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F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) 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)
HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP)
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Managed Cloud Services (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) 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%.
HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP), on the other hand, focuses on Managed Cloud Services, holds 6.1% mindshare, up 0.9% since last year.
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)
Managed Cloud Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP)6.1%
HPE GreenLake21.1%
Pure Storage Evergreen One19.8%
Other53.0%
Managed Cloud Services
 

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.
reviewer2784489 - PeerSpot reviewer
operations Manager at a university with 10,001+ employees
Unified dashboards have streamlined device management and support has resolved issues faster
The best features HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) offers are probably the ease of usability, the observability, and the transparency. When I mention observability and transparency, those features help me in my work by keeping everything in my view; I don't need to juggle between different platforms, as everything serves as a one unified solution. About transparency, things are crystal clear and laid out openly, making it much easier for consumers like us who manage tons of devices all in one unified platform. HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) has positively impacted my organization by making the whole problem-solving process easier, as if there are any ticket issues, things get resolved more easily compared to our previous services. Issues get resolved much more quickly now, with most of these solutions being almost readily available, and if escalated to a support team, we get a quicker response time, as opposed to the previous solution which involved a lot of back and forth and consumed a lot more time.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would advise others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition that it is the best instrument for load balancing."
"Since we implemented F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we have experienced better application performance and lower costs compared to hardware appliances, along with flexibility in deploying F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition across multiple hybrid clouds."
"It's easy to use, and they have good support."
"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."
"The advanced web application firewall protection and SSL offloading capabilities of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition have been utilized in my organization; these features are contributing to our application security and compliance posture."
"It has DoS layer 7 protection, which not many vendors have."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has positively impacted my organization by simplifying management, as we previously had to manage hardware boxes, and now with the virtual edition it is easy to use and reliable, and we have been working with it for the last three to four years without a single issue reported, making it a very reliable and stable product."
"My advice to others looking into using F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is to definitely go with the full potential of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition LTM, as it is a great product that will make your life easier and reduce costs, and they provide great support with a TAC team that is there whenever needed."
"The tool's documentation is excellent. It's well-organized, easy to use, simple, and easily readable. I can usually find answers to my questions quickly in the docs."
"I appreciate the consistency that HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) offers because I can create an environment once, add variables, and deploy them to multiple environments in a short span of time."
"The solution's most valuable feature is infrastructure as code (IaC)."
"HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) has positively impacted my organization by making the whole problem-solving process easier, as if there are any ticket issues, things get resolved more easily compared to our previous services."
"I appreciate the consistency that HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) offers because I can create an environment once, add variables, and deploy them to multiple environments in a short span of time."
"HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) has positively impacted my organization by helping us reduce the number of mistakes made in the infrastructure, and we can keep all the standards."
"HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) has positively impacted my organization, leading to a significant budget saving and allowing us to integrate everything the way we wanted."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
 

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."
"From a pricing perspective, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is somewhat high compared to others, and the licensing is provided as annual-based licenses rather than perpetual licenses."
"I find it too complex to assess the impact of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's automated deployment and integration with container orchestration platforms, such as Kubernetes and OpenShift, on my applications delivery speed and reliability."
"It's expensive and could be cheaper."
"It's expensive and could be cheaper."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is a heavy system that needs a lot of CPU, memory, and hard disk."
"In terms of improvements for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, I encountered issues with load management when multiple modules such as AFM, APM, LTM, and GTM are handled together."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved by enhancing the GUI, as I think it should be more user-friendly."
"You need knowledge and experience to use Terraform, Vault, and other HashiCorp tools."
"I think HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) can be improved by creating a module for audit to make access to logs easier and to improve the auditability of who is accessing which vaults at which time and being able to generate that information in a report."
"I don't have enough experience with HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) yet to have any recommendations for improvement at this time, but I would suggest speeding up the process."
"It would be good if college or university students could explore HashiCorp Cloud Platform to a certain extent as an open-source solution."
"From an improvement perspective, there is a need to ensure some bug fixes."
"If HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) could implement a way to configure the machines internally, and not only the cloud infrastructure provisioning and the boxes, and if they also added a way that we can easily configure the package or deploy applications inside the boxes, it would be fantastic."
"I have encountered a problem when updating modules required by policy changes, as the existing infrastructure sometimes gets deleted."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is standard."
"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is an expensive solution, but it's worth the price."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"My company's customers need to make payments for the licensing charges attached to the product. It is an expensive product."
"For my side, the tool is not expensive. It is a very flexible product that you can utilize. I think the tool is a little bit expensive for smaller companies, especially startups."
"The solution's pricing is moderate according to industry standard prices."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
28%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
 

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 HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP)?
I was not part of the team that handled the pricing, setup cost, and licensing, so I don't handle that.
What needs improvement with HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP)?
I am not entirely sure about how HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) could improve, as I don't have anything on top of my head at the moment.
What is your primary use case for HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP)?
My main use case for HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) is that we've been using Azure, and we recently switched to HashiCorp because of the service and ease of ticketing systems. A specific example of...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.