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F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs ForgeRock comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

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
6.8
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager offers cost savings, quick ROI, and enhances security by ensuring crucial access and reducing costs.
Sentiment score
5.2
ForgeRock enhanced security, streamlined processes, and integrated systems, driving cost savings and efficient market entry for businesses.
On a B2B level, it opened up the market for TomTom to sell its services in a more efficient way to car companies.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
We can use a Linux image from ForgeRock with different systems, applications, websites, and mobile apps to create various types of access for users.
Assistant Architect at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
I can definitely see that fewer employees are needed compared to using different SaaS applications.
Specialist Solutions at a university with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
F5 BIG-IP APM customer service receives mixed reviews, with some praising responsiveness and others citing delays and communication issues.
Sentiment score
5.8
ForgeRock's customer support is responsive and knowledgeable but needs improvements in ticket handling and time zone coordination.
Even if they respond, they don't update me with the process or what's going on.
Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.
Business Development Manager at Pylones
F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.
Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited
The support portals offer comprehensive documentation, troubleshooting guides, and community forums that have been helpful for resolving common issues independently.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
For standard support tickets, response times were very decent, and the support team was helpful in identifying configuration issues, especially with authentication trees, token settings, and directory replications.
Specialist Solutions at a university with 10,001+ employees
The team is very responsive and takes a sense of ownership and accountability.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
F5 BIG-IP APM scales for diverse deployments, offering flexibility and effective tools, though hardware limitations might challenge scalability.
Sentiment score
7.3
ForgeRock efficiently adapts to user growth and varied environments, offering seamless scaling, high performance, and robust support.
The product's flexibility and company culture contribute to resolving these challenges.
Business Development Manager at Pylones
I would rate the scalability of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) between seven and eight.
Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited
The access management layer is stateless, so I can scale horizontally by adding more nodes behind a load balancer as traffic increases.
Specialist Solutions at a university with 10,001+ employees
The platform provides flexible authentication trees, enabling us to design custom MFA flows tailored for different user groups and risk profiles.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We scaled up with ForgeRock. My team received an award for implementing it for a 60 million customer base, which was the largest implementation at that time.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
F5 BIG-IP APM is praised for reliability, performance, and minimal bugs, with minor suggestions for log clarity improvement.
Sentiment score
7.3
ForgeRock is stable with occasional upgrade issues, appreciated for authentication, integration, with stability rated 7-9 out of 10.
On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten.
Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited
Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.
Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees
ForgeRock supports integration with legacy systems in our organization by offering a wide range of connectors and APIs.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
ForgeRock is very stable because it manages access, authentication, and authorization effectively.
Assistant Architect at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

F5 BIG-IP APM requires improvements in pricing, cloud integration, user interface, documentation, support, and additional features for enhanced performance.
ForgeRock needs improved documentation, better customization, enhanced UI, scalability, and strong support especially during pivotal transitions.
If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.
Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees
The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5.
Business Development Manager at Pylones
The ability to run the Anycast feature would be valuable, as the current solution only operates on-premises.
Senior Cyber Security Consultant at KoçSistem
ForgeRock needs to focus on low-code, no-code solutions that allow for drag-and-drop functionality with good orchestration.
CIAM Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It would be better if they were available for support whenever the customer needs it, especially during migration or go-live time periods.
IAM Solution Architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The main area is complexity. ForgeRock is extremely flexible, but the learning curve can be steep.
Specialist Solutions at a university with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

F5 BIG-IP APM is costly but valued for high performance, with unpredictable cloud pricing and additional fees for features.
ForgeRock provides flexible licensing for community and enterprise versions, with variable pricing based on user needs and features.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
Business Development Manager at Pylones
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing are very straightforward, which is a good success.
Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberBackbone
One has to spend considerable time trying to understand the different modules and different needs for those modules on the licensing front.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
 

Valuable Features

F5 BIG-IP APM offers secure remote access with SSL VPN, multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive integration and security features.
ForgeRock provides scalable identity and access management with advanced integration, customization, and cloud-based solutions for enhanced security and efficiency.
APM is quite flexible for customers to use, providing secure remote access through various host-checking conditions for both machines and users.
Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited
It provides robust security and offers integration with multi-factor authentication systems, which is crucial for an organization's security policy.
Business Development Manager at Pylones
A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.
Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Centralized management makes the biggest difference because it allows us to define, update, and enforce security and compliance rules from a single location.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
ForgeRock positively impacts our organization as we manage a large number of users with ease, providing a standard IAM solution that simplifies our processes.
CIAM Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
ForgeRock has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to migrate from the older system to the newer ForgeRock component, enabling us to go live with many products across geographies, enhancing security as it is all cloud-based, and with the company taking care of availability, it has reduced costs for the company.
IAM CONSULTANT at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Ranking in Access Management
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (13th), Network Access Control (NAC) (8th), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (12th)
ForgeRock
Ranking in Access Management
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (5th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 2.2%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ForgeRock is 5.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ForgeRock5.2%
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)2.2%
Other92.6%
Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

Senior Cyber Security Consultant at KoçSistem
Has provided reliable policy controls and secure web access for large enterprises
I consider Cloudflare when evaluating centralized access control features; Cloudflare utilizes multi-factor authentication and full API support, while F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) needs to enhance its API support. I recommend F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) for large companies such as Tüpraş and Ford. Tüpraş is one of the biggest companies in Turkey, along with other customers such as Tofaş, Euroko, Koç Holding, and more. For on-premises deployment, I would rate it a 10. For cloud deployment, I would rate it a seven. I primarily use it on-premises. I rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) eight out of ten.
SR
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Centralized access control has improved secure onboarding and supports strict compliance
I wish we had used ForgeRock's adaptive risk-based authentication, which allows dynamic adjustment of authentication requirements based on user behavior. This could have helped us further strengthen our security. Another hidden gem is the built-in support for custom authentication modules and scripting, which gives a great deal of flexibility to tailor authentication flows. The self-service capabilities for password resets and account recovery have been very helpful in reducing support overhead and improving user experience. Discovering and utilizing these features would have definitely made our integration even smoother and would have provided additional value for both our users and our security team. One area of improvement would be the user interface for policy and workflow configuration, which can become complex and sometimes unintuitive, especially for new administrators. A more streamlined and user-friendly UI would help reduce the learning curve. Enhanced out-of-the-box analytics and reporting would also be valuable, as our current options often require custom development or integration with external tools. While extensibility is a strength, documentation for advanced customizations and integrations could be more comprehensive and easier to follow. Improved support for seamless upgrades and backward compatibility would also help minimize downtime. In terms of performance, optimizing the platform for high concurrency environments would be beneficial, especially for organizations with large user bases or peak usage periods. Enhanced scalability features such as more granular or horizontal scaling options would provide better support for distributed deployments. For integrations, having more pre-built connectors and easy integration with modern cloud-native services would accelerate adoption. Improved monitoring and real-time health dashboards would help proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

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) is not user-friendly and operates slowly. Additional features for architecture such as Anycast would be beneficial. The ability to run the Anycast feature woul...
What do you like most about ForgeRock?
The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ForgeRock?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing are very straightforward, which is a good success. I appreciate that it is very straightforward and helpful.
What needs improvement with ForgeRock?
I wish the JavaScript part could be improved, as not everyone is proficient in JavaScript, so automating that or reducing the reliance on it could be beneficial. Additionally, having only one realm...
 

Also Known As

F5 Access Policy Manager
ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. ForgeRock and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
884,076 professionals have used our research since 2012.