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F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs Radware DDoS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 18, 2025

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
7.2
F5 BIG-IP AFM offers ROI and cost efficiency when integrated, but standalone ROI is below average, despite perceived value.
Sentiment score
6.7
Radware DDoS effectively prevents attacks, saves costs, and protects reputational integrity, offering a substantial return on investment.
The hybrid approach optimized infrastructure costs and personnel resources.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
F5 BIG-IP AFM support is praised for professionalism but needs faster ticket resolution and improved recommendation accuracy.
Sentiment score
7.0
Radware DDoS customer service is praised for 24/7 support, though some report delays and tiered support issues.
The responses are generally fast and effective.
The customer service is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten.
Ensuring less than one second mitigation for L3/L4 and less than ten seconds for L7.
Providing assistance almost instantly when needed.
I typically submit a ticket for any malicious activity that occurs, and I usually receive a resolution within two to three hours.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager offers scalable, efficient management for hybrid setups, supporting organizational growth and cloud migration.
Sentiment score
7.7
Radware DDoS offers scalable, adaptable protection for diverse industries, praised for user-friendly features and cloud-based scalability options.
The solution is highly scalable, allowing me to add or remove nodes and manage traffic without interruption, which is essential for meeting application demands.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
It is scalable and user-friendly.
Scalability is well-supported by Radware.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
F5 BIG-IP AFM is lauded for its stability and reliability, with high user ratings and minimal operational issues.
Sentiment score
8.4
Radware DDoS is highly stable with minimal issues, earning user trust and satisfaction through reliable performance and proactive support.
In my opinion, there is no downtime experienced with Radware DDoS Protection Service due to external network redundancy.
 

Room For Improvement

F5 BIG-IP AFM is costly, complex, needs dashboard improvements, enhanced features, better integration, and concerns over CPU and support.
Radware DDoS needs improved scalability, cloud integration, and user support with a focus on AI, ease of use, and pricing.
Having advanced technology similar to other vendors like Palo Alto for zero-day attack prevention would be valuable.
The appliance and features could be enhanced further, especially in terms of security.
There should be improved bot management integration that mitigates bot-based DDoS attacks completely.
Their Cyber Security Controller portal, including its GUI and dashboard, could be more intuitive so CXOs can easily understand them.
I want to improve the blocking time; it should be within 10 seconds because 18 seconds allows multiple transactions in the financial industry.
 

Setup Cost

F5 BIG-IP AFM is costly but justified by its features, with pricing for licenses and potential extra feature fees.
Radware DDoS pricing varies by features and network traffic, offering flexible plans but is costly, ideal for large enterprises.
The standard license is reasonably priced, but additional features like the WAF can be more expensive.
If considering a one-stop solution that provides load balancing, DNS security, AAA authentication, and firewalling on the same hardware, the cost is reasonable.
The pricing is good, as we recently renewed our licenses from Radware.
Radware pricing is on the high end, suitable more for larger organizations.
We have a premium cost setup to align with a tier four uptime certified data center, storing and protecting critical infrastructure.
 

Valuable Features

F5 BIG-IP AFM offers robust network security, ease of use, and supports cloud migration with AI-driven features.
Radware DDoS offers robust, scalable protection with quick mitigation, user-friendly management, and reliable support, enhancing network performance.
The solution provides behavioral analysis via AI to detect malicious traffic.
The most valuable features for me are stability, availability, and security, along with the ability to manage multiple features to secure my applications.
The support from Radware is also exceptional, as they are always willing to jump on a call to help solve issues and improve our network design.
The best feature of Radware DDoS Protection Service is the automation.
It provides protection for network applications and infrastructure level, and the best part is the behavioral-based detection that Radware provides us, along with real-time signature creation.
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Radware DDoS
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Radware DDoS is 8.4%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

Pawel Augustyn - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides outstanding resource management and application security across multiple geographies
The most valuable features for me are stability, availability, and security, along with the ability to manage multiple features to secure my applications. The solution also monitors and blocks unconventional requests and maintains security efficiently. The scalability feature also allows me to manage and allocate resources dynamically without disrupting production traffic.
Tanuj-Garg - PeerSpot reviewer
Multi-layered defense ensures robust protection and optimized resources
Radware DDoS Protection Service is valued for its multi-layered defense protection, always-on and on-demand service, zero-day protection with adaptive behavioral-based mitigation, DNS and infrastructure protection, and SSL attack mitigation. The solution's multi-layer protection covers volumetric, protocol-based, and application layer attacks. They offer a very effective response against DNS attacks. Regarding behavior-based detection technology, in terms of real-time detection, it has been able to reduce false positives. We have pretty good experience with them. The geolocation is pretty good for an organization such as ours. We can block anything from certain regions, like North Korea or China, etc, cetera. It works alongside machine learning. They can update policies globally in less than ten seconds, which really helps with false positives. During a DDoS attack, it ensures legitimate users are not affected. We're working on a hybrid solution, so we have Defence Pro devices on our side and unlimited mitigation capabilities on the cloud.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Educational Organization
17%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
The standard license is reasonably priced, but additional features like the WAF can be more expensive. There are plenty of technical documents and a supportive community available, which helps mana...
What needs improvement with F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
The appliance and features could be enhanced further, especially in terms of security. Some features like the WAF ( /categories/web-application-firewall-waf ) firewall may seem expensive compared t...
What do you like most about Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The most important part is that Radware DDoS integrates seamlessly and provides anomaly identification, real-time notifications, and security against DDoS attacks. It also helps us with multi-layer...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
For Radware Cloud DDoS Protection, the pricing model can vary based on a number of factors such as the scale of the business, the specific level of protection required, the geographical regions cov...
What needs improvement with Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The time it takes to upload a site to the cloud is critical when under attack. If a site is down, a quick response to migrate the site to the cloud is essential. It currently takes about 15 to 20 m...
 

Also Known As

F5 AFM, F5 Advanced Firewall Manager
Radware DDoS Protection Service, Radware DefensePro, Radware DefenseFlow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Myntex, APAC retailers
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs. Radware DDoS and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.