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F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) pros and cons

Vendor: F5

4.2 out of 5

25 reviews
95% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) excels with its signature base for traffic monitoring and attack prevention, crucial for disaster prevention. Key features include access control, IP intelligence, DDoS protection, and customizable iRules. Its effectiveness in application protection during cloud migrations is notable, though it lacks automatic geolocation updates and zero-day attack prevention, with high pricing perceived as a drawback. Deployment and configuration demand time, impacting perceived value.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager offers highly effective signature-based traffic monitoring and attack mitigation capabilities.

Key features include access control, IP intelligence, and robust DDoS protection.

The platform excels in load balancing and web application firewall functions, critical for maintaining application performance and security.

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager is noted for its ability to perform behavioral analysis through AI to detect malicious traffic.

Stability, availability, and security are standout features, ensuring comprehensive application protection.

CONS

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is expensive, with room for pricing adjustment, especially for features like the WAF firewall.

There is a need for automatic updates in the geolocation feature to avoid reliance on manual updates.

Support was lacking during initial deployment, impacting effectiveness from the start.

The firewall configuration approach is unique, differing from standard vendor logic.

Advanced Firewall Manager's dashboard statistics need improvement, particularly during attacks.

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Pros review quotes

Computer & Network Security Professional at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Jun 26, 2019

I find the signature base is very helpful to see traffic

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DG

IT Service Delivery Manager at Consys.it

Aug 12, 2019

It blocks various attacks and mitigates disasters from occurring.

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Systems Engineer at Datasure Solutions

Sep 2, 2019

This product excells in every aspect from installation and the interface to providing superior network security.

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F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1189323

Senior Security Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Dec 4, 2019

We use three main features. The first one is access control. The second feature we use is called IP intelligence. Finally, we have a DDoS safety feature.

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reviewer1003632

Founder / Senior Security Architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Mar 3, 2020

The solution is very straightforward. The usability is great.

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reviewer1306038

Contracted IP Development Engineer at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 23, 2020

The decryption is great.

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reviewer1434246

Technology Consultant / Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 1, 2020

The most valuable feature of this solution is that the blocking of IP's.

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JM

Head: Cyber and Information Research Centre at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

May 8, 2022

The most valuable features of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) are the web gateway, load balancing, services, and applications available.

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Sr. Architect at NBC Universal

Jun 24, 2022

Its performance and ease of use are valuable.

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OB

Executive of the Telecommunications Area at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 6, 2022

The most valuable feature of F5 BIG-IP AFM is all of my workers enjoy using it.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 25)

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Cons review quotes

Computer & Network Security Professional at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Jun 26, 2019

We would have preferred to have support when we first started

Read full review

DG

IT Service Delivery Manager at Consys.it

Aug 12, 2019

We needed to protect the database but the solution didn't offer a certain feature to do so.

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Systems Engineer at Datasure Solutions

Sep 2, 2019

This would be absolutely the best network security solution if the price were not so high.

Read full review

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1189323

Senior Security Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Dec 4, 2019

Firstly, geolocation currently relies on manual updates. It has to move to automatic updates. There are no automatic updates for this feature. If some IPs, countries, or service providers move to another country, now you will be allow IPs that you previously denied. This is because you depend on the database, which doesn't update automatically. This is really a very important area that they need to improve.

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reviewer1003632

Founder / Senior Security Architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Mar 3, 2020

The pricing of the solution could be a little bit better.

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reviewer1306038

Contracted IP Development Engineer at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 23, 2020

Deployment times vary according to the customer. It needs to be heavily configured. You need to look and you need to observe the behavior of the traffic before you can start configuring everything. It can take time.

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reviewer1434246

Technology Consultant / Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 1, 2020

Currently, we have eighty F5s and we need some kind of management software. It would be very helpful.

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JM

Head: Cyber and Information Research Centre at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

May 8, 2022

The web gateway feature could improve in F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM).

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Sr. Architect at NBC Universal

Jun 24, 2022

There should be simplified and better integration with BIG-IQ.

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OB

Executive of the Telecommunications Area at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 6, 2022

The initial setup of F5 BIG-IP AFM in a complex environment was simple. However, the full deployment took us approximately one year.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 25)

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