Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall vs NetScaler comparison

Ivanti and NetScaler are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. Ivanti is ranked #16, while NetScaler is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Additionally, 100% of Ivanti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of NetScaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 2025

NetScaler and Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall compete in web application security. NetScaler offers more robust support and pricing options, while Ivanti is superior in feature-rich offerings.

Features: NetScaler offers comprehensive traffic management, advanced threat protection, and flexible policy configurations. Ivanti provides integrated application delivery, micro-segmentation, and enhanced security measures, aligning more effectively with complex security requirements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetScaler features streamlined deployment and accessible customer service for easy setup and maintenance. Ivanti's deployment may be intricate, though its detailed documentation assists complex configurations. Service response time is more crucial for Ivanti.

Pricing and ROI: NetScaler offers competitive setup costs with substantial long-term ROI, ideal for businesses seeking reliable solutions. Ivanti requires a higher initial investment but delivers ROI through its enhanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

February 2026

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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

Cloudflare Web Application ...

Q&A Highlights

it_user712188

Works at a tech company

Jun 30, 2018

Pulse vADC/vTM vs. Netscaler

Zeus was a great company - Its a shame Riverbed screwed up the acquisition and destroyed it. The product has been in a state of limbo for several years, I wouldn't trust Pulse to make anything out of it. Go with F5 or Citrix if you have the money. If money is an issue then go with Kemp or Loadbalancer.org which are #1 and #2 at the value end of the market. Radware is pretty cool as well - but not cheap. https://www.loadbalancer.org/blog/so-just-how-should-you-compare-load-balancers/

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Featured Reviews

Dean Barisic

CTO at PlayNirvana

Advanced security reporting has protected high-traffic betting platforms from constant attacks

I don't see room for improvement to Cloudflare Web Application Firewall. One thing I don't know much about because we have a dedicated IT team for that, and I'm not involved with Cloudflare much anymore. But if I were to compare them to F5, I would like to see more features that F5 offers. F5 has an option to bring the whole infrastructure, the whole WAF and all their packages, Bot Management, and everything else on your infrastructure. You need to install certain services from their side, and then you can choose if you would like requests to hit your servers immediately or if requests need to be proxied through F5 backbone. That would be a nice addition because we have 90% of the traffic as legit traffic coming from whitelisted servers. If it comes from whitelisted servers, I don't need to go every request through the backbone; I could easily just IP whitelist everything. Then I could maybe have Bot Management on my infrastructure that drastically reduces the price of Cloudflare. I would like to see Push CDN more improved in the next release of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall. And maybe something similar to Pushpin that Fastly has, which is an option where you can push messages that then can be scaled globally over the network. From our perspective, if we have a listener that listens for stock updates, I would just need to have one processor that pushes those updates to the Cloudflare API, and then Cloudflare would broadcast that message to all listeners. Cloudflare will check the order of the message, and if you, as a customer, are not connected or have some kind of network issue, when you reconnect, you will receive the latest state and missing updates.

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reviewer890211

Consultant at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Good feature set and is simple to deploy

In terms of what needs improvement, the price could be lowered. We've tried to deploy more of them but our purchasing department has said that they're way too expensive and they would prefer to use something else. We sort of stopped deploying them because of that. There are additional costs to the standard licensing. There are bandwidth prices. The feature set is quite good. We've been told to stop using them because of the price. If they can do something to address that I believe it would be better. On the latest version they've got a community edition, which is quite a good bandwidth, but in essence, it's to address the entry-level price. When you get to 10 gig bandwidth, it's way too expensive.

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Letarik Terefe

Information Technology Division Director at Ethiopian Roads Administration

Offers better visibility into user sessions compared to other solutions

Improvements are needed to address the issue of machines becoming unregistered, ensuring stability for end users. Troubleshooting with Citrix support can be challenging, so clearer diagnostics would be beneficial. As for global server load balancing, it works well on-premises, depending on user volume and service stability. Overall, it's satisfactory for us.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's most valuable feature is its ease of configuration."

"We extensively use the solution every day. The solution is very stable; we haven’t seen any glitches."

"Cloudflare WAF provides protection through rules and functionalities like Cloudflare's SDRAP."

"The integration of Cloudflare with Cloud Suite is its most valuable feature."

"The initial setup process is simple."

"The product has improved our security posture by blocking bad actors."

"The product has a valuable security control functionality."

