How do I decide which load balancer to use for my application?

Choosing the right load balancer layer for your applications depends on your specific requirements and the characteristics of your applications. Here’s a general guideline:

TCP Load Balancing (Layer 4):

• Suitable for applications that don’t require deep inspection of application-layer data.
• Use when you need to distribute traffic based on IP addresses and port numbers.
• Ideal for load balancing non-HTTP protocols or when you have a large number of similar services running on the same port.

HTTP/HTTPS Load Balancing (Layer 7): 

• Ideal for web applications, APIs, or services that rely on HTTP/HTTPS, as it can perform content-based routing.
• Choose Layer 7 when you need to distribute traffic based on application-specific data such as URLs, HTTP headers, or cookies.
• Provides advanced features like session persistence, SSL offloading, and more fine-grained control over traffic.