Arbor DDoS vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Arbor DDoS
Ranking in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...
Ranking in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2024, in the Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection category, the mindshare of Arbor DDoS is 16.7%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is 1.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
No other categories found
 

Featured Reviews

Sobhakant Dhungana - PeerSpot reviewer
May 18, 2023
A stable solution offering features like analytics and attack mitigation capabilities
Arbor DDoS is not used for enterprise companies but by some other companies, including NIDC, a government entity Analytics and its attack mitigation capabilities are valuable features of the solution. It is an expensive product, so there is room for improvement in terms of pricing. I work for…
Bonieber  Orofeo - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 7, 2024
Helpful in mitigating DDoS attacks and web application firewall
It's very helpful in mitigating DDoS attacks. It helps us with our database and provides defence in areas we aren't focused on The web application firewall has been very helpful. We purchased F5 when we were migrating our applications to the cloud. So it has the capability to move to the cloud,…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The stateless device format means that the box is very strong for preventing DDoS attacks."
"The quality of the technical support provided by Arbor DDoS is premium."
"There are a number of valuable features in this product, like Cloud Signaling and Threat Intelligence feeds."
"We can reduce the bandwidth to minimize the attack level. If we see more than 2.5 GBs we drop it directly."
"Arbor has a global ranking in reliability and credibility. They are very unique and can respond to a very wide scope of threats from their global deployment."
"The stability is okay and we have not encountered problems with the solution."
"The product allows us to check real-time progress, including latency and network activities."
"Using standard BGP, NetFlow and SNMP ensure wide compatibility. There are also peering traffic reports that can help identify upstream peering opportunities. The ATLAS aggregation service allows us to contribute to the global DDoS data and benefit from overall trends."
"The product’s most valuable features are LTM and WAF."
"The decryption is great."
"The most valuable feature of F5 BIG-IP AFM is the iRules where I can customize the configuration."
"The solution is very straightforward. The usability is great."
"The most valuable features of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) are the web gateway, load balancing, services, and applications available."
"It excels in preventing downtime and maintaining application performance, which is crucial for our clients' security and operational continuity."
"F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager's most valuable feature is load balance. It is readily available and uncomplicated."
"It blocks various attacks and mitigates disasters from occurring."
 

Cons

"The solution needs to enhance its features to compete with other tools."
"The product could have end-to-end platform visibility."
"There is some room for AI to take place."
"I would also like more visibility into their bad actor feeds, their fingerprint feeds. We try to be good stewards of the internet, so if there are attacks, or bad actors within our networks, if there were an easier way for us to find them, we could stop them from doing their malicious activity, and at the same time save money."
"An improvement to Arbor DDoS would be to make evaluation licenses and virtual machines available."
"The look and feel of the management console is a little old, excessively simple. If you compare it with other solutions, the look and feel of the console is like you're using technology from five or six years ago. It doesn't show all the technology that is actually behind it. It looks like an older solution, even though it is not."
"The support got worse after NETSCOUT acquired Arbor."
"For troubleshooting problems, it's not so intuitive. It's not straightforward. This is the core of their kernel, so they need to improve it a little bit... In F5 I have full control of everything."
"Some spam can go by the firewall."
"We needed to protect the database but the solution didn't offer a certain feature to do so."
"The initial setup of F5 BIG-IP AFM in a complex environment was simple. However, the full deployment took us approximately one year."
"The solution's UI could be improved."
"F5 BIG-IP AFM can improve the reporting interface in relation to advanced troubleshooting depending on CLI. They should have enhanced troubleshooting with the use of GUI."
"Currently, we have eighty F5s and we need some kind of management software. It would be very helpful."
"The pricing of the solution could be a little bit better."
"We would have preferred to have support when we first started"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is a little high."
"Because the solutions from competitors are very different, it's not easy to compare. However, the licensing from Arbor is clear and understandable and the pricing is reasonable when looking at the market, in general."
"The licensing of a complete Arbor solution, including fire-walling and unified site management, can get expensive."
"Our customers always complain about the price of the product."
"Pricing is slightly on the higher side."
"As far as I know, they are the best in this sector, in DDoS protection. They know it, I know, because their service prices are too high. They provide cloud DDoS protection for ISPs, but that is also too expensive."
"There is room for improvement with the pricing. It is an expensive solution. The issue with the pricing is more the way it is built. Right now we're paying per router, and there's a limitation there. I would like to see bundle-pricing where there is an overall solution cost."
"The solution is a bit costly if you're a small organization, but I think it's worth the price that they are charging."
"It is somewhat on the expensive side although it is worth the additional cost."
"F5 BIG-IP AFM is an affordable solution. There were not any additional fees other than the standard licensing."
"The solution is slightly on the higher priced side."
"The product is expensive."
"As per pricing, I would not say cheap, but little higher than cheap, but not very expensive. So you can say kind of value for money solutions."
"We need to pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution."
"F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager is not an expensive solution."
"We have purchased a five-year licensing package for the product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
19%
Insurance Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other solutions, Imperva is a great choice.
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would prefer Arbor.
What do you like most about Arbor DDoS?
The quality of the technical support provided by Arbor DDoS is premium.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
As per pricing, I would not say cheap, but little higher than cheap, but not very expensive. So you can say kind of value for money solutions.
What needs improvement with F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
If you're looking for a plain vanilla firewall or IPS, then this is a good tool. If you compare it with the next-generation firewalls, then definitely this tool is not comparable. The next generati...
 

Also Known As

Arbor Networks SP, Arbor Networks TMS, Arbor Cloud for ENT
F5 AFM, F5 Advanced Firewall Manager
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Xtel Communications
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Find out what your peers are saying about Arbor DDoS vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) and other solutions. Updated: June 2024.
789,135 professionals have used our research since 2012.