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HAProxy 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
7.8
Companies favor HAProxy for cost-effective traffic management, saving on load balancers, and retaining customers annually with positive ROI.
Sentiment score
5.3
VMware Avi Load Balancer offers quick ROI with flexible licensing, but some companies face challenges due to unique usage cases.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
HAProxy's customer service has mixed reviews with suggestions for better documentation, though premium support is appreciated but inconsistent.
Sentiment score
7.6
VMWare Avi Load Balancer's support is highly rated for efficiency and personalized service, despite varied ticket volumes.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
HAProxy scales efficiently, supporting diverse loads and thousands of users, adaptable for both small and large business needs.
Sentiment score
7.5
VMWare Avi Load Balancer offers scalable architecture, supports many applications, but encounters challenges with infrastructure and scalability in specific environments.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
HAProxy is highly rated for stability and reliability, though some users occasionally face configuration and compatibility challenges.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMWare Avi Load Balancer is praised for its stability, though some note inconsistencies under heavy traffic conditions.
 

Room For Improvement

HAProxy needs better pricing, monitoring, documentation, dashboard functionality, performance stability, and enhanced GUI and TCP session control.
VMWare Avi Load Balancer has pricing, documentation, integration, and security challenges, requiring improved setup, analytics, and sales practices.
 

Setup Cost

HAProxy is free open-source software offering economic benefits, easy setup, and optional affordable extended features for integrated solutions.
VMWare Avi Load Balancer offers flexible, competitive pricing with options based on bandwidth or CPU, and licensing transferability.
 

Valuable Features

HAProxy offers load balancing, security, customization, scalability, open-source benefits, and efficient traffic management with user-friendly setup and cost savings.
VMWare Avi Load Balancer provides robust load balancing, integration, scalability, and functionalities, enhancing network infrastructure and management.
 

Categories and Ranking

HAProxy
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (11th), Bot Management (5th), Service Mesh (2nd)
VMWare Avi Load Balancer
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of HAProxy is 11.3%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMWare Avi Load Balancer is 5.8%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
HAProxy11.3%
VMWare Avi Load Balancer5.8%
Other82.9%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Mehdi El Filahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful for for small and quick load-balancing tasks
What I like best about the product is its simplicity and speed. When you need to set up a load balancer quickly, HAProxy offers options like sticky sessions and round-robin. It's also fast to configure, including adding SSL for security. While it may have fewer options than other solutions like F5, HAProxy gets the job done for basic load-balancing tasks. The reliability features of HAProxy were particularly useful in a scenario where I needed to test load balancing between two Tomcats. Since these domains were inaccessible, I set up a third Docker with HAProxy, which had access to the Tomcat domains. I then configured HAProxy to handle the load balancing. This setup allowed the client to interact with HAProxy. The solution's integration with other elements is easy.
Suliman Saleh - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplifies network infrastructure management, but the network analytics and monitoring features are not effective
The solution helped us balance the load of our critical systems The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management. We can use one virtual ID for two services. The tool helped my previous organization a lot. The network analytics and monitoring features are not effective. The…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

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 do you like most about HAProxy?
The solution is effective in managing our traffic.
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

HAProxy Community Edition, HAProxy Enterprise Edition, HAPEE
Avi Software Load Balancer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Booking.com, GitHub, Reddit, StackOverflow, Tumblr, Vimeo, Yelp
Palo Alto Networks, DGDean, Swisslos
Find out what your peers are saying about HAProxy vs. VMWare Avi Load Balancer and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.