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F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros and cons

Vendor: F5

4.1 out of 5

123 reviews
83% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) offers advanced load balancing, comprehensive security with a web application firewall and SSL offloading, and integration with AWS and VMware. Programmability via iRules enhances flexibility, while its scalability suits large environments. However, improvements in custom role creation, ASM administration complexity, limited logging, high cost, and slow technical support could affect user experience and accessibility for smaller firms.

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

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is praised for its advanced load balancing capabilities, effectively distributing traffic across servers to ensure high availability.

The comprehensive security features, such as the web application firewall (WAF) and SSL offloading, enhance application security and reduce server load.

Its integration capabilities with major cloud services, like AWS and VMware, allow for seamless deployment across various environments.

The programmability through iRules provides users the flexibility to implement custom logic and traffic manipulation efficiently.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) demonstrates excellent scalability and performance under high workloads, making it suitable for large-scale environments.

CONS

F5 should improve custom role creation and permissions to allow specific access for out-of-hours staff or operational teams.

There are issues with the complexity of ASM administration, which involves several references and dependencies between subareas.

Logging and monitoring are limited, lacking comprehensive alerts and tools to effectively monitor abnormal situations.

The cost of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is high, which could be a barrier for smaller companies.

Technical support is occasionally slow or lacks proper expertise, impacting timely resolution of critical issues.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Pros review quotes

Network Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 13, 2016

The F5 GTM/BIGIP DNS (Global Traffic Manager) is a valuable feature. This feature allows for DNS load balancing, which means that high availability and load sharing can be done across services locally, as well as across datacenters with advanced capabilities.

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GV

Architect - Cloud Serviced at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 14, 2017

We are fond of the load balancing feature for DNS and servers.

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Team Leader Mainframe & Webservices at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Sep 19, 2016

The BIG-IP’s interface is more intuitive than other GUIs. It is well structured, not overloaded, and does not have too many gimmicks.

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F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

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Solution Architect/Application Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 28, 2016

The F5 interface is easy to use.

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Sr. Network Engineer at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 10, 2017

Great load balancing.

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Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 10, 2017

LTM.

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Games, Apps and Web Developer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 31, 2017

ASM for WAF.

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SG

Director Technology Solutions with 11-50 employees

Aug 2, 2018

It is very intuitive, easy to deploy, and manage.

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Technical Product Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Sep 13, 2018

It has so many features. First of all, it has a full proxy architecture, it has multiple modules. The best feature is the WAF, the web application firewall module. It also has cashing type capabilities. It has all kinds of load-balancing algorithms based on your IT requirements.

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GJ

Staff Engineer at UbiNavi

Jan 11, 2019

Initial setup is easy and pretty standard.

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F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Cons review quotes

Network Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 13, 2016

I would like F5 to incorporate the ability to create your own custom roles and customised permissions within the product set. I have seen many customers wanting to give a certain level of access for the purposes of out-of-hours servicing to out-of-hours staff or teams that fulfill an operations type role.

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GV

Architect - Cloud Serviced at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 14, 2017

Bugs are the part of program and they are fixed with every release, as with any vendor.

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Team Leader Mainframe & Webservices at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Sep 19, 2016

The ASM administration is quite complex. The topic itself is pretty complex, so it is not easy to provide a nice, clean interface. There are a lot of references and dependencies in-between the different subareas.

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F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

879,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Solution Architect/Application Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 28, 2016

Not everything is intuitive.

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Sr. Network Engineer at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 10, 2017

Fixing bugs.

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Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 10, 2017

I think the logging could be improved.

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Games, Apps and Web Developer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 31, 2017

Security and Reporting.

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SG

Director Technology Solutions with 11-50 employees

Aug 2, 2018

Implementing whitepapers with a lot more applications could easily be added.

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Technical Product Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Sep 13, 2018

The one gap I saw was that pure LBN integration is a little tricky. The insertion of F5 in LBN is a little tricky. They need to work on something, on products by which they can insert F5 in any sort of cloud environment.

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GJ

Staff Engineer at UbiNavi

Jan 11, 2019

Performance: Using the product, applications are jittery.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 108)

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