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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
7.0
Citrix Gateway boosts financial gain by enhancing security, effectiveness varies by business model and deployment, offering server protection.
Sentiment score
8.0
Organizations experience significant ROI from F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager through cost savings, security improvements, and critical access availability.
Citrix Gateway secures our environment from potential threats, which can save substantial financial resources, especially in preventing data breaches or ransomware attacks.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Citrix Gateway's support is mixed, with users praising responsiveness but noting long wait times and insufficient expertise.
Sentiment score
7.8
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager support is professional and helpful, but users suggest improved response times and communication.
While there are multiple support tiers with priority response times of around 30 minutes, there appears to be a limitation in the number of technical teams who can immediately understand and resolve issues.
Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.
Even if they respond, they don't update me with the process or what's going on.
F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Citrix Gateway is highly scalable, supporting various deployments, though some users report challenges and suggest scalability improvements.
Sentiment score
7.8
F5 BIG-IP APM offers high scalability and usability for enterprises, with straightforward scaling and valuable traffic analysis tools.
The solution features high availability, supporting both active-passive and active-active deployments to ensure constant product availability.
I believe that the scalability of Citrix Gateway depends on the project's requirements, as it can vary from simple load balancing to extensive Web Application Firewall implementations.
The product's flexibility and company culture contribute to resolving these challenges.
I would rate the scalability of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) between seven and eight.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Citrix Gateway is generally stable with high ratings, though occasional setup or update issues can affect trust.
Sentiment score
8.0
F5 BIG-IP APM is highly rated for stability, enabling reliable remote work despite minor log issues.
I find Citrix products to be very stable.
On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten.
Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.
 

Room For Improvement

Citrix Gateway needs improved user-friendliness, integration, training, security, support, pricing, setup, speed, and analytics features.
F5 BIG-IP APM needs improvements in usability, integration, documentation, reporting, and support to enhance cloud integration and competitiveness.
The main purpose of Citrix Gateway is to enforce the appropriate level of access to the correct user on the proper device under the correct conditions.
At this time it costs 35% more than other solutions.
If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.
The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) does not have a direction for SaaS.
 

Setup Cost

Citrix Gateway offers diverse licensing with high pricing, regarded as a premium solution, but regional cost varies.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager is costly but valued for its reliability; licensing is simplified, though cloud costs vary.
I consider Citrix Gateway to be an expensive solution, generally ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 yearly, depending on the model.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
 

Valuable Features

Citrix Gateway provides seamless app support, security features, scalability, and deployment flexibility, enhancing accessibility and performance for organizations.
F5 BIG-IP APM offers a robust, scalable platform with secure remote access, customization, and easy integration, ideal for corporate environments.
The product effectively helps me protect the organization's network from potential threats, thereby securing our environment from hackers and ransomware attacks.
It's easy to scale and easy to implement.
Secure SaaS access is particularly valuable as it ensures that SaaS-based applications are delivered securely.
APM is quite flexible for customers to use, providing secure remote access through various host-checking conditions for both machines and users.
It provides robust security and offers integration with multi-factor authentication systems, which is crucial for an organization's security policy.
A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix Gateway
Ranking in SSL VPN
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Universal Access Gateways (1st), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (10th)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Ranking in SSL VPN
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (17th), Network Access Control (NAC) (7th), Remote Access (10th), Access Management (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Citrix Gateway is 14.6%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 12.5%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
SSL VPN
 

Featured Reviews

VivekKumar10 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables secure remote access and load balancing with enhanced protection features
I find Citrix Gateway valuable for its capabilities as a reverse proxy, providing security to applications exposed to the Internet. Key features include load balancing, dual-factor authentication, clientless VPN, and Web Application Firewall (WAF). The product effectively helps me protect the organization's network from potential threats, thereby securing our environment from hackers and ransomware attacks.
Ashish Kumar Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
32%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citrix Gateway?
We can maintain our systems using the solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Gateway?
I consider Citrix Gateway to be an expensive solution, generally ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 yearly, depending on the model. It is seen as a premium product compared to competitors like F5, and ...
What needs improvement with Citrix Gateway?
In the past, I submitted some support tickets, and while the support did resolve the problems, the time taken was sometimes long. They can perhaps improve the time for solutions in the support tick...
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.
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.
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...
 

Also Known As

Citrix NetScaler Unified Gateway
F5 Access Policy Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aeronamic, Avianca, Bechtel Corporation, Betfair UK, Catholic University Leuven (K.U. Leuven), Centene Corporation, Cerner, Charityshare, City of High Point, Clark Builders
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix Gateway vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.