F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about F5, Citrix, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC).
To learn more, read our detailed Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The product is quite flexible.""The solution is easy to install. It's a straightforward process.""We like the capability to combine the content switching with the intrusion prevention and adding the security roles, so we can expose certain sub-pieces outside without exposing everything.""NetFlow balancing and traffic balancing are good features.""There is a lot of documentation available.""We use F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to balance traffic.""It supports APIs and virtual additions for cloud and VMware.""F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager is a stable and reliable solution."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Pros →

"The product's most valuable feature is its ability to set up the rules easily.""When configuring a web application firewall using Signal Sciences, we configure a rule whereby no one except a few people can access the application."

More The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Pros →

Cons
"The initial setup can take a long time.""Needs to provide a visual interface to follow a customer's activity (from client to BIG-IP to SNAT IP to the chosen server, then back). Today, we are still performing packet captures.""The GUI needs improvement.""F5 BIG-IP LTM can improve on the SSL loading which includes the authentication of certificates. Although, most of these issues have been solved there are still some issue that persists.""This is a very expensive solution.""There is a need for a more modular version to concentrate on the current monolithic structure of both the virtual and hardware versions.""To improve the product, they could add more load balancing solutions in Kubernetes.""BIG-IP LTM's sandboxing integration could be improved."

More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Cons →

"The areas that could be improved in Signal Sciences include the effectiveness of rules, as many didn't function optimally and required custom rule-writing to address bypasses for WAF.""Even if we create some custom rules, Signal Sciences cannot capture some of the malicious traffic."

More The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Though functionality is high, its cost can be considered slightly higher than its competitors​."
  • "The licensing pricing seems relatively easy enough to get your head around. I would advise anyone to ensure that you have a conversation with an F5 consultant before purchasing, as you would with most products."
  • "Take a look at the modules that you are going to use. Look into the best bundles for them."
  • "The only area that has room for improvement would be pricing, so its competitors do not have a say."
  • "If your IT budget is good, go for it."
  • "This product is costly from a licensing perspective considering its competitors."
  • "Check other vendors like Cisco, Citrix or A10 Networks. There are plenty in the market with which you can achieve same thing."
  • "Great product for the money. But they can get really expensive, so get what meets your needs."
  • More F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Signal Sciences is pretty cheap compared to other solutions."
  • "The product has an affordable cost."
  • More The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The support from F5 BIG-IP LTM is good.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:The pricing must be more flexible. We get billed for firewalls based on the usage. It will be helpful if the solution provides such flexibility.
    Top Answer:The product's most valuable feature is its ability to set up the rules easily.
    Top Answer:The areas that could be improved in Signal Sciences include the effectiveness of rules, as many didn't function optimally and required custom rule-writing to address bypasses for WAF. Additionally… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    10,717
    Comparisons
    8,912
    Reviews
    30
    Average Words per Review
    483
    Rating
    8.3
    Views
    881
    Comparisons
    659
    Reviews
    2
    Average Words per Review
    504
    Rating
    7.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    F5 BIG-IP, BIG-IP LTM, F5 ASM, Viprion, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition , Crescendo Networks Application Delivery Controller, BIG IP
    Signal Sciences Next-Gen WAF, Signal Sciences RASP
    Learn More
    Fastly
    Video Not Available
    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.

    The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) provides web application and API protection, RASP, rate limiting, bot protection and DDoS purpose built to eliminate the challenges of legacy WAF.

    Sample Customers
    Riken, TransUnion, Tepco Systems Administration, Daejeon University, G&T Bank, Danamon, CyberAgent Inc.
    Chef, Adobe, Datadog, Etsy, GrubHub, Vimeo, SendGrid, Under Armour, Duo, AppNexus
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider20%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Media Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization23%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Healthcare Company8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise68%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise50%
    Buyer's Guide
    Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about F5, Citrix, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC). Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is ranked 1st in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) with 116 reviews while The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is ranked 24th in Web Application Firewall (WAF) with 2 reviews. F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is rated 8.2, while The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is rated 7.0. The top reviewer of F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) writes "Helps deliver applications to users in a reliable, secure, and optimized way". On the other hand, the top reviewer of The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) writes "A good solution to implement web application firewall for applications". F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is most compared with Citrix NetScaler, Fortinet FortiADC, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, NGINX Plus and HAProxy, whereas The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is most compared with AWS WAF, Cloudflare, Akamai App and API Protector, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway and Imperva Web Application Firewall.

    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.