F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 29, 2022
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Application...
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
4th
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is 13.1%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 5.2%, down from 10.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
8.7%
 

Featured Reviews

KS
Aug 25, 2022
Good load balancing and web proxy features with good attack prevention
The major drawback is it has lot of options nested inside, and each option has a lot of options. I'm not sure who might be using all those options or even some (limited) good options. They should pare everything down. It requires a particular skill or training before being able to manage it. Creating virtual servers, managing pools, and nodes until it is working on WAF side of it becomes difficult while writing the irules. Another drawback is we are using a physical appliance. It becomes very slow and unresponsive. Even logs cannot load on the box to troubleshoot. It overwrites the logs. They need to do something in log storage locally on this box in the next release.
Sooryanarayan Hegde - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 20, 2024
Easy management and configuration, affordable, and has good features
We use all the features. It is very useful. Using WAF, we can control the WAF rules based on our application requirements. We can control what rules should be used and what should be disabled. The role of the tool is limited to HTTP traffic. It does exactly what it must do. It's a regional service. We know how to use it for DR scenarios. WAF has been the most valuable in protecting applications. We use at least three instances in the back end to give the best performance for our applications. The management and configuration of the solution is quite easy. All certificate renewals are automatically taken care of by Key Vault.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is an easy way to build application policies (graphical)."
"Traffic Learning is the most valuable feature."
"We enjoy its overall ease of use."
"Users can see a remarkable performance difference from a qualitative sense."
"The most valuable features are the WAF and the big IP."
"The feature I find the most valuable is the support infrastructure."
"The solution has good load balancing capabilities."
"The product is quite flexible."
"The simplicity of the solution and its ability to integrate easily with others are its most valuable aspects."
"The solution's integration is very good."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"The solution's most valuable feature is an HTTP solution and SSL certificate. It is also easy to use."
"The pricing is quite good."
"The solution provides great automation and it is easy to upgrade service."
"We use the product in front-end and back-end applications to do the load balancing smartly."
"Azure Application Gateway's most valuable feature is ease of use. The configuration is straightforward. It isn't difficult to adjust the size of your instances in the settings. You can do that with a few clicks, and the configuration file is the same way. You can also set rules and policies with minimal time and effort."
 

Cons

"To improve the product, they could add more load balancing solutions in Kubernetes."
"Reporting could be improved and configuration made easier."
"F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager could improve by having an FNI feature for a single source to multi-domain load balancing."
"Initial setup is tricky, if you do not understand the design of this product."
"If they made it easier for engineers to get F5 training then it would be better."
"There is a need for a more modular version to concentrate on the current monolithic structure of both the virtual and hardware versions."
"There is a challenge in Pakistan. This is when there is a hardware failure. Sometimes, it takes more time to get a replacement because it is sent out from the U.S. or some other regional outpost. Thus, it takes two to three days to receive a replacement."
"There are some aspects of F5 BIG-IP that could be improved, the main one being virtual machine support. We have seen that even with the virtual editions, there are some things that we would like to do that are currently not possible with virtual machines."
"The support provided for the solution has certain shortcomings that need improvement, especially when it comes to the response time from the support team."
"Application Gateway’s limitation is that the private and the public endpoint cannot use the same port."
"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is not scalable."
"The solution has many limitations. You cannot upgrade the VPN to the application gateway. So I started with version one, which has limited capabilities, and they provided version two. And unfortunately, I cannot upgrade from v one to v two like other services. So I have to decommission the version one and create a new one with version two. Also the version one was complex with the certificates uploading the SQL certificates."
"The graphical interface needs improvement because it is not user friendly."
"We have encountered some issues with automatic redirection and cancellation, leading to 502 and 504 gateway errors. So, I experienced some trouble with containers."
"For the first-time user, it is difficult to understand so the user-interface needs to be improved."
"We faced some downtime while validating CNAME."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If your IT budget is good, go for it."
"It is a bit expensive product. Kemp Loadmaster is much cheaper than F5. Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It can be for one year or three years."
"It is cheaper than the average on the market."
"It is the best solution, but that comes with an increased price."
"It's fair, it's not too expensive. Maybe just a little high."
"It is a little pricey. I wish the pricing was cheaper, but I wish the pricing was cheaper for everything."
"LTM is a good product, but it's expensive. They should make it more competitive because cloud providers offer free load balancing. Cloud providers can't cover all the security aspects of F5, but you get a decent amount of security. Cloud environments are becoming the norm across the IT industry. Many of the larger companies that previously used on-prem infrastructure are switching to the cloud, so companies like Fortinet and Palo Alto are reducing their prices. Otherwise, they can't compete in the cloud."
"Try to negotiate all the software features that you require upfront."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being cheap and one being expensive."
"I rate the pricing seven out of ten because some third-party solutions are even costlier than this."
"It is not expensive."
"The tool's pricing model is pay-as-you-go."
"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a pretty affordable product. My company needs to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs of the solution. The additional costs apart from the licensing costs of the solution vary."
"Between v1 and v2, there is a lot of change in the pricing. It is very costly compared to AWS."
"There is some additional cost, such as extended support."
"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP?
The support from F5 BIG-IP LTM is good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP?
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 ...
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?
In the LTM solution, it would be beneficial to have more algorithms for traffic segmentation or the ability to create user-defined algorithms rather than being restricted to predefined ones.
What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?
We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...
How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the performance side of things, which is why we use it.
 

Also Known As

F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.