **Total Reviews:** 18

**User Satisfaction Scores:**

- **Ease of Use:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 8.9/10)
- **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?:** 9.7/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10)
- **Quality of Support:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10)
- **Ease of Admin:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.8/10)


**Seller Details:**

- **Seller:** [Portkey](https://www.g2.com/sellers/portkey)
- **Year Founded:** 2023
- **HQ Location:** San Francisco, US
- **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/portkey-ai (29 employees on LinkedIn®)

**Reviewer Demographics:**
  - **Top Industries:** Computer Software
  - **Company Size:** 61% Small-Business, 39% Mid-Market


#### Pros & Cons

**Pros:**

- Easy Integrations (8 reviews)
- Ease of Use (7 reviews)
- Integrations (7 reviews)
- Cost Optimization (6 reviews)
- Features (6 reviews)

**Cons:**

- Poor Documentation (4 reviews)
- Software Bugs (4 reviews)
- Limited Features (3 reviews)
- Missing Features (3 reviews)
- Alert Issues (2 reviews)



## Parent Category

[Hosting Providers](https://www.g2.com/categories/hosting)



## Related Categories

- [Container Networking Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/container-networking)
- [DDoS Protection Solutions](https://www.g2.com/categories/ddos-protection)
- [Web Application Firewalls (WAF)](https://www.g2.com/categories/web-application-firewall-waf)



---

## Buyer Guide

### What You Should Know About Load Balancing Software

### What is load balancing software?

Load balancing software is designed to allow websites and applications to run, unfaltering, through hundreds, thousands, and even millions of simultaneous connections. By considering numerous rules, methods, and conditions, load balancing solutions work to ensure no servers within a server cluster or server pool become overloaded.

Traffic makes load balancing necessary. As servers experience higher traffic, response times can begin to slow down, resulting in a worse end-user experience. Also, continuous strain on servers can cause permanent hardware damage, meaning downtime might lead to hardware repair or replacement costs (in addition to other downtime-related revenue losses). Load balancing helps to mitigate the likelihood of these issues, acting as a gatekeeper for incoming server connection requests to ensure no single server or server pool gets overloaded.

Server failures can still happen even with load balancing in place, so most solutions will either offer backup solutions in conjunction with load balancing or they’ll be designed to integrate with [backup](https://www.g2.com/articles/what-is-backup) solutions seamlessly. This is an extra layer of protection for companies’ server stacks and data.

### How does load balancing software work?

Load balancing software works by distributing incoming network traffic across multiple servers. At its core, a load balancer acts as a [reverse proxy](https://www.g2.com/articles/reverse-proxy), directing client requests to backend servers based on different algorithms. These algorithms can include:

- Round-robin, which distributes requests sequentially
- Least connections, which sends requests to servers with the fewest active connections
- IP hash, which directs traffic based on the client’s IP address

When a client request arrives, the load balancer determines which [server](https://www.g2.com/glossary/server-definition) can handle the request based on real-time analysis and predefined criteria. Load balancing software continuously monitors server health using heartbeat checks or application-layer health probes to ensure that traffic is directed only to operational servers. If a server fails or becomes overloaded, the load balancer reroutes traffic to other servers in the pool without disrupting the user experience.

Modern load balancer software operate at various levels of the OSI model, with Layer 4 solutions dealing with TCP/UDP traffic and Layer 7 solutions managing data based on application-layer information, allowing for more complex routing decisions based on content of requests. These capabilities enable load balancing software to effectively manage traffic, improve application scalability, and improve system resilience.

### What are the types of load balancers? 

**Hardware load balancers** are dedicated physical devices that manage traffic at a high performance level. Known for their reliability and speed, they feature proprietary hardware to handle large volumes of traffic. They are commonly used in environments where speed and security are important, such as in large [data centers](https://www.g2.com/glossary/data-center-definition).

**Software load balancers** are software applications that are installed on standard servers. These load balancers offer flexibility and scalability, as users can modify, update, or deploy them across various environments. They are cost-effective and used in cloud-based architectures that require dynamic resourcer allocation. 

