Hetzner Load Balancer vs F5 BIG-IP
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Hetzner Load Balancer and F5 BIG-IP.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
Hetzner Load Balancer
0 reviews
3.2/5
F5 BIG-IP
0 reviews
Hetzner Load Balancer is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.2). Hetzner's managed load balancer distributes TCP and HTTP(S) traffic across Hetzner Cloud and dedicated root server targets, with configurable health checks, SSL termination and sticky sessions. From €7.49/month, hourly billed. F5 BIG-IP provides hardware and software load balancing, application delivery, and DDoS mitigation for large-scale enterprise networks. Best for organizations requiring advanced traffic management and security.
Hetzner Load Balancer Managed load balancing with Layer 4/7 support and auto-scaling integration | F5 BIG-IP Enterprise load balancing and DDoS protection for mission-critical infrastructure | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.2 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $7.49/mo | Free tier available |
| Best for | Teams already running Hetzner Cloud or Hetzner dedicated servers who need a cheap, managed, well-documented entry point with TLS termination and health checks. | Large enterprises, financial services, healthcare, government and service providers consolidating high-traffic application delivery, WAF, SSL offload and DDoS mitigation on one audited platform |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | — |
| RAM | — | — |
| Storage | — | — |
| Bandwidth | 20 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | — | — |
| Data-center count | 6 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | Falkenstein (DE)Nuremberg (DE)Helsinki (FI)Ashburn, VA (US)Hillsboro, OR (US)Singapore (SG) | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | managed optioneu datacenterus datacenter | ddos protectionteam features |
| Visit Hetzner Load Balancer → | Visit F5 BIG-IP → | |
Hetzner Load Balancer
Pros
- + Cheap for a managed load balancer: LB11 at €7.49/month with 20 TB EU included traffic and a Primary IPv4 included
- + Targets both Hetzner Cloud servers and dedicated root servers over public or private IPv4
- + Solid HTTP feature set: TLS termination with managed certificates, sticky sessions, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect, proxy protocol
- + Per-service health checks (HTTP/HTTPS/TCP) with configurable interval, timeout, retries and expected responses
- + Hourly billing with monthly cap, six locations across four network zones, first-class API/Terraform/Kubernetes integration
Cons
- - Only Round Robin and Least Connections — no IP-hash, weighting, or L7 path-based routing rules
- - No request logging at all; no WAF or bot management; no built-in autoscaling
- - HTTPS services forward plain HTTP to targets; end-to-end TLS requires a TCP service and loses HTTP features
- - Hetzner targets only (no multi-cloud or on-prem backends); load balancers are bound to a single location
- - No product-level SLA or credits and no published throughput figures per plan
F5 BIG-IP
Pros
- + Consolidates load balancing, SSL/TLS offload, WAF, firewall/DoS mitigation, access/VPN and DNS on one policy engine
- + Thirty-year reliability track record in banks, carriers and governments; mature HA clustering
- + Full-proxy architecture with programmable iRules for traffic logic that generic load balancers cannot express
- + Runs everywhere: hardware appliances, VIPRION/VELOS chassis, and Virtual Edition on VMware, KVM, Hyper-V and major clouds
- + Dual-stack IPv6 support and ICSA-certified firewall with automatic and dynamic DoS signature handling
Cons
- - Very expensive: throughput-tiered licenses, module add-ons and six-figure support contracts
- - No public list pricing — real cost only emerges through partner sales processes
- - Steep learning curve: its own OS (TMOS), its own DSL (iRules/TCL, AS3) and its own upgrade rituals
- - Overkill for simple HTTP load balancing where cloud-native or open-source options cost a fraction
- - Company is steering toward subscription and Distributed Cloud; multi-year renewal terms need pinning down
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