"The security features are valuable. The particular feature we use is called OWASP."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

"The most valuable aspect of this solution is that it is simple to deploy. The deployment took us ten minutes."

"The maintenance of the solution is not complex."

"We like the periodic upgrades and backups, also made via ADMs, and it makes our environment much more robust and reliable."

"Manageability and visibility are good."

"The solution is very stable."

"The best feature of Citrix is its track record of stability in its features."

"The flexibility in configuration options is impressive."

"Citrix Director has been great. It gives us one pane of glass to be able to monitor what's going on with the user sessions as well as to keep on top of the virtual desktops, any servers that may be offline or behaving suspiciously, or any troublesome spots like disconnections. We also use Citrix Studio for maintaining the actual servers that are hosting these applications. We use it for delivery groups in case we need to modify delivery groups in regards to which groups have access to which applications. It has been very helpful."

"HTTP analysis and action. We have a lot of custom web applications that sometimes require custom header insertions. Some of these custom apps are external and, via the content switching, we can use one IP and leverage various back-end web app servers."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"If they add logs history within the Cloudflare offering, that would be a great benefit."

"We don't even use Cloudflare Bot Management because it's too expensive; you need to pay per request, and it's much cheaper to get one or two additional machines."

"The blocked logs are difficult to read at times."

"The solution's learning curve can still be further reduced"

"The user interface is very simple and straightforward, but users need knowledge about DNS to accomplish tasks."

"The accuracy of the Cloudflare Web Application Firewall could be improved by reducing the number of false-negative alerts."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall should improve visibility for a customer."

"The platform's control features related to real-time authentication and response time need improvement."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

"In terms of what needs improvement, the price could be lowered. We've tried to deploy more of them but our purchasing department has said that they're way too expensive and they would prefer to use something else."

"I think there is always room for improvement in this type of solutions. For example, I think the GUI should be easy to understand."

"An area for improvement in Citrix Web App and API Protection is for it to give real-time notifications and alerts. It would be practical if the solution warns you if there's an attack or if the load or traffic volume increases or decreases. An additional feature I'd like to see in Citrix Web App and API Protection is a prediction or artificial intelligence on what is happening, for example, attacks."

"We face challenges with the solution's firmware upgrades frequently."

"The main areas for improvement would be around documentation and support. If a feature can be used in two or three ways, show that feature being used in all of those ways. Documentation seems to only cover the primary use case and leaves you to either run through trial and error or consult the user community. In terms of support, I have never actually had them solve any of my issues. I have always solved them myself and then provided the resolution to support."

"The tool needs to add a feature where we can access the network policy access manager."

"Citrix ADC can be really complex. It isn't very simple like some other appliances that I've worked with. You need a lot of skill and experience to manage it. I'm not talking about a year or two. You need at least four years to understand it very well. It is not that easy to learn. They should make it a lot simpler for users to understand the management of it. They can also provide some additional training. The material they have on the site is not sufficient enough for you to understand how to manage it. Their training is expensive, and not everyone has the funds and experience for it. Citrix isn't very popular around these parts of the world. So, it can use some more marketing, sales, enlightenment, and advertisement. These could bring more market for them. Basically, there are just a few companies that really go for Citrix. Most of the companies go for VMware because they marketed themselves more than Citrix. There isn't much difference between Citrix and VMware. VMware is a little more robust than Citrix. Citrix has focused more on desktops rather than server virtualization, and that's the advantage VMware has over Citrix. Citrix also needs to educate and inform users about the infrastructure that is supported with a version. Currently, if the customers don't look at the datasheet, they might miss this important information."

"The solution can improve their support and send tickets directly to a Citrix ADC engineer in order to avoid having to escalate each support call."

"Technical support could be improved."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It starts at $20 and can easily go up to $200 monthly"

"We pay $210 per month for CloudFlare WAF."

"The solution's pricing option needs to be more transparent for enterprise clients."

"Cloudflare offers different types of subscriptions for businesses, enterprises, and personal users, and the pricing is negotiable."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is more affordable than other solutions."

"What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I believe the pricing is not the best, but it's reasonable and acceptable. We also use the McAfee system in parallel. In terms of pricing, its okay - not great, but not bad either. It falls in the middle, which is acceptable. In terms of support licensing, last time, we were searching for a solution, and we considered products from resellers rather than directly from the cloud provider. However, the pricing we encountered was exceptionally high. As a result, we are inclined to select support from the reseller."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is not too pricey."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"Citrix ADM costs us approximately $5000 per month."

