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A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

A10 Networks Thunder SSL In...
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
SSL/TLS Decryption (2nd)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
124
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) and F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) is designed for SSL/TLS Decryption and holds a mindshare of 26.9%, up 26.1% compared to last year.
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), on the other hand, focuses on Application Delivery Controllers (ADC), holds 12.6% mindshare, down 15.3% since last year.
SSL/TLS Decryption Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)26.9%
Symantec SSL Visibility Appliance22.4%
GigaSMART20.9%
Other29.80000000000001%
SSL/TLS Decryption
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)12.6%
NetScaler11.8%
HAProxy8.7%
Other66.9%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

KM
Data Center Network Engineer at BRIDGETON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Enables our content filter to do its job without any noticeable delay
Its most valuable feature is its ability to do its job accurately, effectively, and very quickly. The amount of traffic that we have going through our system is astounding. We have 6,900 students and about 1,100 staff members. Most of our teachers and staff are connecting through our system. You add to that all the cell phones, the iPads, and all the computers, and then each individual website's connection, that's a lot of traffic in a period of one second. The delay with the SSL decryption turned on is almost unnoticeable. That is great because most SSL decryption solutions — a couple of competitors we did try — their devices crashed as soon as we turned decryption on.
edshyaa - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at Stryker
Load balancing has improved traffic distribution and currently supports high availability upgrades
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) offers effective load balancing methods that help distribute traffic across our servers, whether we have two or several. This load balancing feature stands out as it is the fundamental work we do with F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM). While I recognize there are many features, such as iRules, which I have not explored yet, we primarily work on VIPs, pool members, and traffic distribution. The load balancing algorithms' flexibility makes them very useful for our team, enabling us to choose different servers and manage load effectively. We use various methods based on user or application requirements, making the algorithms set up by F5 in the backend quite helpful. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) positively impacts our organization primarily through its load balancing capabilities. We avoid traffic overload on individual servers by placing backend servers behind F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) VIP. This load balancing helps us manage traffic effectively. Since the configuration of the I-series, we have had smooth performance, and with the recent migration to the R-series, it is working faster than before, providing positive outcomes for our operations. Since moving to the R-series, I notice improved performance; it is user-friendly and handles traffic efficiently. The upgrading process is different as we create tenants and a main host. R-series has better CPU and memory, leading to higher throughput with minimal downtime, making it a significant improvement over the I-series.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With the Thunder SSLi, we're better protected; we can stop use of VPN and proxies, are better protected against dirty traffic coming back to our schools, and having a secure decrypt zone with the equipment lowers the chances that our security infrastructure could possibly miss an attack."
"Its most valuable feature is its ability to do its job accurately, effectively, and very quickly. The amount of traffic that we have going through our system is astounding... The delay with the SSL decryption turned on is almost unnoticeable."
"We have several proxies in our environment, so we localized internet traffic between these proxies. Instead of getting a really huge proxy box, according to our size, we can use three boxes and share the traffic with A10's load-balancer feature."
"By not renewing six proxy boxes, rather just three of them, it saved over $100,000."
"This is one of those devices that, once you turn it on and it's functioning properly, you'll forget that you have it."
"The combination of ADC and WAN is the most valuable feature."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"I have Big-IP change and control manager, which give me the roll back option. Therefore, I can view the last things which happened on the device."
"We are fond of the load balancing feature for DNS and servers."
"We like the capability to combine the content switching with the intrusion prevention and adding the security roles, so we can expose certain sub-pieces outside without exposing everything."
"It helps us recognize sessions from certain IPs that are authorized to manage the application. This is a function we haven't found anywhere else."
"We always use technical support and the team helps us very well. They're able to effectively find and fix issues and they respond very quickly."
"F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager has good performance."
 

Cons

"There is one thing I would like to see changed. In their features for setting things up, there is a templating system that would normally assist clients. However, we had a better time setting up the device either through the command line or through the interface and not using the templates that were pre-installed. So there is room for improvement to the templates for initial installation."
"It would be great if it supported SSL operations according to Active Directory users. For example, if we want to bypass one of the servers or a client's internet access for SSL interception, we have to do it according to the IP address. It would be better if we could do it according to the Active Directory username. A10 says they kind of support that but we haven't tested it."
"I would like them to have a better UI (better universal design)."
"SSLi is a very powerful device. It has many features and to get them configured is kind of tough."
"For what we're using, it's an expensive solution."
"Its GUI could be a bit better. Other than that, it's already pretty good. We don't use it in a high-performance environment. So, we don't really care so much about too many features."
"The UI could be improved."
"It would possibly help to get more training, even better in local languages."
"Technical support is somewhat slow and could be improved."
"One area for improvement with F5 BIG-IP LTM could be its pricing, which some may find on the higher side."
"Native support for containers should be added to future releases, as this is the future of load balancing."
"It’s quite expensive compared to the other vendors."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you purchase the equipment, you purchase the licensing and warranty. It's all fairly standard. We haven't been caught with anything surprising."
"We always pay for support. Any organization of our size who doesn't is asking for problems."
"Our licensing costs, yearly, are just under $15,000. Your initial cost of acquisition is obviously going to be more than $15,000..."
"BIG-IP LTM is considered a premium product, so it's quite expensive and isn't affordable for all customers."
"This product is costly from a licensing perspective considering its competitors."
"They are expensive."
"The price of the solution is sometimes expensive."
"The cost is high for this product, so it's not suitable for small customers, e.g. those with small environments."
"If you are planning to use security features, better to go for strong hardware and the best bundle license, which is great for web security."
"The price is little bit on higher side compared to the cost of NGINX."
"Check other vendors like Cisco, Citrix or A10 Networks. There are plenty in the market with which you can achieve same thing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise86
 

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) could improve file upload speeds when opening cases and attaching files; sometimes, downloading files like QKView takes time, depending on size. I expect faste...
What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP?
My main use case for F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is placing our applications on F5 and the backend servers on the pool. We also regularly renew SSL certificates before they expire, usuall...
 

Also Known As

Thunder SSLi
F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Klein Independent School District
Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, A10 Networks, Gigamon and others in SSL/TLS Decryption. Updated: May 2026.
900,051 professionals have used our research since 2012.