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A10 Thunder TPS vs AWS Shield comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 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 Thunder TPS
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
21st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
AWS Shield
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of A10 Thunder TPS is 1.6%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Shield is 3.0%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Shield3.0%
A10 Thunder TPS1.6%
Other95.4%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1126782 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Management console adds value and technical support delivers timely solutions
I had issues with the user interface because, when putting settings up, the system asked me for strange things like virtual local networks that I didn't create. For example, I set an NTP server, and after some clicks, a message appeared stating 'setup is incorrect'. It asked for a VLAN even though no VLANs were created. We had to find workarounds for issues like A10 blocking necessary traffic, sometimes leading to decreased security, because it was the simplest way to deal with them. This was a real issue. A more flexible policy for demo licenses would also be helpful.
Pranav Telang - PeerSpot reviewer
DGM at Airtel Digital
Has enabled multi-layered threat mitigation but still lacks deeper visibility for advanced application attacks
AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods. It does not provide inherent protection against more sophisticated layer 7 attacks such as HTTP floods. In such cases, integration with WAF is necessary, which results in additional costs for customers. To protect layer 7, layer 4, and layer 3, customers must implement both solutions. The service also has difficulties with static detection thresholds, which may not be sensitive enough to detect smaller application-specific attacks. While AWS Shield is a key security service, AWS should enhance their expert support with 24/7 response for complex attacks, which is currently limited.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of A10 Thunder TPS is load balancing."
"The solution is easy to use and implement in terms of operations."
"Due to the availability and power of these devices, we've been able to ramp off our upstream cloud-scrubbing provider and handle all attacks on our own."
"We can keep track of all the customer's requirements, we can forecast our trials, and we can forecast our overall financial things."
"The solution has reduced the amount of manual intervention required during an attack. We have the inline solution and when it comes to the customers that we have on it, it has saved us some troubleshooting time."
"We selected the solution because of its programmable automated defense using RESTful API. We didn't want to connect to the box. We wanted to be able to do some automation. We wanted to have our own portal because we wanted to connect our customers to our own UI using the A10 API. It has been good and exactly what we need."
"We were convinced that within a year, we'd definitely earn back the investment, both in the A10 equipment, as well as developing the end-to-end solution, including the integration with our administration systems."
"Availability is absolutely critical to our business; we get attacked two and three times a day at times, and although the attacks happen every day, they're not a big deal anymore because the mitigation takes care of it."
"The solution operates smoothly at its baseline level, and we do not encounter any issues at that level."
"It is quite scalable, and we have not faced any issues with its scalability."
"The product has a good mechanism to analyze trends and trigger events."
"The product is easy to use."
"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."
"The automatic detection and mitigation of DDoS attacks in the product operates in real-time and provides satisfactory results."
"The solution's ease of use is the most valuable feature."
"It is integrated with AWS. So, it gives you a good first step."
 

Cons

"The solution needs improvement in terms of fail-open."
"The last issue we had to contact them about was just a question of a false-positive. The A10 system wasn't supposed to decide what is a false-positive. So if we send it good traffic, it's supposed to just pass that good traffic through. But we opened this last ticket because the A10 did block some of the good traffic. Their support had to tweak it a little bit, but it wasn't anything that took a long time."
"Its documentation could be better."
"I had issues with the user interface because, when putting settings up, the system asked me for strange things like virtual local networks that I didn't create."
"It is very difficult to implement. It should be made a bit easier to implement. There is also a lack of resources on the internet. They need to develop more resources."
"We currently do not use the solution's machine-learning-powered Zero-day Automated Protection because of an issue with it."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"I rate Thunder TPS seven out of 10 for scalability."
"We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need."
"AWS Shield Standard requires improvement, particularly regarding its dashboard since it currently provides limited coverage against comprehensive DDoS attacks."
"The product is expensive."
"The product needs to improve its logs and reports to make it read better."
"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it."
"The product should give users more flexibility to customize their security policies according to their requirements."
"There is an area for improvement regarding health checks. AWS Shield does not come with its own health check functionality."
"AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is very reasonable."
"We did a price survey, and compared to other solutions, A10 Thunder TPS wasn't cheap."
"We may need to pay fifty percent more if we purchase other solutions. For the payments made to A10 Thunder TPS, we have received three-year support."
"The tool is expensive. If one is low price and ten is expensive, I rate the tool's price as a ten."
"Pricing was much higher with Arbor (APS) for the same type of solution."
"The financials are always a challenge with this type of technology. That's not really a product-functionality thing but it's the area where we push A10 the most."
"We had a customer who was down for six hours and the loss of revenue for him was three times the price he was paying for us per year. The customer just said, "I don't care about paying you because on only one attack I saved money. It's three times better than losing money.""
"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."
"The tool's pricing is good."
"The tool is cheap."
"It depends on your subscription level and the volume that you're spending with AWS. So, it is very relative to the consumption alignment in your subscription level. It is a well-constructed, scalable pricing option, but it is relative to how much you're spending on AWS. Because the more you spend, typically, the more you get off on services like this. I find it to be comparable to other solutions."
"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
31%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
18%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for A10 Thunder TPS?
I have not seen specific prices, like $10,000 or $20,000. A frustrating aspect is the lack of demo versions. The vendor insists on commercial licenses despite requests for demo licenses. The global...
What needs improvement with A10 Thunder TPS?
I had issues with the user interface because, when putting settings up, the system asked me for strange things like virtual local networks that I didn't create. For example, I set an NTP server, an...
What is your primary use case for A10 Thunder TPS?
Currently, I have a test setup. A10 Thunder TPS ( /products/a10-thunder-tps-reviews ) works in a chain with a Check Point firewall and a Juniper MX router. Recently, we had a presentation from a ve...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Shield?
The pricing structure for AWS Shield is fair, yet it depends on the specific protections chosen. Enabling Shield Advanced on multiple services such as CloudFront, network load balancer, or Route 53...
What needs improvement with AWS Shield?
Services always benefit from improvements, including AWS Shield. With respect to the Web Application Firewall, current rule-based setups may not be adequately defined or classified. Enhancement of ...
What is your primary use case for AWS Shield?
What do you use it for? How do you use it?
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

DDoS defense solution trusted for more than 200 service providers, online gaming, and enterprises including; Bungie, Comcast, KDDI Corporation, Leaseweb, Microsoft Azure, NTT Docomo, Softbank, Turkcell Superonline, Verizon and more.
netflix, dow jones, mapbox, pearson, rovio, youview, moviestar planet, asurion, payplug, hour of code
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Thunder TPS vs. AWS Shield and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.