F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Fortinet FortiADC comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Fortinet FortiADC based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Fortinet FortiADC Report (Updated: March 2023).
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Currently, it's distributing the load perfectly, as per my understanding of our requirements.""F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is very easy to use, from SSL Management to enabling, disabling loads, applications, systems, and monitoring. Overall the solution keeps our application functional from a client's perspective 24 hours a day, seven days a week.""The tech support we got from F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager directly was pretty good.""F5's attack signatures and automation are the most valuable features. The disaster recovery capabilities are also excellent. You don't need to do anything. It has automatic failover from production.""We have multiple solutions we can deploy through the F5.""Bandwidth optimization and capacity awareness of the bandwidth are valuable features. Its video streaming capabilities are also very useful.""It is a stable product from a stable company. Recently, they have been more focused on security as well.""I like that F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is a product that comes with valuable features, but what stands out from all features is load balancing."

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"The GSLB, the DR side, is the best part. Because we had our main side in one city, we created another, and we had a complete MPLS over the internet. We used the GSLB and data loss for our business applications.""The solution provides high-level services such as availability, redundancy, and load balancing between servers.""Ease of use in deploying and having it up and running requires minimal knowledge.""I like the solution's load balance with DNS intelligence."

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Cons
"Lacking in free training to help users understand the product more, so they would know how to correctly use it. Like other vendors and their products, becoming more proactive is an area for improvement.""My only point of contention would be that it is a little pricey.""It reaches a point where scaling is no longer possible.""An area for improvement in F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is that it's a high-priced product.""F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager could improve by having an FNI feature for a single source to multi-domain load balancing.""BIG-IP LTM's sandboxing integration could be improved.""To improve the product, they could add more load balancing solutions in Kubernetes.""The user interface of F5 BIG-IP LTM is old and could improve."

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"There is a mismatch between the number of features they are offering and the device capacity on how much it can handle.""The configuration is relatively complex.""Because it is so generic, the documentation requires special attention. A person who has not worked on Fortinet FortiADC or a similar product will struggle to understand what the document is trying to say. The documentation could be more specific, and more detailed.""The solution's WAF needs an upgrade because it is not as good as FortiWeb, VMware, F5, or Imperva."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "You can buy it on a yearly basis, or you can go for a subscription. For on-premise boxes, it is just the RMA."
  • "Compared to using open-source products, the prices are not cheap."
  • "F5 is expensive."
  • "It is quite expensive as a product. Because it is very stable, it is also expensive."
  • "It is a little pricey. I wish the pricing was cheaper, but I wish the pricing was cheaper for everything."
  • "We are on an annual license to use the solution."
  • "This is a high-priced tool. We pay for its license yearly."
  • "The cost is high for this product, so it's not suitable for small customers, e.g. those with small environments."
  • More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The solution could be more cost-effective."
  • "They offer a perpetual license."
  • "The solution is less expensive than F5 or Imperva and is the most reasonably priced option available."
  • More Fortinet FortiADC Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The support from F5 BIG-IP LTM is good.
    Top Answer:There are a few licensing options available for F5 BIG-IP LTM. You can have a perpetual license which is a lifetime license. You then only need to renew the support, if you choose to open a ticket… more »
    Top Answer:The solution could improve the ease of use, the management could be simplified. Other solutions are easier to use.
    Top Answer:For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc. 
    Top Answer:I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for around five years. We mainly use FortiADC for the load balancing of application… more »
    Top Answer:Ease of use in deploying and having it up and running requires minimal knowledge.
    Ranking
    Views
    22,788
    Comparisons
    18,505
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    38
    Average Words per Review
    453
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    6,816
    Comparisons
    5,394
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    613
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
    FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
    Learn More
    Overview

    F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.

    BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.

    Fortinet FortiADC is a robust application delivery controller (ADC) that delivers application optimization, application security, and application availability. FortiADC is a valued offering from Fortinet, which is widely recognized as a trusted supplier of dynamic security solutions worldwide. FortiADC offers dynamic security functions (AV, DDoS, and WAF) in addition to advanced application connectors for a simplified deployment and complete transparency to an organization's networks and applications. FortiADC offers three primary deployment options: physical machine, virtual machine, (VM) and cloud solution options.

