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HAProxy vs Radware DDoS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.2
HAProxy boosts efficiency by reducing costs and staff needs, offering speed, reliability, and enhanced scalability for traffic management.
Sentiment score
5.3
Radware DDoS offers a 20-30% return, effectively saving resources, optimizing costs, and preventing financial and reputational damage.
Operational efficiency has improved; we no longer have staff consistently monitoring backend servers during deployment or scaling events, as HAProxy's health checks and hitless reloads allow us to push changes with minimal manual intervention.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
This resulted in a drastic decrease in costs and, at the same time, the accuracy of the hits coming on HAProxy was almost around 100% or 99.99%.
Head of DevOps at TripFactory
I estimate seeing a return on investment with HAProxy, as it significantly reduced staff requirements and enhanced scaling capabilities, particularly when transitioning from NGINX, which faced issues.
Principal Engineer Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Radware DDoS has reduced my need for additional infrastructure investments due to DDoS threats.
Senior Cyber Security Specialist Architect at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
The hybrid approach optimized infrastructure costs and personnel resources.
CIO at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Because of Radware DDoS, many attacks can be mitigated effectively.
Technical Specialist at HCLSoftware
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
HAProxy's support is praised for responsiveness and skill, though some suggest improved documentation and communication for better efficiency.
Sentiment score
7.0
Radware DDoS support earns mixed reviews for responsiveness and expertise, with some noting improvement needed in local and first-level support.
Since we are utilizing the open-source edition, community forums, mailing lists, and GitHub have been invaluable, with typically someone having encountered the same problems we faced.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
My interactions with HAProxy's customer support were limited, but the feedback from my team indicated satisfactory service.
Principal Engineer Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Providing assistance almost instantly when needed.
Lead Network Reliability Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Ensuring less than one second mitigation for L3/L4 and less than ten seconds for L7.
CIO at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Sometimes I do not even get a response for days.
3rd Line Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
HAProxy is highly scalable, adaptable for small to medium businesses, efficiently handling substantial connections and diverse user volumes.
Sentiment score
7.2
Radware DDoS excels in scalability, adapting to diverse needs, with cloud-based flexibility highly praised despite some configuration challenges.
We manage an automatic load balancing feature where we add HAProxy servers dynamically behind the application load balancer to handle more traffic.
Head of DevOps at TripFactory
HAProxy's scalability is excellent; as our traffic expands, it handles load increases effortlessly.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
For scalability, HAProxy meets my needs, supporting our initial horizontal scaling and then adapting to vertical scaling in a VMware environment.
Principal Engineer Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
In terms of scalability, Radware DDoS excels.
Associate Manager for Network and Cybersecurity at TP Northern Odisha Distribution Limited (TPNODL)
In terms of scalability, Radware DDoS is easy to use.
Technical Specialist at HCLSoftware
Radware DDoS's scalability is good; scaling up or down is easy without performance issues.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
HAProxy offers high stability and reliable performance, enhancing system uptime with minimal downtime and frequent functionality updates.
Sentiment score
8.1
Radware DDoS is generally stable and efficient, with some users reporting occasional performance issues and network timeouts.
This reliability serves as a key reason for our choice, providing us with confidence even when faced with heavy traffic.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The hot reload feature of HAProxy also really helped us so that we never had to shut it down to reload it.
CEo at CloudPositive
We have reduced a lot of servers, replacing them with one or two HAProxy servers which deliver better performance, accuracy, and an almost 100% success rate with requests.
Head of DevOps at TripFactory
In my opinion, there is no downtime experienced with Radware DDoS Protection Service due to external network redundancy.
Sr IT Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
DefensePro is the technology that is in front of the traffic and protects against DDoS attacks.
Professional Consultor Digital Services at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Radware DDoS is stable in my experience, with no downtime or reliability issues.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users recommend improved HAProxy documentation, management tools, dynamic configuration, cloud integration, APIs, and enhanced load-balancing and clustering capabilities.
Radware DDoS needs better customization, integration, support, and scalability with improvements in automation, documentation, and AI capabilities.
The configuration syntax is powerful yet can become overwhelming for newcomers; a more beginner-friendly interface or a native GUI without relying on third-party tools would ease the onboarding process.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
An easier desktop interface to connect to a remote server and make changes on my PC would be beneficial.
DevOps engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The reloading functionality is effective as it allows soft reloads without interrupting traffic patterns.
Principal Engineer Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
We suggest that clear visibility within a management console could significantly enhance Radware DDoS's usability.
Associate Manager for Network and Cybersecurity at TP Northern Odisha Distribution Limited (TPNODL)
Every time, it is not possible to set policies for particular customers, especially with VPN users having customized ports that automatically drop legitimate traffic.
Cybersecurity Manager at Yotta Infrastructure Solutions LLP
There should be improved bot management integration that mitigates bot-based DDoS attacks completely.
Information Security Manager at Dalmia Bharat Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find HAProxy cost-effective, with free open-source options and a pricier Enterprise Edition offering enhanced features.
Radware DDoS pricing is high yet offers strong protection and flexibility, with discounts for long-term contracts and robust features.
Since we use the open-source edition, there are no licensing fees, with the main cost being the infrastructure running on EC2 instances in AWS, which helps maintain low expenses.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Setting up HAProxy didn't cost anything for me.
DevOps engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The pricing remains competitive compared to other vendors.
Principal Engineer Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Radware pricing is on the high end, suitable more for larger organizations.
Lead Network Reliability Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I didn't check pricing of other providers in depth but verified with two, and found Radware to be significantly cheaper compared to F5.
Sr IT Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We have a premium cost setup to align with a tier four uptime certified data center, storing and protecting critical infrastructure.
CIO at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

