A10 Thunder TPS vs AWS Shield comparison

Why PeerSpot?

A10 Networks and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are both solutions in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category. A10 Networks is ranked #21 with an average rating of 7.0, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.8. A10 Networks holds a 1.6% mindshare in DDOS, compared to Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of A10 Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users who would recommend it.

A10 Thunder TPS

Read 15 A10 Thunder TPS reviews

2,210 Views
2,210 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AWS Shield

Read 10 AWS Shield reviews

3,083 Views
3,083 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

A10 Thunder TPS

AWS Shield

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

A10 Thunder TPS and AWS Shield compete in network security. A10 Thunder TPS stands out for comprehensive protection and strong pricing and support ratings, whereas AWS Shield is noted for a robust feature set, offering attractive value in its integration with AWS services.

Features: A10 Thunder TPS is valued for advanced traffic monitoring, DDoS protection, and flexible integration capabilities. AWS Shield offers seamless integration with AWS, scalable protection, and automated traffic analysis. AWS Shield's integration capability is a highlight, whereas A10 Thunder TPS is renowned for its flexibility.

Room for Improvement: A10 Thunder TPS could improve by broadening its integration with more cloud services, refining its user interface, and enhancing automated configuration options. AWS Shield could reduce configuration efforts for non-AWS deployments, enhance real-time attack visibility, and streamline multi-cloud integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: A10 Thunder TPS is praised for efficient deployment and responsive support, making setup straightforward. AWS Shield, integrated with AWS, offers streamlined deployment for AWS users but may require more configuration for non-AWS services. A10 is recognized for supportive customer service, while AWS Shield benefits from AWS's broader support infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI: A10 Thunder TPS offers competitive setup costs and strong ROI with adaptable pricing models. AWS Shield has higher costs associated with premium service, justified by extensive AWS integration, appealing to those heavily invested in AWS. A10's cost-effectiveness offers a notable advantage in ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed A10 Thunder TPS vs. AWS Shield Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

A10 Thunder TPS vs. AWS Shield

August 2026

Download the complete report

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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 Thunder TPS

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

21st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

AWS Shield

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of A10 Thunder TPS is 1.6%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Shield is 3.0%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
AWS Shield	3.0%
A10 Thunder TPS	1.6%
Other	95.4%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

reviewer1126782

Information Technology Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Management console adds value and technical support delivers timely solutions

I had issues with the user interface because, when putting settings up, the system asked me for strange things like virtual local networks that I didn't create. For example, I set an NTP server, and after some clicks, a message appeared stating 'setup is incorrect'. It asked for a VLAN even though no VLANs were created. We had to find workarounds for issues like A10 blocking necessary traffic, sometimes leading to decreased security, because it was the simplest way to deal with them. This was a real issue. A more flexible policy for demo licenses would also be helpful.

Read full review

Pranav Telang

DGM at Airtel Digital

Has enabled multi-layered threat mitigation but still lacks deeper visibility for advanced application attacks

AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods. It does not provide inherent protection against more sophisticated layer 7 attacks such as HTTP floods. In such cases, integration with WAF is necessary, which results in additional costs for customers. To protect layer 7, layer 4, and layer 3, customers must implement both solutions. The service also has difficulties with static detection thresholds, which may not be sensitive enough to detect smaller application-specific attacks. While AWS Shield is a key security service, AWS should enhance their expert support with 24/7 response for complex attacks, which is currently limited.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I had a rather positive experience with A10 Networks Support Service."

"The most valuable feature of A10 Thunder TPS is load balancing."

"The response time to an attack is instant. We've used some outsourced solutions in the past, out in the cloud, that weren't so quick. But it's all within our control now. We control how fast it mitigates."

"We were convinced that within a year, we'd definitely earn back the investment, both in the A10 equipment, as well as developing the end-to-end solution, including the integration with our administration systems."

"The solution has reduced the amount of manual intervention required during an attack. We have the inline solution and when it comes to the customers that we have on it, it has saved us some troubleshooting time."

"The GUI is very use-friendly, you can configure it through CLI or GUI so they give you an option to choose, and it's a good solution in terms of the appliance itself because it's very light compared to other brands that offer DDoS solutions."

"Based on previous equipment that we had, it's amazing that this device can do what it can do in a 1U form factor. The devices that we have right now have never gone over capacity and we've actually mitigated some pretty large attacks."

"The solution is easy to use and implement in terms of operations."

More A10 Thunder TPS pros

"We have integrated the tool with Active Directory. The most important feature is that it's transparent and doesn't degrade the performance of our solution. Additionally, it's easy to configure, which is crucial for us. It's easy to use and set up and stops attacks on our servers. We haven't encountered any attack problems because the solution stops them in real-time. AWS Shield specifically focuses on defending against denial-of-service attacks, making it a great solution for that type of threat."

