Load balancers · November 2026 Edition
HAProxy vs NGINX
Three of fourteen models named HAProxy first on the direct prompt; three named NGINX. Both were named by all fourteen models and HAProxy carries 61 labels and NGINX 57, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in three categories this edition.
Named in four categories this edition.
First-choice share32%16%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate8%7%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 16; printed, not drawn.
Labels6157A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, HAProxy reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.HAProxy vs Kemp LoadMaster · HAProxy vs Progress Kemp LoadMaster · HAProxy vs AWS Elastic Load Balancing
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.
HAProxyFirst choices, of fourteen modelsNGINX
Direct33
Paraphrase101 against HAProxy · 1 against NGINX
Comparative30
Budget-constrained113
Scale-constrained12
Negative104 against HAProxy · 3 against NGINX
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, HAProxy and NGINX were named in the same answer 152 times, of the 191 answers naming HAProxy and the 213 naming NGINX. In those answers NGINX took the first choice fourteen times and HAProxy twenty-eight.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where HAProxy and NGINX stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | |||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | ||||
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | |||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | ||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | ||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | |
HAProxy NGINX first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, HAProxy on the left and NGINX on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where HAProxy and NGINX stood in it.
HAProxy first, NGINX an alternative
3 of 14 modelsNGINX was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Grok 4.20HAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) – ALB/NLB, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
DeepSeek V4 FlashHAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: NGINX
Muse Glimmer 30BHAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
NGINX first, HAProxy an alternative
3 of 14 modelsHAProxy was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Mistral SmallNGINX alternatives: Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster, Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC
Llama 4 MaverickNGINX alternatives: Citrix ADC, F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster
Qwen 3.7 FlashNGINX alternatives: Application Load Balancer, HAProxy
Neither was the first choice, one was named
6 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Claude Haiku 4.5AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Load Balancer, Network Load Balancer alternatives: Google Cloud Load Balancing, NGINX
Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare Load Balancing alternatives: AWS Application Load Balancer, Azure Application Gateway, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
Perplexity SonarProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
Kimi K2Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: HAProxy
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
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.GPT-5.4 miniAWS Application Load Balancer alternatives: AWS Network Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Google Cloud Application Load Balancer
GPT-6 LunaApplication Load Balancer alternatives: Application Gateway, External Application Load Balancer, Front Door, Network Load Balancer
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
Mid-marketThe figures above
Enterprise
What the models said about HAProxy
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Older or unpatched self-hosted solutions (e.g., legacy HAProxy, Apache, or custom LVS setups): These can suffer from single points of failure” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · soft negative
“HAProxy\u2019s official docs label some releases EOL; don\u2019t assume an old install is still receiving fixes” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Running a single NGINX or HAProxy instance as your load balancer creates a single point of failure” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Consistently the fastest performer in benchmarks with lowest latency and memory footprint; battle-tested in production for decades.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“The best load balancer for a company with a limited budget is HAProxy, as it is a cost-efficient, open-source deployment option.” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“HAProxy is the best overall load balancing software for most teams because its open-source core is free and production-grade” Claude Haiku 4.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
What the models said about NGINX
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of five in this category shown.
“Recent critical vulnerabilities (e.g., CVEs from 2024–2026 patches by F5) can lead to crashes, denial-of-service (DoS), or remote code execution.” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Running a single NGINX or HAProxy instance as your load balancer creates a single point of failure” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Consider NGINX Plus or HAProxy Enterprise if you have strong Linux/SysAdmin skills. They offer the best performance-to-cost ratio” Qwen 3.7 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“Kemp LoadMaster (mid-size friendly ADC) and NGINX Plus (if you have Linux/NGINX skills) are strong fits” DeepSeek V4 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“NGINX Plus often being the best fit for mid-market B2B companies seeking a reliable and scalable solution” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
Also compared
HAProxy vs Kemp LoadMasterHAProxy vs Progress Kemp LoadMasterHAProxy vs AWS Elastic Load BalancingHAProxy vs A10 Thunder ADCHAProxy vs AWS Application Load BalancerHAProxy vs Cloudflare Load BalancingNGINX vs Kemp LoadMasterNGINX vs Progress Kemp LoadMasterNGINX vs AWS Elastic Load BalancingNGINX vs A10 Thunder ADCNGINX vs AWS Application Load BalancerNGINX 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.