AWS Elastic Load Balancing vs Progress Kemp LoadMaster

AWS Elastic Load Balancing distributes incoming application traffic across targets and virtual appliances in one or more Availability Zones. It offers Application, Network, Gateway, and Classic Load Balancers, scales request handling with traffic, and runs configurable health checks on targets. Application Load Balancers support HTTP header-based routing, redirects, fixed responses, HTTP/2, and gRPC. Network Load Balancers support static Elastic IP addresses and AWS PrivateLink for TCP and TLS listeners. The service also supports SSL/TLS termination, certificate management, and client certificate authentication. CloudWatch metrics and logging are available for all four types. A single load balancer can distribute traffic across AWS and on-premises resources. Kubernetes support includes direct-to-pod routing for Application Load Balancers and private EKS clusters for Application and Network Load Balancers. AWS recommends different types for HTTP, transport protocols, third-party virtual appliances, and EC2-Classic applications. Usage charges vary by region; data transfer and public IPv4 address charges may be additional. New AWS customers receive a free tier for six months after account creation, with usage limits and up to $200 in credits.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster is an application delivery controller and server load balancer for managing application and user traffic. Its routing and delivery features include Layer 4 and Layer 7 balancing, persistence, health checks, SSL acceleration and offloading, and rule-based content switching. An integrated WAF covers protections such as OWASP Top Ten risks, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and denial of service; other access controls include reverse proxy, single sign-on, pre-authentication, dual-factor authentication, IPS, and SSL bridging. GEO policies can direct clients to datacenters by location or proximity and support failover and failback. Progress offers hardware, virtual, and cloud forms, with on-premises and cloud deployment options. Cloud licenses can be pay-per-use, charged only for usage consumed, or perpetual BYOL. The temporary trial costs nothing for 30 days on the VLM-MAX model with Enterprise Plus Support, including ESP, WAF, and GEO. When that license expires, LoadMaster ceases to function; some features may also be lost if a permanent license has a different support tier.