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F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs WSO2 Identity Server comparison

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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

iboss
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (12th), Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (4th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (8th), ZTNA as a Service (12th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (19th), Network Access Control (NAC) (8th), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (13th), Access Management (10th)
WSO2 Identity Server
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Secure Web Gateways (SWG)
Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless
One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured
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.
Clement Hsieh - PeerSpot reviewer
Supports API integrations with different systems
My company uses multi-factor authentication and we tried using it integrating with FIDO Server. It was done to make sure that the multi-factor authentication feature gets used during the authentication process. AI can be used for better authentication, but right now, our company has not used any such feature. I recommend the product to others. It is easy to install and easy to use. Understanding a feature before you integrate a tool with other tools is important. In my company, there is another team with five to six engineers that takes care of the support part of the tool. The product has helped me to meet my security management requirements as per ISO 7001. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."
"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."
"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."
"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."
"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."
"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"This is a product that is easy to install and integrate, and it is simple to use."
"Our customers have never complained about the stability"
"Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product."
"The portal access was very good."
"Our organization is small - a college with about 3,500 students. We use F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager to protect our site, especially from the Iranian attacks we faced last year. We restrict access to only inside the country."
"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."
"The performance of the solution is valuable."
"Comprehensive ecosystem."
"The product provides easy integration between API manager and IT server components."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"We use the solution for customer identity management, authenticating customers coming in through a web portal."
"I would rate the solution's stability eight or nine out of ten."
"The single sign-on procedure itself, as well as the ability to connect to external user sources such as Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP servers, are the solution's most valuable features."
"It's very easy to implement everything."
"The keystore feature has been most valuable for us."
 

Cons

"Its pricing could be better."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."
"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."
"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."
"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."
"The price of this product can be improved."
"F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager has room for improvement in integration with other products."
"The initial setup was complex."
"Cloud services are something that F5 Access Policy Manager could do better"
"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."
"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."
"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."
"This solution does not have BPM workflows already integrated, we had to integrate the BPM module externally. They do not provide full-featured auditing and certification modules out of the box."
"The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"I found the initial setup to be very complex."
"Sometimes working with the code is difficult because I search for documentation about the code and how to work with the code, which is where I believe they should improve, by providing some documentation on how to work with the code."
"The solution's licensing model could be more flexible, and pricing could be improved."
"The high availability architecture has to be improved."
"The solution could improve its development from a user perspective."
"There needs to be a good support model and easy-to-understand documentation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"
"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is very expensive."
"The tool is a little bit expensive."
"WSO2 Identity Server is not an expensive solution."
"They should bring in some good pricing models to host the marketplace."
"I rate the product price an eight out of ten. There is a need to pay more for the extra features provided by the solution."
"We have to take their support, but that is a minimal charge if I'm comparing it to other identity managers."
"At this time we are working with the open-source version."
"I have found the solutions license is priced competitively compared to others."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?
Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.
What needs improvement with iboss?
I have the same complaint about them that I have about other software companies. Sometimes when you call in support, ...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
We are a PreK-12 public school district, and we use iboss to filter internet content for our students at home and sta...
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 ...
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 cons...
What do you like most about WSO2 Identity Server?
The product provides easy integration between API manager and IT server components.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WSO2 Identity Server?
I rate the product price an eight out of ten. There is a need to pay more for the extra features provided by the solu...
What needs improvement with WSO2 Identity Server?
The solution's licensing model could be more flexible, and pricing could be improved.
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
F5 Access Policy Manager
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Nutanix, ELM, AlmavivA, BDigital, StubHub, M-creations, MedVision360
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks and others in Secure Web Gateways (SWG). Updated: December 2024.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.