F5 Advanced WAF vs NetScaler comparison

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F5 Advanced WAF

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

NetScaler and F5 Advanced WAF are competitors in the application delivery and security market. F5 Advanced WAF appears to have the upper hand in threat detection capabilities and comprehensive security features, including DDoS protection.

Features: NetScaler provides flexible deployment with optimal integration into Citrix products. Its key features include TriScale architecture, SSL offloading, and multitenancy, making it effective for load balancing and application delivery. F5 Advanced WAF boasts advanced security features such as API protection, behavior analysis, and automated policy suggestions, ensuring superior threat detection and mitigation.

Room for Improvement: NetScaler needs improvements in asymmetric web content optimization, scripting support, and OCSP stapling. Its cumbersome configuration is less flexible compared to F5's iRules. F5 Advanced WAF could improve its user interface, along with pricing and reporting capabilities, while its licensing model remains complex.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetScaler is effective for on-premises deployments with decent technical support, although response times can be slow. F5 Advanced WAF provides similar deployment options across various cloud types but experiences mixed customer service feedback, with some noting delays in issue resolution.

Pricing and ROI: NetScaler, though expensive, offers good ROI, especially when integrated with Citrix environments. F5 Advanced WAF is costly, potentially prohibitive for small businesses, but its excellent threat protection capabilities justify the price for those prioritizing security.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 Advanced WAF vs. NetScaler Report (Updated: June 2025).

F5 Advanced WAF vs. NetScaler

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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

F5 Advanced WAF

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetScaler

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st), Network Management Applications (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of F5 Advanced WAF is 10.7%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Moamen

Senior Security Solutions Architect at Orange

Protects applications with versatile authentication features

F5 offers a versatile solution that can be integrated with APM in cases where integration with an external IDB is needed. It is useful for authentication backup if the on-prem directory service is unavailable. Additionally, its WAF functionality is valuable for protecting applications from attacks. It is a versatile and strong solution that's easy to understand and deploy.

Read full review

DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU

Cloud Consultant at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking

Citrix ADM has the ability to implement policies to tighten security. For instance, you can restrict access to your network from outsiders or lack necessary security measures such as antivirus programs. Additionally, there's the Delivery Controller, which allows for comprehensive monitoring and management tasks such as remote restarts, maintenance, and registration. Another essential component is the Director, which provides detailed insights into sessions, including identifying session failures, connection issues, user lockouts, etc. It presents a list of problems to address, enabling you to click on them and resolve them efficiently.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It ensures compliance with security standards by providing features like PCI DSS checks."

"The solution is stable."

"F5 Advanced WAF secures our connectivity and combines both the main functions of WAF (balancing and web application security)."

"It also has antivirus and DDoS mitigation capabilities. We have enabled these features."

"Good technology for mitigating different application attacks, e.g. DDoS, DNS, and layer seven attacks."

"The solution's most valuable features include application DDoS protection, bot blocking, and HTTP header verifications."

"The product is used to secure web applications and has the ability to use API templates and bot protection features, such as blocking requests or presenting CAPTCHA pages to end users."

"Provides good protection from attacks."

More F5 Advanced WAF pros

"I like the ease of use. It's easy to manage. I also like it's ease of use with virtualization technologies with applications."

"One feature that works really well is the SSL VPN. It's very easy to set up and you can go very granular with it. You can define what user groups get what kind of access and the management overhead is very low."

"If you need PCI-compliance and have high security requirements, WAF is the most valuable feature. If you need to monitor your load-balancing services with complex types of monitoring, make sure everything is alright, and load balancing is important, Content Switching and Monitoring features are the keys to your needs. If you want to provide a lot of static images or data, the Caching feature works best for you."

"The stability is good. If there is a problem, the load will be shifted to other sites automatically, which has been a good experience for us."

"I can turn on features without actually owning a license. I can test them out, I can use them for a while, and then I can be licensed up. That's awesome. I don't have to have a license immediately before I can start to deploy things rapidly, rapid deployment is a plus."

"Enables a Web service that offers persistent client-server connections, IP restriction, URL rewrite (such as remove "/assets/" path from client-side URL path), and cache for CSS or JS files... You can easily use the GUI to set up all these requirements on the same network device within 20-30 minutes. (If you do the same steps on CLI, it might take less time.)"

"I prefer this solution because of its user-friendly interface. I find it simple and close to what I am currently using, which is Citrix Fortiva Access for Multi-Factor Authentication. I appreciate the familiar user interface and troubleshooting tools it offers."

"The most valuable feature of Citrix ADC is its ease of use."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

"The product could be more user-friendly for administrators."

"The accuracy of the automatic learning feature needs improvement."

"More legacy protocols should be added to the solution."

