--- title: Riverbed SteelHead Reviews meta_title: 'Riverbed SteelHead Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 13 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Riverbed SteelHead works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 13 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-09' parent_category: name: IT Infrastructure url: https://www.g2.com/categories/it-infrastructure --- # Riverbed SteelHead Reviews **Vendor:** Riverbed Technology **Category:** [WAN Optimization Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/wan-optimization) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 13 ## About Riverbed SteelHead The performance of networks and applications directly impacts business productivity. Riverbed draws from nearly two decades of experience in driving network and application performance over Wide Area Networks with its flagship offering, SteelHead. SteelHead delivers the underlying technology that helps enterprises of all sizes maximize the efficiency and performance of the networks and applications used to run modern business. In today’s hybrid world of cloud workloads, SaaS applications, Internet Broadband and MPLS, the SteelHead family of products and solutions is built upon 4 core principles required for any organization interested in making sure networks and apps perform reliably and securely while enhancing the user experience. ## Riverbed SteelHead Reviews ### 1. Provides some benefit in specific use cases **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** brian k. | aspiring CTP, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2021 **What do you like best about Riverbed SteelHead?** We had a specific use case where we host MS files on premises and the users who are overseas were struggling with bad performance. The Steelhead mobile client did a great job accelerating this traffic to improve the users experience and shortened file open times from 60 seconds to 10-15 seconds. **What do you dislike about Riverbed SteelHead?** It doesnt accelerate much else as almost all other apps and file stores are in the cloud and there's limited opportunity to do anything with both encrypted and cloud hosted data. **What problems is Riverbed SteelHead solving and how is that benefiting you?** Slow file opening and saving. We recognized 40-80% speed improvements. ### 2. Riverbed SteelHead - A classic, reliable and trusted WAN Optimizer **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gopal Krishan M. | Manager Network Engineering & Architect, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2022 **What do you like best about Riverbed SteelHead?** Data, Application & Transport streamlining with elastic performance **What do you dislike about Riverbed SteelHead?** Non-intuitive and difficult to understand technologies and configurations. **Recommendations to others considering Riverbed SteelHead:** Ensure your tech staff is adequately trained with the free KT they provide while delivering the product. **What problems is Riverbed SteelHead solving and how is that benefiting you?** WAN acceleration for poor applications and much faster delivery. ### 3. Great product for wan optimization. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohammad I. | Network Security Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 23, 2021 **What do you like best about Riverbed SteelHead?** Products works excellently even with very low bandwidth links. **What do you dislike about Riverbed SteelHead?** In beginning it was little hard to setup as the product was not having much tutorials on youtube and other forums. **Recommendations to others considering Riverbed SteelHead:** Highly recommended for wan optimization.. **What problems is Riverbed SteelHead solving and how is that benefiting you?** It will help you if you have offices with lower wan links then it will assist you to boost up the wan speed. ## Riverbed SteelHead Discussions - [What does Riverbed Technology do?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-does-riverbed-technology-do) - 1 comment - [What is SteelHead CX?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-steelhead-cx) - 1 comment - [View Riverbed SteelHead pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/riverbed-steelhead/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-14+12%3A25%3A01+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=afa1e745-8215-4f40-8442-5d3a8c21eafd&secure%5Btoken%5D=5ca72e845d5c09823d099c2545cea95ff9906a33b188d0e6575c5b0c0cec66bb&format=llm_user) ## Riverbed SteelHead Features **Network** - Traffic Overview - Cost - ROI - Bandwidth **Application Performance** - Response Times - Traffic Optimization - Application Issues - Increase Productivity - Improved Performance ## Top Riverbed SteelHead Alternatives - [Barracuda CloudGen Firewall](https://www.g2.com/products/barracuda-cloudgen-firewall/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (52 reviews) - [WAN Optimization](https://www.g2.com/products/wan-optimization/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (10 reviews) - [Windstream OfficeSuite UC](https://www.g2.com/products/windstream-officesuite-uc/reviews) - 4.1/5.0 (27 reviews)