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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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

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Ranking in SSL VPN

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

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

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (17th), Network Access Control (NAC) (8th), Remote Access (10th), Access Management (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Cisco IOS SSL VPN is 8.5%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 13.3%, down from 16.8% 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

"Cisco certainly has a really strong support team."

"A reliable and stable solution for remote network access."

"The solution is very stable."

"It helps us access networks from anywhere."

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

"The user interface is user-friendly."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN provides fast connectivity and the option to connect through multiple servers."

"The product's setup phase was easy."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pros

"The load balancing features are valuable."

"We have seen a return on investment from F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager. It provided access at a time when we didn't have it."

"The tool is reliable and easy to configure."

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

"I rate the overall solution nine out of ten."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

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

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

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

Cons

"Improvements could be made in terms of connectivity for applications."

"The pricing needs to be better."

"The solution does not give us options if the connectivity to one server is not available."

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

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

"The performance could be improved."

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

"The configuration must be improved."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN cons

"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 operational deployment is not great."

"I have had a lot of issues in the past few months with the agents, which was disappointing."

"The initial setup was complex."

"The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5."

"The solution is quite costly."

"F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) does not have a direction for SaaS."

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

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."

"The platform is expensive."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN comes with a cost-effective subscription."

"The product costs less."

"It stands as the priciest solution available in the market."

"The solution is reasonably priced, and we have around 50% to 60% discounts from Cisco."

"The tool is expensive."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable"

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pricing and cost advice

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"

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

"The product is very expensive."

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848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

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?

The pricing for Cisco IOS SSL VPN is based on per user. For more than one hundred users, it costs about $60 per seat.

What needs improvement with Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

Compatibility can sometimes be a challenge. There have been issues with operating systems where newer updates cause problems with backward compatibility. For instance, Windows 11 ( /products/window...

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)?

F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability, akin to purchasing a Bentley as opposed to an Audi.

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

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM ( /categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm-and-observability )) does not have a direction for SaaS. Most solutions focus more on remote access and acc...

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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

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.

Cisco

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)