Citrix Gateway vs. Kemp LoadMaster

Citrix Gateway is a reliable remote access and remote desktop solution. It comes with some amazing security features and enables teams to work remotely. In addition, it guarantees easy, secure access to business apps and desktops through features such as SSO and MFA. It is an ideal tool to have if your business has remote teams.

Incentivized

Loadmaster is very powerful and flexible load balancer. Variety of options allows to create a complex network of rules and routes. During our website rollout Loadmaster allowed us to run multiple generations of the website simultaneously and seamlessly by doing the content switching on the fly. Powerful API allows easy integration into any development lifecycle.

Incentivized

• It simplifies IT management - has greatly reduced our IT administrative burden.
• It enhances contextual access and security. Policy-based access helps improve security by considering location, device, and user identity.
• Unified access and performance. The tool ensures a single point of entry for all applications.

Incentivized

• Where the LoadBalancer excels is the multiple levels at which you can load balance servers. We currently use layer 7 LB, but others are available as well.
• I particularly like the ability for the LB to know when servers are down, and if all are offline then you can create a redirect to a static HTML page or some other destination that is more informative.
• The ease in which a service can be created and deployed using already pre-canned templates makes it a very convenient setup process.

Incentivized

• Opening of apps - it often crashes. My coworker even told me a trick to 'spam click' the app when it shows a certain error to be able to bypass it to get the app open.
• Ability to customize from a user point of view - hiding apps, customizing visual, etc.
• Desktop version never remaining signed in (MacBook) - much easier to just access via web.
• After new laptop/new hire logs into the web version of Citrix and downloads the launcher, the launcher should then auto-fill the URL rather than requesting it again.
• Citrix seems to reset at 12:00pm EST every day, given 15 minute reminder before shutting down the app. It would be great if this timer could be visible in the corner, or simply scheduled for different times depending on regions as it's quite disruptive.
• Citrix seems to reset at 12:00pm EST every day, given 15 minute reminder before shutting down the app. It would be great if this timer could be visible in the corner, or simply scheduled for different times depending on regions as it's quite disruptive.

Incentivized

• Ability to 'clone' existing Virtual Services for rapid deployment of similar ones.
• A better API for ease of automation.
• Simplification of Certificate management.
• Better explanations of Kemp implementations of industry standard protocols like VRRP (or CARP)
• More control over device factory reset configuration and forcibly breaking HA pairs at boot time

Incentivized

I'm very pleased with the support I've received as well as the quality of the product.

Incentivized

Citrix is a visually very clean platform, allowing for ease of use from even the least tech-savvy. That being said, the apps crashes a lot (scheduled or otherwise), and apps very often refuse to open from the dashboard, making for a frustrating/confusing experience from those who have not yet experienced these same issues daily for years now. The launcher app (for MacBook) leaves a lot to be desired in terms of both setup and daily use, making the web version more viable. First-time users are also often confused on what Citrix is - and how each app connects in order to open a program (explaining "log into Citrix on the web, then download the launcher app, then launch the Spectra app via Citrix web, which will open in the Citrix launcher app on your laptop to launch the app, but you have to paste in the URL again and log in again to access" is a handful)

Incentivized

Kemp makes it very easy to setup, configure and manage the LoadMaster without needing a lot of help from their engineers. The interface is very easy to understand and intuitive to use. We like how it is not complicated - I can easily have one of my techs login and they can figure out how to setup/configure virtual services for load balancing without needing a manual or tech support.

Incentivized

Support is pretty good and pretty fast to respond. I can't say I can really complain about the support experience I've had with them, as they've resolved issues within a reasonable time-frame. Of course, they could always be faster and better, but I think for what we pay, it's well worth the money.

Incentivized

Support has been easy to deal with; I have only need[ed] to contact them a few times during setup. Once its been in place and operational, we have not need[ed] to mess with the system [which] is a huge advantage. I like system[s] that do not break and require constant attention in a production environment.

The installation was straight forward. Once i installed it, their technical support team helped me with configuration

Incentivized

We chose Citrix Netscaler Gateway for its wide market presence and its great experience over time. Although the implementation time may be longer than in the other solutions, I think the results are better and it allows configuration with greater capacity than the others. The cost is similar in all the solutions seen.

Incentivized

We chose Kemp LoadMaster because it is 1/10 the price of the competition and MUCH easier to deploy and configure and WORKS. We have had ZERO issues with the product since installation. Their engineers and their sales team have both reached out post-install to check in and see if everything is working as expected.

• We use Citrix Gateway as booking tool which is important to us.
• We check our metrics using Citrix which is also important to the company as our performance.
• We can see also comments and opinions of the customers using this tool.

• We used Kemp LoadMaster for many projects. For a lot of customers, load balancers were too expensive or too complicated before we introduced Kemp products.
• It's not a overly complicated product, so we were able to train many engineers on it and have them get a certification.

Incentivized