F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security comparison

The compared F5 and Imperva solutions aren't in the same category. F5 is ranked #2 in ADC , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 15.7% mindshare in the category. Imperva is ranked #2 in DS , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 30.4% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Imperva users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Read 120 F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) reviews

6,924 Views
5,761 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Imperva SecureSphere Databa...

Read 55 Imperva SecureSphere Database Security reviews

3,857 Views
2,472 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Imperva SecureSphere Databa...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Imperva SecureSphere Database Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetScaler, F5, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC).

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Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

March 2025

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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

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)

Imperva SecureSphere Databa...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database Security (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Imperva SecureSphere Database Security aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 15.7%, up 15.7% compared to last year.
Imperva SecureSphere Database Security, on the other hand, focuses on Database Security, holds 30.4% mindshare, down 32.1% since last year.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Database Security

Q&A Highlights

Madhav Karki

Network/System Engineer at NA

May 11, 2020

What is the performance parameter of Imperva X10K versus BIG-IP i2600?

Performance parameters if of Imperva X10K and BIG-IP i2600 may be checked in the following links: https://www.imperva.com/resources/datasheets/Imperva-DS-SECURESPHERE-APPLIANCE-Web092118-1.pdf https://www.f5.com/pdf/products/big-ip-platforms-datasheet.pdf One of the most important parameters being checked for both is their throughput and mutually they have 10G throughput.

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Featured Reviews

Mahmoud-Yassin

Head of IT Infrastructure and Security Operations at United Arab Bank

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.

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Andrew_Kampolo

Senior Manager at Zamtel (Zambia Telecommunications Company Limited)

The fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database

Imperva's most valuable features are ease of use and log correlation. I also like the ability to trace activity from the host machine to the server access, the user details, and the exact query that they executed. If a database administrator or application process executes a query on the database, people know exactly what was executed, including all the variables. For example, it will tell you how many rows they were trying to select on which table, and you get the OS information, network details, IPs, and the user. That fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature I found is iRules."

"It is an easy way to build application policies (graphical)."

"The most valuable features are DNS, APM, and ASM. Additionally, it is easy to use and you have a lot of flexibility to use the solution within a network."

"It has helped a lot to protect our organization from external attacks, especially XSS or XSRF types of attacks."

"The most valuable feature is the F5 LTM (Local Traffic Manager). This is the part of the product most organisations will be using most. It provides the core functionality to be able to load balance services and the means and the intelligence to be able to load balance based on advanced logic, e.g., TCL scripting."

"The Local Traffic Manager (LTM) provides a simple low balance and SSL decryption, in addition to some TCP parameters, for incoming and outgoing traffic to redirect appropriate traffic patterns to appropriate servers."

"It is stable."

"It integrates with AWS WAF, which makes it easy to deploy without changes to your infrastructure."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pros

"The solution provides significant benefits such as compliance and security. Its data risk analytics tool helps reduce numerous events to more manageable incidents."

"It has a very user-friendly interface that's very detailed."

"The cyber intelligence feature is the most valuable."

"The most valuable features of Imperva SecureSphere Database Security are vulnerability assessment, enrichment security policy, and security"

"The company focuses on and has a passion for security."

"Database reporting features are valuable to us."

"The product’s most valuable feature is real-time highlights."

"Flexible reporting allows for customization that keeps the admins from having to interact with system automation."

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security pros

Cons

"For a future release, I would like to see more features in the cloud."

"The solution is scalable."

"I wouldn't recommend the tool to small companies, considering its high price and the infrastructure needs of small businesses."

"An area for improvement in F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is that it's a high-priced product."

"The solution's hardware quality needs improvement."

"We need best-practice information. They have something called DevCentral and a blog. But we want something from F5 itself regarding how to tackle the false-positive configurations. If you go into detail with so many configurations it will find so many false positives from the moment it is enabled that it will quickly impact your applications, and it will not work."

"I would like them to have more flexible models."

"Native support for containers should be added to future releases, as this is the future of load balancing."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) cons

"The GUI is bad."

"It is quite expensive. I would prefer a lower price."

"Improvements can be made in data enrichment and enhancing the GUI (Graphical User Interface) for a better user experience."

"Imperva SecureSphere Database Security could improve the database defense feature called camouflage. This feature was responsible for the data mask but now it does not work well and we need another solution. All our banks have teams that are regarded with care and they need to mask sensitive data in order to provide testing to developers."

"Imperva needs to improve their cloud capabilities."

