F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway compete in the application delivery and security market. Azure Application Gateway may have the upper hand for cloud integration and ease of use, while F5 is noted for its depth in customization and security.
Features: F5 BIG-IP LTM offers a robust web application firewall, iRules for traffic manipulation, and SSL VPN capabilities. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway provides integrated WAF, autoscaling, and URL-based routing within Azure’s ecosystem.
Room for Improvement: F5 BIG-IP users point to the high cost, dashboard usability, and need for improved virtual machine support. Azure Application Gateway users seek simpler configuration, enhanced multi-cloud capabilities, and lower costs.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 BIG-IP is primarily used on-premises and requires technical expertise for setup, with mixed support reviews. Azure Application Gateway is easier to deploy within Azure, though noted for rigidity in integrating outside Azure and some support challenges.
Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP LTM is costly but valued for secure application delivery, competing less effectively in smaller markets. Azure Application Gateway offers a competitive pay-as-you-go model within Azure, though still viewed as expensive compared to other cloud solutions.
The major return on investment is the security of our data.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway significantly impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance.
We have seen a return on investment in terms of time-saving and cost-saving by not creating our own infrastructure.
I would rate the technical support of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) nine out of ten.
There is room for improvement, specifically in paid support, by providing more direct contact.
I would rate Microsoft support as good because they have a very skilled technical support team in the background
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a very scalable product.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a scalable solution.
The stability is good, and except for a few instances, I don't see the non-availability of Azure Cloud services.
There is room for improvement in terms of support, such as assigning agents directly for more straightforward engagement.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has room for improvement because it offers many features, but its configuration is a bit difficult, at least from the developer point of view.
In future releases of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would like to see more AI functionalities and a better dashboard as well as some customizations.
The product is costly.
Azure solutions are quite expensive.
When it comes to pricing for Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would rate it a seven out of ten.
One of the most beneficial features of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is its ability to identify compromised traffic and its capabilities in authentication.
We are using it for some of the security features for our applications, particularly for securing traffic in transit with SSL.
The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats.
To address user load increases during peak times or special events, you can automatically identify these peak scenarios and configure either scaling up or down automatically based on certain parameters.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) | 15.9% |
| Microsoft Azure Application Gateway | 7.4% |
| Other | 76.7% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 62 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 31 |
| Large Enterprise | 84 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 23 |
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.
Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.
To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.
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.
