Best and official open source load balancer will be described in this article. Implementing a load balancer is one of the quickest and simplest ways to put up application high availability and enhance performance (LB).
A load balancer comes in three broad categories.
- Hardware-based
- Cloud-based
- Software-based
A dedicated device with the necessary features for load distribution is a hardware load balancer. Several of the well-known LB hardware suppliers are:
- F5
- TP-Link
- Barracuda
Although pricey, they allow you total control.
More than ever, cloud load balancer is in.
One of the more economical methods to use all of the functions without spending money on a hardware appliance is to use cloud LB. What you use, you pay for. These are a some of the well-known cloud LBs.
- AWS
- Cloud by Google
- Cloudflare
- Incapsula
- DigitalOcean
- Azure
Starting costs for it start at $20 per month.
The final option is software-based, requiring independent installation, management, and configuration of LB software. This can be either open-source/free or commercial.
The information below will assist you if you don’t have money to spend or would like to investigate a load balancer that is free.
Top 10 Best Open Source Load Balancer in 2022
Top 10 Best Open Source Load Balancer are explained here.
1. Seesaw
A trusted Linux-based virtual load balancer server is employed by Google to offer the required load distribution on the same network.
Seesaw is written in Go and runs smoothly on the Ubuntu/Debian operating system. It requires two Seesaw nodes, supports anycast, and uses DSR (direct server return). They could be virtual or actual.
It’s important to note that Seesaw only supports layer four networks, thus if you need layer seven load balancing, you might want to consider alternative solutions. Also check data analyst tools and software
2. KEMP’s LoadMaster
On all significant hypervisors, a FREE sophisticated application delivery controller from KEMP is supported. Either you can download it and use it in your own data centre or you can deploy it in a cloud data centre like AWS or Azure.
Even though it’s free, it has premium features like the ones listed below.
- Layer 4 TCP/UDP load balancing with least-connection or round-robin algorithms
Balance at Layer 7
Web application firewall built-in (WAF)
- Built-in intrusion detection system (IPS)
- Real-time, multi-site server load balancing
- Content switching, content compression, and caching
- Long-term Web cookie usage
Tunneling with IPSec
Some of the top companies, like Apple, Sony, JP Morgan, Audi, Hyundai, and others, employ KEMP LB. The free edition has enough features, but if you want more, you can look at their commercial licence. This is another open source load balancer.
You can use this online course by Mike Walton if you or your business decide to research KEMP LB and need some online training.
3. HAProxy
One of the multiple well-liked ones on the market now is to offer TCP/HTTP load-balancing, high availability, and proxy services. Some well-known companies around the world, including the ones listed below, use HAProxy.
- Airbnb
- GitHub
- Imgur
Some of the noteworthy characteristics are.
- Support for UNIX sockets and IPv6
- Gzip and Deflate compression
- Health-check
- Stickiness of source-based sessions
- Integrated stats reporting (checkout demo)
HAProxy has an enterprise edition, hardware, and virtual appliance, as you might anticipate.
Trying HAProxy is the best approach to learn more about them. The Community Edition has a tonne of features, all of which are free.
4. ZEVENET
Zevenet offers L3, L4, and L7 assistance. The IOS image, source code, and docker repository are all accessible. This is another open source load balancer. Also check audience response system
In order to give users a flawless experience, it supports extensive health-check monitoring, which immediately shuts down malfunctioning servers or services. Working well with TCP-based protocols like FTP, SIP, SSL, HTTP, etc. is Zevenet, formerly known as Zen.
Try Kamatera if you’re searching for Zevenet hosting.
5. Neutrino
eBay uses Neutrino, which was created with Scala and Netty. The following switching features enable least-connection and round-robin algorithms.
- Utilizing official names
- Context-based
- L4 employing TCP ports
On a 2-core virtual machine, Neutrino is tested to handle throughput of 300+ requests per second. When compared to HAProxy, L7 switching is one of Neutrino’s main advantages.
But as usual, test both to discover which suits your environment the best.
6. Balance
A TCP proxy round-robin LB called Balance by In lab networks supports IPv6 on the listener side. This implies that IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist on the front and back ends, respectively. This is another open source load balancer.
It has every LB fundamental trait.
7. Pen
Pen has been tried on Linux, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Solaris, and Windows; however, there is no reason why it couldn’t also operate on other Unix distributions. HTTP, SNMP, DNS, and other UDP and TCP-based protocols are supported.
Along with the basic one, the following features are some of them.
GeoIP filtering
- Termination of SSL
- IPv4 and IPv6 interoperability
8. Nginx
I am aware of your possible thoughts. A web server, proxy server, etc. is Nginx. However, a rudimentary amount of request distribution and content switching across different servers is supported by the open-source Nginx web server. This is another open source load balancer. Also check financial reporting software
The Nginx Plus edition, however, offers much more.
The load balancing, content caching, web server, WAF, monitoring, etc. are all included in the all-inclusive web application delivery system known as Nginx Plus. In order to scale applications to handle millions of requests per second, it offers a high-performance load balancer solution.
9. Traefik
A GO-based, contemporary, and quick HTTP reserve proxy and LB. Traefik offers a variety of back-end services. Docker, Kubernetes, Rancher, Amazon ECS, etc.
It has a clear UI with support for WebSockets, HTTP/2, auto-renewal of SSL certificates with Let’s Encrypt, and resource management and monitoring.
10. Intermediary
Gobetween is a high-performance, L4 TCP, TLS, and UDP-based load balancer that is simple yet effective.
It functions on a combination of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Docker, and Darwin, and if you’re interested, you can build from the source code. The following algorithms that you select in the setup are used for balancing. This is another open source load balancer.
IP hashes
- Round-robin, renowned worldwide
- Minimum bandwidth
- Weakest linkage
- Weight
This benchmark shows that Go-between is quicker than HAProxy but not Nginx.
Go-between appears intriguing if you’re seeking for a cutting-edge L4 balancing solution with auto-discovery for the dynamic environment. Try it release and see how it works.
Conclusion
You can choose an open-source load balancer for your application from those I’ve listed above, I hope. The easiest approach to discover what works is to test them all out since they are all free.
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