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A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
A10 Networks Thunder ADC enhances efficiency, offers cost savings, immediate ROI for some, and optimizes processes through task delegation.
Sentiment score
5.9
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition boosts ROI via improved performance, security, and cost savings, enhancing business growth and efficiency.
We do see a return on investment and cost reductions after the implementation of A10 Networks Thunder ADC.
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
Overall, I can say the ROI includes a twenty-five to thirty percent cost reduction, with some areas achieving forty percent cost reduction in our expenses.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There is a significant performance improvement in the website and website speed.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
With F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we have not faced any RMAs, which has made a positive operational impact.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
A10 Networks Thunder ADC tech support is praised for efficiency but may experience delays and limited staff for urgent issues.
Sentiment score
6.3
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition support is generally praised for its effectiveness and quick response, with some concerns about cost and consistency.
Their tech support is very responsible, and their response time is very low, providing superb support.
PM at Connex Information Technologies
The support we receive from the team is quite excellent.
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
I would rate the customer support on a scale of one to ten as a perfect ten based on all of the experience I have had so far.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
Customer support for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is excellent.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
F5 support is knowledgeable and helpful for complex LTM and ASM issues.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
A10 Networks Thunder ADC efficiently scales, supports extensive applications, and seamlessly manages cloud transitions without significant performance issues.
Sentiment score
6.6
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition excels in scalability, high availability, and resource adjustments, with minor limitations under extreme load.
It is the most scalable and reliable system.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Within ten minutes of time, we can scale and boot as many virtual machines as needed in the environment.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Being a virtual edition, we were able to scale resources such as CPU, memory, and throughput based on our demand without major architectural changes.
Network Security Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
A10 Networks Thunder ADC is reliable, handling high loads efficiently, with minimal downtime and user-reported satisfaction.
Sentiment score
8.4
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition offers improved performance, stability, and reliability, despite challenges with high traffic loads and system dependencies.
In some of our deployments of A10 Networks Thunder ADC, we have employed DDoS and other security features, and for the past few years, we haven't experienced any major incidents.
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
The load balancing module still performed admirably.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
The performance increased significantly and the response times of the application improved.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The uptime improvements with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition are almost close to 100%, as it only goes down if a failover happens.
Senior Network & Security Administrator at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

A10 Networks Thunder ADC requires improvements in UI, cloud support, automation, pricing, diagnostics, logging, and security features.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition needs better performance, easier pricing, modern GUI, enhanced security, and improved load handling and training.
In the vThunder series of A10 Networks Thunder ADC, they have a perpetual license model and a subscription model, but in the Thunder series, the physical appliance does not have a perpetual license model, mainly operating on the subscription model.
PM at Connex Information Technologies
In future updates, I would like to see better speed in the features of A10 Networks Thunder ADC.
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
The primary concern I noted regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is its scalability during high-load situations.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
It is a somewhat expensive solution, and the price needs to be improved based on what our customers have told us.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
With FortiWeb, we have a dashboard where I can check the policy status with just one click, and everything is easily accessible.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find A10 Networks Thunder ADC cost-effective with competitive pricing, offering savings despite higher optional feature costs.
F5 BIG-IP VE's high costs are offset by its scalability and performance, providing strong ROI despite complex licensing.
I estimate that I can save around 20 to 30 percent of my budget with A10 Networks Thunder ADC.
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's pricing structure was significantly more advantageous and aligned with our budgetary considerations.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing and setup costs for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition was mixed, as they do not have an option for 10 gig licensing, which was costly for us.
Analyst at Accenture
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition solves a very significant problem of high availability and performance.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
 

Valuable Features

A10 Networks Thunder ADC provides flexible traffic management, advanced security features, and enhances performance with cost-effective, all-inclusive licensing.
F5 BIG-IP VE enhances application delivery, load balancing, and security with integrated modules, boosting performance, uptime, and user efficiency.
Application load balancing in A10 Networks Thunder ADC plays a crucial role in improving application reliability during peak periods.
PM at Connex Information Technologies
I would assess A10 Networks Thunder ADC's load balancing for improving application reliability during peak periods at around 9 out of 10, as GSLB is far better, and we are very satisfied with it.
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition helped our customers increase the high availability and performance of their applications, specifically their web applications.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
If ten thousand, fifty thousand, or even a million people want to access the application simultaneously, we have configured auto-scalability.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has impacted my organization positively with cost savings by saving public IP addresses, and its performance and stability, which give almost 100% uptime for the application because we have high availability.
Senior Network & Security Administrator at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

A10 Networks Thunder ADC
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
7th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of A10 Networks Thunder ADC is 5.4%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is 0.9%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition0.9%
A10 Networks Thunder ADC5.4%
Other93.7%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

NC
Head Of Technical And Network Security at Connex Information Technologies
Global load balancing has improved reliability and currently reduces latency across multi-cloud
I have experience with AWS, and I also have experience with both AWS and Azure, and sometimes GCP as well. We utilize multi-cloud support with A10 Networks Thunder ADC. We have customers utilizing A10 Networks Thunder ADC in the public cloud as well. I didn't technically involve myself with analytics in A10 Networks Thunder ADC because I haven't been involved in that part in the past few years. According to my team, the analytics tools are quite prominent, so there are no issues there. We have a distributorship with A10 Networks and are considered a partner. I would rate this review 9 out of 10.
reviewer2800392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud deployment has simplified traffic distribution and now supports flexible multi-zone DR
Regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's improvement areas, the current dashboard is very useful, but I believe the registration process should be simplified in the virtual edition. Especially in the Azure environment, many features are not currently aligned and working with Azure. We need to make efforts to ensure it is well integrated with Azure. Currently, if we want to integrate route tables with the virtual F5 edition, we need to deploy scripting inside the virtual F5 instances, and then that script performs the virtual IP route table changes in the Azure environment. This feature should be auto-configured, and efforts are needed to ensure the virtual edition is very much aligned with the Azure environment. I am expecting this improvement in the next edition. The failover capability is also not as good as it should be. We have tested the failover functionality, and sometimes we have observed that failover fails. F5 does not successfully fail over to other instances perfectly, so that also needs to be improved. Security should also be enhanced, as in the past I have seen some security loopholes. Tightening of security should be included in the new software. These improvements should be present in near future editions.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would recommend A10 Networks due that it delivers high performance in a small form factor to reduce OPEX with significantly lower power usage, rack space, and cooling requirements compared to oth...
Do you recommend A10 Networks Thunder ADC?
I do recommend A10 Networks Thunder ADC. It's very user-friendly, easy to configure, and flexible. It is a very useful solution - especially now, when a lot of employees are working remotely. I hav...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for A10 Networks Thunder ADC?
I estimate that I can save around 20 to 30 percent of my budget with A10 Networks Thunder ADC, though it's not an exact figure.
What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
Improvements for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition should include training for newcomers. If they are not aware, it can be beneficial for them to learn. In authentication, there is currently a single metho...
What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
I would definitely recommend F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition to others so they can opt for this option.
 

Also Known As

Thunder ADC, AX Series
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

123inkt.nl, Bentley University, Box, Brainshark, Buienradar, Capgemini, CGN/LSN & NAT64, Chengdu Telecom, Club One, Code Ready, CRC Health Group, Cyso, Deutsche Telekom, Earth Class Mail, Excite, FFF Enterprises, Florence County, Framingham State University, From30
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about A10 Networks Thunder ADC vs. F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.