F5 Silverline Managed Services vs NetScaler comparison

F5 Silverline Managed Services

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

NetScaler and F5 Silverline Managed Services are both in the application delivery and security space. User feedback suggests that F5 Silverline has the upper hand due to its comprehensive real-time attack mitigation and ease of use in cloud environments, despite its higher cost.

Features: NetScaler shines with its flexible deployment model, supporting cost-effective scaling. It offers a robust set of features including load balancing, SSL offload, and integration with Citrix solutions. Meanwhile, F5 Silverline is noted for its advanced security functionalities, cloud-native capabilities, and ease of implementation, particularly in cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: NetScaler users identify a need for innovation in feature sets, better documentation, and support for newer application templates, mentioning bugs in updates. For F5 Silverline, users suggest adding more Points of Presence to reduce latency, a better pricing structure, and enhanced AI capabilities and navigation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetScaler is popular for on-premises deployments, with solid hybrid cloud support and generally good technical support, despite some delays. F5 Silverline excels in cloud deployment ease and provides strong customer service but might need more comprehensive hybrid support options.

Pricing and ROI: NetScaler is seen as expensive, requiring additional license purchases yet delivering enterprise-level value and ROI through its stability. F5 Silverline is also costly, with extra charges for extended features, but its security features provide a strong ROI by effectively protecting critical applications and infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 Silverline Managed Services vs. NetScaler Report (Updated: June 2025).

F5 Silverline Managed Services vs. NetScaler

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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 Silverline Managed Services

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

22nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (13th)

NetScaler

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st), Network Management Applications (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of F5 Silverline Managed Services is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Archana Heeralal

Security Engineer at Amazon

A reasonably priced product with a good UI, but the navigation is difficult, and the support team takes a long time to respond

Since we use the solution’s cloud, the product has more control over the back end. The customer will not have control. It is part of the product’s feature. When we get more complex requirements or if we want to write more complex tools, the support team will have the visibility to write them because they have control. The navigation is difficult to use. The navigation should be improved. Other products are quite straightforward. If I try to implement a new application and do an onboarding, it is not very easy. We must go to one feature, inside which there will be more features. It should be simplified, and a menu should be provided.

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DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU

Cloud Consultant at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking

Citrix ADM has the ability to implement policies to tighten security. For instance, you can restrict access to your network from outsiders or lack necessary security measures such as antivirus programs. Additionally, there's the Delivery Controller, which allows for comprehensive monitoring and management tasks such as remote restarts, maintenance, and registration. Another essential component is the Director, which provides detailed insights into sessions, including identifying session failures, connection issues, user lockouts, etc. It presents a list of problems to address, enabling you to click on them and resolve them efficiently.

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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

"Most vendors fulfill the requirements for standard DDoS protection, but F5 Silverline Managed Services has a better understanding of defending web applications like HTTP and can mitigate more bot activity than any other vendor."

"The most valuable feature of F5 Silverline Managed Services is it becomes similar to a distributed architecture."

"The most valuable feature of F5 Silverline Managed Services is the benchmark performance."

"The most valuable features are the configuration and configuring the process."

"The initial setup is very straightforward."

"The most valuable feature of F5 Silverline Managed Services is its cloud-native functionality and the high level of protection it provides."

"We have a lot of businesses that we put behind this solution, and it has really helped us in terms of monitoring the logs and incidents."

"The product’s UI is easy to understand."

More F5 Silverline Managed Services pros

"For NetScaler, our major use cases are database load balancing, PowerVPN VPN access gateway, WAF (Web Application Firewall), and content switching."

"When our primary link goes down I can still get to my Cisco devices and the NetScaler devices on-prem because of the SDN solution. If the internet connection at one of the branches goes down, we can still route them, they still get internet based on the SDN solution through one of the other sites. They can carry on working."

"We like the periodic upgrades and backups, also made via ADMs, and it makes our environment much more robust and reliable."

"I prefer this solution because of its user-friendly interface. I find it simple and close to what I am currently using, which is Citrix Fortiva Access for Multi-Factor Authentication. I appreciate the familiar user interface and troubleshooting tools it offers."

"Load balancing, cache redirection, content switching, all connected with traffic management."

"I find all of it to be valuable, because of the flexibility that is built into this product."

"The load balancing feature and the fact that you can do context switching in the WAF are the most valuable. We majorly use it for load balancing, but we also use it for context switching in the WAF. It is also robust and very easy to work with and manage."

"The most valuable feature is the content switching."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"The navigation is difficult to use."

"We'd like more AI to be used. Right now, they don't use it enough."

"Automating processes could enhance F5 Silverline Managed Services."

