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A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs A10 Networks Thunder ADC comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

A10 Networks Lightning ADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
17th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
A10 Networks Thunder ADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of A10 Networks Lightning ADC is 2.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of A10 Networks Thunder ADC is 5.9%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
A10 Networks Thunder ADC5.9%
A10 Networks Lightning ADC2.2%
Other91.9%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

RONALDO DE MELO - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Account Executive at l8
Efficient application security while optimizing connections
The initial setup is simple; it is not complex. The configuration itself is simple and can be done in a couple of hours. However, the migration of the system to A10 Networks takes longer due to critical applications. Clients prefer to move them one by one, which is why it takes a significant amount of time. The configuration itself is simple, especially for this application.
reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Focused on reworking interface and ecosystem while load balancing has improved uptime
A10 Networks Thunder ADC is quite solid, but there are some issues that I face, particularly with the user interface. A current issue is that the GUI is less polished than competitors. When compared against F5 BIG-IP or Citrix ADC, the GUI is not as good. The documentation and learning curve are areas that can be improved by A10 Networks. Compared with larger vendors including F5, Cisco, or Palo Alto, A10 has a smaller ecosystem. Although A10 Networks Thunder ADC supports cloud and Kubernetes, many enterprises now expect deeper cloud-native functionality. Improvement areas include Kubernetes Ingress maturity, service mesh integration, and auto-scaling intelligence.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Our clients have reported an increase in revenue by around 5% on a year to year basis, since this solution was implemented."
"Our clients appreciate that this is a security enabled solution."
"What I like about Lightning ADC, is that instead of having a big appliance sitting in front of the Kubernetes cluster, Lightning can pretty much go inside of Kubernetes."
"It allows you to secure the application while balancing the connections for many other customers, reducing CPU usage and server load."
"It has provided improvement in regards to flexibility of our applications between data centers."
"The most valuable parts of this product have to do with the efficiency of deployments and data security."
"The Deterministic CGNAT feature is valuable for us."
"The scalability is really good; you can easily unify many devices at once, ADCs are simple to configure and each device is powerful, and we have two engineers managing and monitoring multiple systems and it works well for us."
"It solved the CGNAT performance issues and, within two years, it had no problems and no outages."
"If you want a reliable solution that is very easy to configure and administrate, the A10 is the right choice."
"For example, it is easy to use, easy to integrate, or the product helps save time."
"A lot of our SSL management is done on the front-end side, so there is one pane of glass for a lot of our security certificates. It gives us visibility. It also falls under when certificates are going to expire. Even for servers that are coming down, we can see how that affects the traffic flow by using the services map."
 

Cons

"A10 documentation is not as open and accessible as AWS and Azure documentation is."
"We would like to see some improvement in the rapidity with which we can customize security facts within the solution."
"The support from A10 should be improved."
"The documentation is pretty much closed and I think A10 crashes sometimes because initially, I was not able to set up Lightning ADC."
"The costs can be quite high."
"While I do use the security features on the load balancing, I find them to be primitive."
"We are starting to do a lot with containers and how the solution hooks into Kubernetes that we haven't explored. I'm hoping that they have a lot of hooks into Kubernetes. That would be the part for improvement: Marketing use cases with containers."
"A10 Networks Thunder ADC could improve on the Application Delivery Controller. it's not a fully-fledged web application firewall solution. For example, application data and support need to improve."
"Currently, the solution's WAF features are fewer. They should consider increasing their WAF features."
"The user interface is what people complain about most of the time, particularly if they don't use it very often. Then they complain that it's a bit clunky."
"They need to make the user interface (GUI) a bit more usable and intuitive. Some features can be a little difficult to find at times. Sometimes, the workflow in the GUI doesn't match the workflow of an actual workflow. E.g., if I want to create a load balancer application, sometimes you've got to do things a bit out of order in the GUI in order to make it work right."
"There is room for improvement in the GUI. I just migrated from the 2.7 software train to the 4.1, and there are still people on 2.7. The latter is a very old GUI if you compare it to F5. It's not as easy to use and a lot of things are missing. They've made a lot of improvements in the 4.1 step, but compared to the ease of use of F5, it's still quite difficult. For people who haven't got a lot of experience, the GUI can be quite challenging."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We did try out the solution’s Harmony analytics and visibility controller for its one-year trial. Due to the cost, we chose not to keep it onsite."
"The price of A10 Networks Thunder ADC depends on capacity and the customer's requirement. They have several offerings. They have different price models and options to choose from. Additionally, you need to subscribe to support for the hardware appliances."
"The solution costs less than its competitors."
"Pricing is one of the features of the product that influence customers to use the product."
"We just pay for support in addition to our licensing."
"The pricing is a third of the price of the F5 competition."
"The price is good they are very comparative."
"One of the main reasons for switching away from Cisco was the licensing model. A10 gives you global server load balancing for free, while Cisco charged a significant licensing fee for that."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
University
8%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

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Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would recommend A10 Networks due that it delivers high performance in a small form factor to reduce OPEX with significantly lower power usage, rack space, and cooling requirements compared to oth...
Do you recommend A10 Networks Thunder ADC?
I do recommend A10 Networks Thunder ADC. It's very user-friendly, easy to configure, and flexible. It is a very useful solution - especially now, when a lot of employees are working remotely. I hav...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for A10 Networks Thunder ADC?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for A10 Networks Thunder ADC is a question for another department, not for me.
 

Also Known As

Lightning ADS
Thunder ADC, AX Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Handle Financial
123inkt.nl, Bentley University, Box, Brainshark, Buienradar, Capgemini, CGN/LSN & NAT64, Chengdu Telecom, Club One, Code Ready, CRC Health Group, Cyso, Deutsche Telekom, Earth Class Mail, Excite, FFF Enterprises, Florence County, Framingham State University, From30
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs. A10 Networks Thunder ADC and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.