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A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs NGINX Plus 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

A10 Networks Lightning ADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
18th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
9th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of A10 Networks Lightning ADC is 1.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 7.3%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX Plus7.3%
A10 Networks Lightning ADC1.8%
Other90.9%
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.
Nadeem-Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Information Security Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Advanced policies and web firewall have strengthened application protection and reduced attack traffic
There were some vulnerabilities in F5. They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper. Their support should be improved because sometimes features which we need for customization take time, and they are sometimes feasible and sometimes not feasible by the team, so their support and the engineering team should improve their product. I would like to see more features regarding customization which should be built into the application, and the tool optimization should be good, and the dashboard should be more crisp and clear.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"Our clients have reported an increase in revenue by around 5% on a year to year basis, since this solution was implemented."
"Our clients appreciate that this is a security enabled solution."
"It allows you to secure the application while balancing the connections for many other customers, reducing CPU usage and server load."
"It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX."
"NGINX has created a resilient infrastructure for us which has reduced our downtimes."
"The best solution, by far, for web traffic control for things in production and just around the house."
"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."
"The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy."
"When you use NGINX, you have more options and power."
"NGINX works much better than HAProxy in our current hardware and architecture for HTTP/HTTPS load balancing."
"Its most valuable features are load balancing and application delivery. This is the most efficient application for these features because of stability and its efficiency."
 

Cons

"The documentation is pretty much closed and I think A10 crashes sometimes because initially, I was not able to set up Lightning ADC."
"We would like to see some improvement in the rapidity with which we can customize security facts within the solution."
"We would like to see some improvement in the rapidity with which we can customize security facts within the solution."
"A10 documentation is not as open and accessible as AWS and Azure documentation is."
"The support from A10 should be improved."
"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. ​"
"Make modules easier to enable or disable. The beauty and ugly side of the NGINX modules is you have to know how to compile the module."
"The biggest room for improvement would be to allow NGINX Core machines to cluster for memory zones in some way with a Plug and Play module."
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
"The scalability could be improved."
"They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper."
"It would be great if there was even more automation to make it even easier to maintain."
"Our most challenging part was to run an older PHP website reverse-proxied through NGINX. That was not fun."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"Nginx is free. I don't have experience with the Plus version."
"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours.​"
"You pay for each feature that you want."
"​NGINX Plus is worth it, if you need it. If you do not need the features or support, the free and open source package is more than capable. ​"
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?
IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...
What do you like most about NGINX Plus?
It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.
 

Also Known As

Lightning ADS
NGINX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Handle Financial
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Lightning ADC vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.