"It should be a little bit easy to deploy in terms of the overall deployment session. One of our customers is a bit unhappy about the reporting options. Currently, it automatically deletes event logs after some limit if a customer doesn't have any external Syslog server. It is a problem for those customers who want to review event logs after a week or so because they won't get proper reports or event logs. They should increase the duration to at least a month or two for storing the data on the device. F5 is not a leader in Gartner Quadrant, which affects us when we go and pitch this solution. Customers normally go and take a look at such annual reports, and because F5 is currently not there as a leader, the customers ask about it even though we are saying it is good in all things. F5 is not known for something totally different or unique. They were a major player in ADP, and they are just rebranding themselves into security. They should improve or increase their marketing as a security company now. They have already started to do that, but they should do it more so that when it comes to security, customers can easily remember F5. At the moment, if we say F5, load balancing comes to mind. With rebranding and marketing, all customers should get the idea that F5 is now mainly focusing on the security part of it, and it is a security company instead of load balancing. This is the first solution that should come to a customer's mind for a web application firewall."

"F5 Advanced WAF could improve resource usage, it is CPU intensive. Additionally, adding automated remediation would be a benefit. For example, an easy button alerts us of the events that are occurring, and what we want to do at the time. An automated approach where somebody could be alerted very quickly. Instead of going and reconfiguring everything, an automated approach is what I'm looking at."

"For me, an area for improvement in F5 Advanced WAF is the reporting as it isn't so clear. The vendor needs to work on the reporting capability of the solution. What I'd like to see in the next release of F5 Advanced WAF is threat intelligence to protect your web application, particularly having that capability out-of-the-box, and not needing to pay extra for it, similar to what's offered in FortiWeb, for example, any request that originates from a malicious IP will be blocked automatically by FortiWeb. F5 Advanced WAF should have the intelligence for blocking malicious IPs, or automatically blocking threats included in the license, instead of making it an add-on feature that users have to pay for apart from the standard licensing fees."

"The interface is old-looking, it's not modern, which is why it's not always comfortable to use."

"Nevertheless, F5 products are generally considered to be hard to deploy."

More F5 Advanced WAF cons

"Citrix should offer a demo or free-trial version of NetScaler. Several other vendors do, but Citrix does not. Pricing should also be more readily available."

"Getting to use some of the advanced tools, even with the assistance of Citrix support, can be challenging."

"Overall the price of Citrix ADC could be more competitive."

"The SLB could be better, and they should improve it."

"Reducing the overhead required for AppFlow data collection, specifically for HDX Insight, would be a huge improvement."

"If one device or switch fails, the failover to another device is not seamless which is painful."

"Some features of Citrix ADM are available on the cloud, which could really be helpful if they were available on an on-premise version."

"In terms of what could be improved, I would say the user interface because sometimes it can be complicated."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The way we deployed it, I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."

"There is an annual subscription for this solution."

"Pricing for this solution is higher than average."

"I am not sure about pricing but licenses are available on Google."

"The price of the solution is reasonable when compared with other products, such as FortiWeb. I am very satisfied with the price."

"It's more expensive than other solutions and depending on the modules, there can be additional fees."

"The price of F5 Advanced WAF could improve it is expensive."

"F5 Advanced WAF is not a cost-effective solution. Although they are attempting to reduce prices with their VE and cloud options, they are more expensive than other solutions. The solution is more expensive on average."

More F5 Advanced WAF pricing and cost advice

"It's not for startups or SOHO."

"We are quite happy with price. It's not too high."

"It is very pricey, but we get it. If you need the best, money shouldn't be a problem."

"The firewall license is included by default, with no additional costs."

"Regarding pricing, while it's expensive, I can't comment on the exact ROI without a budget analysis. However, in terms of service quality, it's worth the price."

"This product is more expensive than some of the competitors."

"You can do CapEx and then a yearly monthly fee, or you can do a subscription model, whether that's one month, month-to-month, or three-year subscription model."

"We have all the features and functions of Citrix because we have a premium license."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.

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860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 Advanced WAF?

It's a fairly easy-to-use and user-friendly tool. My administrators and team also like its ability to customize the rules per the requirements.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced WAF?

The price is affordable and satisfactory.

What needs improvement with F5 Advanced WAF?

I do not have anything in mind right now that needs improvement. Generally, it works well. If we need any specific feature, we approach F5 directly.

What do you like most about Citrix ADC?

The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?

After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...

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F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NetScaler

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Product Reports

F5 Advanced WAF

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Also Known As

No data available

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall

Overview

F5 Advanced WAF is a web application security solution for financial and government sectors, e-commerce, and public-facing websites. It offers protection against various attacks, including botnets, web scraping, and foreign entities. The solution can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and is often used with other security tools. Its most valuable features include DDoS and DNS attack protection, SSL uploading, anomaly detection, and the ability to input custom rules.

F5 Advanced WAF has helped organizations to expose more services to the public while providing an extra layer of protection, preventing revenue loss, and securing connectivity.

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

Sample Customers

MAXIMUS, Vivo, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office, City Bank

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk

F5 Advanced WAF vs. NetScaler