HAProxy offers high performance load balancing with customization, scalability, and support for diverse environments, enhancing user experience and flexibility.
Radware DDoS provides effective auto mitigation, real-time attack response, and comprehensive protection with intuitive interface and rapid detection.
By moving all SSL termination to the load balancer, I now manage certificates in a single place, and I can also utilize Let's Encrypt with HAProxy's built-in ACME support, making renewal automatic.
Junior System Administrator & DevOps at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
HAProxy positively impacted our organization by exceeding scalability expectations, initially projected at 200k requests but ultimately handling over 15 million transactions per second without any issues.
Principal Engineer Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
As a production engineer at that time, I definitely wanted to ensure that the system could handle massive connections, especially since we operated an e-commerce platform where we could not lose any customer calls.
CEo at CloudPositive
The support from Radware is also exceptional, as they are always willing to jump on a call to help solve issues and improve our network design.
Lead Network Reliability Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
This solution is a significant win compared to other vendors because it tries to understand the traffic and the behavior of the traffic, and it utilizes intelligence or machine learning to mitigate false positives, which is highly customized for different types of customers.
Professional Consultor Digital Services at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
The average time for Radware DDoS to detect an incident is only milliseconds, as even a delay of ten seconds is significant in networking.
Technical Specialist at HCLSoftware
 

Categories and Ranking

HAProxy
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (2nd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (15th), Bot Management (6th), Service Mesh (3rd)
Radware DDoS
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of HAProxy is 1.5%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Radware DDoS is 6.4%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Radware DDoS6.4%
HAProxy1.5%
Other92.1%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

Shrinivas Devarkonda - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of DevOps at TripFactory
Handles high traffic efficiently and simplifies complex routing with rule-based logic
I think HAProxy is good as it stands now, but I believe there could be improvements. gRPC has recently been implemented, which is great, along with TLS 1.2 and 1.3 support, and HTTP 2.0 is also available. However, I'm unsure about the benchmark of those HTTP 2.0 requests on HAProxy. If there were any other protocol with better performance than HTTP 2.0, or perhaps mTLS and other similar features, including that in HAProxy would be really great. For improvements, I think that during setup and configuration, the steps provided are neat and clear. Anyone can easily install and configure it. There are many kernel tuning parameters also available, which is great. For specific improvement, in terms of logging, I think printing the full object of the request may help, or if there's a way to reference two requests, it would be beneficial to find a complete session history from a logged-in customer, as it would help analyze customer and user analytics.
reviewer2663061 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Advanced protection has optimized web and API performance while reducing infrastructure costs
From the features perspective and functionality-wise, there are areas of Radware DDoS that I would like to see improved or enhanced in the future. Version upgrades are being provided, but they should communicate with clients about these new features being available so clients can test them and deploy them on the disaster recovery system before moving to the live segment. There should be a test report that will provide confidence that the version is stable and everything will work properly. Last time we faced an issue with a version upgrade, and we faced extensive troubleshooting with littile bit more time in the troubleshooting process. It turned out to be a small issue that was resolved by the engineering team. I would like to see improved support from Radware DDoS. Sometimes in support, we have to log the call with their support partners rather than Radware. After ten years of experience, we know exactly what the issue is, and we understand that it cannot be handled by their support channel or partner level. Radware team always asks us to go through the partners, but sometimes we have found that the issue cannot be handled by the partners. After the partners fail to resolve the issue, it goes to the Radware team. At that time, one to two days of required timeline gets increased by one to two days. If Radware came into immediate action and resolved the issue rather than relying on their service partners, it would be better. After ten years, we have the knowledge of troubleshooting, and we understand that the issues we are facing with Radware can only be resolved by their team. However, due to their policy, they insist we move through the partner first, and only after the partner fails do they escalate to Radware. During that troubleshooting period of twenty-four to forty-eight hours, we remain in an unresolved state with the reported issue.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend HAProxy?
I do recommend HAProxy for more simple applications or for companies with a low budget, since HAProxy is a free, open-source product. HAProxy is also a good choice for someone looking for a stable ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HAProxy?
Since we used the open-source version, we were not concerned about pricing, setup cost, or licensing.
What needs improvement with HAProxy?
For the limited use that I have of HAProxy, I don't have any points to improve. I think I need more time with this tool, or perhaps I simply don't have areas that need to get better. I don't have a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
For Radware Cloud DDoS Protection, the pricing model can vary based on a number of factors such as the scale of the business, the specific level of protection required, the geographical regions cov...
What needs improvement with Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The time it takes to upload a site to the cloud is critical when under attack. If a site is down, a quick response to migrate the site to the cloud is essential. It currently takes about 15 to 20 m...
What is your primary use case for Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
We use Radware's Cloud DDoS Protection Service to safeguard Cloud Graph with Layer Seven protection. To mitigate Layer Seven DDoS attacks on our servers, we implemented Radware Cloud DDoS Protectio...
 

Also Known As

HAProxy Community Edition, HAProxy Enterprise Edition, HAPEE
Radware DDoS Protection Service, Radware DefensePro, Radware DefenseFlow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Booking.com, GitHub, Reddit, StackOverflow, Tumblr, Vimeo, Yelp
Myntex, APAC retailers
Find out what your peers are saying about HAProxy vs. Radware DDoS and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.