4.4/5
G2 rating
260+ reviews
Report
Should I Use F5, Inc.?
Unified delivery & security for applications, APIs, & AI workloads across any infrastructure, trusted by 85% of the Fortune 500. Secure your digital ecosystem.
Depends
DependsBuy only if you run complex, high-stakes apps at enterprise scale with dedicated network and security staff.
Fortune-500-grade app delivery and security — enterprise fit, expensive overkill for small teams.
Confidence: Medium
85%
Fortune 500 reach
Per F5's own claim
6,500
Employees
75 offices, 43 countries
1996
Founded
Seattle, WA
Ease of use
2
Guess: BIG-IP complexity; trial license friction reported
Feature depth
5
Broadest delivery plus security portfolio in category
Security posture
2
2025 nation-state breach; ongoing CVE advisories
Pros
- Trusted by 85% of the Fortune 500 per F5's own marketing¹
- Gartner MQ Leader; 4.4/5 G2 rating across 260+ reviews²
- Covers load balancing, WAF, API, and AI security plus NGINX¹
- Consumable on-demand via AWS Marketplace pay-as-you-go Virtual Edition⁶
- 30 years in market; ~6,500 employees across 43 countries10
Cons
Gotchas
- highNation-state actors (UNC5221) stole BIG-IP source code; CISA issued emergency directive ED 26-01.⁴
- high2025 supply-chain hack reportedly endangered 600,000+ internet-connected devices.⁵
- mediumSubscription VE licensing is self-serve, but enterprise deals stay opaque until quoted.⁷
- lowQuarterly plus out-of-band security notifications; budget patch windows for BIG-IP and NGINX.
Best for
- Large enterprises with dedicated NetSec teams
- Regulated industries like banking
- Hybrid multicloud app estates
- Consolidating WAF + API security
Not for
- Startups and small teams needing simple load balancing
- Anyone without BIG-IP-trained admins
- Simple sites wanting CDN or basic WAF
- Buyers wanting transparent self-serve pricing
Companies that use it
- University of Derby
- Paciolan
- Mirai
Pricing
BIG-IP VE (AWS)
Pay-as-you-go, hourly
- 10Gbps Virtual Edition on AWS Marketplace
- PAYG billing
BIG-IP VE Subscription
Quote-based
- Self-license VEs on-demand
- Enterprise sales negotiation
Trial license
Free
- LTM VM trial
- Approval reportedly slow
Security
High-risk: nation-state breach disclosed Oct 2025; steady CVE advisory stream since.
- Nation-state breach (disclosed Oct 2025)UNC5221 stole BIG-IP source code and vulnerability data; CISA directive followed; F5 filed SEC 8-K.⁴
- BIG-IP HTTP/2 vulnerability CVE-2026-59762Security advisory for HTTP/2 flaw in BIG-IP.
- NGINX Agent vulnerabilityOut-of-band security notification for NGINX Agent CVE.
What users say
Direct user reviews are scarce in public sources; employee sentiment is 77% positive across 175 reviews, while Reddit threads cite trial-licensing friction and breach fallout.
Alternatives
Compare F5, Inc. with each alternative.
NGINX (open source)
Free reverse proxy and load balancer; simpler, though F5 owns it
F5, Inc. vs NGINX (open source)AWS Elastic Load Balancing
Managed cloud load balancing; skip BIG-IP if AWS-native
Cloudflare
CDN, WAF, and DDoS protection without appliance overhead
HAProxy
Battle-tested open-source load balancer for smaller budgets
F5, Inc. vs HAProxyFull analysis
Based on ~20 public sources: SEC filings, F5 KB advisories, vendor comparisons, Reddit, and employee reviews.
Sources
- F5 homepagef5.comofficial
- F5 Advanced WAF comparison (G2 rating, founding year)primaryguard.comreview
- F5 8-K on security incidentsec.govsecurity
- Zscaler: F5 incident advisory (UNC5221)zscaler.comsecurity
- Cybersecurity Dive: supply-chain hack exposurecybersecuritydive.comnews
- BIG-IP VE on AWS Marketplaceaws.amazon.comofficial
official
- Reddit r/f5networks trial license threadreddit.comreview
- Comparably employee reviewscomparably.comreview
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