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ActiveBatch by Redwood vs F5 BIG-IQ comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

ActiveBatch by Redwood
Ranking in Process Automation
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT) (10th), Workload Automation (9th)
F5 BIG-IQ
Ranking in Process Automation
26th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of ActiveBatch by Redwood is 1.3%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IQ is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Process Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ActiveBatch by Redwood1.3%
F5 BIG-IQ1.0%
Other97.7%
Process Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Sai  - PeerSpot reviewer
Ai/Data Analyst at CSD
Automation has streamlined complex data workflows and now saves time on recurring reporting
To improve ActiveBatch by Redwood, the UI could be more modern and intuitive, and another thing that comes to mind is that it can feel overwhelming when workflows become large and complex. Troubleshooting can take extra time when there are multiple dependencies, jobs, and integrations running together. Better visualization of workflow relationships and easier debugging would really help. I would also appreciate seeing more simplified onboarding and documentation for newer users, as there is a learning curve at the beginning. Another improvement area could be smarter analytics or AI-driven recommendations, such as proactively identifying workflow bottlenecks, failed job patterns, or optimization suggestions instead of relying mostly on manual monitoring. From an operational perspective, faster configuration for integrations and cloud-based workflows would make implementation smoother, especially in environments working heavily with APIs and data pipelines. I have covered the main points regarding needed improvements. Overall, the platform is very capable and reliable for automation and workflow scheduling, especially in data-heavy environments. Most of the improvements I want are around making it easier for day-to-day use, such as a more intuitive UI, simpler troubleshooting for complex workflows, better onboarding for newer users, and more intelligent monitoring or optimization insights. The core functionality is strong, and the biggest opportunity is improving the overall user experience and simplifying operational management.
Bikale Kassu - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager for Implementation and Administration at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Has faced challenges with visibility and technical support but allows centralized management of multiple sites
The configuration part is complex for F5 BIG-IQ. The simplicity and visibility part needs improvement. The dashboard, especially the analytics part, needs to be more simple and presentable. For the security part, it is difficult to present to our management, so we have to capture it and prepare manual reporting options rather than getting them directly from the system. The automation part in F5 BIG-IQ is limited; we are still using it only for load balancing for some services. We haven't integrated it with our Accesso or implemented any automation options. The setup process for F5 BIG-IQ would rate a five out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best feature that ActiveBatch by Redwood offers is the user interface."
"The software offers real-time monitoring and reporting features that let IT teams keep tabs on the progress of their batch operations and workflows."
"ActiveBatch's Self-Service Portal allows our business units to run and monitor their own workloads. They can simply run and review the logs, but they can't modify them. It increases their productivity because they are able to take care of things on their own. It saves us time from having to rerun the scripts, because the business units can just go ahead and log in and and rerun it themselves."
"It's a critical component of how we do things now."
"It has helped with scheduling complex jobs with simple scripts."
"ActiveBatch helped us automate and schedule routine tasks such as data backups, file transfers, database updates, and report generation, which frees IT staff to focus on other studies."
"We save thousands of man-hours annually."
"It has improved our workflow completion rates by five hours per day, because we execute our workflows daily."
"Scalability: To move from larger boxes to smaller boxes, along with virtualization. So, we are not locked into a particular size."
"There is a lot less risk involved in having applications available on the Internet."
"The reporting feature is quite good."
"F5 is a leader in this space and this is a solution that I recommend."
"The best aspect of the solution is that we can have everything integrated with a rather large capacity in order to personalize and configure specific rules."
"We mainly use F5 BIG-IQ to protect our web-based applications, such as our email and website, so we use it as a web-based application firewall for those services."
"The F5 solution scales very easily, and if we have more boxes then we can just join them to the cluster."
"The customer service is great."
 