"AWS Shield is aligned with the web application firewall (WAF), and they work seamlessly together, primarily working with Elastic Load Balancer, CloudFront, and Route 53 for CDN and DNS services protection."

"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."

"It is integrated with AWS. So, it gives you a good first step."

"If most of your internet presence from your application side is in AWS, AWS Shield is a great option."

"I recommend AWS Shield because it has proven helpful in tracking DDoS attacks within both my past and present environments, and without AWS Shield, a business could face potential losses, as this tool helps in identifying and mitigating fake traffic that disrupts applications, ultimately supporting business continuity."

"The product is easy to use."

"The solution's ease of use is the most valuable feature."

More AWS Shield pros

Cons

"The problem here is when you buy another box from A10, they want to put Thunder TPS to run, and it works okay, after which we cannot block it for another solution to be used, which is a problem for me where improvements are needed."

"The solution is a little expensive."

"The upgrade process for the boxes is not efficient. We have to go through the A10 aGalaxy where we have issues, like timeouts. They told me it was fixed in the latest version, but I tried to do it on the Portal and it is not working all the time."

"We have had some issues with implementation. So, it is the only area that needs improvement."

"I had issues with the user interface because, when putting settings up, the system asked me for strange things like virtual local networks that I didn't create."

"The last issue we had to contact them about was just a question of a false-positive. The A10 system wasn't supposed to decide what is a false-positive. So if we send it good traffic, it's supposed to just pass that good traffic through. But we opened this last ticket because the A10 did block some of the good traffic. Their support had to tweak it a little bit, but it wasn't anything that took a long time."

"It is very difficult to implement. It should be made a bit easier to implement. There is also a lack of resources on the internet. They need to develop more resources."

"I rate Thunder TPS seven out of 10 for scalability."

More A10 Thunder TPS cons

"There is an area for improvement regarding health checks. AWS Shield does not come with its own health check functionality."

"The time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced."

"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it. It could be improved in terms of architecture requirements and then ongoing support requirements as a secondary component to it. People tend to set up things like this, and they just expect it to work without the care and feeding that needs to go back into it either from an application team or a network environment team."

"AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods."

"We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need."

"AWS Shield Standard requires improvement, particularly regarding its dashboard since it currently provides limited coverage against comprehensive DDoS attacks."

"The product is expensive."

"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it."

More AWS Shield cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is very reasonable."

"The financials are always a challenge with this type of technology. That's not really a product-functionality thing but it's the area where we push A10 the most."

"We did a price survey, and compared to other solutions, A10 Thunder TPS wasn't cheap."

"The tool is expensive. If one is low price and ten is expensive, I rate the tool's price as a ten."

"We may need to pay fifty percent more if we purchase other solutions. For the payments made to A10 Thunder TPS, we have received three-year support."

"Pricing was much higher with Arbor (APS) for the same type of solution."

"We had a customer who was down for six hours and the loss of revenue for him was three times the price he was paying for us per year. The customer just said, "I don't care about paying you because on only one attack I saved money. It's three times better than losing money.""

"It depends on your subscription level and the volume that you're spending with AWS. So, it is very relative to the consumption alignment in your subscription level. It is a well-constructed, scalable pricing option, but it is relative to how much you're spending on AWS. Because the more you spend, typically, the more you get off on services like this. I find it to be comparable to other solutions."

"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."

"The tool is cheap."

"The tool's pricing is good."

"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

31%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Construction Company

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

17%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for A10 Thunder TPS?

I have not seen specific prices, like $10,000 or $20,000. A frustrating aspect is the lack of demo versions. The vendor insists on commercial licenses despite requests for demo licenses. The global...

See all answers

What needs improvement with A10 Thunder TPS?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for A10 Thunder TPS?

Currently, I have a test setup. A10 Thunder TPS ( /products/a10-thunder-tps-reviews ) works in a chain with a Check Point firewall and a Juniper MX router. Recently, we had a presentation from a ve...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Shield?

The pricing structure for AWS Shield is fair, yet it depends on the specific protections chosen. Enabling Shield Advanced on multiple services such as CloudFront, network load balancer, or Route 53...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Shield?

Services always benefit from improvements, including AWS Shield. With respect to the Web Application Firewall, current rule-based setups may not be adequately defined or classified. Enhancement of ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for AWS Shield?

What do you use it for? How do you use it?

See all answers

Comparisons

Arbor DDoS vs A10 Thunder TPS

Compared 24% of the time

Radware DDoS vs A10 Thunder TPS

Compared 16% of the time

Cloudflare vs A10 Thunder TPS

Compared 10% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs A10 Thunder TPS

Compared 7% of the time

Azure DDoS Protection vs A10 Thunder TPS

Compared 7% of the time

More A10 Thunder TPS Competitors

Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield

Compared 31% of the time

Cloudflare vs AWS Shield

Compared 11% of the time

Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield

Compared 9% of the time

Cloudflare One vs AWS Shield

Compared 9% of the time

Prolexic vs AWS Shield

Compared 4% of the time

More AWS Shield Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

A10 Thunder TPS

September 2026

Download A10 Thunder TPS product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS Shield

September 2026

Download AWS Shield product report

Overview

A10 Thunder TPS provides advanced DDoS mitigation with seamless traffic management, ensuring legitimate network activity while blocking threats efficiently. It operates with minimal oversight, featuring quick response capabilities and operational simplicity.

A10 Thunder TPS is engineered for rapid detection and defense against DDoS threats, employing programmable automated solutions through RESTful API integrations and aGalaxy management. This system efficiently handles extensive attacks with multi-vector protection, supporting functions such as load balancing. Its intuitive interface allows quick adaptation, helping organizations minimize operational expenses and quickly counter threats. Challenges arise in aligning TPS features with aGalaxy, necessitating improvements in reporting and user training methods. Integration issues due to import restrictions further complicate deployment endeavors.

What are the key features of A10 Thunder TPS?

Advanced Filtering: Detects and removes malicious traffic while maintaining legitimate data flow.
Fast DDoS Mitigation: Quickly resolves attacks with automated programmable defenses.
Multi-Vector Protection: Shields against diverse attack methods efficiently.
Load Balancing Support: Ensures optimal distribution of network traffic.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies complex defense tasks to enhance response time.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Operational Efficiency: Lowers management effort with automated solutions.
Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces operational costs through streamlined resource use.
User Satisfaction: Interfaces that cater to quick and intuitive interaction support.
Adaptability: Works in various attack scenarios offering dependable network defense.

A10 Thunder TPS serves as a robust defense for cloud infrastructure and hosting companies against powerful DDoS threats. By rerouting harmful traffic and ensuring legitimate traffic reaches its destination, this protection system is employed on-premises alongside other tools for substantial availability. Its capabilities in load balancing and network troubleshooting further reinforce its role in maintaining security and reliability against high-capacity attacks across industries.

A10 Networks

AWS Shield offers robust DDoS protection with seamless integration into AWS services, providing users with enhanced security without impacting performance. Its intuitive dashboard and integration with tools like WAF and CloudWatch make it a go-to for many organizations seeking reliable protection.

AWS Shield provides real-time attack visibility and transparency, excelling in DDoS protection while maintaining application and network layer security. The Advanced tier offers automated threat detection, tailored defense strategies, and a responsive DDoS team. However, challenges include high costs, limited customization, and a need for better traffic insights. Organizations must often rely on additional AWS services for comprehensive network security. The solution is primarily used to protect against DDoS attacks and secure web applications, offering Layer 3 and 4 security. While the Standard tier offers basic security at no cost, the Advanced tier provides enhanced protection against severe attacks such as SYN floods, albeit with a monthly fee.

What are AWS Shield's most important features?

Ease of Use: Simple integration and intuitive monitoring dashboard.
Real-Time Attack Visibility: Immediate insights into attack metrics without performance impact.
Seamless AWS Integration: Works smoothly with WAF and CloudWatch for comprehensive protection.
Advanced Defense Strategies: Customizable strategies with automatic threat detection.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Enhanced Security: Robust DDoS mitigation for continuous protection.
Performance Maintenance: Protects services during high-traffic events without degradation.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Intuitive dashboard for easy attack tracking and management.
Cost-Effective Tiered Offerings: The choice between no-cost basic or feature-rich advanced options.

In industries like finance and e-commerce, AWS Shield's capabilities ensure continual uptime and protection against potential DDoS threats, vital during high-traffic periods. Its use in media and entertainment allows secure streaming and content delivery, while health sectors benefit from secure and reliable patient data access and protection.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

DDoS defense solution trusted for more than 200 service providers, online gaming, and enterprises including; Bungie, Comcast, KDDI Corporation, Leaseweb, Microsoft Azure, NTT Docomo, Softbank, Turkcell Superonline, Verizon and more.

netflix, dow jones, mapbox, pearson, rovio, youview, moviestar planet, asurion, payplug, hour of code

Buyer's Guide

A10 Thunder TPS vs. AWS Shield

August 2026

Free Report: A10 Thunder TPS vs. AWS Shield

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