Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Secure Client (includ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (4th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (4th), ZTNA as a Service (8th), Cisco Security Portfolio (5th)
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) and F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) is designed for SSL VPN and holds a mindshare of 14.5%, up 13.3% compared to last year.
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM), on the other hand, focuses on Application Delivery Controllers (ADC), holds 15.4% mindshare, down 15.8% since last year.
SSL VPN
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

VinaySingh - PeerSpot reviewer
Connect securely from any location with reliable and easy multifactor authentication
Whenever I am away from the office, I use Cisco Secure Client to connect to the office network, accessing the secure network to place calls to our secure servers that are built on-premise. It is used across our domain, including telecom and app networks, primarily for IT connectivity across the…
Mahmoud-Yassin - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I like the ability to share the connections or simply to be able to pass the credentials for a connection to other colleagues without bothering too much about the connection being tracked or about security, because each and every user will require a secret password, so I don't really care about sending the details. It's very secure."
"For our company's needs, AnyConnect is sufficient and very easy to use."
"The solution is secure and has a lot of benefits."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client provides a secure way for users to access our systems remotely."
"What I like most about Cisco AnyConnect VPN is its reliability and stability."
"AnyConnect SMC's best features are that it's secure and connects seamlessly to clients' networks."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client is its ease of use and simple interface. It's always available as long as I have a good network connection."
"This is a stable solution."
"Great load balancing."
"It also has an AVR feature: application, visibility, and recording. It's good for customers looking for what is actually happening in their network and where the latency is."
"BIG-IP can do anything. It's like a Swiss Army knife."
"I think F5's tech support may be better than Citrix's because they mainly focus on the ADC product, but Citrix support covers Hypervisor, XenMobile, FAS, and ADC. And from my experience, sometimes, we face some issues that Citrix cannot handle."
"It has helped a lot to protect our organization from external attacks, especially XSS or XSRF types of attacks."
"Initial setup was straightforward. We were up and running in three hours."
"The detail that you have available when setting up iRules."
"I've worked a little bit with iRules and it is amazing."
 

Cons

"The logout should be automized and it should have a reminder that you have logged in into a private network."
"I would like a faster connection from the solution."
"I believe that the authentication component may be enhanced. SAML, more specifically user authentication."
"The solution's performance and stability are average."
"I think, in general, most of the applications are slow, but this is everyday stuff. I think this is more related to the link speed — the links, the lossage, etc."
"I haven't found there are any shortcomings in the product. For how I use it, it works well."
"Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client can be improved by having better speed and reliability. However, the speed and reliability are already really good."
"The setup could be simplified for solutions engineers with a wizard."
"I wouldn't recommend the tool to small companies, considering its high price and the infrastructure needs of small businesses."
"F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager is sometimes a bit cumbersome to deal with some builds, although that's gotten significantly better over the years."
"It would possibly help to get more training, even better in local languages."
"The synchronization does works fairly well. However, if I were to make changes, I would make it easier to start the sync process."
"The web interface could be better."
"The SharePoint SSO part has some room for improvement."
"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."
"There are some aspects of F5 BIG-IP that could be improved, the main one being virtual machine support. We have seen that even with the virtual editions, there are some things that we would like to do that are currently not possible with virtual machines."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It costs around 80,000 Indian rupees for a hundred licenses, so approximately $1,020 USD."
"One thing I've noticed is the price in comparison to other VPNs."
"We have yearly licensing and it's very affordable."
"We pay for an annual subscription. Additionally to the subscription, we thought in order to connect this solution to the Active Directory we had to purchase a Cisco ACS, Access Control System. It turns out we did not actually need it."
"The price is okay."
"The solution is based on an annual licensing model and is expensive."
"We are in the North African region, and Cisco products are expensive for us. On a scale from one to ten with one being very affordable and ten being expensive, I'd rate the price at eight."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"The cost is high for this product, so it's not suitable for small customers, e.g. those with small environments."
"I found F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) an expensive product. The costs would depend on the appliance and infrastructure size. However, my company didn't have to pay extra to use additional features."
"Check other vendors like Cisco, Citrix or A10 Networks. There are plenty in the market with which you can achieve same thing."
"Unless the price difference is large, this is not the primary concern for the product. The performance and product-related issues (secure for VPN, multi-function for network device, etc.) are the keys."
"The pricing is inclusive of many features."
"The only area that has room for improvement would be pricing, so its competitors do not have a say."
"There are additional costs depending on what modules or what functionality is required."
"F5 is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which SSL VPN solutions are best for your needs.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
50%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Government
4%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
The tool is user-friendly, robust and easy to use in any environment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
Cisco Secure Client is a reasonable solution in terms of cost. I wouldn't be aware of the specific pricing details, as my sales team would handle that.
What needs improvement with Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client?
Creating a profile for the users might be good. Additionally, if user authentication has already been done on a device, such as a Microsoft Indian portal, maybe there could be connectivity directly...
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.
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.
 

Also Known As

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MST, Molina Healthcare, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Arup, New South Wales Rural FireService
Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Ivanti, Citrix, Cisco and others in SSL VPN. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.