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F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs StrongDM 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
6.8
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager offers cost savings, quick ROI, and enhances security by ensuring crucial access and reducing costs.
Sentiment score
4.2
StrongDM offers a swift ROI by reducing risk costs, enhancing efficiency, and cutting network expenses and staffing needs.
I can definitely say that it saved us time, and a lot of it. Probably months worth of time in engineering and IT support.
Director at LivePerson
The onboarding of temporary privileged access accelerated significantly, allowing us to release consultants much faster than before, saving considerable money.
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
We need fewer employees now because StrongDM saves our time by eliminating manual work.
Senior Analyst at Toll Holdings Limited
 

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
6.8
StrongDM's customer service is praised for responsiveness, helpful onboarding, quick resolutions, excellent documentation, and high satisfaction despite occasional delays.
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
They responded quickly to issues and were readily available for calls rather than waiting for email confirmations.
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
The technical support is responsive and knowledgeable.
Senior Data Engineer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
They also have very good documentation, where they often ask us to refer to a particular document but can provide excellent on-call support.
Senior Analyst at Toll Holdings Limited
 

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
6.3
StrongDM is praised for scalability and efficiency, supporting expansions and potentially accommodating larger corporations with adjustments.
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
If a larger organization such as Microsoft or Dell adopted it, there would be more privileged accounts, showing the product's potential to grow if issues in maintenance and crashing are resolved.
Iam Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
StrongDM's scalability is impressive; it is highly available, and we never perceived any latency issues.
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
StrongDM has very large and good scalability, capable of providing a million data in a second, showcasing its great scalability.
Senior Analyst at Toll Holdings Limited
 

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
7.2
StrongDM is stable for most users, but some report occasional instability issues like crashes and patching concerns.
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
The gateway sometimes crashes, and you are unable to retrieve passwords.
Iam Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
StrongDM is very stable; I cannot recall experiencing a glitch.
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
I rate the stability of the product five out of ten because crashes sometimes happen when we are working on it.
Senior Network Security Engineer at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
 

Room For Improvement

F5 BIG-IP APM requires improvements in pricing, cloud integration, user interface, documentation, support, and additional features for enhanced performance.
StrongDM needs setup simplification, better pricing for small teams, feature improvements, and enhanced documentation and communication.
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
StrongDM has limited MFA and passwordless options, relying heavily on time-based one-time passwords (OTP) or Duo, lacking support for true passwordless setups like biometrics or hardware YubiKeys, and it does not support per-session MFA.
Senior Analyst at Toll Holdings Limited
It would be beneficial to have better control and alignment between frequent updates and improved communication regarding possible negative effects on existing customer bases.
Senior Data Engineer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is difficult to find documentation or materials to review how it works, and there is less product material available in the market.
Senior Network Security Engineer at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
 

Setup Cost

F5 BIG-IP APM is costly but valued for high performance, with unpredictable cloud pricing and additional fees for features.
StrongDM's pricing and setup are viewed as both efficient and costly, with potential increased expenses for expanded features.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
Business Development Manager at Pylones
The setup cost was free, with technical staff aiding our onboarding, requiring us only to cover the license fee.
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
It was mentioned that while the product is rapidly gaining features, it might become cost-prohibitive for wider usage.
Senior Data Engineer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
My thoughts on the pricing of StrongDM is that it is expensive.
Director at LivePerson
 

Valuable Features

F5 BIG-IP APM offers secure remote access with SSL VPN, multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive integration and security features.
StrongDM enhances security with session logging, offers fast onboarding, centralized access, and is cost-efficient with minimal maintenance.
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
One of the most powerful tools in StrongDM is audit logging.
Senior Network Security Engineer at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
Just-in-Time Access is the primary feature that works well and makes life easier for us here at LivePerson.
Director at LivePerson
The best features for us are the centralized access control and the detailed audit logging, which allow us to provide temporary privileged access without managing VPNs ourselves.
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Ranking in Access Management
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (19th), Network Access Control (NAC) (11th), SSL VPN (7th), Remote Access (18th)
StrongDM
Ranking in Access Management
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 2.6%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StrongDM is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
StrongDM0.7%
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)2.6%
Other96.7%
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.
MX
Dev Ops Engineer And Solution Architect at Scania
Centralized access has improved privileged control and now provides strong audit visibility
I believe StrongDM can improve its initial setup and onboarding experience for larger enterprise environments like Scania, where we have a lot of processes. Integrating different teams, access policies, and existing identity workflows requires substantial planning. Additionally, I think the dashboard customization and reporting could be more flexible for operational teams, though new teams find it manageable. Once the platform is fully integrated, it provides significant value. Apart from the onboarding experience, I would also mention that the templates for enterprise onboarding and policy setup could benefit from innovative thinking tailored to organizations managing large AWS and Kubernetes workloads. Enhanced customization in dashboards and reporting would further ease operations and provide better insights.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?
I am using F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) along with Bot Management, API Gateway, API Security, and F5 Cloud. I am using F5 Advanced WAF, but I switch between ZTNA solutions such as FortiSAS...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StrongDM?
Concerning pricing, setup cost, and licensing, our experience was very smooth as we chose not to go through the AWS Marketplace but arranged meetings directly with StrongDM. Their team was prompt, ...
What needs improvement with StrongDM?
I would not say ease of use and integration are features to criticize because ease of use is something taken on by the user, so it is actually considerable. Integration, however, is something which...
What is your primary use case for StrongDM?
My main use case for StrongDM is to provide access to database credentials. I wanted to give users access to the database and also to the applications that I have built for testing. Providing privi...
 

Also Known As

F5 Access Policy Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. StrongDM and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.