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A10 Networks Thunder 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 SSLi
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
SSL/TLS Decryption (3rd)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

A10 Networks Thunder SSLi and F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. A10 Networks Thunder SSLi is designed for SSL/TLS Decryption and holds a mindshare of 25.0%, up 21.8% compared to last year.
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), on the other hand, focuses on Application Delivery Controllers (ADC), holds 15.3% mindshare, up 15.4% since last year.
SSL/TLS Decryption
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

CC
The SSL decryption successfully decrypts at a rate that has minimal to no impact on our end users
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. It gives us insight into the actual traffic that a student is following. What's the value of identifying possible risks or possible intent based on unencrypted traffic where you have insight to what the student's intent may be? E.g., anonymous bully reporting. It's invaluable to be able to leverage that insight and data to maybe bring help or avert a possible bad circumstance. It's something that's very important to us that this type of system gives us insight into that. For terms of ease of use, it's fairly simple. My analysts tell me that they don't mind getting in there. It was something new that we had to throw on their plate. Every time you add a new element and a new level of complexity, your analysts will look at you like you're crazy, Our plan was originally to use our native firewalls to do the decryption. Unfortunately, that was a feature set which was added on afterward. It just ended up bogging down our system. That is the reason why we had to add the extra hardware. Once the team understood that, the UI was intuitive and a huge help. We use the solution’s Harmony analytics and visibility controller. We have been able to proactively engage and deescalate situations with it. We love Harmony’s traffic management capabilities because it is centralized management. It has a rich analytics capability. This allows us insight into the aggregate performance of all the boxes. so we can possibly leverage any resources available to enhance the environment. We love the single pane of glass traffic management. Single pane of glass is huge, centralized logging. It is the buzzword that everyone is talking about right now, except what nobody seems to take into consideration, is that an analyst only has two eyes. The administration piece of it is huge. It allows us to not just look and get the information, but also cipher it, which is actionable. Looking at logs all day is great, but you can stare in the matrix so long before you want to get in the game. This single pane of glass allows us to look at information that's actionable.
Bonieber  Orofeo - PeerSpot reviewer
Identifying compromised traffic and securing data has been a significant advantage
One of the most beneficial features of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) ( /products/f5-big-ip-local-traffic-manager-ltm-reviews ) is its ability to identify compromised traffic and its capabilities in authentication. Additionally, the security aspect of it provides a significant advantage as it helps us secure our data, which is a major investment and benefit for us. Before using this system, we had difficulties in storing our data and managing the traffic that comes in and out.

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."
"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."
"The product is quite flexible."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"It also has an AVR feature: application, visibility, and recording. It's good for customers looking for what is actually happening in their network and where the latency is."
"The F5 GTM/BIGIP DNS (Global Traffic Manager) is a valuable feature. This feature allows for DNS load balancing, which means that high availability and load sharing can be done across services locally, as well as across datacenters with advanced capabilities​."
"It is a very good, flexible solution. It helps us to catch up on flaws in our partner solutions on top of its load balancing feature."
"You can create multiple virtual servers on F5 BIG-IP technology, and within multiple virtual servers you can have multiple nodes, where a node equals two application servers."
"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."
"Good application firewall."
 

Cons

"I would like them to have a better UI (better universal design)."
"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."
"The SharePoint SSO part has some room for improvement."
"The license terms for "non-commercial" will be a challenge for us."
"For integration with other AWS environments, we do some tie-ins with some autoscaling groups. This has been challenging for us. We have had issues, where when autoscaling groups scale up, there are some instances which are not showing up in the proper size. Then, those IPs would get registered with F5, but never get released. Therefore, we are ending up with a whole bunch of ghosted IPs."
"The price for F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager is very high. This aspect could be improved."
"The initial setup can take a long time."
"I would like to see F-5 implement a regular routing like in other Linux-based devices. When we try and integrate in some complex networks, we have to use some additional routing scenarios from a Layer 3 perspective, then we have some problems. It would be great if this were fixed somehow."
"Cloud native integration should be provided."
"Its price can be better. It is a bit expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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..."
"When you purchase the equipment, you purchase the licensing and warranty. It's all fairly standard. We haven't been caught with anything surprising."
"The price is little bit on higher side compared to the cost of NGINX."
"The licensing strategy for F5 is good."
"BIG-IP LTM isn't a cheap solution - I'd rate its pricing as three out of five."
"It is a bit expensive product. Kemp Loadmaster is much cheaper than F5. Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It can be for one year or three years."
"The cost is high for this product, so it's not suitable for small customers, e.g. those with small environments."
"It is cheaper than the average on the market."
"I am a fan of using AWS natively. It is much cheaper."
"We have found the pricing and licensing on AWS to be competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?
The price needs improvement as it is quite costly.
What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP?
We're using F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) ( /products/f5-big-ip-local-traffic-manager-ltm-reviews ) for our applications and for managing our incoming and outgoing traffic.
 

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, Fidelis Security, A10 Networks and others in SSL/TLS Decryption. Updated: June 2025.
861,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.