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

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi), F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), and Fastly based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, A10 Networks, Gigamon and others in SSL/TLS Decryption.

To learn more, read our detailed SSL/TLS Decryption Report (Updated: May 2026).

SSL/TLS Decryption

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Helped 896,510 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

SSL/TLS Decryption Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)	27.3%
Symantec SSL Visibility Appliance	23.2%
GigaSMART	21.3%
Other	28.200000000000003%

SSL/TLS Decryption

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)	13.0%
NetScaler	12.1%
HAProxy	8.9%
Other	66.0%

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

CDN Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fastly	5.6%
Cloudflare	16.4%
Akamai	12.6%
Other	65.4%

CDN

Featured Reviews

Kenneth Murray

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.

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edshyaa

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.

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Pranay Jain

Senior software developer at Simplifyvms

Edge caching has transformed response times and delivers faster candidate data globally

Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal users. A more user-friendly, UI-based configuration could simplify the experience, alongside better templates for common use cases and dashboard improvements, as the current dashboard feels complex for beginners, and pricing can be hard to predict for smaller companies. I chose 8 out of 10 because it has excellent performance and low latency delivery, making it suitable for larger applications, with strong Edge Caching and instant purging capabilities. However, VCL complexity and pricing predictability, especially for smaller companies, along with a user-friendly dashboard are areas impacting my score.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"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."

"This is one of those devices that, once you turn it on and it's functioning properly, you'll forget that you have it."

"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."

"With the Thunder SSLi, we're better protected. We can stop use of VPN and proxies. We are better protected against dirty traffic coming back to our schools. Having a secure decrypt zone with the equipment lowers the chances that our security infrastructure could possibly miss an attack."

"By not renewing six proxy boxes, rather just three of them, it saved over $100,000."

"The solution is the most requested by our customers, so it's an important direction for our business."

"The scalability of the solution depends on the sizing of the network. Generally, the scalability is quite good."

"We're able to do load balancing and global load balancing. When you marry those two products together, you can do a lot more. We're able to deliver our applications more securely and faster. It has improved our deliverability where we have more service across the shared data centers. We can intelligently reach all of those client connections across all of the servers and do it fairly quickly. It has helped improve our application delivery and performance."

"We're able to do load balancing and global load balancing; when you marry those two products together, you can do a lot more, delivering our applications more securely and faster, improving our deliverability with more service across shared data centers, intelligently reaching all client connections across all servers very quickly, and improving our application delivery and performance."

"Along with load balancing, we perform a lot of packet inspections, URL rewriting, and SSL interceptions via iRule."

"LTM is a full-reverse proxy, handling connections from clients."

"LTM's most valuable features include application security, data collection, and parameter-level rules."

"F5's attack signatures and automation are the most valuable features. The disaster recovery capabilities are also excellent. You don't need to do anything. It has automatic failover from production."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

"Initially, we faced load time issues, but after deploying Fastly and optimizing our queries, we achieved a response time cut to less than 1 millisecond from an initial 3 to 4 seconds."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

"The product helps our organization to access sites located in different regions quickly."

"In summary, this solution is easy to manage, quick to deploy, and all of my customers are happy."

"Fastly uses configuration versioning, where you can deploy a new version in less than one minute."

"Its initial setup process is straightforward."

"Fastly combines both the CDN side and the Signal Sciences next-generation WAF, which is closely integrated with the CDN, allowing us to use both products seamlessly."

More Fastly pros

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."

"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."

"I would like them to have a better UI (better universal design)."

"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."

"SSLi is a very powerful device. It has many features and to get them configured is kind of tough."

"I would like them to have a better UI (better universal design)."

"Internet and cloud support could be improved."

"I would like them to expand load balancing, being able to go across multiple regions to on-premise and into the cloud. This could use improvement, as it is sometimes a little cumbersome."

"LTM's cloud capabilities could be improved. Cloud providers all offer load balancing, but you can't get the same level of security. F5's cloud service is still not on par with its on-prem service."

"The deployment can take some time because you can do a lot of configuring to meet the needs of the use cases for clients."

"It reaches a point where scaling is no longer possible."

"The user interface could be improved in F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager."

"I would recommend that the cost be lowered."

"I would like F5 to incorporate the ability to create your own custom roles and customised permissions within the product set. I have seen many customers wanting to give a certain level of access for the purposes of out-of-hours servicing to out-of-hours staff or teams that fulfill an operations type role."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) cons

"We are not getting quick responses from Fastly technical support engineers. Sometimes they depend on their D3 developers."

"What I don't like about Fastly is that they charge a heavy price."

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

"The product should provide improved bot detection and management."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

"Support is not that great."

"It's not easy to start with Fastly if you don't have VCL knowledge, so it appears very complex at the beginning."

"Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal users."

More Fastly cons

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."

"Our licensing costs, yearly, are just under $15,000. Your initial cost of acquisition is obviously going to be more than $15,000..."

"We always pay for support. Any organization of our size who doesn't is asking for problems."

"Try to negotiate all the software features that you require upfront."

"The licensing pricing seems relatively easy enough to get your head around. I would advise anyone to ensure that you have a conversation with an F5 consultant before purchasing, as you would with most products."

"In my view, the cost is somewhat on the higher side. There are discounts available, but I wouldn't say it's overpriced. It's not cheap either, and the value for money is a bit higher from that perspective."

"Security should be involved in any base license. When you bring on F5, you only have default license. Then, the ASM product license has to be purchased. It would be great if F5 could include the ASM in the base license."

"It could be priced a little less, especially on the virtual side. It gets a bit expensive, but you get what you pay."

"F5 BIG-IP is a stable solution. It is quite mature and does not have many concerns."

