No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs Fortinet FortiADC comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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
Fortinet FortiADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
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 Fortinet FortiADC is 7.3%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiADC7.3%
A10 Networks Lightning ADC2.2%
Other90.5%
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.
Suraska Sanjaya - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead at Adapt Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd
Application load balancing has improved traffic distribution and supports straightforward clustering
I did not explore the advanced features as I only performed load balancing in the application and cluster implementation. I need to study Fortinet FortiADC more. Regarding Fortinet FortiADC reporting, our customer has not requested the reporting part from us, and I have not considered that. There appears to be an advanced reporting part that I am not aware of. The advanced analytics part was not requested from us. The only thing customers expected was load balancing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It allows you to secure the application while balancing the connections for many other customers, reducing CPU usage and server load."
"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."
"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."
"Fortinet FortiADC is a good product because each and every piece of content is monitored by it."
"Customer service is excellent."
"FortiADC helps application availability and improves user-response time, and in addition, the price is competitive."
"Ease of use in deploying and having it up and running requires minimal knowledge."
"It helps with defining server load balancing tasks and managing SSL certificates, ensuring the communication flow through the Fortinet gateway."
"Simple to use and easy to integrate."
"The most valuable features would be content caching and content compression; it also has an inbuilt firewall and a web application firewall feature, which I doubt any other ADC supports."
"FortiADC provides load-balancing capabilities needed for integration with other Fortinet platforms."
 

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 documentation is pretty much closed and I think A10 crashes sometimes because initially, I was not able to set up Lightning ADC."
"The support from A10 should be improved."
"I think it would be helpful if Fortinet put more video examples on their cookbook site."
"The initial setup could be simplified."
"It would be good if they built in a fully functional web application firewall."
"Issues with SSL and encrypted traffic."
"I had a terrible experience with Fortinet support. I only used support once when I bought the solution. I got no response for two days. However, I believe that it's no longer the case. Fortinet solutions have problems when they're launched. For example, we had issues with Fortinet's authenticator when it came out. We also had trouble with FortiNAC in the beginning."
"Technical support and documentation could both be improved."
"The solution needs to integrate sFlow. sFlow provides better visualization of the bandwidth and types of traffic passing through the device. When used in the traffic path, this information can be really useful."
"If I need design help, they do not assist; they say it is a design issue they cannot support, and I must approach the system integrator."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution's pricing is an issue and should be improved."
"The solution is less expensive than F5 or Imperva and is the most reasonably priced option available."
"I rate Fortinet FortiADC's pricing one out of ten. It is fixed."
"The product has average pricing. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"Compared to F5, FortiADC pricing is better."
"I believe the price is good. It's fair. There are no extra costs."
"The price is competitive"
"They offer a perpetual license."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
Is Citrix ADC (formerly Netscaler) the best ADC to use and if not why?
For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc.
Do you recommend Fortinet FortiADC?
I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for around five years. We mainly use FortiADC for the load balancing of application ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiADC?
Pricing is not considered on our side since we are the implementation team. Our pre-sales team considers the pricing and all the details.
 

Also Known As

Lightning ADS
FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Handle Financial
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs. Fortinet FortiADC and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.