Fortinet FortiADC vs LoadBalancer Enterprise vs NetScaler comparison

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Fortinet FortiADC

LoadBalancer Enterprise

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiADC, LoadBalancer Enterprise, and NetScaler based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler, F5, Microsoft and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC).

To learn more, read our detailed Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Report (Updated: July 2025).

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

July 2025

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Helped 865,164 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiADC is 9.6%, up from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LoadBalancer Enterprise is 3.9%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 14.4%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

OusaidAbaz

Security Network Architect at Inmac

Integrates load balancing efficiently within existing technology environments

FortiADC provides load-balancing capabilities needed for integration with other Fortinet platforms. It allows for the creation of virtual IPs and applying various algorithms for traffic management. Although it offers fewer algorithms than competing platforms like F5, its capability to manage load balancing makes it valuable. The security features depend on the environment, relying on firewalls like FortiGate.

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Roger Seelaender

UCaaS Engineering Manager at EarthLink

Great WAF - low-maintenance solution that performs as advertised

The solution can be improved with the development of a SIP engine because it is difficult to manage SBCs. All SBCs are really tough to write rules for. If we could put this in front of an SBC to have the right rules to possibly block the traffic, that would be very helpful. The solution can also improve the relationship between Loadbalancer.org and Metaswitch, or now, Microsoft because Metaswitch was purchased by Microsoft. They both position themselves as certified but don't always talk to each other. I wish there would be closer integration between the solution and the vendors when either release new upgrades to their product line. Often we find issues on either end post upgrades.

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DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU

Cloud Consultant at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

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.

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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

"FortiADC provides load-balancing capabilities needed for integration with other Fortinet platforms."

"TSL and SSL offloading are both very good features."

"It helps with defining server load balancing tasks and managing SSL certificates, ensuring the communication flow through the Fortinet gateway."

"It's a good product because it supports all the features that ADC solutions in the market can support, like F5 solutions, for example, such as the LTM of F5."

"Fortinet FortiADC is a good product because each and every piece of content is monitored by it."

"The most valuable feature is its simplicity."

"I use load balancing technology like Round Robin or low weight to maintain session-based connections. This ensures that clients can connect to their applications without interruption."

"The main feature that we use is GSLB (Global Server Load Balancing). GSLB makes the customer's network more reliable by scaling applications across multiple datacenters. GSLB as a disaster recovery solution can direct traffic based on site availability."

More Fortinet FortiADC pros

"Load balancing helps us distribute both incoming and outgoing data loads evenly among the servers, preventing overload on a single server."

"We now get notifications when pool members go down, and we eliminate our downtime by not sending traffic to downed pool members."

"The connection that this solution helps our servers maintain has been most useful."

"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."

"Existing customers are trying to migrate from the physical F5 load balancer to the AVI load balancer because it is scalable and easily managed."

"The performance is good."

"It's pretty much a Swiss Army knife for managing all the load balancing techniques."

"With basic network knowledge, our required system functionality can be configured and maintained."

More LoadBalancer Enterprise pros

"The solution is extremely stable."

"Content Switching provides flexibility for routing traffic as desired to designated real servers. It also provides good geo capabilities through its GSLB feature."

"My clients use it for load balancing."

"For desktop application management, I recommend the NetScaler edition. This product is like a Swiss army knife. Citrix NetScaler ADC supports the education front-end."

"When our primary link goes down I can still get to my Cisco devices and the NetScaler devices on-prem because of the SDN solution. If the internet connection at one of the branches goes down, we can still route them, they still get internet based on the SDN solution through one of the other sites. They can carry on working."

"The MAS integration for HDX Insight has provided teams with significant visibility into network performance of the user's connection."

"The solution is very stable. We don't have any downtime or issues of that nature."

"Load balancing, cache redirection, content switching, all connected with traffic management."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"The configuration is relatively complex."

"The solution's WAF needs an upgrade because it is not as good as FortiWeb, VMware, F5, or Imperva."

"FortiADC is complex to configure so the interface should be improved."

"If I need design help, they do not assist; they say it is a design issue they cannot support, and I must approach the system integrator."

"It would be good if they built in a fully functional web application firewall."

"Because it is so generic, the documentation requires special attention. A person who has not worked on Fortinet FortiADC or a similar product will struggle to understand what the document is trying to say. The documentation could be more specific, and more detailed."

"The L7 Persistent load-balancing algorithm has not worked for me after having tested it many times with my customer's in-house application. I'd like to suggest that the company make sure that all load-balancing algorithms work properly with most applications, even those that are in-house apps."

"Setup could be easier. The company's homework is to redesign those menus to configure with the smallest number of steps."

More Fortinet FortiADC cons

"Loadbalancer.org's complexity could be reduced."

"I'd like to see scalability improved; it can be costly."

"I would like it if Loadbalancer had the ability to make rules for specific shared bots."

