No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Barracuda Web Application Firewall vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Barracuda Web Application Firewall provides positive ROI, enhanced security, reduced manual efforts, and peace of mind against attacks.
Sentiment score
6.6
Many companies found F5 BIG-IP LTM beneficial for security and deployment, with mixed views on ROI depending on pricing.
My development team is working on the latest language tools or applications, so until then, this web application firewall is essential in my network to protect my existing online assets or software.
Director Information Technology at College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan
We have seen a return on investment as the manual work for monitoring attacks and generating reports is reduced significantly, saving money.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The major return on investment is the security of our data.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Barracuda Web Application Firewall service is variable, with efficient higher-level support but regional delays and AWS integration issues.
Sentiment score
6.7
F5 BIG-IP LTM support experiences vary, with mixed reviews on responsiveness, knowledge, community resources, and regional support efficacy.
I would rate customer support a solid ten, as they are consistently on top of every issue, addressing them without delays and providing excellent support twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The customer service and support from Barracuda have been excellent.
Technical Lead at cmsit services
The customer service and support are exceptional, and I would give them a ten out of ten.
Cyber Security Consultant at Axle iT
I would rate the technical support of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) nine out of ten.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
Overall, my experience with F5 is very good compared to Radware.
Security Analyst at IBM
Customer support is quite good but could be faster.
Network Engineer at Stryker
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Barracuda Web Application Firewall is scalable, managing resources efficiently, though some users note room for improvement, especially with upgrades.
Sentiment score
7.4
F5 BIG-IP LTM offers scalable integration with AWS, suitable for enterprises, but requires careful sizing to avoid constraints.
The VMSS feature allows for easy upgrades or scaling of virtual editions.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I believe Barracuda Web Application Firewall is quite scalable, and I would rate it as an eight.
Cyber Security Consultant at Axle iT
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Barracuda Web Application Firewall is generally stable but occasionally faces UI crashes and appliance failures affecting performance.
Sentiment score
8.0
F5 BIG-IP LTM is stable and reliable, with occasional bugs manageable through updates, supported by responsive customer service.
These result in clients complaining about blocked transactions on a daily basis.
Technical Lead at cmsit services
Barracuda Web Application Firewall is stable in my experience.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Web Application Firewall needs UI updates, better integration, enhanced features, and improved support for multi-cloud environments.
F5 BIG-IP LTM needs better cost-effectiveness, user interface, cloud integration, documentation, security, automation, and a flexible licensing model.
Reducing false positives must be a priority.
Director Information Technology at College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan
The issues with false positives affect client transactions, leading to complaints about blocked transactions.
Technical Lead at cmsit services
Tenable provides more comprehensive dark web scanning capabilities, which Barracuda could improve upon.
Cyber Security Consultant at Axle iT
I expect faster resolutions when providing contact numbers while raising cases, as other companies typically do.
Network Engineer at Stryker
The pricing of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is on the higher side compared to competitors, but it is worth it.
Security Analyst at IBM
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Web Application Firewall offers competitive pricing for enterprises, though potentially pricey for smaller businesses; negotiation can assist.
F5 BIG-IP LTM is feature-rich but costly, especially in AWS; consult F5 for tailored licensing options.
I requested a quote from Barracuda's UK team, which was half the price I was quoted in Pakistan.
Director Information Technology at College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan
The pricing for Barracuda is quite high compared to other OEMs.
Technical Lead at cmsit services
They are competitive when compared to other vendors including F5 and Imperva, who tend to have higher prices.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Web Application Firewall excels in bot management, DDoS defense, ease of use, integration, scalability, and robust support.
F5 BIG-IP LTM excels in load balancing, security, and customization, enhancing performance and reliability for complex network environments.
The most valuable features of Barracuda Web Application Firewall include advanced bot protection, DDoS protection, and addressing the top ten vulnerabilities.
Technical Lead at cmsit services
This process protects against attacks including SQL injection or cross-site scripting, where Barracuda Web Application Firewall will block any request that matches attack signatures.
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The most valuable feature of Barracuda Web Application Firewall is managing bot traffic.
Cyber Security Consultant at Axle iT
The impact of SSL offloading on reducing server load and latency is very much positive because whatever traffic we receive, we encrypt at our F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) level, which has definitely reduced the additional load and SSL decryption load on the servers, so it has very much helped us and it is very smooth; it will not take much time and will not impact our regular traffic.
Security Analyst at IBM
R-series has better CPU and memory, leading to higher throughput with minimal downtime, making it a significant improvement over the I-series.
Network Engineer at Stryker
One of the most beneficial features of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is its ability to identify compromised traffic and its capabilities in authentication.
IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Web Application F...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th)
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

Barracuda Web Application Firewall and F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Barracuda Web Application Firewall is designed for Web Application Firewall (WAF) and holds a mindshare of 1.8%, down 1.9% compared to last year.
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), on the other hand, focuses on Application Delivery Controllers (ADC), holds 11.9% mindshare, down 15.9% since last year.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Web Application Firewall1.8%
Imperva Application Security Platform7.4%
Cloudflare5.0%
Other85.8%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)11.9%
NetScaler11.3%
HAProxy8.1%
Other68.69999999999999%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

Shahzad Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Information Technology at College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan
Has protected our legacy applications effectively but has required constant manual filtering due to false positives
I assess the effectiveness of the machine learning-driven threat detection in Barracuda Web Application Firewall as sometimes behaving abnormally, often showing me false positive attacks, so I have to fix these attacks from time to time. From a stability point of view, I would definitely rate Barracuda Web Application Firewall a seven out of ten. There is definitely some room for improvement; nothing is perfect in the world. I am not satisfied with the technical support from Barracuda. I am somewhat disappointed with the technical support that I have received so far. Whenever I generate a ticket for my problem, it goes to the Indian support team, and they all the time start with the most junior team member, consuming all my precious time. At the end, I have to close that ticket without any satisfactory solution. I have complained that they should shift my support to any other region because I don't need Indian support; they are simply pathetic and not up to mark. To improve Barracuda Web Application Firewall, customers should be given ongoing training opportunities regarding the product and its features. I am not familiar with many features that are available, only using those which are necessary for my applications. I believe Barracuda must provide clearer product information or training sessions to make it more user-friendly, as sometimes its interface can be rigid and lacking in helpful resources or user tutorials about its features. For it to get closer to a ten, I think advanced reporting is missing because, as I mentioned earlier, there are many false positive events being recorded. Often, when I analyze these attacks, they turn out to be genuine customers or users interacting with my product, but Barracuda tags them as attackers. Reducing false positives must be a priority.
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise86
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Barracuda Web Application Firewall?
My main use case for Barracuda Web Application Firewall is utilizing it in the areas of perimeter security, load balancing, and deploying it on the cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments, whic...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Web Application Firewall?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Barracuda Web Application Firewall are reasonable. They are competitive when compared to other vendors including F5 and Imperva, who tend to have higher p...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Web Application Firewall?
I think Barracuda Web Application Firewall can be improved by providing more information around data integrity control, which would be interesting to see.
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

No data available
F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Oracle, CBS, Pioneer, Hyundai, Publix, Barnes Noble, Calzedonia, Nordstrom, Samsung, Nascar
Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Imperva, Radware, F5 and others in Web Application Firewall (WAF). Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.