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F5 BIG-IQ vs vCenter Orchestrator comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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-IQ
Ranking in Process Automation
26th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
vCenter Orchestrator
Ranking in Process Automation
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IQ is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Orchestrator is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Process Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
vCenter Orchestrator0.9%
F5 BIG-IQ0.9%
Other98.2%
Process Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Bikale Kassu - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager for Implementation and Administration at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Has faced challenges with visibility and technical support but allows centralized management of multiple sites
The configuration part is complex for F5 BIG-IQ. The simplicity and visibility part needs improvement. The dashboard, especially the analytics part, needs to be more simple and presentable. For the security part, it is difficult to present to our management, so we have to capture it and prepare manual reporting options rather than getting them directly from the system. The automation part in F5 BIG-IQ is limited; we are still using it only for load balancing for some services. We haven't integrated it with our Accesso or implemented any automation options. The setup process for F5 BIG-IQ would rate a five out of ten.
NB
Hybrid Cloud Engineer at RealPage
Boosts operational efficiency with flexible workflows and reliable cluster management
We currently use vCenter Orchestrator's pre-built workflow templates for our IT processes. The templates are flexible, allowing us to create and convert processes simply and manage patches. Regarding integration capabilities, we do not integrate any third-party tools. We exclusively use VMware products. The integration within the VMware infrastructure is limited to Single Sign-On (SSO). I have not created any workflows in vCenter Orchestrator as workflows are only used for change management. I have not encountered any drag and drop interface. The version control and logging features of vCenter Orchestrator have significantly improved the reliability of our automated processes, particularly during upgrades or patching to the cluster-wise. Previously, it would be done on a one-to-one cluster or one-to-one host basis, but now we only need to monitor it for upgrading or patching the entire cluster. I cannot comment on the pricing and licensing of vCenter Orchestrator as these aspects are managed by our onsite counterpart. Overall, I rate vCenter Orchestrator 8 out of 10. The rating reflects occasional delays in support response times and portal stability issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"F5 is a leader in this space and this is a solution that I recommend."
"The best aspect of the solution is that we can have everything integrated with a rather large capacity in order to personalize and configure specific rules."
"The most valuable features are load balancing and WAF."
"F5 BIG-IQ is a central management system for the BIG-IP."
"There is a lot less risk involved in having applications available on the Internet."
"The backup, monitoring and logging are the best features."
"The best aspect of the solution is that we can have everything integrated with a rather large capacity in order to personalize and configure specific rules."
"Their technical support is perfect, they were so supportive, the guys are great and they would do anything for you."
"In regards to the workflows, the fact that we can actually have a full dashboard library of all the existing workflows on this is great. We can see all the workflows and what all the actions do and can work with scripts."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the workflow creation."
"vCenter Orchestrator is very reliable and stable."
"I find that managing all my vCenters from one console is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is the Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)."
"What I like best about vCenter Orchestrator is that it makes life easier through automation. People can request to automate all processes with vCenter Orchestrator, such as adding storage, creating VMs, removing VMs, and extending VMs."
"The stability of the product is very good."
"The solution's ability to template and easily implement are the most valuable features. It offers good replication as well."
 

Cons

"I had trouble with high availability deployment in my environment."
"F5 BIG-IQ should improve by being a complete certificate management solution because currently, it is only for Venafi."
"They could use YAML or JSON if they wanted to make it a little bit easier for us."
"If they had a GUI interface for creating security rules then it would make it easier."
"I would like the product to be cheaper."
"The solution's rSeries has been made free, and iSeries should be made free as well."
"The shell, kernel, or Linux has something like a delay, especially with the Virtual Edition when you are trying to implement it in the cloud and you want to access it remotely with web management."
"F5 BIG-IQ should improve by being a complete certificate management solution because currently, it is only for Venafi. Other automation platforms, should be added."
"I believe a transparent view and better terms of condition between Oracle and vCenter Orchestrator would be helpful."
"It is too expensive. One of the main issues is the price."
"I would like to see better performance."
"I think that vSAN can be improved."
"The pricing could be a little better."
"The price of this product is high and could be improved."
"I would like to see more automation added in the future."
"The response time of vCenter Orchestrator's support could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Users have to pay an annual subscription fee for the solution's iSeries."
"I would like the product to be cheaper."
"There is only one licensing fee for F5 BIG-IQ and everything is included in the price."
"F5 BIG-IQ is a cheap solution."
"The price is reasonable, and one of the reasons that this product was selected."
"We provide the VMware solution to our clients, for which they pay a perpetual license."
"My organization didn't have to pay extra for vCenter Orchestrator. It was already included, so it's basically free. Even VMware regular support is included."
"The licensing cost is manageable because they have different versions available, standard, essential, and advanced."
"Our licensing is on a yearly basis. We pay for the license and then we pay the support every year."
"I rate the product price a seven to eight out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"My company needs to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Marketing Services Firm
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IQ?
From the pricing perspective, F5 BIG-IQ rates an eight out of ten as it's reasonably priced.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IQ?
The configuration part is complex for F5 BIG-IQ. The simplicity and visibility part needs improvement. The dashboard, especially the analytics part, needs to be more simple and presentable. For the...
What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IQ?
Currently for WAF, we are moving to another device, F5. We are not using Imperva. F5 BIG-IQ is the Web Application Firewall we're currently using, but regarding the Imperva products, now we are flo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vCenter Orchestrator?
We're running a low-profile budget. This is not our main focus on investment technology, so we're trying to reduce costs due to the change from perpetual to subscription licenses.
What needs improvement with vCenter Orchestrator?
For our environment, I do not see any areas of vCenter Orchestrator that could be improved or enhanced. We are currently satisfied with the orchestrator. If any improvements are needed, I will prov...
What is your primary use case for vCenter Orchestrator?
My usual use cases for vCenter Orchestrator involve managing all the ESXi hosts from the US, as we have almost 1200 to 1500 ESXi hosts.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Beiersdorf Shared Services
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IQ vs. vCenter Orchestrator and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.