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Fortinet FortiADC vs HAProxy 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
5.2
Fortinet FortiADC is chosen for reliable load management, security, and support, offering moderate ROI and essential performance.
Sentiment score
7.9
Companies favor HAProxy for cost-effective traffic management, saving on load balancers, and retaining customers annually with positive ROI.
The alert system is efficient, sending alerts within a fraction of a second if any power issues arise.
Improved uptime stands out, with our uptime statistics rising from around 98% to consistently above 99.900, meaning reduced SLA penalties while keeping our clients happier.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Fortinet FortiADC customer service is praised for effective support but varies in response time and relies on ticket prioritization.
Sentiment score
6.9
HAProxy's customer service has mixed reviews with suggestions for better documentation, though premium support is appreciated but inconsistent.
The support team is knowledgeable and efficiently assists with automation and configuration problems.
On a scale from one to ten, the support deserves an eight.
The service is helpful yet not excellent.
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.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Fortinet FortiADC provides scalable solutions with virtual and cloud options, though performance varies by model and infrastructure needs.
Sentiment score
7.8
HAProxy scales efficiently, supporting diverse loads and thousands of users, adaptable for both small and large business needs.
FortiGSLB cloud integrations provide maximum service availability and some flexible licensing options.
It is scalable for some versions, however, as components reach their end of support, upgrades are necessary to maintain scalability.
HAProxy's scalability is excellent; as our traffic expands, it handles load increases effortlessly.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiADC is praised for stability, reliable operation, effective support, and minor issues resolved through firmware updates.
Sentiment score
8.1
HAProxy is highly rated for stability and reliability, though some users occasionally face configuration and compatibility challenges.
Overall, it has been good; in the past it was very good, and now it is still performing well.
The support system is reliable when issues like automation or configuration arise.
This reliability serves as a key reason for our choice, providing us with confidence even when faced with heavy traffic.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiADC needs advancements in algorithms, UI, support, documentation, scalability, features, pricing, licensing, performance, cloud, and AI integration.
HAProxy needs better pricing, monitoring, documentation, dashboard functionality, performance stability, and enhanced GUI and TCP session control.
Fortinet has been a pioneer for enterprise solutions, such as firewalls, SASE, ZTNA, and SD-WAN solutions, and they are in a leader quadrant.
The limitation of managing all components and the differing versions pose challenges.
If I need design help, they do not assist; they say it is a design issue they cannot support, and I must approach the system integrator.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiADC is affordable compared to competitors, with flexible licensing, varying costs, and potential discounts based on configurations.
HAProxy is free open-source software offering economic benefits, easy setup, and optional affordable extended features for integrated solutions.
This solution is quite expensive compared to Kemp.
We haven't opted for HAProxy Enterprise yet, so there are no licensing complexities.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiADC excels in load balancing, security, and ease of integration, offering scalable, reliable, and comprehensive traffic management solutions.
HAProxy offers load balancing, security, customization, scalability, open-source benefits, and efficient traffic management with user-friendly setup and cost savings.
When integrated with FortiAnalyzer, it has much more significance.
I use server load balancing and employ layer seven features, which provide more granular traffic shaping and detailed logs.
FortiADC provides load-balancing capabilities needed for integration with other Fortinet platforms.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HAProxy
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (19th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (24th), Bot Management (12th), Service Mesh (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiADC is 9.4%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HAProxy is 11.1%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
HAProxy11.1%
Fortinet FortiADC9.4%
Other79.5%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

GANESAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Has supported load balancing for medical applications and could benefit from more custom configuration options
Some customers need custom management for handling their applications across the servers. Instead of having a predefined solution, if we had space for custom-based algorithms to load balance the traffic, it would be better. We have faced such cases with A10, where we can leverage many custom scripts and do much more. Even though A10 primarily focuses on SMBs, they have also ventured into the enterprise market. Fortinet has been a pioneer for enterprise solutions, such as firewalls, SASE, ZTNA, and SD-WAN solutions, and they are in a leader quadrant. Therefore, they should have more options. From a pricing perspective, it is expensive.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about Fortinet FortiADC?
The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily.
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.
 

Also Known As

FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
HAProxy Community Edition, HAProxy Enterprise Edition, HAPEE
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Booking.com, GitHub, Reddit, StackOverflow, Tumblr, Vimeo, Yelp
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiADC vs. HAProxy and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.