No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

NetScaler vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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

NetScaler
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (3rd), Network Management Applications (11th)
The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (po...
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
34th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of NetScaler is 3.0%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetScaler3.0%
The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)1.2%
Other95.8%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

MP
Senior Data Center Engineer at Axians
Load balancing and secure access have supported complex migrations and automation at scale
NetScaler has positively impacted my organization because I work for a system integrator and deploy it for customers. Many customers are really happy with NetScaler, except for the pricing, as Citrix has changed a lot of their pricing in the last two or three years when they transitioned to Cloud Software Group. However, despite that, I know customers are really satisfied with the technical capabilities that NetScaler provides. While I do not have specific outcomes or metrics from my customers, I think using Core Logic has made it much easier for the big municipality I mentioned to implement NetScaler as a total solution, thus speeding up their automation. There are likely many benefits, but I lack benchmarks or timing figures to quantify that.
reviewer2161107 - PeerSpot reviewer
Staff Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Room for improvement with user interface while competitive pricing impresses
It is managed through Infrastructure as Code, so all configurations can be managed in the code itself, which is beneficial. Because it uses rules, it is easy to set up, and we have many different sites where the configurations are straightforward. Though the UI is not very interactive, which is a downside, we can manage many things. The UI is not very intuitive and could be better. However, we manage all the configurations through code, which is easy to maintain. It has extensive anomaly detection capabilities, so the traffic is classified into several categories where thresholds can be defined and customized based on false positives and false negatives. This is advantageous because you do not need to tweak it very often. Once you set it up, an audit once a quarter would suffice. Because The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is API-driven, we have integrations with the CI/CD pipeline through GitHub Actions, making it easy to integrate.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a complete solution for those looking for an all-in-one."
"The most impressive thing about Citrix ADM is that we don't encounter latency."
"Its customer support service is good."
"I like the ease of use, it's easy to manage, and I also like its ease of use with virtualization technologies with applications."
"Global load balancing between data centers."
"Does great job on most ADC functions: load balancing, SSL offload, responder policies, etc"
"Citrix ADC is a product that I can recommend, without any doubt or hesitation."
"It's very easy to configure."
"When configuring a web application firewall using Signal Sciences, we configure a rule whereby no one except a few people can access the application."
"Because The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is API-driven, we have integrations with the CI/CD pipeline through GitHub Actions, making it easy to integrate."
"The product's most valuable feature is its ability to set up the rules easily."
"Fastly (Signal Sciences) integrates and tags the intermittent traffic based on patterns. It generates signals and provides them in a dashboard where we can view them and decide whether to allow or deny traffic. It's a more advanced and easy-to-navigate dashboard."
 

Cons

"Citrix ADM needs to improve on its additional features and reduce the communication ports."
"I feel that Citrix NetScaler's customer support needs to improve."
"Citrix Web App and API Protection could improve in the area of licensing."
"Its GUI should be improved. Its CLI is powerful, but GUI needs more features."
"I had some problems with HA node movements."
"The user interface could be more friendly."
"Citrix ADC can improve if it provides a more user-friendly interface and clear working protocols. Citrix is not working with classic RFC, it is working with Citrix RFC, which is not common in the world. If engineers of Citrix can provide us with more information on working with the classic IP networks it would be a benefit."
"I would like to see the virtual and desktop license included in the pricing."
"The UI is not very intuitive and could be better."
"Even if we create some custom rules, Signal Sciences cannot capture some of the malicious traffic."
"The areas that could be improved in Signal Sciences include the effectiveness of rules, as many didn't function optimally and required custom rule-writing to address bypasses for WAF."
"Fastly don't support caching for China users. That's the only feature lacking compared to Akamai."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For partners, NetScaler is not as expensive price-wise versus F5."
"Its price is comparable to others and affordable."
"We have a yearly licencing fee, and there are no additional costs."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight or nine out of ten."
"You can do CapEx and then a yearly monthly fee, or you can do a subscription model, whether that's one month, month-to-month, or three-year subscription model."
"Ninety day free trial makes it easy to try out this solution."
"Citrix ADM costs us approximately $5000 per month."
"The licensing costs for this solution vary depending on which model is being used."
"Signal Sciences is pretty cheap compared to other solutions."
"The product has an affordable cost."
"The pricing is 50% less than Akamai."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise59
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering Citrix NetScaler?
My advice to others looking into using NetScaler is simply to go use it. I give this product an overall rating of 8.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADM?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has revealed that the licensing recently changed to a plus model, which is manageable if you know what you are doing. However, the transition f...
What needs improvement with Citrix Web App and API Protection?
I think NetScaler can improve in pricing, and with the recent release of version 15.1, the successor to 14.1, there are claims of improved performance due to the kernel change. I believe that integ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Signal Sciences?
The pricing is very competitive compared to other providers. The pricing is definitely a factor in our decision-making process.
What needs improvement with Signal Sciences?
We do use it, but the UI can be improved as we mostly work through the CI/CD. It provides support, but sometimes it is hard to navigate unless you are very familiar with it.
What is your primary use case for Signal Sciences?
The CDN is for caching and The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is for protecting the servers from malicious traffic. They both perform different jobs and serve different purposes, ...
 

Also Known As

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall, NetScaler VPX - Customer Licensed
Signal Sciences Next-Gen WAF, Signal Sciences RASP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk
Chef, Adobe, Datadog, Etsy, GrubHub, Vimeo, SendGrid, Under Armour, Duo, AppNexus
Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler vs. The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.