"The tool is cheap."

"It all depends on the features that will be used and the number of accesses."

"NetScaler does the same thing as an F5 and it's cheaper."

"We are quite happy with price. It's not too high."

"I do not have any experience with the pricing of the product."

"Regarding pricing, while it's expensive, I can't comment on the exact ROI without a budget analysis. However, in terms of service quality, it's worth the price."

"The pricing could be lower."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

it_user712188

Works at a tech company

Jun 30, 2018

Pulse vADC/vTM vs. Netscaler

2 out of 5 answers

Maksim Sataev

network specialist at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 19, 2018

As far as I know, Netscaler has special hardware solution SDX where you can run virtual appliance (VPX) so much as you need and license determines the total system performance. It's not a problem for scaling virtual appliance by each application. You can ask Citrix managers for details. I hope it will be helpful.

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GregBristow

unemployed

Jun 19, 2018

My thought would be Barracuda Cloud WAF. This will work in 15 min. With lb and default templates. Go to demo.Barracuda.com Select WAF for hardware or select cloud. Additional info ask if needed

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	45
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	57

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is reasonable.

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What needs improvement with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

I don't really use the rule-based logic feature or utilize the WAF's ability to scale as a cloud-based service. I don...

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What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

I'm using Cloudflare Web Application Firewall on all my domains and any client domains I have; I set them up with a C...

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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 ente...

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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...

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What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexi...

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Comparisons

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

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Radware Cloud WAF Service vs Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall

Compared 19% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall

Compared 12% of the time

HAProxy vs Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

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Fortinet FortiADC vs NetScaler

Compared 9% of the time

HAProxy vs NetScaler

Compared 7% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NetScaler

Compared 7% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs NetScaler

Compared 6% of the time

NGINX Plus vs NetScaler

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

February 2026

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall report

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Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

February 2026

Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall report

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Buyer's Guide

NetScaler

February 2026

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Also Known As

Cloudflare WAF

Pulse vWAF, Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall, NetScaler VPX - Customer Licensed

Overview

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's intuitive dashboard enables users to build powerful rules through easy clicks and also provides Terraform integration. Every request to the WAF is inspected against the rule engine and the threat intelligence curated from protecting over 27 Million websites. Suspicious requests can be blocked, challenged or logged as per the needs of the user while legitimate requests are routed to the destination, agnostic of whether it lives on-premise or in the cloud. Analytics and Cloudflare Logs enable visibility into actionable metrics for the user.

Cloudflare

Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall delivers scalable application security for off-the-shelf and custom applications, including third-party frameworks. Apply business rules to online traffic, inspect and block attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS), and filter outgoing traffic and data to mask credit card data. Ivanti Virtual Web Application Firewall helps achieve compliance with PCI-DSS requirements.

Ivanti

NetScaler is an advanced application delivery controller providing load balancing, SSL offloading, and enhanced network performance. Users benefit from its robust security features, seamless Citrix integrations, and cost-effective infrastructure.

Designed to optimize and secure application delivery, NetScaler offers high availability and supports data centers with its load balancing and reverse proxy capabilities. It ensures effective traffic management and provides valuable insights into network health while integrating easily with Citrix products. Users appreciate its centralized management via ADM and flexible deployment options tailored to their infrastructure needs. However, there is room for improvement in its management tools, interface, and documentation, alongside a need for security enhancements and better licensing flexibility.

What are the most important features of NetScaler?

Flexible Deployment: Allows adaptation to different environments and needs.
Load Balancing: Efficiently distributes traffic to enhance performance.
SSL Offloading: Offloads encryption to optimize server performance.
Content Switching: Enables tailored content delivery based on user needs.
Robust Security: Includes firewalling and AAA authentication.
Global Server Load Balancing: Distributes load across multiple locations for high availability.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Delivers an efficient infrastructure without high costs.
Reliable Performance: Ensures consistent delivery and resilience.
High Availability: Maintains network uptime and service quality.
Technical Support: Offers responsive assistance for operational issues.

NetScaler is implemented across sectors like healthcare, finance, and education to guarantee secure remote access, enhance application network management, and support virtual desktops. Its application gateways and VPN access capabilities make it ideal for industries needing secure and efficient connectivity solutions.

NetScaler

Sample Customers

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

Gilt Groupe

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk

Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

February 2026

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