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A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs NGINX Plus comparison

 

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)
18th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of A10 Networks Lightning ADC is 2.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 7.5%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX Plus7.5%
A10 Networks Lightning ADC2.0%
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.
Nadeem-Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Information Security Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Advanced policies and web firewall have strengthened application protection and reduced attack traffic
There were some vulnerabilities in F5. They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper. Their support should be improved because sometimes features which we need for customization take time, and they are sometimes feasible and sometimes not feasible by the team, so their support and the engineering team should improve their product. I would like to see more features regarding customization which should be built into the application, and the tool optimization should be good, and the dashboard should be more crisp and clear.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 appreciate that this is a security enabled solution."
"It allows you to secure the application while balancing the connections for many other customers, reducing CPU usage and server load."
"Our clients have reported an increase in revenue by around 5% on a year to year basis, since this solution was implemented."
"Valuable features include authentication, caching, reverse proxy routing, and load balancing."
"The overall product rating is ten out of ten."
"I would recommend this solution."
"I think NGINX Plus is one of the most powerful and fittest solutions in this area, and I'd recommend it to others."
"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is simple to configure."
"NGINX has created a resilient infrastructure for us which has reduced our downtimes."
"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."
 

Cons

"The support from A10 should be improved."
"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 user interface could be improved."
"I would like to see the Grafana integration in NGINX which is already present in HAProxy. Grafana integration will help the solution visualize all the data analytics on the dashboard which is currently not present."
"Instance service health check on the NGINX load balancer feature could be improved."
"The scaling should be built into the software rather than configured from an outside source."
"It would be great if there was even more automation to make it even easier to maintain."
"The scalability could be improved."
"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life."
"NGINX Plus is moderately priced, but it could give better value for money."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."
"I use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."
"Nginx is free. I don't have experience with the Plus version."
"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours.​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?
IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...
What needs improvement with NGINX Plus?
There were some vulnerabilities in F5. They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper....
 

Also Known As

Lightning ADS
NGINX, F5 NGINX Plus
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Handle Financial
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.