A10 Thunder ADC vs PureLB
A10 Thunder ADC
a10networks.com
PureLB
purelb.ioSide by side
| Figure | A10 Thunder ADC | PureLB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Load Balancing Software | 8.7 (#2) | 6.8 (#18) |
| Intended users | A10 describes Thunder ADC as intended for SMBs, large enterprises, service providers, and cloud operators managing mission-critical applications. | PureLB is designed for operators running Kubernetes clusters on bare-metal Linux nodes who need external reachability for LoadBalancer services. |
| Monitoring | The product page describes Prometheus and Grafana integration using a built-in Prometheus exporter for visibility, event monitoring, and alerting. | PureLB exposes Prometheus metrics for the allocator and node agent and documents Prometheus Operator ServiceMonitors, alert rules, and a Grafana dashboard. |
| Purpose | Thunder ADC is an application delivery controller and Layer 4–7 load balancer designed to protect critical applications, maintain server availability, and accelerate content delivery. | PureLB provides Kubernetes LoadBalancer services for bare-metal deployments by allocating IP addresses from configured pools and announcing them through Linux networking or optional BGP. |
| Security | The product includes web and DNS firewall capabilities, single sign-on, DDoS protection, and support for advanced encryption including PFS and ECC. | The allocator runs as non-root UID 65534 with a read-only filesystem, while the node agent and k8gobgp run as root with networking capabilities and host networking. |
| Support | A10 says its technical assistance center uses follow-the-sun support, and customers with a valid Thunder or AX Series support contract can download current software releases and receive product updates. | The project lists its Kubernetes Slack #purelb-users channel and GitHub Issues as ways to get help. |
Plans
In their own words
A10 Thunder ADC
A10 Thunder ADC is an application delivery controller and advanced load balancer for distributing workloads, maintaining server availability, protecting applications, and accelerating content delivery. It balances traffic at Layers 4–7, offers customizable service health checks, and supports aFleX scripting. Global Server Load Balancing can direct traffic across data centers and clouds for continuity and localized responses. Deployment options include hardware, virtual appliances, cloud, bare metal, and containers. Performance capabilities include caching, TCP optimization, and TLS/SSL offloading; security features include single sign-on, CAPTCHA, web and DNS firewalls, and DDoS protection. The REST-based aXAPI interface is described as providing 100% API coverage. Named integrations include Terraform and Ansible for CI/CD, Kubernetes service discovery through TKC or HashiCorp NIA with Consul, and Prometheus/Grafana monitoring. Pricing is on request. A 30-day trial license is listed for vThunder and public cloud offerings; container trial details require contacting A10 Sales. The container edition lists OpenShift 4.16 and minimum requirements of 4 vCPU and 16 GB memory.
PureLB
PureLB is a Kubernetes Service LoadBalancer for bare-metal Linux clusters. It allocates external IP addresses from configured pools and announces them through Linux networking, with optional BGP for remote addresses. ServiceGroups use exactly one pool type: local, remote, or Netbox. Local addresses are attached to host interfaces, and a Kubernetes Lease election chooses which node announces each address; another node can take over if that node fails. Remote addresses are placed on a dummy interface on every node and advertised through BGP, allowing an upstream router to distribute traffic with ECMP. Pools can contain IPv4, IPv6, or both for dual-stack deployments. Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions configure pools and node agents. Installation uses kubectl manifests or Helm, with Helm recommended for production. PureLB requires a Kubernetes cluster with an operational CNI and Linux nodes. It is free, open source, Apache 2.0 licensed, and self-hosted. Prometheus metrics are exposed on port 7472 at /metrics. NetBox integration is documented but currently unsupported and may not work with recent versions.