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Load balancers · October 2026 Edition

Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs Azure Load Balancer

Five of fourteen models named Progress Kemp LoadMaster first on the direct prompt; one named Azure Load Balancer. Progress Kemp LoadMaster was named by ten of the fourteen models and Azure Load Balancer by thirteen and Progress Kemp LoadMaster carries 20 labels and Azure Load Balancer 29, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

Azure Load Balancer

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

First-choice share27%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.

Negative rate0%14%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.

Rank in category#2#7A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.

Labels2029A count; the two differ.

The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Progress Kemp LoadMaster 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 Progress Kemp LoadMaster · HAProxy vs Azure Load Balancer · Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX

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.

Progress Kemp LoadMasterFirst choices, of fourteen modelsAzure Load Balancer

Direct51

Paraphrase90

Comparative00

Budget-constrained002 against Azure Load Balancer

Scale-constrained00

Negative002 against Azure Load Balancer

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 Progress Kemp LoadMaster and Azure Load Balancer stood in it.

Model	DirectPKAL	ParaphrasePKAL	ComparativePKAL	Budget-constrainedPKAL	Scale-constrainedPKAL	NegativePKAL
Claude Haiku 4.5	AL
GPT-5.4 mini	AL
Gemini 3.5 Flash	PK	PK				AL
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast	PKAL	PK			AL
Mistral Small	PK		AL			AL
DeepSeek V4 Flash	PK	PK		AL	AL	PKAL
Llama 4 Maverick		PK
Qwen 3.7 Flash		PK				AL
Kimi K2	PK	PK
GLM 4.7 FlashX	PK	PK
MiniMax M2.5	PKAL	PK		AL		AL
GPT-6 Luna	AL		AL
Muse Glimmer 30B	PKAL	PK		AL

PK Progress Kemp LoadMasterAL Azure Load BalancerPK first choicePK named as an alternativePK argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Progress Kemp LoadMaster on the left and Azure Load Balancer on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Progress Kemp LoadMaster and Azure Load Balancer stood in it.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster first, Azure Load Balancer an alternative

5 of 14 modelsAzure Load Balancer was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.

DeepSeek V4 FlashProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Application Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX

Kimi K2HAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: F5 NGINX

GLM 4.7 FlashXNGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: F5 BIG-IP, HAProxy

MiniMax M2.5Progress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, NGINX

Muse Glimmer 30BProgress Kemp LoadMaster alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, HAProxy, NGINX

Azure Load Balancer first, Progress Kemp LoadMaster not the choice

1 of 14 modelsProgress Kemp LoadMaster was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.

Claude Haiku 4.5AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, NGINX alternatives: Citrix ADC, F5, HAProxy

Neither was the first choice, one was named

5 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.

GPT-5.4 miniApplication Load Balancer alternatives: Azure Load Balancer, Google Cloud's Application Load Balancer, Network Load Balancer

Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare Load Balancing alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, HAProxy, NGINX, Progress Kemp LoadMaster

Grok 4.1 FastHAProxy, NGINX alternatives: AWS ALB, Azure Load Balancer, Cloudflare Load Balancing, GCP Cloud Load Balancing, Progress Kemp LoadMaster

Mistral SmallCloudflare Load Balancing alternatives: HAProxy, Progress Kemp LoadMaster, VMware Avi Load Balancer

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

Neither was named

3 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.

Perplexity SonarHAProxy alternatives: AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway

Llama 4 Maverickno first choice

Qwen 3.7 FlashAWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Application Gateway, NGINX alternatives: Cloudflare Load Balancing, 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

Progress Kemp LoadMaster leads by three points.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster#– of 13

Azure Load Balancer#6 of 13

The full small business standing →

Mid-marketThe figures above

Progress Kemp LoadMaster leads by twenty-five points.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster#2 of 13

Azure Load Balancer#7 of 13

The full mid-market standing →

Enterprise

Progress Kemp LoadMaster leads by four points.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster#– of 10

Azure Load Balancer#10 of 10

The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Progress Kemp LoadMaster

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“Best All-Rounder (Hybrid/Virtual/On-Premises): Progress Kemp LoadMaster ... is widely considered the gold standard for the mid-market.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice

“I'd recommend Progress Kemp LoadMaster as the best application delivery controller for a mid-sized B2B company” GLM 4.7 FlashX · paraphrase prompt · first choice

“Progress Kemp LoadMaster (now part of Progress) is the one I would suggest as the default starting point.” MiniMax M2.5 · paraphrase prompt · first choice

What the models said about Azure Load Balancer

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Cloud-native load balancers (AWS ELB, Azure LB, GCP LB) ... may lack deep packet inspection, advanced routing rules, or cross-cloud consistency” MiniMax M2.5 · negative prompt · soft negative

“Traefik is rated higher for value, with reviewers expressing greater satisfaction with its pricing compared to Azure Load Balancer.” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · soft negative

“excellent within their ecosystems but can lead to vendor lock-in” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative

“Cloud-native load balancers (AWS ALB, Azure LB) are often the best fit” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice

“Azure Load Balancer for network-layer distribution, especially in Azure-native environments.” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · alternative

“AWS Elastic Load Balancing, Azure Load Balancer, or Google Cloud Load Balancing” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · alternative

Also compared

HAProxy vs Progress Kemp LoadMaster HAProxy vs Azure Load Balancer Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs AWS Elastic Load Balancing Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs Cloudflare Load Balancing Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs Traefik Progress Kemp LoadMaster vs Azure Application Gateway NGINX vs Azure Load Balancer AWS Elastic Load Balancing vs Azure Load Balancer Cloudflare Load Balancing vs Azure Load Balancer Traefik vs Azure Load Balancer Azure Load Balancer vs Azure Application Gateway All 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.