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Amazon Elastic Load Balancing vs NetScaler 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

Amazon Elastic Load Balancing
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetScaler
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (5th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Amazon Elastic Load Balancing is 1.5%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 14.6%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Mohd Farhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Manage complex traffic routing with ease and ensure system availability
The ELB would benefit from allowing deployment in a single availability zone for test servers to avoid unnecessary costs. Additionally, the ability to directly block specific IP addresses without additional service integration would be beneficial. Furthermore, sometimes ALB has a delay in recognizing the need to scale the system based on CloudWatch metrics, which could use improvement.
DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU - PeerSpot reviewer
A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking
Citrix ADM has the ability to implement policies to tighten security. For instance, you can restrict access to your network from outsiders or lack necessary security measures such as antivirus programs. Additionally, there's the Delivery Controller, which allows for comprehensive monitoring and management tasks such as remote restarts, maintenance, and registration. Another essential component is the Director, which provides detailed insights into sessions, including identifying session failures, connection issues, user lockouts, etc. It presents a list of problems to address, enabling you to click on them and resolve them efficiently.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best part about ALB is its ability to connect with different services including EC2, ECS, API Gateway, or Lambda functions, offering a lot of benefits like attaching a WAF."
"Customer support is good."
"The Elastic Load Balancer facilitates the distribution of incoming application traffic, which directs requests to various servers, preventing overload on a single instance."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon Elastic Load Balancing is scaling."
"It has very good features. It is very configurable. Security with TLS, et cetera is also very easy."
"The network load balancer is really fast."
"The solution offers good load balancing."
"The solution is very well integrated into Amazon's services."
"Unified Gateway allows me to provide secure external access to applications for suppliers and customers while requiring Multi-Factor Authentication."
"Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature."
"The stability is good. If there is a problem, the load will be shifted to other sites automatically, which has been a good experience for us."
"The work balancing applications are the most valuable feature."
"If you need PCI-compliance and have high security requirements, WAF is the most valuable feature. If you need to monitor your load-balancing services with complex types of monitoring, make sure everything is alright, and load balancing is important, Content Switching and Monitoring features are the keys to your needs. If you want to provide a lot of static images or data, the Caching feature works best for you."
"From a security standpoint, It is a comprehensive solution in a single box."
"The solution can be configured very granularly and has good control over security."
"The web application firewalling component is a powerful feature."
 

Cons

"The machines created by Amazon Elastic Load Balancing have different IP addresses, which we are not able to whitelist or predict."
"They could improve provisioning speed."
"The ELB would benefit from allowing deployment in a single availability zone for test servers to avoid unnecessary costs."
"One issue that we faced with ALB was that leaf-level certificate validation was not happening. It is not that user-friendly in that aspect."
"They charge for technical support depending on the support model required."
"I do not have any notes for improvements."
"The product's stability is an area with a slight shortcoming, which can be improved."
"Clients sometimes face issues with Amazon Elastic Load Balancing, and it can take a long time to detect these issues."
"Deployment is complicated."
"I would like to see the virtual and desktop license included in the pricing."
"Manageability and adaptability can also be challenging for end customers."
"The GUI should be improved."
"The solution could be more secure."
"I would like to enhance the solution's bot protection features."
"There are some drawbacks, such as using EUG for specific configurations. It could be improved."
"The security is okay, but the monitoring and reporting need improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not cheap."
"The cost for using the application load balancer is approximately $18 to $21 per month."
"There is a yearly license."
"The solution's pricing is low and I rate it a nine out of ten."
"I have no issues with the tool's pricing."
"The licensing fees are based on the number of connections one uses. It is a free tool for a certain amount of connections, which runs into thousands, and after that, there is a certain amount to be paid to Amazon."
"The solution's pricing is $30 per month."
"The solution is expensive."
"You get the value for your money. There aren't any hidden fees."
"The licensing costs for this solution vary depending on which model is being used."
"The licenses for this product are payable as a yearly subscription, and carry a high price-point. The subscription scheme is quite complicated, and costs will increase with each additional feature that is required, outside of the basic setup."
"It's not for startups or SOHO."
"Citrix NetScaler's pricing is slightly above average but not overly expensive. I would consider F5 BIG IP to be the most expensive, Citrix NetScaler to be the second most expensive, and then Kemp Load Balancer to be the third."
"The pricing for Citrix Web App and API Protection is unreasonable. I don't know the exact price, but I heard it's tens of thousands and it's a bit too much for the small country I live in."
"Citrix ADM costs us approximately $5000 per month."
"It all depends on the features that will be used and the number of accesses."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
24%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Elastic Load Balancing?
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing transfers the data securely from servers to users and splits the traffic based on peak times.
What needs improvement with Amazon Elastic Load Balancing?
Although I haven't faced any issues, improvements could involve making Amazon Elastic Load Balancing a global service, as currently, it is region-specific. Simplifying components required for load ...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Elastic Load Balancing?
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing ( /products/amazon-elastic-load-balancing-reviews ) helps me efficiently distribute incoming application or network traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2...
What do you like most about Citrix ADC?
The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?
After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.
What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?
Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Elastic Load Balancing vs. NetScaler and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.