"We could enhance the security aspects of the load balancer."

"Possibly a more graphical overview page (with colors) to give a two second overview to see if everything is working fine."

"The solution can be a bit pricey."

"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."

"It doesn't have the bonding capability feature."

More LoadBalancer Enterprise cons

"Currently, the support team's responsiveness is lacking, and the technical personnel on calls often seem unfamiliar with the issues or inadequately trained."

"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."

"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 GUI should be improved."

"When a new version comes out, sometimes, my existing configuration gets wiped out. They should work on this so that my existing configuration doesn't get impacted with an upgrade to a newer version. There could also reduce frequent firmware upgrade activities and have a stable version so that once we upgrade it, we don't have to upgrade it for two to three years."

"There are certain features that are very useful and Citrix makes you pay a bit more for them."

"I would like to see more integration for single sign-on."

"The user interface could be more friendly. Some wizards and other documentation for administrators, as well as some use cases, helps us to understand the solution."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is less expensive than F5 or Imperva and is the most reasonably priced option available."

"Our basic license excludes features such as antivirus and IDS. Due to license limitations, some functionalities are not configured."

"I rate Fortinet FortiADC's pricing one out of ten. It is fixed."

"The price is competitive"

"The solution's pricing is an issue and should be improved."

"The solution could be more cost-effective."

"They offer a perpetual license."

"Compared to F5, FortiADC pricing is better."

More Fortinet FortiADC pricing and cost advice

"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."

"These guys make their pricing scheme really easy."

"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 was easy to upgrade the license for unlimited clusters and servers. Pricing is fair."

"For now, it's stable."

"They're not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but I think value-wise, they're 100%."

"Licensing fees are paid annually."

"I’m not entirely sure about the rating since I'm not very technical. I haven't thoroughly compared the ratings. So, if you're asking for my impression so far, I would rate it around five out of 10."

More LoadBalancer Enterprise pricing and cost advice

"Our licensing fees including technical support are approximately $3,500 USD."

"Citrix Web App and API Protection are in the middle when we talk about pricing and licensing"

"It is an enterprise solution. Thus, its costs are reasonable."

"For the specific use case that my customers primarily engage with, I would give the pricing a rating of seven out of ten."

"Its licensing cost is much higher than other products, but it is acceptable because it is a one-time investment, and we are getting our requirements fulfilled when we buy this product. So, there is no issue with the pricing."

"I give the price of the solution a seven out of ten."

"Price-wise, I feel that the solution is a little bit expensive."

"The firewall license is included by default, with no additional costs."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.

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865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Is Citrix ADC (formerly Netscaler) the best ADC to use and if not why?

For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you hav...

Do you recommend Fortinet FortiADC?

I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for ...

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiADC?

The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily.

Do you recommend Loadbalancer.org?

Since Loadbalancer.org is an open-source solution, I would recommend this solution for smaller businesses that don’t ...

What do you like most about Loadbalancer.org?

Existing customers are trying to migrate from the physical F5 load balancer to the AVI load balancer because it is sc...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Loadbalancer.org?

Pricing of Loadbalancer.org is something to consider.

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...

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...

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

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

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Fortinet FortiADC

Comparisons

Compared 28% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Fortinet FortiADC

Compared 23% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs Fortinet FortiADC

Compared 8% of the time

HAProxy vs Fortinet FortiADC

Compared 4% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs Fortinet FortiADC

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiADC Competitors

HAProxy vs LoadBalancer Enterprise

Compared 17% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs LoadBalancer Enterprise

Compared 16% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs LoadBalancer Enterprise

Compared 13% of the time

NGINX Plus vs LoadBalancer Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Radware Alteon vs LoadBalancer Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

More LoadBalancer Enterprise Competitors

HAProxy vs NetScaler

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NetScaler

Compared 9% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

NGINX Plus vs NetScaler

Compared 7% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NetScaler

Compared 4% of the time

More NetScaler Competitors

Product Reports

Download Fortinet FortiADC product report

Fortinet FortiADC

August 2025

Download LoadBalancer Enterprise product report

LoadBalancer Enterprise

August 2025

Download NetScaler product report

August 2025

Also Known As

FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC

No data available

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall

Overview

Fortinet FortiADC is a robust application delivery controller (ADC) that delivers application optimization, application security, and application availability. FortiADC is a valued offering from Fortinet, which is widely recognized as a trusted supplier of dynamic security solutions worldwide. FortiADC offers dynamic security functions (AV, DDoS, and WAF) in addition to advanced application connectors for a simplified deployment and complete transparency to an organization's networks and applications. FortiADC offers three primary deployment options: physical machine, virtual machine, (VM) and cloud solution options.

