F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs NGINX Plus comparison

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and NGINX Plus are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.6, while NGINX Plus is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1. Additionally, 100% of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of NGINX Plus users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Read 7 F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition reviews

612 Views
0 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 31 NGINX Plus reviews

4,361 Views
2,747 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

NGINX Plus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and NGINX Plus 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 Virtual Edition vs. NGINX Plus Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. NGINX Plus

August 2025

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Helped 865,384 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 Virtual Edition

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

12th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (4th)

Featured Reviews

Lilian Blaitt

IT Specialist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Virtual deployment boosts efficiency and support is quick

In my company, we use NGINX. I don't work with NGINX. For us, it is better to have the virtual solution because we have more virtual VJPs on fewer machines. This is the reason we are using it today It's easy to use, and they have good support. When we open tickets, they are answered quickly, and…

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Michael Olayemi

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

Enables public access and secure configurations through reverse proxy

The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy. I have found that this feature supports our local server, and I am able to connect through our DNS system, making it accessible publicly. Additionally, the integration with SSL certificates and the configuration capabilities make it a valuable solution for my use case. Without NGINX, users would not be able to access our application, which means there is positive ROI from using NGINX as it is crucial for the functioning of my organization.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's investment is less than a physical device."

"I have a specific issue with the network interface connector, the NIC. We're limited to a maximum of two NICs in a virtualized environment. It's a limitation of the tool."

"It has DoS layer 7 protection, which not many vendors have."

"The features that I like include LTM and Global Traffic Manager (GTM)."

"It's easy to use, and they have good support."

"The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it."

"It's lightweight software that can handle heavy loads efficiently."

"With NGINX, I appreciate its ability to route traffic geographically."

"The load balancing module, which is equivalent to LTM, is the focus of the PSE. So far, the features of both are identical. I believe NGINX has more features for securing these services, but in terms of load balancing, both are massive solutions."

"I find the solution’s community support and documentation most valuable. Compared to HAProxy, have found a lot of documentation and community support on Quora. If you would be asking me as a developer whether to choose this product, I would recommend this since it has good community support, documentation, and signature updates. The configuration of HAProxy is also very tedious. However, NGINX’s configuration is very simple."

"Nginx is simple to configure, very stable in a highly utilized environment and very modular, allowing DevOps to create it's own modules for interactive use with Nginx."

"NGINX provides a cost advantage, value addition, and effective support."

"Supports IMAP, POP and SMTP protocols for the reverse proxy."

"The product is lightweight and fast."

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"BIG-IP could improve in supporting microservices, for example, in Docker and Kubernetes environments."

"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is a heavy system that needs a lot of CPU, memory, and hard disk."

"The tool has limitations with respect to code and RAM."

"I have a specific issue with the network interface connector, the NIC. We're limited to a maximum of two NICs in a virtualized environment. It's a limitation of the tool."

"On-the-go upgrades are an option that the tool currently lacks, making it an area where improvements are required."

"It's expensive and could be cheaper."

"The solution's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."

"The scalability could be improved."

"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."

"Initially, I experienced hiccups whenever I installed the application. As with any application, there were initial issues, however, after receiving support, everything was rectified."

"NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5."

"The KPI should be more focused on load balancing and the latency in application calling from the end system."

"The biggest room for improvement would be to allow NGINX Core machines to cluster for memory zones in some way with a plug and play module. "

"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is an expensive solution, but it's worth the price."

"The pricing is standard."

"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."

"The list price of NGINX Plus is close to $5,500."

"The solution is free, but you can spend a lot of money with a complex solution."

"NGINX Plus is an open-source solution with limited additional features. When you try to get additional features in the solution, then you need to pay an extra amount to NGINX Plus."

"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."

"It's an open source solution, so it's free."

"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours."

"NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it."

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Retailer

Energy/Utilities Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?

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 applic...

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What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?

I do not use the load balancing and traffic management features of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition. I use other container orchestration platforms, but they are not relevant to F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition. ...

See all answers

Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?

IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...

See all answers

What do you like most about NGINX Plus?

It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Plus?

My use case involves using the free and open-source version of NGINX, making it cost-effective as I haven't incurred any costs.

See all answers

Comparisons

F5 Distributed Cloud Services vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 31% of the time

SOCKS5 Proxy Server with Web Panel vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 29% of the time

Squid Proxy Cache Server vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 24% of the time

UBIKA WAAP Cloud vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 17% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition Competitors

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 15% of the time

Apache Web Server vs NGINX Plus

Compared 12% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

August 2025

Download F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

August 2025

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

No data available

NGINX

Overview

When you need to move faster than hardware allows, BIG-IP Virtual Editions (VEs) deliver the application services you need in a more agile and flexible form factor. Get the scalability, security, and automatability BIG-IP products are known for—all in software designed for use in single-, hybrid-, or multi-cloud architectures.

NGINX Plus is a versatile solution that offers load balancing, caching, proxying, and API deployment capabilities. It can be deployed on private or public clouds and is ideal for building CDN solutions. The solution can also be used to secure web applications and replace web services like Apache.

NGINX has helped organizations improve functioning, reduce downtimes, and offer a DevOps-friendly solution. Its community support and documentation are highly regarded, and its configuration is more straightforward, making it a recommended choice over HAProxy.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. NGINX Plus

August 2025

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. NGINX Plus

Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.

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