**Virtual load balancers** act as [virtual machines](https://www.g2.com/articles/what-is-a-virtual-machine) that can be deployed on any server infrastructure. They combine the flexibility of software load balancers with the capacity to handle large traffic volumes like hardware solutions. These are ideal for virtualized data centers and cloud environments.

**Cloud-based load balancers** are services provided by cloud providers (like AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Google Cloud Load Balancing, or Azure Load Balancer) that distribute network and application traffic across cloud resources. They are suitable for businesses with fluctuating web traffic.

**Global server load balancers (GSLB)** operate at the DNS level and direct traffic based on server location and user proximity to optimize [user experience](https://www.g2.com/glossary/user-experience). Organizations use them to balance loads across multiple geographic locations and ensure efficient location-based traffic management.

**Layer 4 load balancers** balance traffic at the transport layer (TCP/UDP) and make decisions based on data from network and transport layers without inspecting packet contents. They are suitable for basic balancing of non-HTTP traffic.

**Layer 7 load balancers** operate at the application layer and make more sophisticated decisions by inspecting packet content. As a result, they allow actions based on HTTP headers, cookies, and application data. Companies use these load balancers for advanced traffic regulation and content-sensitive tasks.

### What are load balancing algorithms?

Load balancing methods focus less on specific types of software and more on specific ways to distribute traffic. The typical load distribution methods are as follows.

**Random assignment **

As the name suggests, a random assignment takes an incoming connection and assigns it from the client side to a server from the server pool. This distribution relies on the mathematical law of large numbers, which implies that when a large enough volume randomly assigns values among a set, the distribution of that volume will be about equivalent.

**Round robin**

In this method, every server in the server pool has its own IP address but each is uniquely linked to a master IP address for server calls. When a server call is made, that call is assigned through the master IP address to a unique server in order, yielding the "round robin" name.

**Source IP hash**

[IP hashing](https://www.g2.com/articles/load-balancing-algorithms#types:~:text=throughout%20the%20cycle.-,IP%20hash%20method,-The%20load%20balancer) relies on the IP address from the incoming request to determine which server handles the connection. Server assignment depends on the number of servers available and rules surrounding the hash key that is generated by the IP hashing software.

**Least connection**

The least connection method of load balancing takes into account the number of connections to each server as opposed to the active server workload. Incoming connections to the server pool are assigned automatically to the server with the least number of active connections. 

### Examples of load balancing

- **Website traffic management:** Large-scale e-commerce platforms use load balancer software to manage user requests during peak shopping events like Black Friday. Load balancers distribute incoming HTTP requests across multiple web servers, ensuring fast page load times and reliability.
- **Cloud computing services:** [Cloud service providers](https://www.g2.com/categories/cloud-computing-platforms) such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure employ load balancing solutions to optimize resource usage across server farms. This enables them to provide scalable and reliable cloud services, automatically adjusting the distribution of traffic as demand fluctuates.
- [Content delivery networks](https://www.g2.com/categories/content-delivery-network-cdn) **(CDNs):** These companies use load balancing as part of their CDN infrastructure to deliver web content to users from the closest geographical locations. This reduces latency and speeds up the user experience by dynamically routing requests to the nearest or least-congested server.
- **Enterprise application deployments:** Large organizations deploy load balancers within private data centers to manage traffic for enterprise applications such as CRM systems or internal portals. 
- [Internet of Things](https://www.g2.com/glossary/internet-of-things-definition) **(IoT) networks:** Smart city projects or large-scale IoT deployments use load balancers to manage data streams from a multitude of devices, directing traffic efficiently to data processing centers that analyze and act on the gathered data.
- **Financial services:** Banks and financial institutions use load balancing to handle complex transaction processing systems that require high availability and quick response times. By distributing loads across multiple systems, they maintain service continuity and adhere to stringent timing requirements for transaction processing.
- **Gaming servers:** Online gaming platforms depend on load balancing to manage gaming sessions and provide seamless multiplayer experiences. Load balancers direct player connections to the least busy servers, optimizing gameplay performance and reducing lag.

