


F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager APM and Forcepoint ONE are key competitors in access management and security solutions. F5 BIG-IP APM has an advantage with flexible deployment and comprehensive security policies, while Forcepoint ONE leads with integration capabilities and advanced threat protection.
Features: F5 BIG-IP APM enhances security with SSL VPN, robust access control, and customizable policy configurations, making it ideal for network access control depth. Forcepoint ONE strengthens security through data protection, seamless cloud integration, and behavioral analytics.
Room for Improvement: F5 BIG-IP APM could improve in reducing setup complexity, enhancing integration with third-party services, and providing more intuitive management tools. Forcepoint ONE might benefit from improving user interface complexity, refining the depth of threat analytics, and expanding API support for better customization.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 BIG-IP APM offers flexible deployment options on virtual and hardware platforms and relies on extensive documentation and community resources. Forcepoint ONE simplifies deployment with a cloud-based model and provides proactive customer support options.
Pricing and ROI: F5 BIG-IP APM involves higher initial costs due to hardware or extensive licensing yet offers high ROI for large organizations with complex needs. Forcepoint ONE provides a subscription model with lower upfront costs, delivering quicker ROI for businesses emphasizing simplicity and integration.
Centralized security management allows our team to monitor users, manage policies, and investigate security events from one place.
With iboss, whenever you turn on your laptop, the iboss agent automatically connects to the iboss cloud, enforcing all security policies. So with respect to the security side, it strengthens measures.
Deploying iboss leads to good return on investment, estimated around 70% to 80%.
I have fewer employees because Forcepoint ONE does the work that I used to rely on a team of engineers to previously detect.
Since I'm on the technical side, I don't handle ROI or financial metrics directly, but based on client feedback, many have seen improvements in operational efficiency mainly through centralized policy management and reduced manual investigation time, resulting in time savings and better visibility across their environments.
It is very difficult to measure the return on investment, but the control for the data is very important for companies because without an application similar to Forcepoint ONE, there is no control.
The quality of the support is fantastic.
We had promising discussions about resolving these issues, but no real action followed.
They do not always reply promptly, but they do try and genuinely want to help us.
Even if they respond, they don't update me with the process or what's going on.
Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.
F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.
Having a local principal support available also helps speed up communication and coordination, especially for urgent or region-specific cases.
An engineer comes to resolve the issue.
They are responsive and assist me with creating cases for any complex issues.
They are also able to meet on-demand requirements based on your contract with them, and can easily provide adequate resources and scalability.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
If I start seeing sluggishness or anything like that, I just reach out to my rep, and they connect with their dev team, typically resolving it the same day.
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.
It can easily scale to support thousands of users and devices without requiring major infrastructure changes.
Forcepoint ONE runs smoothly, and scaling is easy.
Forcepoint ONE is very scalable because it is located in the cloud, and I don't have to manage the machines or anything with the infrastructure.
It's been pretty solid; I've never had an outage with them, and if I ever had, it's only been once out of the seven years.
Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device despite our ClearPass sending information to the iboss box.
I give them full marks for presales and support during the pilot phase, as well as support when we actually went live.
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.
Forcepoint ONE is very stable.
There have been some specific outcomes since switching to Forcepoint ONE.
I think Forcepoint ONE is pretty stable, as the connection and agent synchronization are reliable, but it can still be improved.
iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard.
Better onboarding documents would make the first week easier for new users.
Enhanced policy management, providing smart alerts with root cause context, and improving support with better troubleshooting documents are crucial areas.
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.
The ability to run the Anycast feature would be valuable, as the current solution only operates on-premises.
I need to control specific functionalities within certain applications, like preventing the transfer of certain file types.
Having more flexible reporting and alert customization to tailor insights for different clients and compliance needs would be beneficial.
There is room for improvement in making the reporting closer to real-time, ideally around five or ten minutes instead of half an hour.
The following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs.
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern.
during that time, the Blue Coat proxies we were using were costly, as Blue Coat was acquired by Symantec, and then Symantec was acquired by Broadcom, which increased costs.
F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.
The pricing is very good and cheaper than other solutions like Netskope and Forcepoint.
the pricing is better than all
The licensing and pricing were fine with no issues.
It's given us a lot more visibility into our computer assets that may be infected with viruses and also shows us people who have unusually large uploads or might be engaging in high-risk activities, such as searches or going to sites not categorized by their web crawler.
iboss was the best solution for us because, no matter what domain you were in, everything is under a single pane of glass, which is exactly what we wanted.
