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F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs F5 Rules for AWS WAF comparison

 

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

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (7th)
F5 Rules for AWS WAF
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Business Rules Management (4th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (30th)
 

Mindshare comparison

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and F5 Rules for AWS WAF aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 0.9%.
F5 Rules for AWS WAF, on the other hand, focuses on Business Rules Management, holds 0.9% mindshare.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition0.9%
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)14.3%
NetScaler12.7%
Other72.1%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
Business Rules Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 Rules for AWS WAF0.9%
FICO Blaze Advisor28.2%
IBM Operational Decision Manager27.6%
Other43.3%
Business Rules Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2800392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud deployment has simplified traffic distribution and now supports flexible multi-zone DR
Regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's improvement areas, the current dashboard is very useful, but I believe the registration process should be simplified in the virtual edition. Especially in the Azure environment, many features are not currently aligned and working with Azure. We need to make efforts to ensure it is well integrated with Azure. Currently, if we want to integrate route tables with the virtual F5 edition, we need to deploy scripting inside the virtual F5 instances, and then that script performs the virtual IP route table changes in the Azure environment. This feature should be auto-configured, and efforts are needed to ensure the virtual edition is very much aligned with the Azure environment. I am expecting this improvement in the next edition. The failover capability is also not as good as it should be. We have tested the failover functionality, and sometimes we have observed that failover fails. F5 does not successfully fail over to other instances perfectly, so that also needs to be improved. Security should also be enhanced, as in the past I have seen some security loopholes. Tightening of security should be included in the new software. These improvements should be present in near future editions.
Manmohan Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems India Private Limited
Managed security rules have protected our public e‑commerce sites and simplified ongoing defense
I advise anyone looking for a great tool to secure their public-facing applications to start using F5 Rules for AWS WAF. These are managed rule sets, so you do not need to worry about continuous improvements or ensuring your application is secure; F5 Rules for AWS WAF will take care of that and is always making the necessary improvements in these rule sets to ensure security. I am very impressed with the rule sets and the continuous engineering from their security team to ensure the required rule set availability. I really appreciate the fantastic job they are doing. F5 Rules for AWS WAF can be integrated with AWS CloudFront, Application Load Balancer, Lambda, and API Gateway. I am satisfied with all these services as they are our intermediary points for services exposed to the public or globally. I gave this product a rating of ten out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition positively impacts our organization by improving user experience, performance, and security, which is very helpful for us."
"Compared to our physical environment, with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition we have saved approximately one hundred thousand dollars, reduced our team from five people to two, and achieved an overall cost reduction of twenty-five to thirty percent, with some areas reaching forty percent."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has impacted my organization positively because we use it for all our on-premises network related setups, such as load balancing for all our application traffic."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has positively impacted my organization as it is a very stable device."
"I have saved time, reduced costs, and improved uptime since adopting F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, as it is very easy to work on, saving a lot of time searching and researching."
"It's easy to use, and they have good support."
"Comparatively, I find F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition more effective in both the WAF as well as the LTMs."
"Using F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, specifically the LTM, has significantly reduced downtime."
"I advise anyone looking for a great tool to secure their public-facing applications to start using F5 Rules for AWS WAF."
"I advise anyone looking for a great tool to secure their public-facing applications to start using F5 Rules for AWS WAF."
"F5 Rules for AWS WAF has positively impacted our organization for security through the implementation of traffic rules in our application."
 

Cons

"To improve F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, specifically LTM, I believe that when creating an LDAP server, there is only one option to add an LDAP."
"The customer support experience for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is actually very poor."
"I believe F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved in the area of pricing. It is a somewhat expensive solution, and the price needs to be improved based on what our customers have told us."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is a heavy system that needs a lot of CPU, memory, and hard disk."
"I feel that F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved because overall, it is a pretty good product, but the licensing is rather costly."
"The tool has limitations with respect to code and RAM."
"It's expensive and could be cheaper."
"My experience with pricing and setup costs for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition was mixed, as they do not have an option for 10 gig licensing, which was costly for us."
"It's too early to talk about a return on investment with F5 Rules for AWS WAF."
"An area for improvement I see is that while everything is in good shape, I demand continuous improvisation of these rule sets."
"An area for improvement I see is that while everything is in good shape, I demand continuous improvisation of these rule sets."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is standard."
"My company's customers need to make payments for the licensing charges attached to the product. It is an expensive product."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is an expensive solution, but it's worth the price."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
45%
Comms Service Provider
17%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise19
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
Improvements for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition should include training for newcomers. If they are not aware, it can be beneficial for them to learn. In authentication, there is currently a single metho...
What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
I would definitely recommend F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition to others so they can opt for this option.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Rules for AWS WAF?
From the pricing perspective, I found it to be comparable to other marketplace rules available in AWS Marketplace. It has competitive pricing.
What needs improvement with F5 Rules for AWS WAF?
An area for improvement I see is that while everything is in good shape, I demand continuous improvisation of these rule sets. However, I am accepting of this. To stay safer from a security perspec...
What is your primary use case for F5 Rules for AWS WAF?
We are providing support to our end customers who have e-commerce websites that need to be exposed to the public, and for a secure way around, we thought of getting them exposed via the Application...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about F5, NetScaler, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC). Updated: March 2026.
885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.