Index › IT › Network and edge › Load balancers › AWS Application Load Balancer vs Cloudflare Load Balancing
Load balancers · November 2026 Edition
AWS Application Load Balancer vs Cloudflare Load Balancing
Two of fourteen models named AWS Application Load Balancer first on the direct prompt; one named Cloudflare Load Balancing. AWS Application Load Balancer was named by ten of the fourteen models and Cloudflare Load Balancing by eleven and AWS Application Load Balancer carries 14 labels and Cloudflare Load Balancing 29, so the shares are not directly comparable.
AWS Application Load Balancer
accepted challengerNamed in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
First-choice share4%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate14%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#7#8A position in a field of 16; printed, not drawn.
Labels1429A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, AWS Application Load Balancer reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.NGINX was named alongside these two in eleven of the fourteen direct answers. HAProxy vs AWS Application Load Balancer · HAProxy vs Cloudflare Load Balancing · NGINX vs AWS Application Load Balancer
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the load balancers page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
AWS Application Load BalancerFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCloudflare Load Balancing
Direct21
Paraphrase00
Comparative00
Budget-constrained00
Scale-constrained00
Negative002 against AWS Application Load Balancer
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, AWS Application Load Balancer and Cloudflare Load Balancing were named in the same answer twenty-five times, of the 51 answers naming AWS Application Load Balancer and the 91 naming Cloudflare Load Balancing. In those answers Cloudflare Load Balancing took the first choice five times and AWS Application Load Balancer one.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where AWS Application Load Balancer and Cloudflare Load Balancing stood in it.
| Model | DirectAA | ParaphraseAA | ComparativeAA | Budget-constrainedAA | Scale-constrainedAA | NegativeAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | AA | |||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | AA | |||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | AA | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | AA | ||
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | ||
| Mistral Small | ||||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | ||||
| Llama 4 Maverick | ||||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | AA | |||||
| Kimi K2 | | | | |||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | AA | ||
| MiniMax M2.5 | AA | AA | ||||
| GPT-6 Luna | AA | | ||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | AA |
AA AWS Application Load Balancer Cloudflare Load BalancingAA first choiceAA named as an alternativeAA argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, AWS Application Load Balancer on the left and Cloudflare Load Balancing on the right.
Cloudflare Load BalancingAA first choiceAA named as an alternativeAA argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, AWS Application Load Balancer on the left and Cloudflare Load Balancing on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where AWS Application Load Balancer and Cloudflare Load Balancing stood in it.
AWS Application Load Balancer first, Cloudflare Load Balancing an alternative
2 of 14 modelsCloudflare Load Balancing was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Load Balancer, Network Load Balancer alternatives: Google Cloud Load Balancing, NGINX
GPT-5.4 miniAWS Application Load Balancer alternatives: AWS Network Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Google Cloud Application Load Balancer
Cloudflare Load Balancing first, AWS Application Load Balancer an alternative
1 of 14 modelsAWS Application Load Balancer was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare Load Balancing alternatives: AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Application Gateway, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
Neither was the first choice, one was named
4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Perplexity SonarProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
Grok 4.20HAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) – ALB/NLB, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
GLM 4.7 FlashXProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
MiniMax M2.5no first choice alternatives: AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Load Balancer, Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, Google Cloud Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
Neither was named
7 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Mistral SmallNGINX alternatives: Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster, Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC
DeepSeek V4 FlashHAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: NGINX
Llama 4 MaverickNGINX alternatives: Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster
Qwen 3.7 FlashNGINX alternatives: Application Load Balancer, HAProxy
Kimi K2Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: HAProxy
GPT-6 LunaApplication Load Balancer alternatives: Application Gateway, External Application Load Balancer, Front Door, Network Load Balancer
Muse Glimmer 30BHAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Cloudflare Load Balancing leads by two points.
Cloudflare Load Balancing9%#4 of 14AWS Application Load Balancer7%#5 of 14
The full small business standing →Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: AWS Application Load Balancer leads at mid-market.
AWS Application Load Balancer4%#7 of 16
Cloudflare Load Balancing2%#8 of 16Enterprise
Level: the same share of first choices.
AWS Application Load Balancer2%#12 of 16
Cloudflare Load Balancing2%#7 of 16What the models said about AWS Application Load Balancer
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.
“AWS ALB is unsuitable for workloads requiring L4 forwarding, ultra-low-latency pass-through, or non-HTTP protocols; use NLB or the appropriate L4 service instead.” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“ALB is not the right choice when the workload is non-HTTP (use NLB)” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“I'd recommend starting with AWS ALB or Azure Load Balancer (depending on your cloud provider)” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice
“AWS-centric company: AWS Application Load Balancer for web apps” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
“Cloud-first, mostly HTTP(S) APIs, limited ops staff | AWS ALB, Azure Application Gateway, Google Cloud Load Balancing” MiniMax M2.5 · direct prompt · alternative
What the models said about Cloudflare Load Balancing
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“Cloudflare is often the top recommendation for mid-market tech companies.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“If you need a fully managed solution with zero maintenance overhead, Cloudflare's free tier is an excellent starting point.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · alternative
“Cloudflare Load Balancing is strong because it supports health checks, intelligent routing, and global traffic management” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · alternative
Also compared
HAProxy vs AWS Application Load BalancerHAProxy vs Cloudflare Load BalancingNGINX vs AWS Application Load BalancerNGINX vs Cloudflare Load BalancingKemp LoadMaster vs AWS Application Load BalancerKemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load BalancingProgress Kemp LoadMaster vs AWS Application Load BalancerProgress Kemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load BalancingAWS Elastic Load Balancing vs AWS Application Load BalancerAWS Elastic Load Balancing vs Cloudflare Load BalancingA10 Thunder ADC vs AWS Application Load BalancerA10 Thunder ADC vs Cloudflare Load BalancingAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full load balancers standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.