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F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NetScaler Web Application Firewall comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st)
NetScaler Web Application F...
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and NetScaler Web Application Firewall 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 15.3%, down 16.5% compared to last year.
NetScaler Web Application Firewall, on the other hand, focuses on Web Application Firewall (WAF), holds 1.0% mindshare, up 0.9% since last year.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Jun 3, 2024
Policies and machine learning are one of a kind, efficient, and provide minimal disturbance to the servers
From an ASM perspective, the most valuable feature was the DOS protection, SQL injection protection, bot protection, bot URLs, and many other features. There were a lot of good features. The most beneficial for maintaining server health included the algorithms for the virtual IP, which segment traffic between servers, authentication profiles, and many other things. The load-balancing capabilities have increased efficiency because servers can handle connection requests one at a time. There are no dropped connections, and the server health is always under the threshold. Moreover, AI enhances LTM's performance in network management. It made it much more secure and efficient by understanding normal traffic patterns and learning the behavior of traffic within the environment. Any suspicious traffic is captured and flagged.
YA
May 15, 2024
Affordable, provides advanced features, and protects applications
The solution is used for application security. We had many applications that external users accessed. We used it in the production environment. We have suspended it due to support issues. We used multi-layer security The product protected us from SQL injection. Citrix is good for application…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 capability is at a seven or eight out of ten."
"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."
"Along with load balancing, we perform a lot of packet inspections, URL rewriting, and SSL interceptions via iRule."
"In terms of stability, it is stable."
"It is a very good, flexible solution. It helps us to catch up on flaws in our partner solutions on top of its load balancing feature."
"The most valuable feature is customization."
"It integrates with AWS WAF, which makes it easy to deploy without changes to your infrastructure."
"Citrix Web App API Protection allows you to enable a blocking mode"
"We have good customer support."
"The solution's technical support is good."
"The solution can be configured very granularly and has good control over security."
"I prefer this solution because of its user-friendly interface. I find it simple and close to what I am currently using, which is Citrix Fortiva Access for Multi-Factor Authentication. I appreciate the familiar user interface and troubleshooting tools it offers."
"Citrix is good for application protection."
"The work balancing applications are the most valuable feature."
"When our primary link goes down I can still get to my Cisco devices and the NetScaler devices on-prem because of the SDN solution. If the internet connection at one of the branches goes down, we can still route them, they still get internet based on the SDN solution through one of the other sites. They can carry on working."
 

Cons

"The pricing of the product is a bit too high."
"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."
"The product is expensive."
"They need to improve the interface and some of the functionalities."
"BIG-IP LTM's sandboxing integration could be improved."
"An expensive solution for the minimal features we use."
"It would be good to have better traffic and better data. It would be nice to have more granularity to see packets in terms of the header details, the analytics, etc. It would be nice if that was also part of it and to have analytics added to the traffic."
"Logging is a bit of a problem. Logging and monitoring are only in plain text. You have to search and you have to know what you are searching for to find anything. So of course, monitoring and getting alerts for abnormal situations is hard. There are no tools for monitoring and alerts"
"An area for improvement in Citrix Web App and API Protection is for it to give real-time notifications and alerts. It would be practical if the solution warns you if there's an attack or if the load or traffic volume increases or decreases. An additional feature I'd like to see in Citrix Web App and API Protection is a prediction or artificial intelligence on what is happening, for example, attacks."
"I would like to enhance the solution's bot protection features."
"The configuration for its web application firewall is complicated."
"The reporting is not so good. They don't have an application to connect the logs."
"I am not an expert in this solution, but simplicity and user-friendly interfaces are crucial for me. I would appreciate advice from Citrix, particularly in the form of an interactive guide for API protection. It would be helpful if they could provide specific points and recommendations for cybersecurity, indicating areas that need attention or improvement. I find such interactive guidance valuable."
"The user interface could be more friendly. Some wizards and other documentation for administrators, as well as some use cases, helps us to understand the solution."
"Their upgrades are not very backward compatible, and sometimes they mess up."
"Citrix Web App and API Protection could improve in the area of licensing"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are a few licensing options available for F5 BIG-IP LTM. You can have a perpetual license which is a lifetime license. You then only need to renew the support, if you choose to open a ticket with the support."
"It's fair, it's not too expensive. Maybe just a little high."
"Though functionality is high, its cost can be considered slightly higher than its competitors​."
"The cost is high for this product, so it's not suitable for small customers, e.g. those with small environments."
"It is a bit expensive product. Kemp Loadmaster is much cheaper than F5. Its licensing is on a yearly basis. It can be for one year or three years."
"Great product for the money. But they can get really expensive, so get what meets your needs."
"We have found the pricing and licensing on AWS to be competitive."
"The licensing model of F5 BIG-IP LTM is highly complex. The operation cost of the solution is high. The overall cost is high."
"For partners, NetScaler is not as expensive price-wise versus F5."
"The solution's pricing is very high compared to its competitors."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight or nine out of ten."
"In Turkey, everything is good, but it seems expensive for us due to the currency exchange. I don't have a specific rating scale, but if I had to rate the price, I would say it's around a six out of ten."
"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten since it is expensive."
"The tool is cheap."
"The solution is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"We have all the features and functions of Citrix because we have a premium license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
61%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP?
The support from F5 BIG-IP LTM is good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP?
There are a few licensing options available for F5 BIG-IP LTM. You can have a perpetual license which is a lifetime license. You then only need to renew the support, if you choose to open a ticket ...
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP?
In the LTM solution, it would be beneficial to have more algorithms for traffic segmentation or the ability to create user-defined algorithms rather than being restricted to predefined ones.
What do you like most about Citrix Web App and API Protection?
I prefer this solution because of its user-friendly interface. I find it simple and close to what I am currently using, which is Citrix Fortiva Access for Multi-Factor Authentication. I appreciate ...
What needs improvement with Citrix Web App and API Protection?
The solution's pricing is very high compared to its competitors. This is the only challenge I faced when I tried to sell the solution for VPN, L7 firewall, or GSLB solution. I would like to enhance...
 

Also Known As

F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
Citrix Web App and API Protection, Citrix Web App Firewall
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
NSS Labs, ICSA Labs
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs. NetScaler Web Application Firewall and other solutions. Updated: September 2020.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.