"It is a little pricey. I wish the pricing was cheaper, but I wish the pricing was cheaper for everything."

"The price is high."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pricing and cost advice

"It is an expensive solution."

"I've generally found Fastly to be very competitive in pricing, especially around Compute@Edge."

"The pricing has been very competitive."

"Fastly is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

"You need to pay a premium price for the tool."

"The solution is cheaper than other products in the market."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	62
Midsize Enterprise	32
Large Enterprise	86

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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; someti...

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 ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)?

The product is costly. I would rate the price a five out of ten.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

The pricing of Fastly can be hard to predict because it is primarily usage-based with minimal setup costs and flexibl...

What needs improvement with Fastly?

Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal user...

What is your primary use case for Fastly?

Fastly serves as an Edge Cloud platform and CDN that we use for real-time Edge Caching and instant caching purging, a...

Fortinet FortiADC vs A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)

Comparisons

Compared 23% of the time

GigaSMART vs A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)

Compared 20% of the time

Symantec SSL Visibility Appliance vs A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)

Compared 18% of the time

Comodo Essential SSL Wildcard Certificate vs A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)

Compared 14% of the time

More A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) Competitors

Fortinet FortiADC vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 14% of the time

HAProxy vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 6% of the time

NetScaler vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 6% of the time

NGINX Plus vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 5% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Competitors

Cloudflare vs Fastly

Compared 19% of the time

Akamai vs Fastly

Compared 17% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Fastly

Compared 9% of the time

Uplynk vs Fastly

Compared 5% of the time

CDN77 vs Fastly

Compared 4% of the time

More Fastly Competitors

Product Reports

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi)

Download A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) product report

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) report

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Download F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) product report

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

Download Fastly product report

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

No data available

Overview

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) enhances network visibility by decrypting SSL traffic, allowing enterprises to inspect encrypted data seamlessly.

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) is designed for businesses needing in-depth traffic inspection while maintaining security compliance. By decrypting SSL traffic, it ensures deeper visibility into encrypted data without compromising security. It integrates smoothly into existing infrastructures, offering comprehensive analytics and real-time threat detection capabilities, addressing the growing challenge of encrypted traffic in networks.

What are the key features of A10 Networks Thunder SSLi?

Advanced Traffic Decryption: Efficiently decrypts SSL traffic for seamless inspection.
Scalable Integration: Easily fits within existing network architectures.
Comprehensive Analytics: Delivers detailed insights into network traffic.

What benefits can users expect from A10 Networks Thunder SSLi?

Enhanced Security: Improves threat detection by exposing encrypted threats.
Increased Visibility: Provides a clearer understanding of network traffic patterns.
Improved Compliance: Helps ensure adherence to security regulations.

A10 Networks Thunder SSL Insight (SSLi) is widely implemented in finance and healthcare sectors, where data security and compliance are critical. It supports seamless integration that assists these industries in maintaining strict privacy standards while gaining comprehensive insight into network activities.

A10 Networks

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) specializes in load balancing, iRules, and application security. It provides flexibility and stability, supporting SSL offloading and enhancing application performance and reliability with low downtime.

F5 BIG-IP LTM is designed for efficient traffic management and security. Its intuitive interface allows users to customize traffic through iRules and ensures stable application delivery. Its performance stability and ability to inspect TLS traffic, along with web application firewall features, make it preferred for consistent application delivery. While praised for its capabilities, users note its challenges with complex configuration and management. Calls for streamlined processes, training, support, better logging, and cloud integration highlight areas for improvement.

What are the key features of F5 BIG-IP LTM?

Load Balancing: Distributes HTTP and HTTPS traffic to ensure high availability.
iRules: Allows for customized traffic management.
Application Security: Includes TLS inspection and web application firewall capabilities.
SSL Offloading: Reduces server load by handling SSL processing.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Performance Stability: Ensures high reliability and less downtime.
Flexibility: Offers customizable traffic management through iRules.
Security: Provides strong protection against application attacks.
Network Management Efficiency: Simplifies traffic distribution and infrastructure management.

F5 BIG-IP LTM is widely used in industries requiring robust application delivery and security, such as finance and healthcare. It supports load balancing and traffic management across different environments and acts as a reverse proxy, helping companies secure their infrastructure against cyber threats while facilitating high availability and scalability.

Fastly is a leading provider of content delivery network services that enhances website performance through efficient caching and real-time architecture capabilities.

Fastly integrates CDN technology with advanced web application firewall for comprehensive security. Its global infrastructure supports performance enhancement, rapid deployment, and rollback capabilities. Utilizing the VCL language allows custom caching solutions. Compute@Edge provides extensive architectural flexibility, aiding in HTML manipulation and script execution. Users benefit from its stability and reliability features for seamless network protection, log management, image optimization, and A/B testing. Challenges include limited support in mainland China, inadequate WebSocket protocol implementation, and complex pricing structures.

What are the key features of Fastly?

CDN Integration: Delivers content quickly across global Points of Presence.
Signal Sciences’ WAF: Manages security threats effectively.
VCL Language: Offers customizable caching solutions.
Compute@Edge: Enables flexible architecture for HTML manipulation.
Image Optimization: Enhances performance with dynamic image delivery.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Performance Enhancement: Boosts website speed and response time.
Rapid Deployment: Allows for swift implementation and rollback.
Real-Time Visibility: Provides insights into cached content management.
Security and Stability: Ensures reliability against DDoS attacks and other threats.
Flexibility: Offers diverse network protection and infrastructure capabilities.

Fastly is widely implemented in industries needing robust content delivery and security capabilities. Companies use it as a reverse proxy for media delivery, ensuring availability and optimized performance. Its rapid deployment and rollback features are particularly beneficial in technology sectors requiring agile responses to demand shifts.