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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Akamai Ion

    Score9.9 out of 10
    N/AAkamai offers the Ion application delivery controller suite to automatically supply performance optimization to websites and mobile or web applications.N/A

    NetScaler

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ANetScaler ADC is an application delivery controller.N/A
    Pricing
    Akamai IonNetScaler
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Akamai IonNetScaler
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Akamai IonNetScaler
    Considered Both Products
    Akamai
    No answer on this topic
    Citrix
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    14 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    User Ratings
    Akamai IonNetScaler
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (25 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Akamai IonNetScaler
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Akamai
    • Akamai Ion is excellent if you have the staff to manage the configurations and understand how best to leverage its benefits amidst ongoing Dev work without getting in their way. You'll have to communicate consistently on what the CDN does and does not do as well as drive knowledge sharing sessions on expected behavior or unexpected behavior to help reduce unnecessary troubleshooting from your IT and Dev teams when tickets/issues arise.
    • Akamai Ion is best suited for well equipped and well informed IT or Marketing teams that can leverage the delivery benefits of caching and offload. Doing so will increase customer satisfaction, reduce bounce rates, improve conversion rates as well as drive more time on site.
    Incentivized
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    Citrix
    Citrix Netscaler can be a powerful network appliance for environments that are fully committed and open to utilizing a network appliance that isn't made by a traditional network vendor. Administrator user experience has improved over the years and will continue to improve with the flexibility of virtual and physical appliances available for medium and large enterprises.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Akamai
    • Ease of management with good UI for making rules and behaviors.
    • There is also an API and Code integration for the advanced Dev-Ops team to use as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Citrix
    • Flexibility. NetScaler assumes its admins know a bit about networking and in-depth details surrounding the applications they are configuring access for/to. This being so, the range of configuration options is very broad allowing various versions' combinations of protocol patterns, expressions, rules etc., all to the benefit of the admin.
    • Granularity. Having such a broad range of configuration options available, while still allowing simple options to be configured simply. The GUI is well-stylized and navigation has a good flow.
    • Ease of control. For load-balancing of simple services right out of the box, NetScaler makes it pretty easy, compared to the range of options available in the surrounding GUI and under the hood.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Akamai
    • The learning curve on using a CDN is steep and requires class time. The initial onboarding and integration with the business' DevOps teams should be a bit closer relationship.
    • Global vs. Regional management can be a bit challenging if your account is centralized overseas, and you want a local time-zone account manager on your time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Citrix
    • The documentation could use an overhaul with specific examples related to the command line as well as GUI. Explanations in the documentation would also be helpful.
    • Being able to have more than just one routing table would allow the ability to leverage security.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Akamai
    No answers on this topic
    Citrix
    I gave the NetScaler a 7 here because the system once configured and deployed is very easy to use. However, if you did not deploy the system and do not have the fundamental background knowledge then you will have trouble using the product in general. Overall it is a great product and service but does typically require professional services to be deployed.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Akamai
    • Support for tickets has gotten better/quicker over the years.
    • Also, there is a wealth of information on the knowledge base, documentation, and there is also a message board too now.
    Incentivized
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    Citrix
    Overall, our organization's experience with Citrix support is that support can be hit or miss. Oftentimes it takes multiple attempts and much longer than desirable to obtain a viable solution for issues experienced with their products. It would be great to see Citrix invest time, effort, and almighty dollars into improving their support and bug fix process across the board.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Akamai
    No answers on this topic
    Citrix
    easy to use and setup and reliable. Once the configuration was setup and running this has been really useful and easy to maintain. The other solutions seemed overly complicated and difficult to configure and get up and running with the security that we required
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Akamai
    • Improved conversion rates.
    • Reduced page load times.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Citrix
    • We had this set up before COVID and it saved us. We just added user licenses and scaled out our citrix farm and IT sat back and just monitored users from home.
    • Scales up and out with ease
    • Challenging to find NetScaler experts for advanced features you want to enable and use
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots