Load balancers · October 2026 Edition
Cloudflare Load Balancing vs Azure Application Gateway
Two of fourteen models named Cloudflare Load Balancing first on the direct prompt; one named Azure Application Gateway. Cloudflare Load Balancing was named by twelve of the fourteen models and Azure Application Gateway by eight and Cloudflare Load Balancing carries 25 labels and Azure Application Gateway 10, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share4%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate0%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#5#8A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.
Labels2510A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Cloudflare Load Balancing reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.HAProxy was named alongside these two in ten of the fourteen direct answers. HAProxy vs Cloudflare Load Balancing · HAProxy vs Azure Application Gateway · Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load Balancing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the load balancers page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Cloudflare Load BalancingFirst choices, of fourteen modelsAzure Application Gateway
Direct21
Paraphrase00
Comparative00
Budget-constrained00
Scale-constrained00
Negative00
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Cloudflare Load Balancing and Azure Application Gateway stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | |||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | ||||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | ||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | ||||
| Mistral Small | | |||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | |||||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | |||||
| Kimi K2 | ||||||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | ||||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | |||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | |
Cloudflare Load Balancing Azure Application Gateway first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Cloudflare Load Balancing on the left and Azure Application Gateway on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Cloudflare Load Balancing and Azure Application Gateway stood in it.
Cloudflare Load Balancing first, Azure Application Gateway an alternative
2 of 14 modelsAzure Application Gateway was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare Load Balancing alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, HAProxy, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
Mistral SmallCloudflare Load Balancing alternatives: HAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster, VMware Avi Load Balancer
Azure Application Gateway first, Cloudflare Load Balancing an alternative
1 of 14 modelsCloudflare Load Balancing was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Qwen 3.7 FlashAWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, NGINX alternatives: Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy
Neither was the first choice, one was named
6 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Perplexity SonarHAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway
Grok 4.1 FastHAProxy, NGINX alternatives: AWS ALB, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, Progress Kemp LoadMaster
DeepSeek V4 FlashProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Application Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
MiniMax M2.5Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, NGINX
GPT-6 LunaAWS Application Load Balancer alternatives: Azure Application Gateway, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, Google Cloud Application Load Balancer, Google Cloud Network Load Balancer
Muse Glimmer 30BProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX
Neither was named
5 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Claude Haiku 4.5AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, NGINX alternatives: Citrix ADC, F5, HAProxy
GPT-5.4 miniApplication Load Balancer alternatives: Azure Load Balancer, Google Cloud's Application Load Balancer, Network Load Balancer
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Kimi K2HAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: F5 NGINX
GLM 4.7 FlashXNGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Cloudflare Load Balancing leads by eleven points.
Cloudflare Load Balancing11%#3 of 13Azure Application Gateway0%#11 of 13Mid-marketThe figures above
Cloudflare Load Balancing leads by two points.
Cloudflare Load Balancing4%#5 of 13Azure Application Gateway2%#8 of 13Enterprise
Cloudflare Load Balancing leads by six points.
Cloudflare Load Balancing6%#3 of 10Azure Application Gateway0%#– of 10What the models said about Cloudflare Load Balancing
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“Ideal for companies needing global traffic steering, failover, and strong DDoS protection... making it a good fit for B2B companies with a global customer base” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“Best For: B2B SaaS companies, multi-cloud setups, and security-first organizations... Combines global routing with top-tier security at the edge” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“Best if you want managed service simplicity: Cloudflare Load Balancing ... though managed services can become expensive as usage grows” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · alternative
What the models said about Azure Application Gateway
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“Use the Application Gateway on Azure or Network Load Balancer (NLB) on AWS if you have strict compliance requirements” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“If everything is already in Azure and you prefer a managed service, Azure Application Gateway is a natural fit.” MiniMax M2.5 · paraphrase prompt · alternative
“AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ALB/NLB) or Azure's Application Gateway run directly within your cloud architecture.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · alternative
Also compared
HAProxy vs Cloudflare Load BalancingHAProxy vs Azure Application GatewayProgress Kemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load BalancingProgress Kemp LoadMaster vs Azure Application GatewayNGINX vs Cloudflare Load BalancingNGINX vs Azure Application GatewayAWS Elastic Load Balancing vs Cloudflare Load BalancingAWS Elastic Load Balancing vs Azure Application GatewayCloudflare Load Balancing vs TraefikCloudflare Load Balancing vs Azure Load BalancerTraefik vs Azure Application GatewayAzure Load Balancer vs Azure Application GatewayAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full load balancers standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.