F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs SonicWall SMA comparison

The compared F5 and SonicWall solutions aren't in the same category. F5 is ranked #2 in ADC , with an average rating of 8.9, and holds a 15.9% mindshare in the category. SonicWall is ranked #2 in UAG , with an average rating of 9.5, and holds a 47.7% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Read 122 F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) reviews

7,346 Views
5,436 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

SonicWall SMA

Read 15 SonicWall SMA reviews

994 Views
70 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

SonicWall SMA

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and SonicWall SMA 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. SonicWall SMA Report (Updated: March 2020).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. SonicWall SMA

March 2020

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Helped 867,497 peers since 2012

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

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

122

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (2nd)

SonicWall SMA

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Universal Access Gateways (2nd), SSL VPN (8th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (18th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 15.9%, up 15.3% compared to last year.
SonicWall SMA, on the other hand, focuses on Universal Access Gateways, holds 47.7% mindshare, up 41.7% since last year.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)	15.9%
NetScaler	14.3%
HAProxy	11.3%
Other	58.5%

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Universal Access Gateways Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SonicWall SMA	47.7%
Citrix Gateway	47.7%
Other	4.599999999999994%

Universal Access Gateways

Featured Reviews

Bonieber Orofeo

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

Identifying compromised traffic and securing data has been a significant advantage

One of the most beneficial features of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is its ability to identify compromised traffic and its capabilities in authentication. Additionally, the security aspect of it provides a significant advantage as it helps us secure our data, which is a major investment and benefit for us. Before using this system, we had difficulties in storing our data and managing the traffic that comes in and out.

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Mayur_Patel

Chief Commercial Officer at InnovAge Home Care

Easy-to-manage product with efficient features for network security

SonicWall SMA facilitates and protects remote workforce access to corporate resources from any location Enhancing live tracking capabilities could improve the product, particularly in monitoring user activity and request statuses in real-time on the web interface. We have been using SonicWall…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are using Application Security Manager (ASM) as a web application firewall, where there is a security signature to avoid a web level breach."

"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."

"It is very intuitive, easy to deploy, and manage."

"BIG-IP LTM is completely stable, and its performance is good."

"It is the perfect solution when you have high workloads in your IT environment."

"The solution is robust and reliable."

"We enjoy its overall ease of use."

"The initial setup is easy."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros

"I am very satisfied with the technical support."

"I like the load balancing capability."

"It is faster than other security options when using remote connections."

"This solution has many options for remote desktop and access."

"Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security."

"The management and the dashboard are the solution's most valuable features."

"SonicWall SMA has the most valuable feature of proprietary security technologies like Capture ATP."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is they have IT consultants that know SonicWall."

More SonicWall SMA pros

Cons

"F5 has another solution to load balance servers on the cloud, which they got after the purchase of NGINX. It is deployed as Kubernetes or something like that, but the problem now is that they have two solutions for two situations. They should make F5 deployable on the cloud."

"The price for F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager is very high. This aspect could be improved."

"I would like them to expand load balancing, being able to go across multiple regions to on-premise and into the cloud. This could use improvement, as it is sometimes a little cumbersome."

"We would like to have integration into encryption and PKI integration with SafeNet. That is probably the key component in using External PKIs, letting people bring their PKIs with them."

"I would like F5 to incorporate the ability to create your own custom roles and customised permissions within the product set. I have seen many customers wanting to give a certain level of access for the purposes of out-of-hours servicing to out-of-hours staff or teams that fulfill an operations type role."

"Fixing bugs."

"Its GUI could be a bit better. Other than that, it's already pretty good. We don't use it in a high-performance environment. So, we don't really care so much about too many features."

"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."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) cons

"The product itself is very good, but Dell needs to work on product visibility in their advertising."

"Enhancing live tracking capabilities could improve the product, particularly in monitoring user activity and request statuses in real-time on the web interface."

"The overall menu is not very user-friendly and it could be easier."

"I'd like to see the product maybe polish keyboards in Bookmark."

"The solution could integrate better with other platforms."

"User interface could be improved."

"The timed synchronization between the network appliance needs improvement."

"The only thing that they could try to improve is the support for enterprise customers. Normally enterprises and SMBs can create a ticket, but for enterprises, SonicWall SMA needs to provide a global view, and this is what's currently missing. It's not even a question of timing. It's a question of the global vision because currently, it's lacking. They concentrate on the topic, but not on the means and not on the global picture. In most cases, there's something wrong with the integration of SonicWall SMA with other products, so that could also be improved."

More SonicWall SMA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is sometimes expensive."

"I use a yearly subscription, which is the most expensive one now compared to its competitors."

"F5 pricing is too high, compared to Citrix."

"There are additional costs depending on what modules or what functionality is required."

"Though functionality is high, its cost can be considered slightly higher than its competitors."

"The licensing model of F5 BIG-IP LTM is highly complex. The operation cost of the solution is high. The overall cost is high."

"F5 isn’t cheap but is worth the price."

"When we purchased additional licenses for our other locations, we received a discount of between 20% and 25%."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pricing and cost advice

"The platform has medium pricing."

"Our licenses are stackable and can be anywhere from five users to a million users."

"I don't know about the pricing of the SSL-VPN box. I know the SSL-VPN software is free. Global VPN client, by comparison, is licensed for around $150 or something like that. But the SSL-VPN software is free. It is already built-in with the box."

"All the costs are included in a bundled license."

"The cost of the licensing is based on the maximum number of concurrent users, and it costs a lot to add them."

"This solution is priced well and we currently have the maximum number of licenses allowed."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	62
Midsize Enterprise	31
Large Enterprise	84

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?

The GUI of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) could be improved. It's not something regarding how it processes or blocks, as that's perfect. However, it still feels a bit legacy regarding the GU...

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What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP?

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is a perfect product for load balancing and WAF, and I would recommend it far more than any other product. The load balancing capabilities of F5 BIG-IP Local T...

See all answers

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)?

The solution is robust and reliable.

See all answers

What do you like most about SonicWall SMA?

Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall SMA?

The pricing for the solution could be a lot less.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall SMA?

I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need to. I don't know where they can focus their energy on continuous improvements, a...

See all answers

Comparisons

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

Compared 18% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

NetScaler vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 7% of the time

HAProxy vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 7% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Competitors

SonicWall Netextender vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 17% of the time

Ivanti Connect Secure vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 14% of the time

Peplink SpeedFusion vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 14% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 10% of the time

Ivanti Secure Access vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 10% of the time

More SonicWall SMA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

September 2025

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) product report

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall SMA

August 2025

Download SonicWall SMA product report

Also Known As

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

SonicWall Aventail, SonicWall SMA SSL-VPN, SonicWall Secure Mobile Access

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.

SonicWall SMA is a unified secure access gateway that enables organizations to provide anytime, anywhere and any device access to mission critical corporate resources. SMA's granular access control policy engine, context aware device authorization, application level VPN and advanced authentication with single sign-on empowers organizations to embrace BYOD and mobility in a hybrid IT environment.

SonicWall

Sample Customers

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.

UnitedStack, Newport City Homes, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, PRIME aerostructures GmbH, Celtic Manor Resort

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. SonicWall SMA

March 2020

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. SonicWall SMA

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