Cons

"It could be easier to provide dashboards on how many jobs are running at the same time; more monitoring."
"To improve ActiveBatch by Redwood, the UI could be more modern and intuitive, and another thing that comes to mind is that it can feel overwhelming when workflows become large and complex."
"I think ActiveBatch by Redwood can be improved by providing a tutorial during the process or smart help, as sometimes it is not so intuitive to use."
"An area for improvement in ActiveBatch Workload Automation is its interface or GUI. It could be a little better. There isn't any additional feature I'd like to see in the tool, except for the GUI, everything looks good."
"One way ActiveBatch by Redwood can be improved is through a more intuitive user interface for new users."
"A nice thing to have would be the ability to comfortably pass variables from one job to another. That was one of the things that I found difficult."
"The documentation is very limited, and it can be improved."
"The user interface can be improved so that it is more appealing and accessible to new users."
"For us, right now, F5 is too expensive."
"F5 BIG-IQ should improve by being a complete certificate management solution because currently, it is only for Venafi. Other automation platforms, should be added."
"From a hands-on experience perspective, more resources should be available on the Internet, like labs and lab preparations."
"You do need to have a good and solid background or foundation for networking and you need to understand how to configure F5 appliances in order to properly use it."
"For stability, F5 BIG-IQ rates a two or three because currently we are integrating it with our third party as a port forwarding service. We created many VIPs, but on average, weekly, we lose three to five connections, making the troubleshooting part a headache for us."
"Integration with VAS is something that they need to work on."
"A bug caused me to lose all the configuration."
"F5 BIG-IQ is a complex solution, and it cannot manage everything related to BIG-IPs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing was fair. There are additional costs for the plugins. We have the standard licensing fees for different pieces, then we have the plugins which were add-ons. However, we expected that."
"I like ActiveBatch Workload Automation's licensing model because they're not holding you down on an agentless model or agent model, where every server needs to have an agent. That's the main selling point of the solution and I hope they stay that way."
"ActiveBatch is currently redesigning themselves. In the past, they were a low cost solution for automation. They had a nice tool that was very inexpensive. With their five-year plan, they will be more enhancement-driven, so they're trying to improve their software, customer service, and the way that their customers get information from them. In doing that, they're raising the price of their base system. They changed from one pricing model to another, which has caused some friction between ActiveBatch and us. We're working through that right now with them. That's one of the reasons why we're why we were evaluating other software packages."
"Currently, we are paying approximately $7,000 yearly, which includes support."
"The price was fairly in line with other automation tools. I don't think it's exorbitantly expensive, relatively speaking."
"It allows for lower operational overhead."
"I don't think we've ever had a problem with the pricing or licensing. Even the maintenance fees are very much in line. They are not excessive. I think for the support that you get, you get a good value for your money. It's the best value on the market."
"If you compare ActiveBatch licensing to Control-M, you're looking at $50,000 as opposed to millions."
"Users have to pay an annual subscription fee for the solution's iSeries."
"There is only one licensing fee for F5 BIG-IQ and everything is included in the price."
"I would like the product to be cheaper."
"F5 BIG-IQ is a cheap solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise52
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ActiveBatch Workload Automation?
I was not directly involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing decisions for ActiveBatch by Redwood, so my experience is from the user and workflow side rather than procurement. However, bas...
What needs improvement with ActiveBatch Workload Automation?
ActiveBatch by Redwood could be improved with a more modern and intuitive user interface, faster performance for very large workflows, and expanded built-in integrations with newer cloud and DevOps...
What is your primary use case for ActiveBatch Workload Automation?
My main use case for ActiveBatch by Redwood is enterprise workload automation, job scheduling, and orchestrating business processes across applications, servers, and cloud environments. For example...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IQ?
From the pricing perspective, F5 BIG-IQ rates an eight out of ten as it's reasonably priced.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IQ?
The configuration part is complex for F5 BIG-IQ. The simplicity and visibility part needs improvement. The dashboard, especially the analytics part, needs to be more simple and presentable. For the...
What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IQ?
Currently for WAF, we are moving to another device, F5. We are not using Imperva. F5 BIG-IQ is the Web Application Firewall we're currently using, but regarding the Imperva products, now we are flo...
 

Also Known As

ActiveBatch
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Informatica, D&H, ACES, PrimeSource, Sub-Zero Group, SThree, Lamar Advertising, Subway, Xcel Energy, Ignite Technologies, Whataburger, Jyske Bank, Omaha Children's Hospital
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about ActiveBatch by Redwood vs. F5 BIG-IQ and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.