Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. NGINX vs. VMware NSX

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls provides a wide range of security and connectivity features, including web filtering, NAC and SSL VPN and other features for remote access, as well as protection as edge devices and IoT security.N/A
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
NGINX, a business unit of F5 Networks, powers over 65% of the world's busiest websites and web applications. NGINX started out as an open source web server and reverse proxy, built to be faster and more efficient than Apache. Over the years, NGINX has built a suite of infrastructure software products o tackle some of the biggest challenges in managing high-transaction applications. NGINX offers a suite of products to form the core of what organizations need to create…N/A
VMware NSX
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
VMware NSX is network virtualization technology. VMware NSX is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.N/A
Pricing
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Free Trial
YesYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsBarracuda offers prospective buyers a build and quote tool on their website.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Features
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
9.5
11 Ratings
10% above category average
NGINX
-
Ratings
VMware NSX
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies9.710 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.510 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection9.49 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.810 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.611 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.611 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging9.411 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN9.710 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability9.99 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection9.88 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server9.04 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Servers
Comparison of Application Servers features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
-
Ratings
NGINX
8.7
32 Ratings
9% above category average
VMware NSX
-
Ratings
IDE support00 Ratings7.617 Ratings00 Ratings
Security management00 Ratings8.627 Ratings00 Ratings
Administration and management00 Ratings8.827 Ratings00 Ratings
Application server performance00 Ratings9.327 Ratings00 Ratings
Installation00 Ratings8.929 Ratings00 Ratings
Open-source standards compliance00 Ratings9.025 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 8.6 out of 10
Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
Score 9.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.2 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.1 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(15 ratings)
8.9
(50 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
5.5
(1 ratings)
8.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(4 ratings)
8.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallNGINXVMware NSX
Likelihood to Recommend
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
I would say a small business with a basic firewall and security needs would be a perfect fit for the Barracuda CloudGen firewall. I know that they soon end up leaving the NG models and are moving forward with the F series firewall. I think the F series is a much more difficult to manage device and doesn’t offer simplistic configuration or use and lacks cloud control so I don’t understand the move on Barracuda’s part to nix a great easy to manage the firewall. I do think that the NG line is maybe too simple for bigger businesses and would lack some main features that they would require.
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F5
Nginx is well-suited for any web server scenarios, such as web applications, backend or reverse proxy for both application and HTTP requests, and distribution. It is less appropriate for Windows-based applications that run directly on a Windows Server host. In any case, it is very easy to manage, through separate conf files for each application or site you want to host with it.
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VMware by Broadcom
With proper design, VMware NSX can and should be deployed to virtually any VMware virtualization environment, but the deployment should be tailored to the needs of that environment. There isn't really a one size fits all deployment design for all environments. That versatility is what provides its greatest strength to a business.
Read full review
Pros
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • The management software is excellent. It make it much easier to manage the firewalls than some of the other vendors.
  • Watching real-time traffic is easy to do when trying to troubleshoot a users issues getting to a particular service.
  • Support from Barracuda has been excellent. We rate their phone and online remote support as being the best in the business.
  • We like the QoS and Traffic shaping of the NG Firewalls. They help is manage our limited bandwidth, so that business critical resources are available over lesser critical resources.
  • Integration with Active Directory makes it easy to identify users activities in logs.
Read full review
F5
  • Very low memory usage. Can handle many more connections than alternatives (like Apache HTTPD) due to low overhead. (event-based architecture).
  • Great at serving static content.
  • Scales very well. Easy to host multiple Nginx servers to promote high availability.
  • Open-Source (no cost)!
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VMware by Broadcom
  • End to end encryption on the wire.
  • Micro-segmentation.
  • Integrates well with existing VMWare environment.
  • Integrates well with our existing network.
Read full review
Cons
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Very complex and steep learning curve to get up to speed.
  • Multiple ways to configure for the same service or feature. Takes time to determine "your" customized build.
