Various vendors offer web-acceleration appliances that improve the performance of applications, typically by off-loading a web server. Unlike these products, Steelhead appliances optimize all TCP traffic, not just web traffic.

There are two types of web-acceleration appliances: One consists of a single appliance deployed in front of a web server (Riverbed does not compete with those products). The second type is a symmetric architecture with an appliance at both ends of a WAN link that intercepts web traffic and uses dynamic caching or other techniques to improve the performance of the application. As with other single-purpose products, Riverbed offers a more comprehensive solution that optimizes both web applications and all other traffic going over TCP.