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CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager enhances security, automates tasks, aids SOX compliance, reduces risks, and scales security operations efficiently.
Sentiment score
8.0
Organizations experience significant ROI from F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager through cost savings, security improvements, and critical access availability.
The return on investment lies in improved security infrastructure, addressing over-privileged access, and reducing the risk of credential compromise, which is a major source of data breaches.
The end users have the authority to reconcile the password or verify it before using session isolation, which is one of the unique features that can be enabled through Privileged Session Manager, preventing any attacks from happening within the organization when connected with sessions through CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager has helped customers save on costs primarily by reducing the number of engineering and information security personnel.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
CyberArk's support shows improvement with efficient service but needs faster responses for high-priority issues and better tier coordination.
Sentiment score
7.8
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager support is professional and helpful, but users suggest improved response times and communication.
CyberArk has been exceptional in coming back to us with immediate responses.
It could be forever until you talk to someone who knows what they are doing.
Based on the issue resolution and support quality, I rate the support 10 out of 10.
Even if they respond, they don't update me with the process or what's going on.
Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.
F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is scalable and adaptable, supporting growth and diverse infrastructures despite potential licensing complexities.
Sentiment score
7.8
F5 BIG-IP APM offers high scalability and usability for enterprises, with straightforward scaling and valuable traffic analysis tools.
The CPM can reportedly handle up to 50,000 accounts independently without issue.
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
They had 40,000 passwords in this one safe, and it was saving the last ten iterations of each password object. That means they had 400,000 password objects in this safe. They exceeded the limit.
The product's flexibility and company culture contribute to resolving these challenges.
I would rate the scalability of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) between seven and eight.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is stable and reliable, with minor bugs often due to configuration or infrastructure issues.
Sentiment score
8.0
F5 BIG-IP APM is highly rated for stability, enabling reliable remote work despite minor log issues.
Proper fine-tuning and expertise ensure the product performs well.
Overall, the stability of the solution is high.
It has a large customer base and positive feedback within my network.
On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten.
Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.
 

Room For Improvement

Users find CyberArk Privileged Access Manager needing UI updates, better integration, improved documentation, customizable reporting, and enhanced automation.
F5 BIG-IP APM needs improvements in usability, integration, documentation, reporting, and support to enhance cloud integration and competitiveness.
They want everything to be on the cloud, but even in the SaaS version of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, they need to deploy some servers on-premises.
We cannot generate a plug-in for web-based applications.
If they want clients to move to the cloud, they need to support them in real-time.
If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.
The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) does not have a direction for SaaS.
 

Setup Cost

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is costly but offers strong security, appealing to large enterprises with flexible subscription options.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager is costly but valued for its reliability; licensing is simplified, though cloud costs vary.
CyberArk is expensive compared to other products I know.
CyberArk is comparatively expensive compared to other PAM solutions, such as Delinea, especially during renewal.
CyberArk's SaaS solution is particularly expensive.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
 

Valuable Features

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager enhances security with policy automation, AI threat detection, and flexible, scalable privilege account management.
F5 BIG-IP APM offers a robust, scalable platform with secure remote access, customization, and easy integration, ideal for corporate environments.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager helps ensure data privacy because we now know who is using which credentials and at what time.
It keeps a record of activities, allowing me to easily fetch screen recordings to detect any misuse and see who did what and what happened.
It can integrate with Splunk, SNMP, and other solutions and technologies.
APM is quite flexible for customers to use, providing secure remote access through various host-checking conditions for both machines and users.
It provides robust security and offers integration with multi-factor authentication systems, which is crucial for an organization's security policy.
A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.
 

Categories and Ranking

CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
229
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (16th), Network Access Control (NAC) (7th), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (10th), Access Management (9th)
 

Featured Reviews

Atul-Gujar - PeerSpot reviewer
Secures critical infrastructures with essential user session audit records
A potential area for improvement is enhancing support for cluster environments and distributed Vaults. Clients in multiple countries that need central access have different challenges that require better solutions from CyberArk. For financial services, CyberArk can improve incident response by ensuring fast support for critical priority tickets to meet compliance requirements. Providing more documentation on CyberArk is recommended for new team members to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. I understand it's up to the client, but 99% fail to change the demo key, so it's crucial for CyberArk to emphasize changing the key and documenting it as part of the installation process.
Ashish Kumar Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers remote access control, good GUI and easy to configure
I'd suggest improved documentation integration directly within the GUI. Right now, finding comprehensive documentation often requires going to external websites like the community portal. In the APM interface itself, they could add direct hyperlinks to relevant online documentation. This would provide easy access to admin guides and other resources when working within the GUI.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise41
Large Enterprise171
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
There has been no reduced cost associated with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, as when it is required, you must pay for their licensing and prepare the full environment. While there are costs f...
What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?
In my opinion, the GUI is perfect with the configuration options provided. F5 BIG-IP has given customization options and policy configuration tools in the GUI. It's good and good enough to work.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability, akin to purchasing a Bentley as opposed to an Audi.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM ( /categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm-and-observability )) does not have a direction for SaaS. Most solutions focus more on remote access and acc...
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
F5 Access Policy Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.