F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs N-able Take Control comparison

F5 and N-able are both solutions in the Remote Access category. F5 is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5, while N-able is ranked #28. F5 holds a 1.2% mindshare in VUS, compared to N-able’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of N-able users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

N-able Take Control and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) are both strong contenders in remote support and access management. Users prefer the affordability and customer support of N-able Take Control, but the advanced features of F5 BIG-IP APM make it a more robust choice for many businesses.

Features: N-able Take Control is known for efficient remote access, session recording, and support for a wide range of devices. F5 BIG-IP APM offers comprehensive access control, multi-factor authentication, and detailed security policies.

Room for Improvement: Users recommend enhancing the scalability and integration capabilities of N-able Take Control. For F5 BIG-IP APM, the complexity in configuration and a steep learning curve are noted areas that need improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: N-able Take Control is highlighted for its quick and simple deployment process along with responsive customer service. F5 BIG-IP APM, while more complicated to deploy due to its advanced configuration, also offers reliable customer service.

Pricing and ROI: N-able Take Control is often seen as cost-effective with favorable return on investment due to its lower setup cost. F5 BIG-IP APM has higher initial costs but is considered worth the investment by users due to its extensive features and long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. N-able Take Control Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. N-able Take Control

July 2025

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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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.9%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N-able Take Control is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Remote Access

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble

Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24

Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license

The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.

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Ashish Kumar Rai

Associate Network Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

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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Brian Hershey

Platform Manager at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees

It covers you for HIPAA and PCI certification

Take Control is a way to remotely take over the console of a managed machine, but it also gives you other abilities. You can take over the console, access the registry, throw commands at it in the background, and manipulate the file system Take Control enables you to collaborate with end users.…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main benefit for us with Microsoft Intune is centralized management of all devices, allowing us to apply one policy across the company from one location."

"I would rate Microsoft Intune a nine out of ten."

"Based on my experience, I find Intune very flexible for managing Windows devices. We can use scripting, and we can make use of the self-service portal or the company portal to publish some of the applications for Windows."

"Intune device restriction policies enable me to enforce limitations on the device, like blocking the mobile camera or restricting the employees from using and inserting USB devices, including thumb drives and flash drives."

"I like the tool's integration with Apple. Anyone who creates an ID in Intune will get an Apple ID."

"It is more efficient to have one solution rather than having security parts spread across three, four, or five solutions."

"...Intune itself integrates with that entire Microsoft ecosystem. As an individual product itself, it's okay. It holds up. But when you start saying "I've bought this as part of a wider solution, as a company we are going Microsoft throughout," then it makes more sense to have Microsoft Intune... so you have that single dashboard."

"The performance of Microsoft Intune is good."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product."

"I recommend F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) to others due to its reliability, and it is perceived as critical to security infrastructure."

"On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten."

"The tool is reliable and easy to configure."

"F5 BIG-IP APM is relatively easy to use."

"The portal access was very good."

"The load balancing features are valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature."

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) pros

"The most valuable part of N-able Take Control is being able to remotely access your customer's site. You are able to view their network. Once you have it set up, it's always available. N-able Take Control can be used even when other remote access controls have been made."

"Take Control enables you to collaborate with end users. It's for supporting a workstation where you want the person on the other side to see you moving their mouse, and you can work with them."

Cons

"There's a significant discrepancy in Intune pricing between tenants."

"We've faced significant pushback with Copilot as our clients aren't seeing a favorable cost-benefit analysis."

"Sometimes, customers compare it with AirWatch, but the concept of Intune is different from other solutions. It's an application management app. It gets a bit difficult to explain it to customers, but it's not a product limitation. It takes a presale document or presentation to explain it to customers."

"Microsoft Intune has potential for improvement; I would like to see a lot more customization in the reporting tools."

"The difficulty of the the roll out is surprisingly difficult considering this product is supposed to be an integrated part of the 365 suite."

"Microsoft Intune lacks live location tracking capabilities. Improvements should be made in terms of MDM platforms for other devices."

"Microsoft Intune lacks the ability to provide seamless remote assistance or remote control."

"Intune should be much more granular in terms of supporting more Android cellular devices."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side."

"Cloud services are something that F5 Access Policy Manager could do better"

"The operational deployment is not great."

"The technical support’s response time must be improved."

"The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5."

"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."

"If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great."

"F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager has room for improvement in integration with other products."

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) cons

"The dashboards I do not use because there are issues. The solution monitors your antivirus and other programs but it does not seem to work well."

