Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) comparison

Barracuda Networks and F5 are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while F5 is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. Barracuda Networks holds a 1.3% mindshare in ADC, compared to F5’s 15.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of F5 users who would recommend it.

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Read 5 Barracuda Load Balancer ADC reviews

540 Views
455 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Read 120 F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) reviews

7,233 Views
6,001 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager LTM and Barracuda Load Balancer ADC compete in network traffic management. F5 BIG-IP LTM has an advantage in scalability and traffic control, while Barracuda Load Balancer ADC is better for integration and cost.

Features: F5 BIG-IP LTM offers advanced load balancing, SSL offloading, and intricate traffic shaping. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC provides simplified load balancing, traffic management, and a user-friendly interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 BIG-IP LTM has a complex deployment needing specialized expertise but benefits from robust support and extensive documentation. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC features streamlined deployment for quick setup and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP LTM generally has a higher setup cost but delivers substantial long-term ROI. Barracuda Load Balancer ADC offers a cost-effective setup and rapid ROI, appealing to businesses seeking value with lower initial costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

January 2025

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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

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

120

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of Barracuda Load Balancer ADC is 1.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is 15.4%, down from 15.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

Roni Wijaya

Vice President of It Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

A simple and powerful solution with WAF feature

The solution is simple and powerful. I find the Barracuda Load Balancer ADC's load balancing function most valuable. It balances the traffic well. The security features, like the Web Application Firewall, are also very helpful. I use the SSL offloading feature too. It's very helpful because it prevents overload. Our application runs on HTTP, but we upload HTTPS on the load balancer. This means there are no performance issues. I think it's very helpful.

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Mahmoud-Yassin

Head of IT Infrastructure and Security Operations at United Arab Bank

You can fully automate disaster recovery

LTM's cloud capabilities could be improved. Cloud providers all offer load balancing, but you can't get the same level of security. F5's cloud service is still not on par with its on-prem service. F5 acquired multiple companies a few years ago, but they still haven't integrated those solutions. For example, F5 acquired Shape Security, which had an excellent solution for detecting bots and automated login attacks, but F5 offers the solution in an inflexible way. It is only available as a cloud-based solution. It isn't zone-based. Some companies are restricted from sending financial data outside the country because of GDPR in Europe or other national regulations. Here in the UAE, we can't send host data out.

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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

"The solution is simple and powerful. I find the Barracuda Load Balancer ADC's load balancing function most valuable. It balances the traffic well. The security features, like the Web Application Firewall, are also very helpful."

"I would rate the stability of Barracuda Load Balancer as a ten out of ten; it has high stability."

"Barracuda's technical support is good - whenever we have an issue, they immediately connect and resolve it."

"The price is very good, and it's not very expensive."

"The most useful features in Barracuda Load Balancer are its security capabilities, load balancing efficiency, and scalability."

"It is the perfect solution when you have high workloads in your IT environment."

"The most valuable feature is customization."

"One of the best features of the solution is the operating system."

"The configuration and integration into the AWS environment was pretty easy."

"The occasion in which we needed technical support, we didn't have problems with them, because they always answered our questions without any trouble."

"The most valuable feature of F5 BIG-IP LTM is brand image and recognition and the application delivery controller."

"It supports APIs and virtual additions for cloud and VMware."

"The solution has good load balancing capabilities."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros

Cons

"There are areas of Barracuda Load Balancer's security that have room for improvement, particularly concerning handling traffic."

"Load Balancer ADC is competitively priced, but it's not feature-rich, and its technology is not that advanced."

"The quality of the solution's performance could be improved."

"The Barracuda Load Balancer ADC could be improved with more customization features. For example, F5 uses iRules for custom configurations. I haven't found something similar in Barracuda yet. The load balancer and WAF's basic and common features are enough, but we need more customization options."

"The deployment can take some time because you can do a lot of configuring to meet the needs of the use cases for clients."

"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."

"Reporting could be improved and configuration made easier."

"My only point of contention would be that it is a little pricey."

"Technical support could be faster. It's something I'd like to see them work on in the future."

"Currently, the product offers everything we need. I can't recall any features that may be lacking."

"F5 has another solution to load balance servers on the cloud, which they got after the purchase of NGINX. It is deployed as Kubernetes or something like that, but the problem now is that they have two solutions for two situations. They should make F5 deployable on the cloud."

"To improve the product, they could add more load balancing solutions in Kubernetes."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

"Load Balancer ADC is cost-effective and is about half the price of F5."

"F5 is expensive."

"I use a yearly subscription, which is the most expensive one now compared to its competitors."

"It is the best solution, but that comes with an increased price."

"It is a bit expensive product. Kemp Loadmaster is much cheaper than F5. Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It can be for one year or three years."

"The price of the solution is sometimes expensive."

"LTM is a good product, but it's expensive. They should make it more competitive because cloud providers offer free load balancing. Cloud providers can't cover all the security aspects of F5, but you get a decent amount of security. Cloud environments are becoming the norm across the IT industry. Many of the larger companies that previously used on-prem infrastructure are switching to the cloud, so companies like Fortinet and Palo Alto are reducing their prices. Otherwise, they can't compete in the cloud."

"There are additional costs depending on what modules or what functionality is required."

"This is a high-priced tool. We pay for its license yearly."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Retailer

11%

Educational Organization

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC?

Pricing for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC can be a consideration. However, it offers good value with its cost-saving benefits and efficient operation, balancing the initial financial outlay.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda Load Balancer ADC?

There are areas of Barracuda Load Balancer's security that have room for improvement, particularly concerning handling traffic. Also, more could be done to enhance the initial setup, as it can be c...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC?

The typical use case for Barracuda Load Balancer ADC involves managing and distributing network traffic efficiently to maintain system performance. Clients use Barracuda Load Balancer ADC for its a...

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?

There are no specific areas for improvement as it is already well-resolved and doesn't require further enhancements.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP?

The primary use case includes load balancing to serve application servers and basic web application firewall solutions. Our customers use it for that purpose.

See all answers

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)?

The solution is robust and reliable.

See all answers

Comparisons

NetScaler vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 26% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 15% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 13% of the time

HAProxy vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 10% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs Barracuda Load Balancer ADC

Compared 9% of the time

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Fortinet FortiADC vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 19% of the time

NetScaler vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 2% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

January 2025

Download Barracuda Load Balancer ADC product report

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

February 2025

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) product report

Also Known As

Barracuda Load Balancer

F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP

Overview

Barracuda Load Balancer is ideal for organizations looking for a high-performance, yet cost-effective application delivery and security solution. With the broadest range of hardware and virtual models, Barracuda Load Balancer provides maximum flexibility for organizations looking to build highly secure and scalable application infrastructure, whether it's deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

Barracuda Networks

F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.

BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.

Sample Customers

Fenwal Blood Technologies

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

January 2025

Free Report: Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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