Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) comparison

Cisco and F5 are both solutions in the SSL VPN category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.7, while F5 is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2. Cisco holds a 9.6% mindshare in SV, compared to F5’s 12.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of F5 users who would recommend it.

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Read 48 Cisco IOS SSL VPN reviews

643 Views
361 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Read 17 F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) reviews

670 Views
546 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Cisco IOS SSL VPN and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) are both regarded for secure remote access, with F5 BIG-IP APM being favored for its superior functionalities, making it the better choice for complex solutions.

Features: Cisco IOS SSL VPN is known for its simplicity, stability, and comprehensive user-based authentication. Its strong encryption capabilities ensure secure remote access configurations that users find easy to set up and maintain. F5 BIG-IP APM is distinguished by its customization options, robust performance, and support for a broad range of authentication protocols, offering flexibility and efficient functionality.

Room for Improvement: Cisco's challenges include limited Radius-based user mapping, browser compatibility issues, high pricing, and complex configurations. F5 BIG-IP APM could improve its cloud services compatibility, enhance its GUI user experience, and simplify its setup for better integration and more competitive pricing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco IOS SSL VPN is primarily deployed in on-premises environments, appreciated for its supportive technical backing often delivered through local partners. F5 BIG-IP APM offers versatile deployment including hybrid and private clouds, though it could benefit from more integrated documentation access within its interface.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco IOS SSL VPN may have higher costs, but offers a robust ROI with bundled security features. F5 BIG-IP APM is seen as expensive but provides high value, likened to a premium purchase justified by its quality and reliability. Licensing has been simplified for both, although cost remains a critical factor.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

April 2025

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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

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Ranking in SSL VPN

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (9th)

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Ranking in SSL VPN

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (17th), Network Access Control (NAC) (8th), Remote Access (11th), Access Management (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Cisco IOS SSL VPN is 9.6%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 12.8%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

SSL VPN

Featured Reviews

Rupesh Kolhapurkar

Manager at Reliance Industries Ltd

Offers easy setup phase but needs to improve connectivity

For our company's remote workforce connectivity, the tool was very useful during the COVID-19 situation. In general, the VPN functionality offered by the product was very useful during the COVID-19 situation. In terms of the product's ability to secure third-party access, the tool works very well. The most valuable feature of the product in terms of network security stems from the fact that the tool provides access to the whole network, and even if users give access to some special applications, it is still really helpful. The clientless access feature is not available for clients. My company installed the product for its clients. If the product offers a clientless access feature, then it is okay and can be very helpful for our company. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. Cisco IOS SSL VPN is a reliable product. The product is very helpful for a work-from-home setup as the tool can be used to access our company's internal network, which Falls outside the network of our organization. I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

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Ashish Kumar Rai

Associate Network Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Offers remote access control, good GUI and easy to configure

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. In the APM interface itself, they could add direct hyperlinks to relevant online documentation. This would provide easy access to admin guides and other resources when working within the GUI.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN is stable, and once we connect, we don't face any issues and can do our work."

"It is stable."

"The product is very stable."

"The customer service and support are the best. When it comes to support, Cisco is the best vendor ever."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN provides fast connectivity and the option to connect through multiple servers."

"The product's setup phase was easy."

"It is very simple to use, and it allows me to get into the university's network from my home, which is very useful for me."

"The solution's environment is stable and doesn't get disconnected every now and then."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pros

"I rate the overall solution nine out of ten."

"Stickiness is the most valuable feature of the product."

"The performance of the solution is valuable."

"On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten."

"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."

"We have seen a return on investment from F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager. It provided access at a time when we didn't have it."

"A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on."

"The product allows us to create customized portals for your users."

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) pros

Cons

"The administration should be improved."

"The solution takes some time to log in because of some unavoidable security barriers, but it would be better if that could happen faster."

"The solution needs to integrate password-less technology so that you don't have to remember passwords each time that you log in, which is otherwise tedious. We should be able to log in as long as our system is connected to the internet."