"We've seen some latency problems in AWS environments. Aside from that, it's a pretty solid service."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Intune is linked with Microsoft. We can deploy the Microsoft E365 license to users by Intune. There are different types of licenses, such as device administrator licenses, E5 licenses for device enrollment manually, and P1 and p2 licenses for device enrollment automatically. These are the licenses required for the administration."

"It's a part of Microsoft 365 and E5 licenses. Microsoft's strategy of making every feature in Microsoft Intune paid needs optimization. Remote control is one of the basic features, not a luxury feature, yet we must pay for it. I"

"I am not that aware of the pricing, but as compared to other MDM solutions, Microsoft is providing a lot of things at the organizational level. So, it is quite reasonable as compared to other MDM solutions."

"Intune is included with our F3 and E5 licenses."

"Even if they charge a premium, they aim to provide equal value."

"There is a license required to use this solution. However, it was part of a bundle package. Microsoft Intune is far less expensive than other solutions, such as Workspace ONE."

"While I can't provide insights from a business perspective, it's worth noting that the pricing may differ significantly, and the discount we received might not be reflective of standard business rates."

"We work with the subscription rather than a server license. I think it's economical this way because we don't have to have a server license for that, and I think that works in our favor."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The product is very expensive."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"

"N-able Take Control charges you a monthly fee for every customer that you have booked in, and it used to be inexpensive but it's a little bit more expensive now."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Computer Software Company

19%

University

10%

Non Profit

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

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What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

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How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

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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 ...

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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 purchas...

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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 n...

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Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

August 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

August 2025

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) product report

Buyer's Guide

Remote Access

August 2025

Download N-able Take Control product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

F5 Access Policy Manager

SolarWinds MSP Take Control, SolarWinds MSP Anywhere, SolarWinds Take Control

Overview

Microsoft Intune provides centralized management of mobile devices and applications, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity through integration with Microsoft services like Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory.

Organizations use Intune for managing mobile devices and applications, enhancing security and compliance across platforms. With features like single sign-on, conditional access, and zero-touch deployment via Autopilot, it facilitates efficient operations. Intune's scalability, easy enrollment, and capabilities such as remote wipe support diverse device management, offering robust data protection and efficient operation. Despite its features, improvement areas include reporting, compatibility with non-Microsoft devices, and better support for macOS and Linux devices.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Seamless Integration: Works with Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory, and System Center for streamlined management.
Conditional Access: Enhances security with policies that restrict access based on conditions.
Autopilot: Provides zero-touch deployment for setting up new devices efficiently.
Mobile Device Management: Enables control over both personal and corporate devices.
Application Deployment: Facilitates app delivery across a range of devices.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Centralized Management: Reduces complexity by managing devices and applications in one place.
Security Enhancement: Protects data with features like remote wipe and compliance monitoring.
Improved Productivity: Enhances efficiency with seamless integration and automation features.
Device Scalability: Supports diverse device management for growing business needs.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and education, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure secure and compliant device management. Companies leverage its capabilities to deploy security policies and manage both corporate-owned and BYOD environments, facilitating a unified approach to data protection and compliance.

Microsoft

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.

BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.

BIG-IP APM Benefits:

Ease of use
Flexibility
Ability to integrate with other systems
Security features
Granular access control
Responsive and helpful support team

BIG-IP APM Features:

Support for Identity Aware Proxy (IAP) enabling Zero Trust application access
Context-based authorization with dynamic L4/L7 ACLs
Integration with third-party MFA solutions
DTLS 2.0 mode for delivering and securing applications
SAML 2.0 identity federation support
Support for OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol
SSO support for classic authentication (Kerberos, header- based, etc.), credential caching, OAuth 2.0, SAML 2.0, and FIDO2 (U2F)
AAA server authentication and high-availability
Integration with leading IAM vendor products (Microsoft, Okta, Ping Identity)
BIG IP Edge Client and F5 Access integrate with VMware Horizon ONE (AirWatch), Microsoft Intune and IBM MaaS360
Risk-based access leveraging third-party UEBA and risk engines (HTTP Connector)

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.

Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."

Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."

Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.

Whether your clients are working from home, in the office, or on the go—they need you. N‑able^™ Take Control is a powerful remote support solution with troubleshooting tools designed to help you resolve issues quickly and effectively.

Connect to devices in eight seconds or less on average.
Troubleshoot issues with device information and specs at your fingertips.
Configure and customize Take Control for your business using the admin dashboard.
Keep data and clients safe with sophisticated encryption and multifactor authentication.
Quickly connect to new devices and users using a simple PIN.

N-able

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office

Bainbridge Technology Solutions, NKIT Systems

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. N-able Take Control

July 2025

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. N-able Take Control

Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. N-able Take Control and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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