"There is sometimes lost communication and it can take a lot of troubleshooting to solve."

"The updates could be better."

"Performance can be slow under heavy loads, but this should be adjusted by scaling."

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing pricing seems relatively easy enough to get your head around. I would advise anyone to ensure that you have a conversation with an F5 consultant before purchasing, as you would with most products."

"It is a little pricey. I wish the pricing was cheaper, but I wish the pricing was cheaper for everything."

"Security should be involved in any base license. When you bring on F5, you only have default license. Then, the ASM product license has to be purchased. It would be great if F5 could include the ASM in the base license."

"Though functionality is high, its cost can be considered slightly higher than its competitors."

"F5 is more expensive than other solutions, so you have to be sure F5 is the best solution to fit the requirements."

"There are no additional fees to the standard licensing fee; everything is paid once."

"The cost is high for this product, so it's not suitable for small customers, e.g. those with small environments."

"It is the best solution, but that comes with an increased price."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) pricing and cost advice

"Its pricing could be cheaper for the African countries or developing economies. The British pound is valued way more than the currency of most African countries. A better or cheaper pricing model for Nigerian and African customers would be better. It has a per-year subscription model. You pay exactly for what you need. That's all. You don't have to buy what you don't need."

"The pricing is reasonable and competitive."

"This is an expensive solution and the price should be reduced."

"The product’s price is reasonable compared to other products."

"The product is expensive."

"Imperva SecureSphere Database Security was quite expensive several years ago, but now they provide a subscription plan for licensing. It is available now for smaller and medium-sized companies, not only large enterprises."

"It is quite expensive. We wanted it in my former organization, but the price was very high. So, we couldn't purchase it. I moved to a different organization, and this organization has purchased it."

"We have all the licenses, which we pay for annually. The price is a little high, but the product is good."

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

29%

Computer Software Company

14%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)?

The solution is robust and reliable.

See all answers

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

My recommendation is Imperva.

See all answers

How does IBM Guardium Data Protection compare with Imperva SecureSphere Database Security?

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is a solution for database security from IBM that gives complete visibility, control, and analysis to secure sensitive data and comply with regulations. IBM S...

See all answers

What do you like most about Imperva SecureSphere Database Security?

The tool's pricing is flexible and affordable for small and medium enterprises.

See all answers

Comparisons

Fortinet FortiADC vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 19% of the time

NetScaler vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 8% of the time

HAProxy vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 7% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Competitors

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 63% of the time

Oracle Audit Vault vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 21% of the time

DataSunrise Database Security vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 9% of the time

Trustwave DbProtect vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 5% of the time

jSonar vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

Compared 1% of the time

More Imperva SecureSphere Database Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

March 2025

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) product report

Buyer's Guide

Imperva SecureSphere Database Security

February 2025

Imperva SecureSphere Database Security report

Download Imperva SecureSphere Database Security product report

Also Known As

F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP

No data available

Overview

F5 BIG-IP LTM optimizes the speed and reliability of your apps via both network and application layers. Using real-time protocol and traffic management decisions based on app and server and connection management conditions, and TCP and content offloading, BIG-IP LTM dramatically improves application and infrastructure responsiveness. BIG-IP LTM's architecture includes protocol awareness to control traffic for the most important applications. BIG-IP LTM tracks the dynamic performance levels of servers and delivers SSL performance and visibility for inbound and outbound traffic, to protect the user experience by encrypting everything from the client to the server.

BIG-IP LTM provides enterprise-class Application Delivery Controller (ADC). You get granular layer 7 control, SSL offloading and acceleration capabilities, and advanced scaling technologies that deliver performance and reliability on-demand. The highly optimized TCP/IP stack combines TCP/IP techniques and improvements in the latest RFCs with extensions to minimize the effect of congestion and packet loss and recovery. Independent testing tools and customer experiences show LTM's TCP stack delivers up to a 2x performance gain for users and a 4x increase in bandwidth efficiency.

Imperva SecureSphere Database Security:

Audits all access to sensitive data.
Alerts or blocks database attacks and unauthorized activities, in real time.
Detects and virtually patches database vulnerabilities.
Identifies excessive user rights and dormant users, and enables a complete rights review cycle.
Accelerates incident response and forensics investigations with advanced analytics.

Imperva

Sample Customers

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.

BlueCross BlueShield, eHarmony, EMF Broadcasting, GE Healthcare, Metro Bank, The Motley Fool, Siemens

Buyer's Guide

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

March 2025

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