### What are the common features of load balancing solutions?

The following are some core features within load balancing software that can help users with cost savings, reduced downtime, and increased performance of workloads:

- **Request distribution:** Load balancing software uses one or more distribution methods to equally allocate connection requests among several servers.
- **Scaling:** The software adapts the number of servers being used for load distribution based on the amount of incoming traffic.
- **Distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection:** Load balancing software offers security settings to help [prevent DDoS attacks](https://learn.g2.com/how-to-stop-a-ddos-attack) on a company’s servers.
- **Asymmetric load distribution:** This feature allows companies to manually denote some servers to take a lesser share of the load. This is beneficial if a company is using older servers alongside newer ones or if the overall health of some servers is not as great as that of others.
- **Server health monitoring:** The server health monitoring feature runs periodic checks on application servers to verify the overall functionality of each. This helps make sure that well-functioning servers take the brunt of traffic if need be.
- **SSL offloading:** This feature allows load balancers to handle SSL encryption/decryption, reducing the processing burden on application servers. By managing secure connections independently, SSL offloading enhances performance and security.
- **Content caching:** By storing frequently requested data closer to users and reducing the need for repeated requests to backend servers, [content caching](https://learn.g2.com/what-is-cached-data) improves response times and reduces load on application servers.
- **Advanced analytics and reporting:** Load balancers provide detailed insights into traffic patterns, server health, and user behaviors, which support informed decision-making for performance optimization and capacity planning.

### What are the benefits of load balancing?

Load balancing is used by organizations of all sizes to enable and maintain access to applications and provide an improved end-user experience. Some of the core benefits offered by load balancing solutions include scalability, efficiency, and reliability.

- **Smooth functionality:** This is the reason load balancing software exists. By equally distributing server load over several members of the server pool, load balancing solutions create smoother functionality in server access, webpage loading, and application interactions.
- **Dynamics:** Load balancing software is built for handling dynamic needs. During low traffic time, connections are handled only by the servers that are absolutely necessary to have online. When there is an influx of high traffic, the software helps bring servers online to handle the stress and equally distribute the incoming connections so that end-user experiences are all fluid and without disruption.
- [Disaster recovery](https://www.g2.com/glossary/disaster-recovery-definition) **:** In the event of a server failure or data center outage, load balancers can redirect traffic to alternative locations, aiding in disaster recovery efforts. This capability improves business continuity and operational stability.
- **Global traffic management:** Businesses operating across multiple geographic locations use load balancers to distribute traffic globally, reducing latency for users by connecting them to the nearest available server. 
- **End-user satisfaction:** Nothing drives end users away from a website or application quite like having a bad user experience. Slow loading, slow responses, and page failures can dissuade users from returning and make the company’s employees reluctant to use their own infrastructure. Load balancing solutions help smooth the overall user experience, preventing these frustrations.
- **Cost effectiveness:** These solutions are more affordable and at the same time easier to provision when compared to hardware solutions. One can save money on the setup and maintenance costs by deploying a load balancer. 
- [Scalability](https://www.g2.com/glossary/scalability) **:** Software-based load balancing solutions allow servers to scale up and down on demand. In addition to this, they can be quickly put into the existing infrastructure without disturbing an application’s accessibility.

### Who uses load balancing software?

**Server administrators and IT teams:** Load balancing software is used mainly by server administrators and IT teams that get involved with server traffic handling. Since the software is specifically focused on mitigating server traffic, load balancing solutions don’t have much use outside these teams.

### Software related to load balancing software

Related solutions that can be used together with load balancing software include:

[Load testing software](https://www.g2.com/categories/load-testing) **:** While load balancing solutions help manage traffic once the servers are live, load testing software ensures that servers can handle the traffic. Load testing solutions will hit servers with a variety of load scenarios to verify they can function properly, even under strenuous situations.

[Application performance monitoring (APM) software](https://www.g2.com/categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm) **:** APM solutions can be used as potential indicators of when current load balancing isn’t functioning properly. Using APM software in conjunction with load balancing solutions adds an extra layer of performance monitoring for a company’s servers.

### Disadvantages of load balancing

Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges. 

