NGINX Plus vs F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing

NGINX Plus8.8Visit F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing8.4Visit

Higher score NGINX Plus #4 in Load Balancer Services 8.8/10 Pricing on request · 30-day trial Free trial✓ 1 of 3 features Visit NGINX Plus

vs

F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing #8 in Load Balancer Services 8.4/10 Pricing on request ✓ 3 of 3 features Visit F5

• NGINX Plus fits best

  Teams needing advanced self-hosted proxying

• F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing fits best

  Hybrid and multicloud enterprise delivery

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Side by side

Feature	NGINX Plus 8.8/10 Visit ↗	F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing 8.4/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.8	8.4
Ranking	#4 in Load Balancer Services	#8 in Load Balancer Services
Best for	Teams needing advanced self-hosted proxying	Hybrid and multicloud enterprise delivery
Pricing model	Paid	Paid
Starting price	Pricing on request · 30-day trial	—
Free plan	—	—
Free trial	30 days	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms	Linux	Web
Support	Phone, Tickets, Community, Docs	Email, Phone, Tickets, Docs
Integrations	12 integrations	6 integrations
Built for	Enterprise, Mid-market	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features NGINX Plus 1/3 · F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing 3/3
TLS termination	✓	✓
Sticky sessions	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
DNS traffic steering	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Specs
Balancing layers	Not checked yet	Both
Global regions	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Backend target limit	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	Combines Layer 4/7 balancing with advanced routing and active health checks Provides 200+ monitoring metrics and API-driven configuration without reloads Adds high availability, TLS management, and API gateway capabilities	Balances Layer 4 and Layer 7 traffic with TLS termination and health checks Supports routing, failover, session persistence, and DNS-based global balancing Integrates load balancing with WAF, DDoS, API security, and bot protection
Cons	Subscription pricing requires contacting sales No free plan is available Designed for supported Linux environments, containers, Kubernetes, and clouds	Public list pricing is not published; buying requires contacting sales Essentials targets public-facing web apps, not the advanced hybrid/multicloud scope Enterprise adds advanced security and behavioral analysis, making it a broader fit
Our verdict	NGINX Plus is F5’s commercial application delivery software for organizations running applications, APIs, Kubernetes environments, and AI workloads. It combines reverse proxying with Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancing, TCP and UDP support,… Read the review →	F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing is a SaaS-based service for distributing application traffic across origins, sites, clusters, and cloud environments. It is aimed at mid-market and enterprise organizations managing public-facing and… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• NGINX Plus — where it wins

  • Combines Layer 4/7 balancing with advanced routing and active health checks
  • Provides 200+ monitoring metrics and API-driven configuration without reloads
  • Adds high availability, TLS management, and API gateway capabilities

  Where it doesn't

  • Subscription pricing requires contacting sales
  • No free plan is available
  • Designed for supported Linux environments, containers, Kubernetes, and clouds

• F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing — where it wins

  • Balances Layer 4 and Layer 7 traffic with TLS termination and health checks
  • Supports routing, failover, session persistence, and DNS-based global balancing
  • Integrates load balancing with WAF, DDoS, API security, and bot protection

  Where it doesn't

  • Public list pricing is not published; buying requires contacting sales
  • Essentials targets public-facing web apps, not the advanced hybrid/multicloud scope
  • Enterprise adds advanced security and behavioral analysis, making it a broader fit

• NGINX Plus8.8/10 · Pricing on request · 30-day trial

  Advanced Layer 4/7 traffic management for teams operating self-hosted applications and APIs.

  Visit NGINX PlusFull verdict →
• F5 Distributed Cloud Load Balancing8.4/10 · Pricing on request

  Layer 4/7 balancing and global traffic steering for distributed application estates.

  Visit F5Full verdict →