"F5 Silverline Web Application Firewall, being a new product in the market or comparatively related to a new product, currently supports less number of PoPs. They should introduce more PoPs. The current number of PoPs that they have is around 10 or 12, which is still relatively less as compared to 2,400 plus PoPs that Akamai offers. The user latency or the number of hops a user needs before reaching the actual web application is less in Akamai because it has its internal fabric to route the traffic. They need to spin up more data to increase its traffic handling capability. They can also include the bot detection capability, though it is a pretty advanced functionality. If they could include DataDome like functionality, that is, bot prediction, then F5 Silverline Web Application Firewall will be top-notch in the market."

"The price is high in comparison to other products."

"F5 Silverline Managed Services can improve by adding features that Palo Alto has."

"The product could be improved on the global load and the integration with the other solution like Cisco and Dell. As a representor of the operation, we prefer to have one platform which can accommodate all type of integration. We are also looking for more improvements in the security policy configuration."

"Sometimes tech support can be slow. They take more time assigning engineers to complex issues, however, they resolve the issues by joining me to fix them."

More F5 Silverline Managed Services cons

"Technical support sometimes takes a little longer because of the multilevel ticket priority."

"The solution can improve their support and send tickets directly to a Citrix ADC engineer in order to avoid having to escalate each support call."

"I would like to see multifactor authentication added to this solution to improve the security."

"We have issues with the certificates. All authorization processes need certificates, however, every three months we needed to change certificates. This process iss complicated for us because Citrix does not have a not user-friendly interface and does not off user-friendly services. This needs a lot of improvement."

"The technical support has room for improvement."

"Citrix ADM needs to improve on its additional features and reduce the communication ports."

"Quality assurance could improve by ironing out security vulnerabilities before releasing upgrades."

"It does not have a sandbox cloud service and antivirus. It should have on-prem or cloud sandboxing and antivirus."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of F5 Silverline Managed Services could be better, they are not very flexible. The price of the solution is based on the requirements of the enterprise."

"The product’s pricing is reasonable."

"The price of F5 Silverline Managed Services could be reduced."

"F5 Silverline Web Application Firewall works based on your bandwidth. They look at the clean bandwidth and do the pricing. 20% of a total pipe would be a clean bandwidth. The list price or a non-negotiated price for F5 Silverline Web Application Firewall would be around $2,200 per application per year for everything that you need. When you get into an enterprise kind of a setup, they negotiate this to the last bit. I would easily take 20% on that, which would be the cost, but it should cover all your Advance WAF features, bot protection, tech campaign, etc. It is built as a package and gives you most of the capability. You don't get the mobile SDK, which is an additional license. Mobile SDK is required only if you're buying or if you have a mobile application, and you are going to instrument F5 or Imperva into your mobile appliance. This anyways would be an additional module. It doesn't come within the WAF, but it is a WAF feature."

"Price-wise, I feel that the solution is a little bit expensive."

"Citrix NetScaler VPX is not the cheapest solution out there, but you get what you pay for."

"You can do CapEx and then a yearly monthly fee, or you can do a subscription model, whether that's one month, month-to-month, or three-year subscription model."

"We have been evaluating F5, Citrix, and other ADC products. Citrix is the most expense of all of them."

"I give the price of the solution a seven out of ten."

"F5 BIG-IP is much more expensive than Citrix ADC. For example, If we choose two platforms, Citrix ADC, 3000 version, and we choose F5, F4200 version. F5 BIG-IP has connections, timers, and throughput similar to Citrix ADC, but the price is very expensive."

"It is an enterprise solution. Thus, its costs are reasonable."

"The client pays for the Citrix NetScaler license annually."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.

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860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

13%

Insurance Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Is Citrix ADC (formerly Netscaler) the best ADC to use and if not why?

For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc.

What do you like most about F5 Silverline Managed Services?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Silverline Managed Services?

The solution is quite reasonably priced, with costs being lower in comparison to competitors. On a scale where ten is very expensive, I would rate the pricing as three. It offers cost savings and i...

What do you like most about Citrix ADC?

The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?

After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...

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Product Reports

F5 Silverline Managed Services

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Also Known As

F5 Silverline Web Application Firewall, F5 Silverline DDoS Protection

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall

Overview

F5's Silverline Managed Services is a SaaS solution delivering DDoS protection, managed Web Application Firewall (WAF) services, and managed Shape Security Fraud and Anti-bot solutions.

Silverline services include 24x7 access to F5's Security Operations Center (SOC). F5's expert security professionals use F5 products with state-of-the-art security tools to ensure the best protection possible. As an add-on to Silverline DDoS or WAF services, Silverline Threat Intelligence integrates dynamic lists of threatening IP addresses to give context for policy decisions.

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

Sample Customers

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk

F5 Silverline Managed Services vs. NetScaler