We performed a comparison between Citrix NetScaler and NGINX Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."For NetScaler, our major use cases are database load balancing, PowerVPN VPN access gateway, WAF (Web Application Firewall), and content switching."
"The most valuable feature is the content switching."
"One feature that works really well is the SSL VPN. It's very easy to set up and you can go very granular with it. You can define what user groups get what kind of access and the management overhead is very low."
"I can turn on features without actually owning a license. I can test them out, I can use them for a while, and then I can be licensed up. That's awesome. I don't have to have a license immediately before I can start to deploy things rapidly, rapid deployment is a plus."
"My clients use it for load balancing."
"Citrix NetScaler offers robust security features, including SmartAccess and customizable policies, making it a reliable choice for safeguarding user data."
"The load balancing and VPN features are most valuable. AAA authentication is also valuable."
"For desktop application management, I recommend the NetScaler edition. This product is like a Swiss army knife. Citrix NetScaler ADC supports the education front-end."
"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."
"The most valuable features are the gateway and the ability to publish to sites."
"The product is lightweight and fast."
"It's lightweight software that can handle heavy loads efficiently."
"I find the solution’s community support and documentation most valuable. Compared to HAProxy, have found a lot of documentation and community support on Quora. If you would be asking me as a developer whether to choose this product, I would recommend this since it has good community support, documentation, and signature updates. The configuration of HAProxy is also very tedious. However, NGINX’s configuration is very simple."
"The flexibility of its modules allow it to be scalable."
"Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary."
"Valuable features include authentication, caching, reverse proxy routing, and load balancing."
"Does not include security. A web application firewall would be a nice addition."
"I will try to migrate all the tools to the cloud because there is more lab and more VPN scalability available in the cloud. It is not available on-premises."
"Technical support sometimes takes a little longer because of the multilevel ticket priority."
"The licensing model and technical support of the solution could be improved."
"Citrix ADC can be really complex. It isn't very simple like some other appliances that I've worked with. You need a lot of skill and experience to manage it. I'm not talking about a year or two. You need at least four years to understand it very well. It is not that easy to learn. They should make it a lot simpler for users to understand the management of it. They can also provide some additional training. The material they have on the site is not sufficient enough for you to understand how to manage it. Their training is expensive, and not everyone has the funds and experience for it. Citrix isn't very popular around these parts of the world. So, it can use some more marketing, sales, enlightenment, and advertisement. These could bring more market for them. Basically, there are just a few companies that really go for Citrix. Most of the companies go for VMware because they marketed themselves more than Citrix. There isn't much difference between Citrix and VMware. VMware is a little more robust than Citrix. Citrix has focused more on desktops rather than server virtualization, and that's the advantage VMware has over Citrix. Citrix also needs to educate and inform users about the infrastructure that is supported with a version. Currently, if the customers don't look at the datasheet, they might miss this important information."
"Quality assurance could improve by ironing out security vulnerabilities before releasing upgrades."
"Native integration needs to be improved. You cannot build ISE codes natively. For DevOps, integration would be very helpful because it would be a lot simpler from an operational standpoint."
"I think the documentation should be improved."
"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."
"I would like it to have a more user-friendly graphical interface."
"Our most challenging part was to run an older PHP website reverse-proxied through NGINX. That was not fun."
"The scalability could be improved."
"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. For beginners or non-very technical aspirant(s) going for NGINX, they have to learn how to compile the modules."
"The solution's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"I would suggest adding GUI-based configuration panels to NGINX Plus to simplify setup and management tasks."
"The user interface could be improved."
Citrix NetScaler is ranked 2nd in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) with 85 reviews while NGINX Plus is ranked 5th in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) with 28 reviews. Citrix NetScaler is rated 8.4, while NGINX Plus is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Citrix NetScaler writes "Optimizing application delivery and ensuring robust network performance with its excellent stability and comprehensive load-balancing capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NGINX Plus writes "Quick installation and very easy to manage while doing orchestration or automation". Citrix NetScaler is most compared with F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, Fortinet FortiADC, HAProxy and Amazon Elastic Load Balancing, whereas NGINX Plus is most compared with IIS, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster, F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway. See our Citrix NetScaler vs. NGINX Plus report.
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