    Fortinet FortiADC Benefits

    • FortiADC security protocol: FortiADC integrates with FortiSandbox to improve the overall antivirus security protections where every file is scanned for known and unknown malicious risks. If a file is identified as malicious or problematic, it will be blocked in the future.

    • SSL protocol: FortiADC securely uses the most up-to-date cryptography to provide exceptional encryption and decryption using a hardware-based SSL ASIC. FortiADC offers complete transparency to inspect all traffic for threats, improves server response time, and reduces backend server load, SSL inspection and SSL offloading. FortiADC integrates seamlessly with Gemalto’s SafeNet Hardware Security Module (HSM).

    • FortiADC connectors: FortiADC Fabric Connectors offer open API-based integration and coordination with numerous software-defined networks (SDNs), third-party partners, and cloud management providers. Fortinet Fabric Connectors provide deep open and turnkey integration with recognized third-party vendors such as AWS, K8s, OCI, and SAP, in multi-vendor solutions, improving scalability, simplified management, and automation.

    • Business stability: FortiADC load balancing for on-premise global server load balancing (GSBL) and in the cloud (FortiGSBL Cloud) will ensure users can maintain a reliable and available network by improving the ability of scaling applications throughout numerous data centers to reduce application response times and enhance disaster recovery. Users are able to define protocols based on network latency concerns, overall data performance, and site availability.

    Fortinet FortiADC Features

    • Application availability

      • 4-7 application load balancing: DNS, HTTPS, RTMP, RADIUS, MySQL and more

      • External fabric connectors: Splunk Integration, AWS/OCI Connector, Kubernetes Service.

      • Security fabric connectors: FortiSIEM, Fortigate BanIP Integration, FortiAnalyzer, and more.

      • Deployment modes: High availability (AA/AP Failover), Router mode, transparent mode (switch), one-arm mode (proxy with X-forwarded for support.

    • Web application firewall (WAF)

      • Security services: Captcha support, cookie support, HTTP header security, XML/SOAP/JSON validation, CSRF protection, API gateway, and more.

      • Application security: Web attack signature, bot detection, web vulnerability scanner, OWASP Top-10 Wizard, API protection and more.
    • Application enhancement

      • HTTP and TCP improvement: TCP buffering, HTTP compressions/decompression, HTTP caching (dynamic and static objects), Bandwidth monitoring using quality of service (QoS), TCP buffering, and more.

      • Authentication offloading: Two-factor authentication (Fortitoken/Fortitoken Cloud and Google Authentication), NTLM, AUTH2.0, SAML 2.0 (SP and Idp) RADIUS, LDAP, Kerbos, and local.

      • Networking: Integration with Ansible, Cisco ACI, OpenStack and Nutanix, NVGRE and VXLAN support, VLAN and port trunking support, IPv6 Support (SLB, firewall, routing and interfaces), Dynamic NAT, Hide NAT, Static NAT for added scalability and flexibility.

      • Management: Syslog support, SNMP using private MIBs with threshold-based traps. REST APIs, VDOMS, data analytics, real-time monitoring graphs, role-based monitoring, intuitive reporting, FortiView integration, and more.

    Offer
    Learn more about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)
    Learn more about Fortinet FortiADC
    Sample Customers
    Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
    Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider23%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Government8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Comms Service Provider15%
    Government10%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise52%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise52%
    Buyer's Guide
    F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Fortinet FortiADC
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Fortinet FortiADC and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is ranked 1st in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) with 43 reviews while Fortinet FortiADC is ranked 6th in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) with 4 reviews. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is rated 8.2, while Fortinet FortiADC is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) writes "Great support, helpful documentation, and is user-friendly". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Fortinet FortiADC writes "Feature-rich, robust, and the technical support is responsive ". F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is most compared with Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, Citrix NetScaler, NGINX Plus, HAProxy and A10 Networks Thunder ADC, whereas Fortinet FortiADC is most compared with Fortinet FortiWeb, Citrix NetScaler, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster and A10 Networks Thunder ADC. See our F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Fortinet FortiADC report.

    See our list of best Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) vendors.

    We monitor all Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.