F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Kemp LoadMaster comparison

F5 and Progress Software are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. F5 is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Progress Software is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0. F5 holds a 15.4% mindshare in ADC, compared to Progress Software’s 7.5% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

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

7,233 Views
6,005 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Kemp LoadMaster

Read 49 Kemp LoadMaster reviews

4,931 Views
2,762 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...

Kemp LoadMaster

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Kemp LoadMaster are competitors in the application delivery controller market. F5 BIG-IP LTM generally has the upper hand due to its extensive feature set, despite higher costs, whereas Kemp LoadMaster stands out for affordability and simplicity.

Features: F5 BIG-IP LTM offers advanced load balancing, comprehensive application security, and customizable traffic management through iRules. Its reverse proxy architecture supports diverse environments, and it integrates with development environments like Eclipse and .NET. Kemp LoadMaster focuses on cost-effective solutions with templates for popular applications such as Exchange and SharePoint. It provides ease of deployment and features like SSL offloading, although it lacks the depth of customization available in F5.

Room for Improvement: F5 BIG-IP LTM is associated with high costs and complexity, requiring refined licensing processes for lower-end deployments. Enhancements in firmware quality and configuration simplicity are recommended. Kemp LoadMaster is competitively priced, yet its user interface and logging capabilities could be improved. Users seek better WAF capabilities and more customization options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both F5 BIG-IP LTM and Kemp LoadMaster support on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments. F5’s deployment is complex but backed by expert customer service. Kemp LoadMaster is easier to deploy and well-supported, suitable for less specialized IT environments.

Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP LTM is considered a premium product with high initial costs, offering a strong ROI in large-scale implementations. Kemp LoadMaster is more budget-friendly and provides quicker ROI with flexible licensing for straightforward use cases.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Kemp LoadMaster Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Kemp LoadMaster

January 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 838,713 peers since 2012

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...

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

120

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kemp LoadMaster

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

8th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is 15.4%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kemp LoadMaster is 7.5%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

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.

Read full review

PeterForster

Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

A highly stable and scalable load-balancing software that offers great technical support

My company is really happy with Kemp LoadMaster as a product. My company is also happy with the support we receive from Kemp LoadMaster. I want Kemp LoadMaster to provide users with better reporting capabilities in relation to TCP packets. In general, the connections that are present in the system require improvement. Feature-wise, Kemp LoadMaster has everything that our company's customers require. Kemp LoadMaster also has features that have supported our company's past projects.

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

"It provides first-tier firewalling, for you application. And it provides server load-balancing, it provides optimization, and it provides a proxy feature, where your users cannot directly access your server. It acts as a fully proxy architecture. It has client-side and server-side connections, both, and they're separate."

"It has made it a single entry point for all users, verging across all the VPCs. It is more of an SSO solution versus multitier user loggin."

"I like that F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is a product that comes with valuable features, but what stands out from all features is load balancing."

"One of the greatest things about F5 Load Balancer is that it provides additional capability for handling huge workloads and routing them to an SAP or non-SAP application. It is capable of supporting a large amount of user workload and application connectivity workload. This was the main reason why we chose F5."

"The BIG-IP’s interface is more intuitive than other GUIs. It is well structured, not overloaded, and does not have too many gimmicks."

"Our experience has been very good, in terms of performance, and securing our application infrastructure."

"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."

"It improves the overall performance of applications by decreasing the burden on servers associated with managing and maintaining applications and network sessions, as well as by performing application-specific tasks."

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

"Load-balancing is a great feature that is very easy to configure and it is always working fine."

"The most valuable feature that I found is the load balancing feature, it is the core function of the product."

"The security features, load balancing, built-in templates, and the easy to implement virtual IPs are great."

"The most valuable feature is the load balancing and allowing for high availability of our web services."

"I like that this is a Network Load Balancer that can be used practically with any application in the backend. They have how-to guides on how to set up Kemp NLB with Exchange, but you can use it as well for Sharepoint, RDS, or any other back end server."

