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A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs Fortinet FortiADC comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

A10 Networks Lightning ADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
17th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of A10 Networks Lightning ADC is 2.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiADC is 7.3%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiADC7.3%
A10 Networks Lightning ADC2.2%
Other90.5%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

RONALDO DE MELO - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Account Executive at l8
Efficient application security while optimizing connections
The initial setup is simple; it is not complex. The configuration itself is simple and can be done in a couple of hours. However, the migration of the system to A10 Networks takes longer due to critical applications. Clients prefer to move them one by one, which is why it takes a significant amount of time. The configuration itself is simple, especially for this application.
Suraska Sanjaya - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead at Adapt Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd
Application load balancing has improved traffic distribution and supports straightforward clustering
I did not explore the advanced features as I only performed load balancing in the application and cluster implementation. I need to study Fortinet FortiADC more. Regarding Fortinet FortiADC reporting, our customer has not requested the reporting part from us, and I have not considered that. There appears to be an advanced reporting part that I am not aware of. The advanced analytics part was not requested from us. The only thing customers expected was load balancing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Our clients have reported an increase in revenue by around 5% on a year to year basis, since this solution was implemented."
"It allows you to secure the application while balancing the connections for many other customers, reducing CPU usage and server load."
"Our clients appreciate that this is a security enabled solution."
"What I like about Lightning ADC, is that instead of having a big appliance sitting in front of the Kubernetes cluster, Lightning can pretty much go inside of Kubernetes."
"Key features include SSL Offloading, VM availability, and L7 load balancing."
"The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily."
"The solution provides high-level services such as availability, redundancy, and load balancing between servers."
"Fortinet FortiADC is a stable product."
"Fortinet FortiADC is a good product because each and every piece of content is monitored by it."
"Ultimately, Fortinet constructs every solution needed for each defense layer, making it comparatively better than Trellix, Trend Micro, or SentinelOne."
"The solution is less expensive than F5 or Imperva and is the most reasonably priced option available."
"We can do patches offline without causing customers outages. The web application firewall features, especially those related to the OWASP Top Ten, provide automated protections. This allows more flexibility in patching the backend applications. Additionally, it offers visibility into the requests being made to the applications, and you can't protect what you can't see."
 

Cons

"We would like to see some improvement in the rapidity with which we can customize security facts within the solution."
"The support from A10 should be improved."
"The documentation is pretty much closed and I think A10 crashes sometimes because initially, I was not able to set up Lightning ADC."
"A10 documentation is not as open and accessible as AWS and Azure documentation is."
"Technical support and documentation could both be improved."
"The initial setup could be simplified."
"Issues with SSL and encrypted traffic."
"The product needs more development because it has issues with SSL traffic and encrypted traffic."
"My main complaint is that the WAP functionality is very primitive."
"I think it would be helpful if Fortinet put more video examples on their cookbook site."
"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 WAF function implementation would be better if we could do it very easily and in a user-friendly way."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Compared to F5, FortiADC pricing is better."
"I believe the price is good. It's fair. There are no extra costs."
"They offer a perpetual license."
"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"The solution is less expensive than F5 or Imperva and is the most reasonably priced option available."
"I rate Fortinet FortiADC's pricing one out of ten. It is fixed."
"The product has average pricing. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"Our basic license excludes features such as antivirus and IDS. Due to license limitations, some functionalities are not configured."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
University
8%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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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 have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc.
Do you recommend Fortinet FortiADC?
I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for around five years. We mainly use FortiADC for the load balancing of application ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiADC?
Pricing is not considered on our side since we are the implementation team. Our pre-sales team considers the pricing and all the details.
 

Also Known As

Lightning ADS
FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Handle Financial
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs. Fortinet FortiADC and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.