# Load balancers for enterprise buyers: 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 an enterprise B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/load-balancers/enterprise

**Standing:** F5 BIG-IP leads with 23% of first choices; verdict contested. 61 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [F5 BIG-IP](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/f5-big-ip/index.md) | 23% | 20% | 46 |
| 2 | [HAProxy](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/haproxy/index.md) | 18% | 10% | 58 |
| 3 | [F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/f5-big-ip-local-traffic-manager/index.md) | 10% | 14% | 14 |
| 4 | [Progress Kemp LoadMaster](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/progress-kemp-loadmaster/index.md) | 8% | 6% | 16 |
| 5 | [AWS Elastic Load Balancing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-elastic-load-balancing/index.md) | 5% | 29% | 35 |
| 8 | [NGINX](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/nginx/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 45 |
| 9 | [Cloudflare Load Balancing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-load-balancing/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 26 |
| 10 | [Citrix ADC](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/citrix-adc/index.md) | 2% | 21% | 34 |
| 11 | [Radware Alteon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/radware-alteon/index.md) | 2% | 10% | 20 |
| 12 | [Kemp LoadMaster](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kemp-loadmaster/index.md) | 2% | 7% | 14 |
| 22 | [GCP Cloud Load Balancing](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/gcp-cloud-load-balancing/index.md) | 2% | 45% | 11 |
| 23 | [AWS Application Load Balancer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-application-load-balancer/index.md) | 2% | 50% | 14 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 113 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: no first choice; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP
- GPT-5.4 mini: AWS Application Load Balancer; alternatives F5 BIG-IP, Google Cloud Application Load Balancer, HAProxy
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare Load Balancing, F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager; alternatives AWS Application Load Balancer, HAProxy, Microsoft Azure: Azure Application Gateway, Traefik
- Perplexity Sonar: HAProxy; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing
- Grok 4.20: F5 BIG-IP; alternatives Citrix ADC, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
- Mistral Small: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, F5 BIG-IP; alternatives Kemp LoadMaster, NGINX
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: F5 BIG-IP; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, HAProxy, NGINX
- Llama 4 Maverick: AWS Elastic Load Balancing
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, F5 NGINX, Google Cloud Load Balancing
- Kimi K2: F5 BIG-IP; alternatives A10 Networks Thunder, Citrix ADC, HAProxy, NGINX
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: F5 BIG-IP; alternatives AWS Application Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing
- MiniMax M2.5: F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager; alternatives Citrix ADC, HAProxy, NGINX, Radware Alteon
- GPT-6 Luna: Application Load Balancer; alternatives Application Gateway, Azure Front Door, Network Load Balancer, global external Application Load Balancer
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Citrix ADC, Citrix Systems Inc., F5 Networks Inc.; alternatives AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon Web Services, Inc., Azure Application Gateway, Cloudflare, Inc.

## Sources the answers cite

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

- loadbalancer.org: 31 answers, 53 citations
- f5.com: 26 answers, 43 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 23 answers, 38 citations
- g2.com: 22 answers, 32 citations
- gane.ai/index: 19 answers, 22 citations
- kemptechnologies.com: 18 answers, 27 citations
- costbench.com: 16 answers, 26 citations
- haproxy.com: 14 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gane.ai/index/it/network/load-balancers/enterprise (19 answers)
- https://loadbalancer.org/blog/whats-the-best-cloud-load-balancer (13 answers)
- https://loadbalancer.org/blog/which-load-balancer-compare-f5-citrix-a10-radware-nginx-haproxy-avinetworks-kemp-loadbalancer (13 answers)
- https://costbench.com/best/load-balancers-for-enterprise (12 answers)
- https://f5.com/products/compare (10 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/load-balancer-software (10 answers)
- https://linkedin.com/pulse/what-load-balancer-compare-f5-citrix-a10-radware-nginx-pacuszka-2zzpe (10 answers)
- https://capterra.com/load-balancing-software (9 answers)
- https://devopsschool.com/forum/d/5599-which-are-the-leading-load-balancers-and-how-do-they-differ (9 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/load-balancing/enterprise (9 answers)

## Warned against

- Azure Load Balancer: 12 of 26 labels negative. "Criticized in enterprise comparisons for high negative sentiment, indicating potential issues with performance, support, or integration in complex environments." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Citrix ADC: 7 of 34 labels negative. "Frequently criticized (48%+ negative rates in 2026 indexes). High complexity, licensing costs, and support issues... avoid for greenfield large-scale deployments." (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- AWS Elastic Load Balancing: 10 of 35 labels negative. "Also flagged with a high negative share, suggesting enterprises have encountered significant drawbacks" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- F5 BIG-IP: 9 of 46 labels negative. "Internet-facing, monolithic ADC appliances with a history of unauthenticated RCE and long dwell, e.g., F5 BIG-IP APM/TMUI and Citrix NetScaler ADC/Gateway" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: F5 BIG-IP at 23%.

- F5 BIG-IP: 40% to 23%, −17. Cleared the floor by 6 points · rank 1 of 113, unchanged.
- HAProxy: 12% to 18%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 2 of 113, unchanged.
- AWS Elastic Load Balancing: 0% to 5%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 20 → 5 of 113.
- F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: 6% to 10%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 5 → 3 of 113.
- Progress Kemp LoadMaster: 4% to 8%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 8 → 4 of 113.
- Cloudflare Load Balancing: 6% to 2%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 → 9 of 113.
- NGINX: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 8 of 113.
- Citrix ADC: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 17 → 10 of 113.
- Radware Alteon: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 24 → 11 of 113.
- Kemp LoadMaster: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 12 of 113.
- GCP Cloud Load Balancing: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 74 → 22 of 113.
- Azure Load Balancer: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 60 → 24 of 113.

## 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.