"Edge Security Pack is valuable because of the way it separates between critical infrastructure and the public internet."

"Exchange load balancing and reverse proxy for Skype for Business are key features."

"LoadMaster is easy to deploy and understand."

More Kemp LoadMaster pros

Cons

"A lot of functions that are attributed to iRules can actually be simple profile changes. iRules do have a certain performance impact. Therefore, instead of writing simple iRules, they can create certain profiles for classes that will perform the same function."

"An expensive solution for the minimal features we use."

"The initial setup can be complex - it's quite flexible in terms of configuration, but the person configuring it needs to understand the application side, the network side, and the server."

"Security and Reporting."

"The solution could improve the documentation."

"A more intuitive interface would be helpful."

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

"They need to develop the reporting tools further."

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

"Although Kemp is very user-friendly, it lacks a more custom configuration."

"The only thing I have struggled with is setting up automatic backups."

"We have experienced at least one problem with stability, although it was fixed with an upgrade."

"So far, the only hitch we have run into is that would have been nice to have an easier method to add allow/whitelist entries into the Access Control lists for virtual services."

"There is room for improvement in the stability of the solution."

"Third, the password history restriction needs improvement. For example, the password policy will restrict the user to always use a unique password combination. The password should not be reused for a minimum of three generations of passwords."

"I really don't like the way the logs are presented in the software."

"I definitely think that the WAF can be improved."

More Kemp LoadMaster cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our company pays for the licensing cost on a yearly basis. Also, there are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

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

"The tool is a bit expensive."

"The pricing is inclusive of many features."

"It is quite expensive as a product. Because it is very stable, it is also expensive."

"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."

"F5 pricing is too high, compared to Citrix."

"The price should be reduced because it is expensive when compared to the competition."

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

"The price is great and the value is definitely there."

"The price is lower than other options."

"This product has good value and features for the money."

"From a cost perspective, Kemp is very competitive and is not hard to justify by any means."

"The pricing is alright and we pay a monthly licensing fee"

"At $2,500 USD, this is absolutely a fantastic buy for the money!"

"Less expensive than Citrix."

"It has a great price for the solution they offer."

More Kemp LoadMaster pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

65%

Computer Software Company

Government

University

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

What do you like most about Kemp LoadMaster?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten...I rate the technical support a ten out of ten...The initial setup of Kemp LoadMaster is very simple.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kemp LoadMaster?

LoadMaster is cheaper than some other solutions. It has a perpetual license, so it's a one-time cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kemp LoadMaster?

There are some challenges with updates on certain models that don't have a few features. The support team often takes a lot of time to provide resolutions for issues. Also, I could see more capabil...

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 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway 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 7% of the time

Loadbalancer.org vs F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Compared 2% of the time

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

HAProxy vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 20% of the time

NGINX Plus vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 18% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 16% of the time

NetScaler vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 6% of the time

More Kemp LoadMaster Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

February 2025

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) report

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

Buyer's Guide

Kemp LoadMaster

February 2025

Download Kemp LoadMaster 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

LoadMaster Load Balancer

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.

Kemp LoadMaster is a powerful load balancing solution that also serves as a web application firewall. Its primary use case is load balancing and application load balancing, making it an ideal solution for organizations that must distribute traffic across multiple servers. Kemp's integration with an active directory for ESP usage, hosting/deployment of SSL certificates, and pricing are some of its most valuable features.

Using Kemp has helped organizations mitigate cross-scripting vulnerabilities, cookie-related issues, and content security policy issues. It has also allowed them to handle everything with Kemp instead of working on each application individually.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

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

Kent County Council, KEMP, SMA Solar Technology AG, RT Player , Victrix (Quebec, Canada), Texas A&M, Macmillan Cancer Support, Cisco, Austin Bank

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Kemp LoadMaster

January 2025

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Kemp LoadMaster

Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Kemp LoadMaster and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. Kemp LoadMaster report.

See our list of best Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) vendors.

We monitor all Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.