  • Interface can sometimes be clunky when trying to determine how it's organized or arranged. Again, steep learning curve.
Read full review
F5
  • Customer support can be strangely condescending, perhaps it's a language issue?
  • I find it a little weird how the release versions used for Nginx+ aren't the same as for open source version. It can be very confusing to determine the cross-compatibility of modules, etc., because of this.
  • It seems like some (most?) modules on their own site are ancient and no longer supported, so their documentation in this area needs work.
  • It's difficult to navigate between nginx.com commercial site and customer support. They need to be integrated together.
  • I'd love to see more work done on nginx+ monitoring without requiring logging every request. I understand that many statistics can only be derived from logs, but plenty should work without that. Logging is not an option in many environments.
Read full review
VMware by Broadcom
  • Interoperability in multi-vendor environments
  • Advanced networking and packet acceleration options can be improved
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
F5
Great value for the product
Read full review
VMware by Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Usability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Easy enough to use and configure using the management UI. Reporting from the web filter is a little clunky, and not very user friendly. To be perfectly honest, once it's set up and running, there isn't a lot to do from the day-to-day side of things, which is not a bad thing.
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F5
This tool is really easy to use and configure. Consumes very less system resources. It is highly modular and configurable. You can easily use it with other tools like certbot for SSLs. You can configure basic security with configuration and headers
Read full review
VMware by Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
I could go on and on about how good Barracuda's support really is. I have yet to have a problem they didn't help me fix and I always learn something when talking with them. The story that best describes my overall experience with Barracuda's support is this: When I first put in the xSeries they had a problem with a policy route. There was a bug in the code and in the one situation I was it, it just would not work. I went up the levels of support and they couldn't fix it. Well, next thing I know I am on the phone with 2 of the guys that programmed the thing and they work out the solution in no time and get me going. That is support. That is what I have come to expect from Barracuda. If the tech on the phone doesn't know the answer, they do not stop until they find it. Grant it, I also have to admit I do not call support with every problem, I try to work it out on my own first as that is how I learn best, so when I do call support it is going to be complicated.
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F5
Community support is great, and they've also had a presence at conferences. Overall, there is no shortage of documentation and community support. We're currently using it to serve up some WordPress sites, and configuring NGINX for this purpose is well documented.
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VMware by Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Our Cisco firewall was always difficult to make any changes against. It had no user-friendly GUI interface. We were calling technical support most of the time whenever we needed to make any changes. The Barracuda CloudGen Firewall has a GUI interface which we are looking forward to getting better acquainted with as we move off of our old Cisco. Of course, Barracuda's technical support is always there and is top notch!
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F5
I have found that [NGINX] seems to perform better throughout the years with less issues although I've used Apache more. I would definitely recommend [NGINX] for any high volume site and I've seen this to usually be the case from most provided web hosts who will pick [NGINX] over alternatives
Read full review
VMware by Broadcom
We use both Cisco ACI and VMware NSX, and while they have different strengths and capabilities, I would recommend VMware NSX, as it can be used in all VMware environments, without costly physical infrastructure changes. Cisco ACI provides some of the same capabilities, but not all. It's focus relies on physical networking changes.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • We saved multiple thousands of dollars the first year out with the firewall in maintenance fees. We paid for the firewall and 3 years of service and still saved money.
  • The ease of management allows me to do my job more efficiently. I save a lot of time when doing my day to day job because I can get to my firewall virtually anywhere.
  • I feel a lot safer and my business more secure knowing that I have configured things the way they need to be and it was simple and not overly complicated.
Read full review
F5
  • By using Nginx, we can host multiple web services on a single server, keeping our infrastructure costs lower.
  • Nginx maintains our HTTPS connections, allowing us to keep our promise to our customers that their data is safe in transit.
  • Due to Nginx's extremely low failure rate, our web addresses always return something meaningful, even when individual services go down. In sense, this means we are "always online" and allows us to maintain brand and support our customers even in the face of catastrophe.
Read full review
VMware by Broadcom
  • Ability to move workloads more easily with the ability to stretch/move networks across multiple physical locations.
  • The added flexibility allows you to expedite tech refreshes since you're no longer constrained by the hardware.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

NGINX Screenshots

Screenshot of Overview of the NGINX Application PlatformScreenshot of NGINX Controller - MonitoringScreenshot of NGINX Controller - Configuration