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Akamai Ion vs LoadBalancer Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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

Akamai Ion
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
LoadBalancer Enterprise
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Akamai Ion is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LoadBalancer Enterprise is 4.9%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
LoadBalancer Enterprise4.9%
Akamai Ion2.0%
Other93.1%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

HarshBhardiya - PeerSpot reviewer
SOC Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable bot management with valuable traffic analytics and good delivery configuration
We are using Akamai Ion primarily for CDN services. It is more about delivery configuration, and for security, we use Akamai WAF security controls and Botman Akamai Ion helps protect us from DOS, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and scraping tools. Real-time analytics are very helpful for…
SM
Senior L3 Cloud Platform Network & Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
High availability and strong security have supported our apps but advanced traffic control still improves
LoadBalancer Enterprise can be improved because the layer seven programmability is not as powerful as it could be. We cannot write code and programming on it. Additionally, access management and identity options are not available here like they are in F5 VPN. The WAF depth and analytics, such as in-depth logs and the WAF learning option that we have in other load balancers, are much easier to configure and to harden the policies and polish them. That option is not here. Fine-tuning is a bit difficult compared to other solutions. The automation and API maturity does not appear to be at the level of other load balancers. The main limitation is that there is nothing here with regards to F5 APM. There is no iRules option or policy option to manipulate the traffic according to requirements, which is a bit difficult. If an organization is basic and does not want very advanced features, then it is acceptable. However, if advanced features such as iRules are required, and complete detailed WAF monitoring is desired along with policies that can be learned and then implemented afterwards as you have in F5, then LoadBalancer Enterprise lacks these capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is bot management."
"Akamai is easy to use and very effective."
"Most important for us that it makes sure that the load is distributed and that we always have access to the end servers."
"My advice to others considering this product is that they will experience a very good, stable product which is very easy to set up."
"The user interface precludes need to be well versed with Linux IPVS command line. This make it easy for junior team members to participate in managing load balancing needs."
"It has enabled us to have much better service to offer at a cheaper price, and much more resilient."
"Loadbalancer is easy to use. It performs well, with low latency."
"From a customer point of view, they have what I would call an unbreakable service."
"It helps us to route the traffic to the available servers."
"Existing customers are trying to migrate from the physical F5 load balancer to the AVI load balancer because it is scalable and easily managed."
 

Cons

"The product must provide more flexibility."
"Log management should display data for more than two months."
"Loadbalancer.org's complexity could be reduced."
"There is room for improvement in Loadbalancer.org in certain areas."
"It doesn't have the bonding capability feature."
"If you have very advanced requirements and your environment is very large, then I would recommend other products at this time."
"You can run into an issue when one engineer passes the case over to another engineer after their shift and they don't know what the first engineer worked on up to that point."
"LoadBalancer Enterprise could be improved by increasing performance and always being able to handle more simultaneous connections."
"It would be great if there was a way to gain access to the graphing data, to create custom reports. If we had a way to use the graphing data, we could use it to present certain information to our client, such as the uptime status for their service."
"Compared to the physical products, the solution's throughput is a little less."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is expensive."
"We've got an unlimited license, which doesn't costs that much compared to other vendors, and we don't have to buy it again."
"The solution requires an annual support license of $2,780 for four systems or $695 a year per unit for support not including the units."
"It's worth the cost. It's not cheap, but it's a good solution. If you're looking for a good solution, this is a good solution. Is it cheap? No. Is it worth the money? Yes, I think it is."
"It was easy to upgrade the license for unlimited clusters and servers. Pricing is fair."
"It filled a requirement for our project, and it did so at lesser cost than their competitors.​"
"Loadbalancer.org is based on open-source products, but it requires money for support and other activities."
"It is inexpensive, and even their “unlimited” version, the VA MAX is still far cheaper than competitors."
"The costs associated with Loadbalancer.org depends on the technology. For some, we need to pay, but others are open, so they're free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai Ion?
The billing cycle is monthly, however, payment is done yearly. While expensive, it provides value for the services offered.
What needs improvement with Akamai Ion?
Log management should display data for more than two months. The traffic report needs to be more flexible. The response time of technical support should be improved.
What is your primary use case for Akamai Ion?
We are using Akamai Ion primarily for CDN services. It is more about delivery configuration, and for security, we use Akamai WAF security controls and Botman.
Do you recommend Loadbalancer.org?
Since Loadbalancer.org is an open-source solution, I would recommend this solution for smaller businesses that don’t have major scaling requirements and don’t have the budget for a commercial solut...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Loadbalancer.org?
I purchased LoadBalancer Enterprise through the AWS marketplace. With the licensing and setup cost, I think it is pretty good, but the overall cost is not something I am aware of. That is handled b...
What needs improvement with Loadbalancer.org?
LoadBalancer Enterprise could provide more flexibility in terms of configuration setup, making it more user-friendly when switching between other software. LoadBalancer Enterprise could work more o...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Eurail, Boston Scientific
Vodafone, NASA, Mercedes, NBC, Siemens, AT&T, Barclays, Zurich, Penn State University, Fiserv, Canon, Toyota, University of Cambridge, US Army, US Navy, Ocean Spray, ASOS, Pfizer, BBC, Bacardi, Monsoon, River Island, U.S Air Force, King's College London, NHS, Ricoh, Philips, Santander, TATA Communications, Ericcson, Ross Video, Evertz, TalkTalk TV, Giacom, Rapid Host.
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Ion vs. LoadBalancer Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.