We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and SonicWall SMA based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two SSL VPN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The product allows us to create customized portals for your users."
"Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product."
"F5 BIG-IP APM is relatively easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"Our customers have never complained about the stability"
"The load balancing features are valuable."
"In my opinion, the GUI is perfect with the configuration options provided. F5 BIG-IP has given customization options and policy configuration tools in the GUI. It's good and good enough to work."
"What I like best about SonicWall SMA is the relationship between its features and its price, because the solution is both affordable and functional."
"I think they ask for a fair price."
"The solution is reliable and has good overall performance."
"It is faster than other security options when using remote connections."
"This solution has many options for remote desktop and access."
"I like the load balancing capability."
"The management and the dashboard are the solution's most valuable features."
"Secure Mobile Access (SMA) is easy to configure and the deployment is straightforward. However, this is mostly because of the AWS setup."
"Cloud services are something that F5 Access Policy Manager could do better"
"Integrating identity providers and single sign-on solutions can simplify user authentication and access control."
"I'd suggest improved documentation integration directly within the GUI. Right now, finding comprehensive documentation often requires going to external websites like the community portal."
"The operational deployment is not great."
"The technical support’s response time must be improved."
"The solution is quite costly."
"F5 BIG-IP APM disconnects when you leave it for long enough, but that is natural for IT solutions to do. That's a little bit frustrating."
"The solution’s GUI looks very old."
"The solution has 2FA, it will generate a token and send it to an email, but multifactor authentication is not available. I would suggest that there should be MFA integration and provided with the appliance."
"SonicWall's reporting isn't good. Reports should be part of a data plan. The login mechanism should be improved. It would be helpful if the client could use an agent to log in. An agent-server model would improve the performance of the RDB, which consumes a lot of bandwidth."
"The only thing that they could try to improve is the support for enterprise customers. Normally enterprises and SMBs can create a ticket, but for enterprises, SonicWall SMA needs to provide a global view, and this is what's currently missing. It's not even a question of timing. It's a question of the global vision because currently, it's lacking. They concentrate on the topic, but not on the means and not on the global picture. In most cases, there's something wrong with the integration of SonicWall SMA with other products, so that could also be improved."
"User interface could be improved."
"The timed synchronization between the network appliance needs improvement."
"The problem is that when combined with what the client already has, there are two different logins and two different management systems, and these should be consolidated into a single interface."
"This is an expensive solution and I think that the price could be improved."
"SonicWall SMA is difficult to use and it does not provide easy access to different parts of the network."
More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Pricing and Cost Advice →
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is ranked 4th in SSL VPN with 13 reviews while SonicWall SMA is ranked 5th in SSL VPN with 14 reviews. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is rated 8.2, while SonicWall SMA is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) writes " Facilitates packet inspection, modification, and offloading and offers visibility and troubleshooting capabilities, allowing for pre-production server testing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall SMA writes "It allows us to provide CML-based access to any user, but the reporting could be better". F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is most compared with Citrix Gateway, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine), Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and Ivanti Connect Secure, whereas SonicWall SMA is most compared with Fortinet FortiClient, Cisco SD-WAN, SonicWall Netextender, Peplink SpeedFusion and Ivanti Connect Secure. See our F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. SonicWall SMA report.
See our list of best SSL VPN vendors.
We monitor all SSL VPN 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.
