Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway enhances ROI by reducing infrastructure costs, simplifying setup, and using cost management tools for accurate assessments.
Sentiment score
4.5
Many users see quick ROI with VMWare Avi Load Balancer, but results vary due to differing use cases.
If we can use a shared resource, then the return on investment is really nice.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway significantly impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
We have seen a return on investment in terms of time-saving and cost-saving by not creating our own infrastructure.
Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway support experiences vary; some praise expertise, while others criticize delays and inconsistent quality.
Sentiment score
6.3
VMWare Avi Load Balancer's customer service is efficient but experiences variability in support ticket volume and user interaction.
I would say they provide the best support for Application Gateway because they own the product, so their support is top-notch.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
There is room for improvement, specifically in paid support, by providing more direct contact.
Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation
I would rate Microsoft support as good because they have a very skilled technical support team in the background
Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway provides scalable solutions but has mixed reviews regarding cost and ease of scaling and upgrades.
Sentiment score
7.6
VMWare Avi Load Balancer is praised for efficiency and scalability, despite some challenges due to specific infrastructure.
It has the autoscaling feature, so there is not much concern around performance; it can scale significantly.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a very scalable product.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a scalable solution.
Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates
Scalability-wise, VMWare Avi Load Balancer is good.
Trainer/Consultant at Koenig Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is stable and reliable, with high ratings, despite occasional issues due to misconfiguration.
Sentiment score
7.9
VMWare Avi Load Balancer is stable and efficient, ideal for small to medium businesses, with some concerns under heavy loads.
We have been using it for the past two to three years, and there have been good results with no problems so far.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The stability is good, and except for a few instances, I don't see the non-availability of Azure Cloud services.
Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates
From a stability point of view, VMWare Avi Load Balancer is stable.
Trainer/Consultant at Koenig Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is criticized for high costs, complexity, lacking documentation, and needing improvements in security, scalability, and support.
VMWare Avi Load Balancer requires better pricing, documentation, security features, integration, analytics, and interoperability with hyperscale and Kubernetes.
One feature I mentioned is the support for non-HTTPS protocols such as TCP, which could allow one endpoint for all kinds of protocols.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has room for improvement because it offers many features, but its configuration is a bit difficult, at least from the developer point of view.
Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates
There is room for improvement in terms of support, such as assigning agents directly for more straightforward engagement.
Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation
The documentation needs to improve, as it was really handy a couple of years back.
Trainer/Consultant at Koenig Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's cost is debated; appreciated for scalability but potentially expensive with additional fees compared to AWS.
VMware Avi Load Balancer is cost-effective with flexible pricing, differing experiences, and generally positive feedback on affordability.
We would prefer to have it cheaper, but it is still expensive.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Azure solutions are quite expensive.
Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation
When it comes to pricing for Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would rate it a seven out of ten.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway provides secure, efficient traffic management with integration, automation, and scalability benefits for straightforward application deployment.
The VMWare Avi Load Balancer excels in usability, integration, analytics, and scalability, outperforming competitors in load balancing and application debugging.
We are using it for some of the security features for our applications, particularly for securing traffic in transit with SSL.
Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation
The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
We find mutual TLS valuable because we can verify the client securely by setting up the trust certificate of the client, and also if we do it at the client side as well.
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The features I find most valuable in VMware Avi Load Balancer are the load balancing part and the WAF part.
Trainer/Consultant at Koenig Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Application...
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
4th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (5th)
VMWare Avi Load Balancer
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 6.3%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMWare Avi Load Balancer is 5.4%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway6.3%
VMWare Avi Load Balancer5.4%
Other88.3%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

SS
Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Mutual TLS has secured our web services and now needs broader protocol support
The most valuable feature we have found in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is mutual TLS. We find mutual TLS valuable because we can verify the client securely by setting up the trust certificate of the client, and also if we do it at the client side as well. This successfully develops mutual trust, ensuring that we know the client who is calling our service is a legitimate client. That is a very nice feature.Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has helped manage our traffic efficiently because we have many web services that we can put behind the same URL, and we can have different URLs with the same Application Gateway with a limited number of listeners. We can do host-based routing as well as URL-based routing or path-based routing. It supports both, so we can have even a single URL supporting many applications, or we can have different URLs for different applications respectively. We have both use cases.
Vishal Bhatia - PeerSpot reviewer
Trainer/Consultant at Koenig Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Analytics dashboard has provided deep visibility and delivers reliable load balancing and WAF protection
Regarding the benefit of VMWare Avi Load Balancer's WAF protection, I think the heuristics are pretty common. I do not come across many trainings for the WAF part, but once in a while. I cannot comment much on whether organizations are using it or not. In terms of VMWare Avi Load Balancer's multi-cloud capability, I have not come across many organizations using it across the different platforms. It is primarily used in the VMware context only. I have not seen anyone using it purely from a Linux or AWS or Azure perspective. Most of the organizations I come across are primarily using it from the VMware side. As for the API-driven infrastructure as code feature of VMWare Avi Load Balancer, because I am not from the developer side, I think that is more for the developers or maybe for integrating some new solutions and digging something deeper into it. That is quite handy. Regarding ease of use with VMWare Avi Load Balancer, that is pretty okay. For implementation, people find it quite okay to implement. There is nothing much from the implementation side. I think VMWare should promote their product more, particularly from the VMWare Avi Load Balancer side. It may be promoted a little bit more. Apart from Avi, most of those are already well-known. I would rate this review an 8 out of 10.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?
We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...
How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the performance side of things, which is why we use it.
What do you like most about Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?
The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management.
What needs improvement with Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?
The network analytics and monitoring features are not effective. The product does not provide deep troubleshooting features. The solution must provide public IP features. F5 provides such features.
 

Also Known As

Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway
Avi Software Load Balancer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell
Palo Alto Networks, DGDean, Swisslos
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.