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

AWS Shield

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...

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.

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

Download the complete report

Helped 814,649 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

AWS Shield

Ranking in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection

6th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

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

Number of Reviews

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

Head of Strategic Alliances at Quantum Security

Jan 23, 2023

The solution automatically scales according to traffic, only takes minutes to deploy, and is maintenance-free

The primary use case of the solution is firewall protection. Having a firewall is important for protecting our website from DDoS attacks. Just in case our services are running and we do get attacked, having a firewall can help keep our website alive The solution gives us a better sense of…

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Richard Polyak

Sr. Architect at NBC Universal

Dec 21, 2022

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

"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."

"The product is easy to use."

"It is integrated with AWS. So, it gives you a good first step."

"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 has a good mechanism to analyze trends and trigger events."

"The most valuable feature of F5 BIG-IP AFM is the iRules where I can customize the configuration."

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

"CGNAT is one of its strong areas."

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

"The decryption is great."

"The web application firewall has been very helpful. We purchased F5 when we were migrating our applications to the cloud."

"We use the solution for load balancing and WAF (web application firewall)."

"The solution is very straightforward. The usability is great."

More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) pros

Cons

"The product needs to improve its logs and reports to make it read better."

"The product should give users more flexibility to customize their security policies according to their requirements."

"We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need."

"The product is expensive."

"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 time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced."

"NGINX, which F5 purchased, has room for improvement in its features, particularly its load balancing or application load balancing features."

"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."

"It doesn't compare to next generation firewalls"

"Some spam can go by the firewall."

"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."

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

"The product is expensive."

"F5 BIG-IP AFM can improve the reporting interface in relation to advanced troubleshooting depending on CLI. They should have enhanced troubleshooting with the use of GUI."

More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is good."

"The tool is cheap."

"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."

"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."

"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."

"F5 BIG-IP AFM is an affordable solution. There were not any additional fees other than the standard licensing."

"The product is expensive."

"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."

"It's very expensive, and you pay extra for the models."

"F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager is not an expensive solution."

"We have purchased a five-year licensing package for the product."

"We need to pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution."

"The price of F5 BIG-IP AFM is a little more expensive than other firewalls on the market."

More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) pricing and cost advice

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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814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

18%

Insurance Company

Government

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

Cloudflare vs AWS Shield

Compared 28% of the time

Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform vs AWS Shield

Compared 27% of the time

Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield

Compared 25% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield

Compared 6% of the time

Prolexic vs AWS Shield

Compared 3% of the time

More AWS Shield Competitors

Arbor DDoS vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

Compared 72% of the time

Radware DefensePro vs F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

Compared 10% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS Shield

November 2024

Download AWS Shield product report

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

November 2024

F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) report

Download 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)

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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814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our AWS Shield vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) report.

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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.