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AWS Shield vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and F5 are both solutions in the Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.8, while F5 is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 5.8% mindshare in DDOS, compared to F5’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of F5 users who would recommend it.
AWS Shield
Read 6 AWS Shield reviews
  • 3,030 Views
  • 2,557 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...
Read 22 F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) reviews
  • 771 Views
  • 393 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between AWS Shield and F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Report (Updated: October 2024).
Buyer's Guide
AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
October 2024
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Categories and Ranking

AWS Shield
Ranking in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...
Ranking in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection category, the mindshare of AWS Shield is 5.8%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is 1.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

SteveNg - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution automatically scales according to traffic, only takes minutes to deploy, and is maintenance-free
Ultimately, the cost of the solution goes up as we add features, but I believe over time AWS has been adding more frequently asked features. Depending on the website, if our website has more transactions, more sensitive information, and more value, then, of course, we need more features. For us, we only require basic information, a website, some custom consumer, end user, and front-facing purposes. We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need. The pricing of the solution can be improved.
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Richard Polyak - PeerSpot reviewer
Straightforward setup with very good granularity and performance
Our company uses the solution as a data center firewall.  It is hard to determine all users within our infrastructure. It depends on systems we put behind the solution. Its internal but also a data center firewall. Sometimes, there are hooks from the solution to our external infrastructure or…
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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

"We have integrated the tool with Active Directory. The most important feature is that it's transparent and doesn't degrade the performance of our solution. Additionally, it's easy to configure, which is crucial for us. It's easy to use and set up and stops attacks on our servers. We haven't encountered any attack problems because the solution stops them in real-time. AWS Shield specifically focuses on defending against denial-of-service attacks, making it a great solution for that type of threat."
"The solution's ease of use is the most valuable feature."
"The product is easy to use."
"It is integrated with AWS. So, it gives you a good first step."
"The product has a good mechanism to analyze trends and trigger events."
"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."
"The product’s most valuable features are LTM and WAF."
"The decryption is great."
"I find the signature base is very helpful to see traffic"
"The most valuable features of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) are the web gateway, load balancing, services, and applications available."
"The protection is very useful."
"This product excells in every aspect from installation and the interface to providing superior network security."
"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."
"We use the solution for load balancing and WAF (web application firewall)."
More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) pros
 

Cons

"The product should give users more flexibility to customize their security policies according to their requirements."
"The product is expensive."
"The time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced."
"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it. It could be improved in terms of architecture requirements and then ongoing support requirements as a secondary component to it. People tend to set up things like this, and they just expect it to work without the care and feeding that needs to go back into it either from an application team or a network environment team."
"The product needs to improve its logs and reports to make it read better."
"We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need."
"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."
"The solution's UI could be improved."
"We would have preferred to have support when we first started"
"The web gateway feature could improve in F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)."
"The solution doesn't really meet our requirements for an edge firewall."
"Some spam can go by the firewall."
"This would be absolutely the best network security solution if the price were not so high."
"F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager's pricing and technical support services need improvement."
More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."
"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."
"The tool's pricing is good."
"The tool is cheap."
"It depends on your subscription level and the volume that you're spending with AWS. So, it is very relative to the consumption alignment in your subscription level. It is a well-constructed, scalable pricing option, but it is relative to how much you're spending on AWS. Because the more you spend, typically, the more you get off on services like this. I find it to be comparable to other solutions."
"As per pricing, I would not say cheap, but little higher than cheap, but not very expensive. So you can say kind of value for money solutions."
"The price of F5 BIG-IP AFM is a little more expensive than other firewalls on the market."
"We have purchased a five-year licensing package for the product."
"The product is expensive."
"F5 BIG-IP AFM is an affordable solution. There were not any additional fees other than the standard licensing."
"It's very expensive, and you pay extra for the models."
"F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager is not an expensive solution."
"F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is an expensive solution. They are one of the best in the market, but the price could be cheaper."
More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) pricing and cost advice
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See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection solutions are best for your needs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
17%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
18%
Insurance Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Shield?
We have integrated the tool with Active Directory. The most important feature is that it's transparent and doesn't degrade the performance of our solution. Additionally, it's easy to configure, whi...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Shield?
The tool is cheap.
See all answers
What needs improvement with AWS Shield?
The time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced. The tool has a few parameters based on which it tries to understand anomalies. It would be better if the anomalies were identified quickly.
See all answers
What do you like most about F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
CGNAT is one of its strong areas.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
As per pricing, I would not say cheap, but little higher than cheap, but not very expensive. So you can say kind of value for money solutions.
See all answers
What needs improvement with F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
NGINX, which F5 purchased, has room for improvement in its features, particularly its load balancing or application load balancing features.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 26% of the time
Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield Logo
Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield
Compared 24% of the time
Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield Logo
Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield
Compared 6% of the time
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Arbor DDoS vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Logo
Arbor DDoS vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Compared 66% of the time
Radware DefensePro vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Logo
Radware DefensePro vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Compared 10% of the time
Cloudflare vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Logo
Cloudflare vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Compared 8% of the time
More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
AWS Shield
November 2024
AWS Shield reportDownload AWS Shield product report
Buyer's Guide
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
November 2024
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) reportDownload F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
F5 AFM, F5 Advanced Firewall Manager
 

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
F5
 

Overview

AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS. AWS Shield provides always-on detection and automatic inline mitigations that minimize application downtime and latency, so there is no need to engage AWS Support to benefit from DDoS protection.

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is a high-performance, full-proxy network security solution designed to protect networks and data centers against incoming threats that enter the network. Built on F5’s industry-leading BIG-IP hardware and software platforms, BIG-IP AFM provides a scalable platform that delivers the flexible performance and control needed to mitigate aggressive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and protocol attacks before they overwhelm and degrade applications and infrastructure availability.

For service providers, BIG-IP AFM IPS does even more, protecting the network edge and performing traffic inspection and protocol adherence for prevalent service provider protocols such as SS7, Diameter, HTTP/2, GTP, SCTP and SIP traffic coming into the network over UDP, TCP, and SCTP.

 

Sample Customers

netflix, dow jones, mapbox, pearson, rovio, youview, moviestar planet, asurion, payplug, hour of code
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Buyer's Guide
AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
October 2024
Free Report: AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
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816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) report.

We monitor all Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.