Load balancers · November 2026 Edition
NGINX vs Cloudflare Load Balancing
Three of fourteen models named NGINX first on the direct prompt; one named Cloudflare Load Balancing. NGINX was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Cloudflare Load Balancing by eleven and NGINX carries 57 labels and Cloudflare Load Balancing 29, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in four categories this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
First-choice share16%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate7%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#8A position in a field of 16; printed, not drawn.
Labels5729A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, NGINX reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.HAProxy was named alongside these two in eleven of the fourteen direct answers. HAProxy vs NGINX · HAProxy vs Cloudflare Load Balancing · NGINX vs Kemp LoadMaster
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.
NGINXFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCloudflare Load Balancing
Direct31
Paraphrase001 against NGINX
Comparative00
Budget-constrained30
Scale-constrained20
Negative003 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, NGINX and Cloudflare Load Balancing were named in the same answer seventy-three times, of the 213 answers naming NGINX and the 91 naming Cloudflare Load Balancing. In those answers Cloudflare Load Balancing took the first choice nine times and NGINX ten.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where NGINX and Cloudflare Load Balancing 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 | | |
NGINX Cloudflare Load Balancing first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, NGINX on the left and Cloudflare Load Balancing on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where NGINX and Cloudflare Load Balancing stood in it.
NGINX first, Cloudflare Load Balancing not the choice
3 of 14 modelsCloudflare Load Balancing 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
Cloudflare Load Balancing first, NGINX an alternative
1 of 14 modelsNGINX 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
8 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
GPT-5.4 miniAWS Application Load Balancer alternatives: AWS Network Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Google Cloud Application Load Balancer
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
DeepSeek V4 FlashHAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: NGINX
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
Muse Glimmer 30BHAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Kimi K2Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: HAProxy
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
NGINX leads by three points.
NGINX12%#3 of 14Cloudflare Load Balancing9%#4 of 14Mid-marketThe figures above
NGINX leads by fourteen points.
NGINX16%#2 of 16Cloudflare Load Balancing2%#8 of 16Enterprise
Level: the same share of first choices.
NGINX2%#6 of 16Cloudflare Load Balancing2%#7 of 16What 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
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 NGINXHAProxy vs Cloudflare Load BalancingNGINX vs Kemp LoadMasterNGINX vs Progress Kemp LoadMasterNGINX vs AWS Elastic Load BalancingNGINX vs A10 Thunder ADCNGINX vs AWS Application Load BalancerKemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load BalancingProgress Kemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load BalancingAWS Elastic Load Balancing vs Cloudflare Load BalancingA10 Thunder ADC vs Cloudflare Load BalancingAWS Application Load Balancer 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.