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Amazon Elastic Load Balancing vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition 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

Amazon Elastic Load Balancing
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Amazon Elastic Load Balancing is 1.9%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is 0.5%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing1.9%
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition0.5%
Other97.6%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Azhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Efficient traffic distribution and resource monitoring enhance operational reliability
Although I haven't faced any issues, improvements could involve making Amazon Elastic Load Balancing a global service, as currently, it is region-specific. Simplifying components required for load balancing, such as targets, target groups, listeners, and health checks, could also be beneficial. Ports or listeners present potential security vulnerabilities, so making it free of listeners may enhance security.
reviewer2716224 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a non-tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Focuses on securing application access with dependable integration
I do not use the load balancing and traffic management features of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition. I use other container orchestration platforms, but they are not relevant to F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition. I have utilized F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's ability to integrate with cloud platforms including AWS, Azure, GCP, and Salesforce. I have no idea how this integration has helped my organization manage hybrid or multi-cloud environments. The seamless integration of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition with existing F5 technologies is not important to me as I do not use other technologies from F5. Financially, we require F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition because we need the product. We don't have anything else that performs the same functions, so we use it without trying alternatives. I just use and manage F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, though I didn't handle its deployment. I would recommend F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition as a solution to others. I would rate F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition an eight out of ten overall.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would recommend Amazon Elastic Load Balancing for its flexibility and scalability, which is ideal for AWS workloads."
"Customer support is good."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon Elastic Load Balancing is scaling."
"It is a very scalable solution in which you can add more servers instantly."
"The Elastic Load Balancer facilitates the distribution of incoming application traffic, which directs requests to various servers, preventing overload on a single instance."
"I appreciate the checks that Elastic Load Balancer performs with the instances to ensure they are running properly."
"Security and monitoring for high-performance applications are some of the top features."
"Amazon Elastic Load Balancing transfers the data securely from servers to users and splits the traffic based on peak times."
"It's easy to use, and they have good support."
"It has DoS layer 7 protection, which not many vendors have."
"I have a specific issue with the network interface connector, the NIC. We're limited to a maximum of two NICs in a virtualized environment. It's a limitation of the tool."
"The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it."
"The features that I like include LTM and Global Traffic Manager (GTM)."
"The advanced web application firewall protection and SSL offloading capabilities of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition have been utilized in my organization; these features are contributing to our application security and compliance posture."
"The tool's investment is less than a physical device."
 

Cons

"Improvement is needed in the integration with Terraform, especially in writing scripts for creating load balancers and target groups."
"They should improve the solution's pricing."
"I do not have any notes for improvements."
"The latency compared to the network load balancer could be improved."
"We faced some issues with the health check."
"The ELB would benefit from allowing deployment in a single availability zone for test servers to avoid unnecessary costs."
"Improvements could involve making Amazon Elastic Load Balancing a global service, as currently, it is region-specific."
"The solution needs to guarantee stability because multiple loads behind a load balancer can cause service unavailability."
"I have a specific issue with the network interface connector, the NIC. We're limited to a maximum of two NICs in a virtualized environment. It's a limitation of the tool."
"The tool has limitations with respect to code and RAM."
"BIG-IP could improve in supporting microservices, for example, in Docker and Kubernetes environments."
"It's expensive and could be cheaper."
"On-the-go upgrades are an option that the tool currently lacks, making it an area where improvements are required."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is a heavy system that needs a lot of CPU, memory, and hard disk."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost for using the application load balancer is approximately $18 to $21 per month."
"I have no issues with the tool's pricing."
"The licensing fees are based on the number of connections one uses. It is a free tool for a certain amount of connections, which runs into thousands, and after that, there is a certain amount to be paid to Amazon."
"There is a yearly license."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution's pricing is low and I rate it a nine out of ten."
"The product is not cheap."
"The solution's pricing is $30 per month."
"My company's customers need to make payments for the licensing charges attached to the product. It is an expensive product."
"The pricing is standard."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is an expensive solution, but it's worth the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
33%
Media Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Elastic Load Balancing?
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing transfers the data securely from servers to users and splits the traffic based on peak times.
What needs improvement with Amazon Elastic Load Balancing?
Cost is definitely an area of improvement for Amazon. Availability can be improved through the addition of more regions. For example, in India, we have just two regions at the moment, which impacts...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Elastic Load Balancing?
We use several Amazon solutions including Lambda, S3, and EKS. Within EKS, there are various microservices, and DynamoDB is one of them in terms of databases. We also use various applications such ...
What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
I believe F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition can be improved because the 25 megabits throughput cap is small.
What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
My advice for others looking into using F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is to be aware of the throughput cap and how complex it can be. I would rate this product a 9 overall.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Elastic Load Balancing vs. F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.