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F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs Virtru Data Protection Gateway comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

iboss
Sponsored
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (6th), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (7th)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
19th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (11th), SSL VPN (7th), Remote Access (16th), Access Management (13th)
Virtru Data Protection Gateway
Ranking in Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
24th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (28th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Secure Web Gateways (SWG) category, the mindshare of iboss is 3.2%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 1.3%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Virtru Data Protection Gateway is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
iboss3.2%
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)1.3%
Virtru Data Protection Gateway0.3%
Other95.2%
Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
 

Featured Reviews

Ashok Ananthula - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant Proxy Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Cloud gateway has strengthened remote web security and now needs better Mac and ISP support
The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices. It is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents. That is where in 2025, we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform. If your use case is for just Windows laptops,you can consider this platform as an option One issue is the data center resiliency part. In India especially, they are not tied up with the Tier 1 ISPs like Tata or Airtel; they were having Tier 2 ISPs and encountered many issues reaching few major sites that my organization depends on, and they were having problems that they could not fix quickly. They also lack a mechanism to route that traffic within their data center; rather, they ask customers to make a pac file change to route it to Singapore explicitly. It would be better if they route from their backend , i mean even if I send it to India DC, they should be able to route it internally to make that work; however, they fail to do that and ask the customer to route it in the pac file. Another suggestion is that in China, they do not have the proper setup; they used to have numerous problems with slowness and lack of premium circuits in China as well. That leads to multiple sites working slowly with latency-related issues. So the main issue is the ISP-related problems that need to be solved.
SÜ
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.
TarunKumar7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
Effortless email encryption has protected sensitive communications and supports compliance
I find the initial setup very easy because of the intuitive and straightforward interface. The system is clear to understand and quick to process. I appreciate that it ensures our private information remains secure and confidential, which supports the company in staying compliant. Virtru Data Protection Gateway protects our sensitive communications and reduces data exposure risk. It provides strong access controls and helps us maintain information security in my organization. Some of the best features that Virtru Data Protection Gateway offers are the intuitive and straightforward interface, security, encryption, and secure sharing. I rely on its easy-to-use features the most in my daily work. I find it simple to implement and navigate. The security ensures protection for sensitive information. I value the secure communication feature, which ensures our client's information is safely shared via email, and the secure sharing capability, which supports our compliance and privacy efforts. Data security provided by Virtru email encryption ensures safe communication and protection against unauthorized access. Virtru Data Protection Gateway has positively impacted my organization as we have seen an increase in our security.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As I mentioned, the return on investment is significant, as it saved our office locations' bandwidth because when you are working remotely at home, your internet traffic routes directly to iboss and will not go to your office building, saving bandwidth bottlenecks and ensuring that issues with our building internet circuits will not impact your internet connectivity because you are directly going to the iboss data center."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."
"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."
"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"Deploying iboss leads to good return on investment, estimated around 70% to 80%."
"The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature."
"On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten."
"The product is stable, I haven't noticed any bugs or glitches, and I haven't seen it crash or freeze, so it seems to be reliable and the performance is good."
"F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) provides excellent WAF and bot defense solutions."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"We have seen a return on investment from F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager. It provided access at a time when we didn't have it."
"Our customers have never complained about the stability"
"This is a product that is easy to install and integrate, and it is simple to use."
"Since we started using Virtru Data Protection Gateway, we have been able to save manual work and a few steps of daily work of our representatives, save 50 to 60 hours a month, and ensure customer sensitivity information is well encrypted and protected, preventing data breaches and ensuring regulation compliance, which allows us to continue doing business."
"I truly value this platform because it provides and safeguards my data, our data, and our client's data, making it an effortless email encryption solution with a seamless Gmail integration tool."
 

Cons

"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"I appreciate that iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard, allowing us to quickly investigate incidents and monitor policy violations without switching between multiple tools, improving operational efficiency; however, the dashboard customization and reporting could be more flexible."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."
"The problem our organization had is that iboss failed for the Mac devices; it is not able to give a successful agent for the Mac agents, and that is where in 2025 we had to migrate to the Palo Alto-based platform."
"I have heard they are doing DDoS filtering, but I am not certain if they are implementing it correctly."
"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"The operational deployment is not great and can be improved."
"In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side."
"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."
"F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager has room for improvement in integration with other products."
"The stability of the F5 BIG-IP APM could be better."
"Cloud services are something that F5 Access Policy Manager could do better."
"The price of this product can be improved."
"We do not have knowledgeable support teams locally."
"One area that Virtru Data Protection Gateway should improve is that I sometimes experience problems when using a different browser or when I have to switch computers."
"Virtru Data Protection Gateway could be improved by introducing support for all AWS, and an easy one-click integration with CRM tools would be highly appreciated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"
"The tool is a little bit expensive."
"The product is very expensive."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Construction Company
7%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise9
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?
I think iboss could be improved by making reporting and dashboard customization more flexible, and simplifying troubl...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
I use iboss as a cloud-based secure web gateway to provide secure internet access, web filtering, and protect remote ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
My experience with iboss's pricing structure, setup cost, and licensing model has been positive, straightforward, and...
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) is not user-friendly and operates slowly. Additional features for architecture ...
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. ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Virtru Data Protection Gateway?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was that the cost is very cost-effective compared to my previou...
What needs improvement with Virtru Data Protection Gateway?
Virtru Data Protection Gateway could be improved by introducing support for all AWS, and an easy one-click integratio...
What is your primary use case for Virtru Data Protection Gateway?
My main use case for Virtru Data Protection Gateway is that my entire team uses it to securely encrypt our email and ...
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
F5 Access Policy Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Verizon, Maryland, we work, Brown
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Virtru Data Protection Gateway and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.