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

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

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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 July 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.9%, down from 10.6% 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 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Remote Access

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi

Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Everything has worked better since we started using it

Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.

Read full review

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 best part of Intune is application deployment. We can deploy an application to several users with a single click. We can use conditional access, granting access to users based on certain conditions, such as location, platform, etc."

"Microsoft Intune is a cost-saving solution, reducing IT department workload and allowing for faster device provisioning compared to traditional methods."

"The cloud base is perfect for me."

"The initial setup is not overly complex or difficult."

"Intune does consolidate all endpoint and security management tools into one place, making everything easier to manage."

"I appreciate how easy it is to deploy certificates to end users to get control over their device with Microsoft Intune; that's what Microsoft Intune is known for, and that's what we use them for."

"If I assess Intune's user experience, I would say it is perfect and simple."

"As an IT administrator, I appreciate Intune's ability to implement granular device-level policies for our organization's employees."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The load balancing features are valuable."

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

"Our organization is small - a college with about 3,500 students. We use F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager to protect our site, especially from the Iranian attacks we faced last year. We restrict access to only inside the country."

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

"The portal access was very good."

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

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"I rate the overall solution nine out of ten."

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

"Microsoft Intune is currently overpriced."

"There is room for improvement in server patch management and allowing direct uploads of EXE applications instead of needing to convert them to Intune format, which would save time."

"In the past, I raised some tickets for the enhancement feature, which was missing in Intune."

"I would like more clarity on how Intune is migrating control from Active Directory group policies, especially as we move over to Windows 11. It seems inefficient to manage some settings in Active Directory and others in Intune."

"The user interface should be more user-friendly, as it can sometimes be challenging to navigate. Microsoft often relocates features, making it difficult to consistently find what I need."

"It would be interesting to integrate the server side of Intune. Some group policy updates we have on the Windows Server side and possibly some on the client side could also be included."

"I know that their AI pieces are at the infancy stage, but allowing users to do more tagging for information would be an interesting thing because Intune also directly integrates with Azure. Because a lot of the devices are hosted with that, you also get a lot of tagging of user data and other things like that."

"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."

More Microsoft Intune cons

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

"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."

"The solution’s GUI looks very old."

"The initial setup was complex."

"We do not have knowledgeable support teams locally."

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

"The operational deployment is not great."

"Regarding price, I'm not directly involved in purchasing, but our CIO thinks the product is very expensive. He's considering moving from the tool to Citrix NetScaler WAF because it's cheaper, and we already have Citrix for VDI. We got NetScaler almost free as part of our VDI deal. Three years ago, I convinced him to use the solution because it's better, but now, with budget constraints, he may want to switch."

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

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

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing needs improvement."

"Any bundle package, such as Security E3, covers multiple things, such as AAP, BitLocker, etc. If you go for them individually, they would be more expensive. Bundling makes the price more attractive and competitive."

"I recently got to know that the AD P1 license is compulsory to use Intune Autopilot, which was surprising for me. Earlier, this was not the case. It is the wrong thing to do. We now need to purchase AD P1 licenses for us and for our customers. I would rate it a seven out of ten for pricing."

"The product is expensive."

"While Microsoft Intune boasts a wide range of features, its user-friendliness and bundled licensing cost are key considerations for me."

"Existing E5 license holders for M365, Intune, and Azure, receive a free license."

"It's reasonable. They're not giving it away, but it's reasonable."

"My team members bundled it together with their Microsoft solutions, including Microsoft 365 and related products."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"

"The product is very expensive."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

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

"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

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Computer Software Company

19%

University

Real Estate/Law Firm

Non Profit

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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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Product Reports

Microsoft Intune

Download Microsoft Intune product report

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

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

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Remote Access

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

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