# Load balancers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "load balancer" and as "application delivery controller", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/load-balancers/2026-11

**Standing:** HAProxy leads with 32% of first choices; verdict contested. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [HAProxy](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/haproxy/index.md) | 32% | 8% | 61 |
| 2 | [NGINX](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/nginx/index.md) | 16% | 7% | 57 |
| 3 | [Kemp LoadMaster](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kemp-loadmaster/index.md) | 12% | 0% | 19 |
| 4 | [Progress Kemp LoadMaster](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/progress-kemp-loadmaster/index.md) | 12% | 9% | 11 |
| 5 | [AWS Elastic Load Balancing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-elastic-load-balancing/index.md) | 4% | 9% | 34 |
| 6 | [A10 Thunder ADC](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/a10-thunder-adc/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 10 |
| 7 | [AWS Application Load Balancer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-application-load-balancer/index.md) | 4% | 14% | 14 |
| 9 | [Cloudflare Load Balancing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-load-balancing/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 29 |
| 10 | [Azure Load Balancer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-load-balancer/index.md) | 2% | 10% | 30 |
| 13 | [F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/f5-big-ip-local-traffic-manager/index.md) | 2% | 42% | 12 |
| 14 | [F5 BIG-IP](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/f5-big-ip/index.md) | 2% | 49% | 43 |
| 15 | [Traefik](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/traefik/index.md) | 0% | 3% | 29 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 107 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Load Balancer, Network Load Balancer; alternatives Google Cloud Load Balancing, NGINX
- GPT-5.4 mini: AWS Application Load Balancer; alternatives AWS Network Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Google Cloud Application Load Balancer
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare Load Balancing; alternatives AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Application Gateway, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, HAProxy
- Perplexity Sonar: Progress Kemp LoadMaster; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
- Grok 4.20: HAProxy; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) – ALB/NLB, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC, NGINX
- Mistral Small: NGINX; alternatives Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: HAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster; alternatives NGINX
- Llama 4 Maverick: NGINX; alternatives Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: NGINX; alternatives Application Load Balancer, HAProxy
- Kimi K2: Kemp LoadMaster; alternatives HAProxy
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Progress Kemp LoadMaster; alternatives Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
- MiniMax M2.5: no first choice; alternatives AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Load Balancer, Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP
- GPT-6 Luna: Application Load Balancer; alternatives Application Gateway, External Application Load Balancer, Front Door, Network Load Balancer
- Muse Glimmer 30B: HAProxy; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster

## Sources the answers cite

66 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- kemptechnologies.com: 21 answers, 64 citations
- loadbalancer.org: 19 answers, 24 citations
- learn.microsoft.com: 16 answers, 24 citations
- github.com: 14 answers, 32 citations
- g2.com: 13 answers, 18 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 12 answers, 18 citations
- f5.com: 11 answers, 20 citations
- gane.ai/index: 10 answers, 11 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gane.ai/index/it/network/load-balancers (9 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/load-balancing (9 answers)
- https://loadbalancer.org/blog/whats-the-best-cloud-load-balancer (8 answers)
- https://nomios.nl/en/news-blog/best-load-balancers-2024 (8 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-application-delivery-controllers-adc (7 answers)
- https://featuredcustomers.com/software/application-delivery-controller-software (7 answers)
- https://github.com/quanpan302/KB-engineering-handbook/blob/main/content/hld/part-2-building-blocks/00-load-balancers.md (7 answers)
- https://kemptechnologies.com/docs/kemptechnologieslibraries/default-document-library/2025-loadmaster_buyersguide.pdf?sfvrsn=792916d6_2 (7 answers)
- https://kemptechnologies.com/docs/kemptechnologieslibraries/default-document-library/load-balancer-buyers-guide.pdf?sfvrsn=99a7b384_3 (7 answers)
- https://contabo.com/blog/best-open-source-load-balancers (6 answers)

## Warned against

- F5 BIG-IP: 21 of 43 labels negative. "Critical zero-days exist in F5 BIG-IP APM, tracked as CVE-2026-94127, which allows unauthenticated remote code execution" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Citrix ADC: 10 of 32 labels negative. "What I'd avoid for mid-sized B2B ... Citrix/NetScaler: More geared toward remote access and large-scale enterprise environments." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Azure Basic Load Balancer: 5 of 5 labels negative. "Basic Load Balancer was retired on September 30, 2025... If you still have Basic Load Balancer in production you need to migrate." (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: 5 of 12 labels negative. "Avoid enterprise appliances such as F5 or paid HAProxy/NGINX editions unless you require advanced support" (Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: HAProxy at 32%.

- Progress Kemp LoadMaster: 27% to 12%, −15. Cleared the floor by 4 points · rank 2 → 4 of 107.
- Kemp LoadMaster: 0% to 12%, +12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 18 → 3 of 107.
- A10 Thunder ADC: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 25 → 6 of 107.
- HAProxy: 29% to 32%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 1 of 107, unchanged.
- AWS Elastic Load Balancing: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 5 of 107.
- AWS Application Load Balancer: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 10 → 7 of 107.
- Cloudflare Load Balancing: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 9 of 107.
- F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 85 → 13 of 107.
- F5 BIG-IP: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 88 → 14 of 107.
- Traefik: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 15 of 107.
- Azure Application Gateway: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 18 of 107.
- NGINX: 15% to 16%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 3 → 2 of 107.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.