- **Asymmetric balancing:** Certain methods of load balancing can lead to an unequal distribution of traffic. IP hashing, for example, can strain certain servers over others because of the call sources for connection requests. Round robin might create undue strain on certain servers due to average connection resource consumption being higher on some servers in the list than others. Each method has the possibility of presenting with an occasional unbalancing.
- **Single point of failure:** While load balancers are designed to enhance reliability, they themselves can become a single point of failure if not properly architected with redundancy. If a load balancer fails without a backup in place, it can lead to system downtime and service disruption.
- **Latency overhead:** Introducing a load balancer into the network path can add some latency to requests, as traffic must pass through an additional layer before reaching its intended destination. This may slightly degrade performance depending on the complexity of the load balancing rules and the processing power of the balancer itself.
- **Dependency on network design:** Load balancing effectiveness is heavily reliant on the underlying network design. Poor[network architecture](https://learn.g2.com/network-topology) can diminish the benefits of load balancing, resulting in bottlenecks or uneven traffic distribution that could negate performance gains.
- **Incompatibility with certain protocols:** Some load balancers may not work well with specific protocols, particularly older or proprietary protocols, which can limit the versatility of load balancing solutions in specific use cases.

### How to choose the best load balancing software for your business?

#### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Load Balancing Software

If a company is just starting out and looking to purchase the first load balancing solution, or maybe an organization needs to update a legacy system--wherever a business is in its buying process, g2.com can help select the best load balancing software for the business.

The particular business pain points might be related to managing traffic spikes and preventing spikes on a single server. Administrators route network traffic to different servers with the help of these solutions. If the company has a lot of servers in place and huge traffic, the need is to look for a solution that can help look at the servers and determine which server to send the request to. Users should think about the pain points and jot them down; these should be used to help create a checklist of criteria. Additionally, the buyer must determine the number of employees who will need to use this software, as this drives the number of licenses they are likely to buy. 

Taking a holistic overview of the business and identifying pain points can help the team springboard into creating a checklist of criteria. The checklist serves as a detailed guide that includes both necessary and nice-to-have features including budget, number of users, integrations, security requirements, cloud or on-premises solutions, and more.

Depending on the scope of the deployment, it might be helpful to produce an RFI, a one-page list with a few bullet points describing what is needed from a load balancing software.

#### Compare Load Balancing Software Products

**Create a long list**

From meeting the business functionality needs to implementation, vendor evaluations are an essential part of the software buying process. For ease of comparison after all demos are complete, it helps to prepare a consistent list of questions regarding specific needs and concerns to ask each vendor.

**Create a short list**

From the long list of vendors, it is helpful to narrow down the list of vendors and come up with a shorter list of contenders, preferably no more than three to five. With this list in hand, businesses can produce a matrix to compare the features and pricing of the various solutions.

**Conduct demos**

To ensure the comparison is thoroughgoing, the user should demo each solution on the shortlist with the same use case and datasets. This will allow the business to evaluate like for like and see how each vendor stacks up against the competition. 

#### Selection of Load Balancing Software

**Choose a selection team**

Before getting started, it's crucial to create a winning team that will work together throughout the entire process, from identifying pain points to implementation. The software selection team should consist of members of the organization who have the right interest, skills, and time to participate in this process. A good starting point is to aim for three to five people who fill roles such as the main decision maker, project manager, process owner, system owner, or staffing subject matter expert, as well as a technical lead, IT administrator, or security administrator. In smaller companies, the vendor selection team may be smaller, with fewer participants multitasking and taking on more responsibilities.

**Negotiation**

Just because something is written on a company’s pricing page, does not mean it is final (although some companies will not budge). It is imperative to open up a conversation regarding pricing and licensing. For example, the vendor may be willing to give a discount for multi-year contracts or for recommending the product to others.

#### Final decision

After this stage, and before going all in, it is recommended to roll out a test run or pilot program to test adoption with a small sample size of users. If the tool is well used and well received, the buyer can be confident that the selection was correct. If not, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.

### Load balancing software trends

While the idea of load balancing itself is unlikely to change, the methods in which it is accomplished are far more likely to evolve.

**Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning**

As [AI](https://www.g2.com/articles/what-is-artificial-intelligence) and machine learning software advance, they can become increasingly valuable in assisting companies manage incoming loads. By analyzing past and active data, these tools can bolster load balancing by helping to intelligently manage traffic across servers.

### Researched and written by [Anindita Sengupta](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/anindita-sengupta)