"The product costs a lot of money."

"Cisco device management is quite difficult. They should work to simplify this."

"It would be helpful if Cisco IOS SSL VPN could help us set up devices on our iPads and phones."

"The Secure Plus Connect product could be improved with many enhancements in any price license, especially for licensing. Cisco could simplify the licensing; it could make it easier to order and use the features."

"The product's RPA tools need enhancement for simplified business process automation."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN cons

"The price of this product can be improved."

"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."

"I have had a lot of issues in the past few months with the agents, which was disappointing."

"The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5."

"Regarding price, I'm not directly involved in purchasing, but our CIO thinks the product is very expensive. He's considering moving from the tool to Citrix NetScaler WAF because it's cheaper, and we already have Citrix for VDI. We got NetScaler almost free as part of our VDI deal. Three years ago, I convinced him to use the solution because it's better, but now, with budget constraints, he may want to switch."

"If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great."

"In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side."

"Cloud services are something that F5 Access Policy Manager could do better"

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company makes payments on a quarterly basis to the vendor to cover the licensing costs attached to the product. Cisco IOS SSL VPN is an expensive product. There are no additional costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the product."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN comes with a cost-effective subscription."

"The solution is reasonably priced, and we have around 50% to 60% discounts from Cisco."

"The product costs less."

"FortiGate does not charge the client a licensing fee, although Cisco charges clients a couple of dollars per year for each license."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable"

"I would say it is a bit expensive, but I think it is worth the price."

"The licensing fee is expensive."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pricing and cost advice

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"

"The product is very expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Educational Organization

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

The solution is pretty fast.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

The pricing for Cisco IOS SSL VPN is based on per user. For more than one hundred users, it costs about $60 per seat.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

Compatibility can sometimes be a challenge. There have been issues with operating systems where newer updates cause problems with backward compatibility. For instance, Windows 11 ( /products/window...

See all answers

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability, akin to purchasing a Bentley as opposed to an Audi.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM ( /categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm-and-observability )) does not have a direction for SaaS. Most solutions focus more on remote access and acc...

See all answers

Comparisons

Ivanti Connect Secure vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 36% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 15% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 11% of the time

Zyxel VPN Client vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 10% of the time

OpenVPN Access Server vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 9% of the time

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN Competitors

Ivanti Connect Secure vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 10% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 9% of the time

BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 7% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 7% of the time

Netskope Next Gen Secure Web Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 3% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

May 2025

Download Cisco IOS SSL VPN product report

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

May 2025

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) product report

Also Known As

Cisco SSL VPN

F5 Access Policy Manager

Overview

Cisco SSL VPN solutions help you easily and securely extend the network to users who have access to the Internet and a web browser. You can customize access and extend the reach of your corporate network to individuals based on their roles, including teleworker contractors and business partners.

Cisco

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.

BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.

BIG-IP APM Benefits:

Ease of use
Flexibility
Ability to integrate with other systems
Security features
Granular access control
Responsive and helpful support team

BIG-IP APM Features:

Support for Identity Aware Proxy (IAP) enabling Zero Trust application access
Context-based authorization with dynamic L4/L7 ACLs
Integration with third-party MFA solutions
DTLS 2.0 mode for delivering and securing applications
SAML 2.0 identity federation support
Support for OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol
SSO support for classic authentication (Kerberos, header- based, etc.), credential caching, OAuth 2.0, SAML 2.0, and FIDO2 (U2F)
AAA server authentication and high-availability
Integration with leading IAM vendor products (Microsoft, Okta, Ping Identity)
BIG IP Edge Client and F5 Access integrate with VMware Horizon ONE (AirWatch), Microsoft Intune and IBM MaaS360
Risk-based access leveraging third-party UEBA and risk engines (HTTP Connector)

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.

Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."

Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."

Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.

Sample Customers

MST Systems

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

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