Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) comparison

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

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Categories and Ranking

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Ranking in SSL VPN

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (9th)

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Ranking in SSL VPN

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (20th), Network Access Control (NAC) (7th), Remote Access (14th), Access Management (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Cisco IOS SSL VPN is 8.5%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 15.2%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

SSL VPN

Featured Reviews

Rupesh Kolhapurkar

Manager at Reliance Industries Ltd

Offers easy setup phase but needs to improve connectivity

For our company's remote workforce connectivity, the tool was very useful during the COVID-19 situation. In general, the VPN functionality offered by the product was very useful during the COVID-19 situation. In terms of the product's ability to secure third-party access, the tool works very well. The most valuable feature of the product in terms of network security stems from the fact that the tool provides access to the whole network, and even if users give access to some special applications, it is still really helpful. The clientless access feature is not available for clients. My company installed the product for its clients. If the product offers a clientless access feature, then it is okay and can be very helpful for our company. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. Cisco IOS SSL VPN is a reliable product. The product is very helpful for a work-from-home setup as the tool can be used to access our company's internal network, which Falls outside the network of our organization. I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

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Ashish Kumar Rai

Associate Network Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Offers remote access control, good GUI and easy to configure

I'd suggest improved documentation integration directly within the GUI. Right now, finding comprehensive documentation often requires going to external websites like the community portal. In the APM interface itself, they could add direct hyperlinks to relevant online documentation. This would provide easy access to admin guides and other resources when working within the GUI.

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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 feature I find most valuable, is the management portal."

"IOS is user-friendly and simple. You connect to a particular VPN, and that's it. You become seamless after that."

"It is very effective and I am satisfied with how it works and with its performance."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN is an easy-to-use and straightforward solution."

"It is highly scalable, speedy, and reliable."

"Stability-wise, it is a very good solution."

"The solution is very stable."

"The customer service and support are the best. When it comes to support, Cisco is the best vendor ever."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pros

"F5 BIG-IP APM is relatively easy to use."

"The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature."

"The product allows us to create customized portals for your users."

"In my opinion, the GUI is perfect with the configuration options provided. F5 BIG-IP has given customization options and policy configuration tools in the GUI. It's good and good enough to work."

"Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product."

"The performance of the solution is valuable."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"This is a product that is easy to install and integrate, and it is simple to use."

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) pros

Cons

"The high price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The system needs to be upgraded to replace the Token Authentication software, which will no longer be supported."

"The company sets the policies for the default location, and destination, which the VPN connects. If there is a problem with one of those locations, which happens sometimes when I travel I need to have an option to select a different available location. Currently, I am unable to see that from a user's point of view."

"The product costs a lot of money."

"The pricing is a stumbling block to scaling our utilization of Cisco products and we would prefer to use more of them."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN should add a sensor that can authenticate with a fingerprint instead of having to type the username and password every time."

"Cisco device management is quite difficult. They should work to simplify this."

"I have no notes in terms of areas of improvement."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN cons

"In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side."

"F5 BIG-IP APM disconnects when you leave it for long enough, but that is natural for IT solutions to do. That's a little bit frustrating."

"The technical support’s response time must be improved."

"I'd suggest improved documentation integration directly within the GUI. Right now, finding comprehensive documentation often requires going to external websites like the community portal."

"Regarding price, I'm not directly involved in purchasing, but our CIO thinks the product is very expensive. He's considering moving from the tool to Citrix NetScaler WAF because it's cheaper, and we already have Citrix for VDI. We got NetScaler almost free as part of our VDI deal. Three years ago, I convinced him to use the solution because it's better, but now, with budget constraints, he may want to switch."

"Integrating identity providers and single sign-on solutions can simplify user authentication and access control."

"We do not have knowledgeable support teams locally."

"The solution’s GUI looks very old."

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost of the solution is on a yearly basis, and it is expensive compared to other solutions in the market."

"It is an expensive product."

"My company makes payments on a quarterly basis to the vendor to cover the licensing costs attached to the product. Cisco IOS SSL VPN is an expensive product. There are no additional costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the product."

"There are no pricing programs for non-profit organizations and the product is otherwise expensive by comparison."

"FortiGate does not charge the client a licensing fee, although Cisco charges clients a couple of dollars per year for each license."

"The licensing fee is expensive."

"The platform is expensive."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable"

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pricing and cost advice

"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"

"The product is very expensive."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

See which vendors are best for you

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824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

The solution is pretty fast.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

It is an expensive product.

What needs improvement with Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

Sometimes, the product does not connect with the Wi-Fi. It usually does, but sometimes, if I'm using another Wi-Fi apart from my work Wi-Fi, it does not connect. It shows some error. If I have to w...

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

In my opinion, the GUI is perfect with the configuration options provided. F5 BIG-IP has given customization options and policy configuration tools in the GUI. It's good and good enough to work.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten.

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

Regarding price, I'm not directly involved in purchasing, but our CIO thinks the product is very expensive. He's considering moving from the tool to Citrix NetScaler WAF because it's cheaper, and w...

Ivanti Connect Secure vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Comparisons

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Zyxel VPN Client vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 15% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 13% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 13% of the time

OpenVPN Access Server vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 9% of the time

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN Competitors

Citrix Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 12% of the time

Ivanti Connect Secure vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 10% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 3% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Competitors

Product Reports

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Download Cisco IOS SSL VPN product report

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Download F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) product report

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Also Known As

Cisco SSL VPN

F5 Access Policy Manager

Learn More

Cisco

Overview

Cisco SSL VPN solutions help you easily and securely extend the network to users who have access to the Internet and a web browser. You can customize access and extend the reach of your corporate network to individuals based on their roles, including teleworker contractors and business partners.

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.

BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.

BIG-IP APM Benefits:

Ease of use
Flexibility
Ability to integrate with other systems
Security features
Granular access control
Responsive and helpful support team

BIG-IP APM Features:

Support for Identity Aware Proxy (IAP) enabling Zero Trust application access
Context-based authorization with dynamic L4/L7 ACLs
Integration with third-party MFA solutions
DTLS 2.0 mode for delivering and securing applications
SAML 2.0 identity federation support
Support for OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol
SSO support for classic authentication (Kerberos, header- based, etc.), credential caching, OAuth 2.0, SAML 2.0, and FIDO2 (U2F)
AAA server authentication and high-availability
Integration with leading IAM vendor products (Microsoft, Okta, Ping Identity)
BIG IP Edge Client and F5 Access integrate with VMware Horizon ONE (AirWatch), Microsoft Intune and IBM MaaS360
Risk-based access leveraging third-party UEBA and risk engines (HTTP Connector)

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.

Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."

Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."

Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.

Sample Customers

MST Systems

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)