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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager enhances security, reduces costs, improves efficiency, and offers significant ROI through automation and streamlined workflows.
Sentiment score
8.4
Organizations report 100% return on F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager, noting its effectiveness in saving time, money, and generating benefits.
During our quantitative analysis, we estimated potential savings of one to ten million dollars a year by using a PAM solution.
With other tools such as Okta where you have self-service for resetting your own passwords and things like that, the average savings is 12 minutes, which is six dollars for a password reset, and you can extrapolate that over your organization.
A strong identity and access management solution aids in navigating significant incident responses or breach situations.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
CyberArk's support is improving with knowledgeable staff, but faces challenges in response times and complex issue resolutions.
Sentiment score
7.3
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager receives mixed reviews for support, with timely solutions and communication being key concerns.
CyberArk has been exceptional in coming back to us with immediate responses.
It could be forever until you talk to someone who knows what they are doing.
They are helpful, but complex issues can take a long time to resolve, which can delay solutions for urgent customer issues.
Even if they respond, they don't update me with the process or what's going on.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager offers impressive scalability with horizontal and vertical growth, but requires careful architecture planning.
Sentiment score
8.0
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager offers scalable, adaptable access solutions for enterprises, supporting easy upgrades and minimal staff requirements.
The CPM can reportedly handle up to 50,000 accounts independently without issue.
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
They had 40,000 passwords in this one safe, and it was saving the last ten iterations of each password object. That means they had 400,000 password objects in this safe. They exceeded the limit.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is stable with minor issues, praised for robustness and high availability, improved by updates.
Sentiment score
7.8
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager is praised for stability and reliability, though some users note issues with LTM-related failovers.
Proper fine-tuning and expertise ensure the product performs well.
Overall, the stability of the solution is high.
It has a large customer base and positive feedback within my network.
Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.
 

Room For Improvement

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager requires UI updates, enhanced integrations, better performance, simplified deployment, and improved reporting and documentation.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager requires enhanced cloud integration, improved usability, better support, and advanced reporting and automation features.
They want everything to be on the cloud, but even in the SaaS version of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, they need to deploy some servers on-premises.
We cannot generate a plug-in for web-based applications.
If they want clients to move to the cloud, they need to support them in real-time.
If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.
 

Setup Cost

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is effective yet pricey, ideal for large enterprises but less suited for small businesses.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager is perceived as expensive, with simplified licensing but uncertain cloud pricing and extra fees.
CyberArk is expensive compared to other products I know.
CyberArk is comparatively expensive compared to other PAM solutions, such as Delinea, especially during renewal.
CyberArk's SaaS solution is particularly expensive.
 

Valuable Features

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager offers automated secure password management, real-time monitoring, compliance support, scalability, and extensive integration options.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager is valued for its robust security, scalability, customization, and user-friendly interface in infrastructure protection.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager helps ensure data privacy because we now know who is using which credentials and at what time.
It keeps a record of activities, allowing me to easily fetch screen recordings to detect any misuse and see who did what and what happened.
As a security professional, I have real-time visibility into ongoing sessions.
A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.
 

Categories and Ranking

CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
210
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (19th), Network Access Control (NAC) (8th), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (11th), Access Management (10th)
 

Featured Reviews

Lasantha Wijesinghe - PeerSpot reviewer
We have visibility and control through real-time user behavior analytics
It took us some time to realize its benefits because there was a learning curve for us. It took us about a year to get our heads around this product and start effectively using it. It is a journey. It takes at least five years for any company to make this product very useful and reach maturity. It is not only the product's fault. The company needs to have a vision, and the company culture needs to go with it. Senior leadership needs to support the vision. You need to have lots of ingredients for success. If everything is in place, you will see success after one year. In the first year, it is a struggle for everybody. My company was bought by a bigger company, and they were very new to privileged access management. Everybody was struggling. The advice I would give is to have a good vision for privileged access management. You need dedicated teams, senior management support, and proper company policies and standards before implementing the solution. Start building knowledge slowly and avoid jumping into the deep end without preparation. I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Manager a nine out of ten.
Ashish Kumar Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
34%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
I focus more on the technical side, but I hear customers say that if CyberArk was more affordable, they might have acquired more licenses. Some clients consider alternative solutions due to pricing...
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 needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?
Sometimes, if I erase or add a new agent in the policy, I can't go backwards, even if I haven't saved the access policy. I want the option to delete it, however, there's no option. I need to create...
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
F5 Access Policy Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.