Fortinet FortiADC Benefits

FortiADC security protocol: FortiADC integrates with FortiSandbox to improve the overall antivirus security protections where every file is scanned for known and unknown malicious risks. If a file is identified as malicious or problematic, it will be blocked in the future.
SSL protocol: FortiADC securely uses the most up-to-date cryptography to provide exceptional encryption and decryption using a hardware-based SSL ASIC. FortiADC offers complete transparency to inspect all traffic for threats, improves server response time, and reduces backend server load, SSL inspection and SSL offloading. FortiADC integrates seamlessly with Gemalto’s SafeNet Hardware Security Module (HSM).
FortiADC connectors: FortiADC Fabric Connectors offer open API-based integration and coordination with numerous software-defined networks (SDNs), third-party partners, and cloud management providers. Fortinet Fabric Connectors provide deep open and turnkey integration with recognized third-party vendors such as AWS, K8s, OCI, and SAP, in multi-vendor solutions, improving scalability, simplified management, and automation.
Business stability: FortiADC load balancing for on-premise global server load balancing (GSBL) and in the cloud (FortiGSBL Cloud) will ensure users can maintain a reliable and available network by improving the ability of scaling applications throughout numerous data centers to reduce application response times and enhance disaster recovery. Users are able to define protocols based on network latency concerns, overall data performance, and site availability.

Fortinet FortiADC Features

Application availability
- 4-7 application load balancing: DNS, HTTPS, RTMP, RADIUS, MySQL and more
- External fabric connectors: Splunk Integration, AWS/OCI Connector, Kubernetes Service.
- Security fabric connectors: FortiSIEM, Fortigate BanIP Integration, FortiAnalyzer, and more.
- Deployment modes: High availability (AA/AP Failover), Router mode, transparent mode (switch), one-arm mode (proxy with X-forwarded for support.
Web application firewall (WAF)
- Security services: Captcha support, cookie support, HTTP header security, XML/SOAP/JSON validation, CSRF protection, API gateway, and more.
- Application security: Web attack signature, bot detection, web vulnerability scanner, OWASP Top-10 Wizard, API protection and more.

Application enhancement
- HTTP and TCP improvement: TCP buffering, HTTP compressions/decompression, HTTP caching (dynamic and static objects), Bandwidth monitoring using quality of service (QoS), TCP buffering, and more.
- Authentication offloading: Two-factor authentication (Fortitoken/Fortitoken Cloud and Google Authentication), NTLM, AUTH2.0, SAML 2.0 (SP and Idp) RADIUS, LDAP, Kerbos, and local.
- Networking: Integration with Ansible, Cisco ACI, OpenStack and Nutanix, NVGRE and VXLAN support, VLAN and port trunking support, IPv6 Support (SLB, firewall, routing and interfaces), Dynamic NAT, Hide NAT, Static NAT for added scalability and flexibility.
- Management: Syslog support, SNMP using private MIBs with threshold-based traps. REST APIs, VDOMS, data analytics, real-time monitoring graphs, role-based monitoring, intuitive reporting, FortiView integration, and more.

Fortinet

LoadBalancer Enterprise offers a reliable, high-availability solution designed for efficient load distribution and a user-friendly interface, catering to teams with foundational network expertise.

LoadBalancer Enterprise enhances network performance through effective traffic routing, monitoring, and high availability. Users benefit from SSL termination with SNI and Layer 7 load balancing, ensuring seamless connections with reduced complexity compared to alternatives. While known for its user-friendly approach, improvements in configuration simplicity, scalable hardware upgrades, and enhanced notification systems are often discussed for better user experience. Additional demands include HTTP API access, automated configuration backups, DNS load balancing, and enhanced graphing data capabilities. Competitive pricing and heightened security for sensitive data are frequently requested. Interface refresh issues and Microsoft compatibility are noted among users, who deploy it for SSL/HTTP traffic management, redundancy, failover capabilities, web filtering, and cloud migration support.

What are LoadBalancer Enterprise's key features?

Ease of Use: Accessible interface for team members with basic network knowledge.
Reliability and High Availability: Ensures consistent service with effective load distribution.
SSL Termination with SNI: Supports secure connections with Server Name Indication.
Layer 7 Load Balancing: Enhanced functionality for better traffic management.
Scalability and Performance: Offers strong performance with low latency.

What benefits or ROI can users expect?

Quick Remote Support: Fast assistance for issue resolution.
Low Complexity: Streamlined operations compared to competitors.
Traffic Routing and Monitoring: Efficient management aids in decision-making.
Flexibility in Deployment: Suitable for diverse traffic scenarios and server needs.

LoadBalancer Enterprise is implemented across industries for managing SSL/HTTP traffic, enhancing network reliability, and providing failover capabilities. It supports web filtering, balances Exchange and application servers, facilitates cloud migration, and manages multiple ISP lines for optimal traffic distribution across web applications and services, including SIP provisioning. Industries also use it for enhancing security with web application firewalls, DNS sharing, and application publishing.

Loadbalancer.org

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

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.

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