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F5 BIG-IQ vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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-IQ
Ranking in Process Automation
27th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM BPM
Ranking in Process Automation
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (5th), Application Infrastructure (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IQ is 0.2%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 8.8%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Process Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Nikolay Dimitrov - PeerSpot reviewer
A central management system to manage and monitor a bunch of different BIG-IP devices
A new user should consider what they want to use F5 BIG-IQ. The solution can be used for configuration management or monitoring. The solution can also be used for configuration management and monitoring together. So, users have to select their use cases before choosing F5 BIG-IQ. When you have a lot of devices, you need to improve them. F5 BIG-IQ is a product for big companies with many F5 BIG-IP devices. You don't need the solution if you've got fewer devices, like 10 to 20 devices. F5 BIG-IQ has the ability to generate a lot of good statistics to troubleshoot latency issues with web applications. Overall, I rate the solution seven and a half out of ten.
Mohammed Almalki - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good case management and its integration with process design but there's a learning curve
If you're already an IBM shop with the necessary skills and personnel, then I would recommend using it. However, it requires a yearly investment. So, if you're prepared for that, then go for it. New users will need at least six months to get comfortable with IBM BPM, at least initially. So, there's a learning curve. Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. Two main reasons: the skillset required to manage it and its integration complexity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The backup, monitoring and logging are the best features."
"We use this solution on a daily basis, and it is very stable."
"Features like AFM, the gateway, and Global DNS are the coolest features that save work for us."
"The reporting feature is quite good."
"F5 BIG-IQ has always provided us with great support."
"The GUI is fine, at least from an engineer's perspective."
"The best aspect of the solution is that we can have everything integrated with a rather large capacity in order to personalize and configure specific rules."
"The most valuable features are load balancing and WAF."
"It is being able to see the process, and understanding what the process is versus having to bury it in code somewhere."
"Automating the whole workflow process to give our data steward the ability to take actions rapidly, and making sure we have all the data synced within the different platforms that we are using."
"The performance is fine."
"IBM BPM is both scalable and stable."
"The most valuable features come in the bundle, the design process, creating services, creating BPDs, creating coaches, and UI/UX."
"We have used a lot of out-of-the-box reporting on the process performance metrics. We have been able to make suggested changes to staff for this role or streamlining by eliminate some activities where people were not requiring a lot of work in the first place."
"It is efficient in reducing costs."
"It provides a very robust environment to build an integration framework or workflow patterns that we have. A lot of changes or modifications have been made to this solution over the past few years. The features that they have added this time have helped developers like us to work on the developmental environment and leverage all the capabilities of the tool. This is what I like about this solution."
 

Cons

"They could use YAML or JSON if they wanted to make it a little bit easier for us."
"F5 BIG-IQ is a complex solution, and it cannot manage everything related to BIG-IPs."
"The solution should improve pricing. It's expensive in comparison to other American solutions."
"There are a lot of scripts available on the internet for people who know how to use them, but with a graphical interface, it would be easier for new users."
"Integration with VAS is something that they need to work on."
"The solution's rSeries has been made free, and iSeries should be made free as well."
"I had trouble with high availability deployment in my environment."
"F5 BIG-IQ should improve by being a complete certificate management solution because currently, it is only for Venafi. Other automation platforms, should be added."
"Stability wavers. We have some opportunities for improvement in this space, especially as we approach our target volume of a million transactions a day. It is tough, because it is not necessarily the product. It is more around the platform and infrastructure to support it, so the connectivity to the database, web sessions, and reverse proxies in front of that."
"IBM BPM lacks openness, that is, the ability to become open for new options in terms of APIs, front-end development, and ecosystem. IBM BPM has been quite closed. One of the main improvements would be to somehow embed the rules engine into IBM BPM. Merging IBM BRMS and the rules engine with IBM BPM would be helpful. If there was some simpler way to define rules without having to put IBM BRMS on top of it, it would be good. It's something that we can get out of Camunda but not out of IBM BPM."
"Could increase vulnerability and security patches to make it more robust."
"Our developers are complaining that it's too complex to maintain."
"The initial setup process is complex for basic users."
"All our clients are changing to microservice and cloud service. However, BPM does not have a solution for microservice and cloud service."
"Importing and exporting between multiple environments is more difficult with other tools."
"Some of the features are not enough for my business. We need to build custom user management for the many end users affected by BPM."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is only one licensing fee for F5 BIG-IQ and everything is included in the price."
"F5 BIG-IQ is a cheap solution."
"I would like the product to be cheaper."
"Users have to pay an annual subscription fee for the solution's iSeries."
"We have a yearly licensing model. It is not expensive. There are no addition costs to the standard license."
"The solution is highly-priced."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
"The pricing is very high."
"It's expensive. All software is always extremely high. The manufacturing cost that we have compared to the selling cost, it's not like you're building a house or building a car. But putting that aside, considering that it's expensive, it's a lot of money. If you compare it with some of the other alternatives in the market, it's a similar price. For instance, if you compare it with Pegasystems, it's a similar price."
"Starting out with Express can also help reduce the cost for adopting the product."
"I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten."
"IBM BPM cannot be considered a cheaply priced product. IBM BPM is a really expensive product compared to other companies. One needs to opt for the perpetual licensing model offered by IBM."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IQ?
F5 BIG-IQ is a central management system for the BIG-IP.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IQ?
F5 BIG-IQ is a complex solution, and it cannot manage everything related to BIG-IPs. It's a little bit complex with respect to statistics gathering.
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
SAP is more expensive, but IBM BPM is very expensive. If a scale of one to ten is used, I would rate IBM BPM at nine in terms of pricing.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IQ vs. IBM BPM and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.