Because of the points of presence, there is no downtime for us. I can move users to different points of presence, so I experience minimal to zero downtime.
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.
The most valuable feature was the website blocking capability, which allowed me to quickly block any dodgy websites.
It shortens response time for our clients, allowing their security team to view incidents in real-time, classify them easily, and focus on genuine risks instead of sorting through false positives, and it simplifies reporting and audit preparation since all the relevant data is consolidated in one place.
Forcepoint ONE made a difference, particularly regarding cost reduction because all the features that Forcepoint ONE bundles are in one package.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| iboss | 3.2% |
| Forcepoint ONE | 1.7% |
| F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) | 1.3% |
| Other | 93.8% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 15 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 8 |
| Large Enterprise | 16 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 9 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 2 |
| Large Enterprise | 9 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 10 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 12 |
iboss is the Zero Trust SASE platform that gives organizations complete visibility and governance over their AI, data, and applications through one unified platform, one console, one policy engine, and one data lake.
Your endpoints may already stop malware. Your data and application activity can still be invisible. iboss decrypts and understands every connection, then turns that signal into answers security leaders can act on.
The platform leads with three capabilities in this order: AI Security and Visibility, Data Security and Visibility, and App Visibility and Control. Zero Trust Network Access, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN sit underneath as the access fabric that carries those three. Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.
What are the most important features of Iboss?
- AI Security and Visibility: conversation capture, shadow-AI discovery, AI DLP, and agent governance across Claude, Co-Work, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, and emerging services.
- Data Security and Visibility: full SSL/TLS decryption, deep content inspection, MIP label compliance, and one-click compliance reporting.
- App Visibility and Control: signatureless CASB, dual risk scoring, in-app controls, and SSPM for major SaaS.
- Containerized Zero Trust SASE: dedicated containers, isolated SSL keys, one console, one policy engine, one data lake.
- Access fabric: ZTNA, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN under the same platform.
What benefits should users consider in reviews?
- Complete visibility over AI, data, and applications from one platform instead of separate point tools.
- Encrypted traffic is inspected by default so data decisions use content and context together.
- Shadow SaaS and new web tools appear as they are used, with enforceable controls in one console.
- Native data sovereignty through dedicated containers, in-region inspection, and per-customer SSL key custody.
- Scale proven in published materials: 10M+ users, 100+ countries, 150B+ transactions, 2.5B+ threats blocked.
Economic buyers are CISOs, CIOs, and VPs of Security. Champions include security architects, network and infrastructure leaders, SecOps, and GRC. Primary segments: enterprise and business, financial services, government (including FedRAMP Gov Cloud), healthcare, manufacturing, legal and professional services, retail and hospitality, and MSP/MSSP partners. Education, including K-12, is one vertical among these.
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) enhances access management by offering remote application access through SSL VPN, secure access verification, and login capabilities. Its user-friendly interface and robust security ensure efficient scalability and performance.
F5 BIG-IP APM serves enterprises by integrating multiple authentication protocols and supporting remote access via SSL VPN for secure application and network connections. Known for its strong performance and reliable scalability, APM allows custom policy management, facilitating load balancing and enhanced server management through virtual IP creation. It offers a secure bridge for users to connect to private networks while managing access through portals and enforcing compliance checks. Despite its efficient and user-friendly interface, APM has areas needing improvements such as updates for MacOS access, comprehensive reporting features, and simplifying the initial setup process. Better documentation and improved cloud integration are also areas for potential enhancement, alongside more efficient management and automation capabilities. Pricing and integration with other systems could be more competitive, and improvements in support response times would benefit users significantly.
What are the key features of F5 BIG-IP APM?In sectors like finance and healthcare, F5 BIG-IP APM ensures secure access management for sensitive data networks. Retailers utilize it to manage seasonal traffic efficiently with its load balancing and scalability, while educational institutions leverage its robust security and remote access features for faculty and students accessing campus networks remotely. These industries benefit from tailored policy management and comprehensive authentication integration to meet specific security and access needs.
Forcepoint ONE offers a comprehensive solution for data protection and security compliance, focusing on cloud applications and role-based access control for safe interactions across platforms.
Forcepoint ONE effectively manages data access, ensuring security and compliance while reducing operational costs and offering a user-friendly interface for easy management. Integrating seamlessly with existing company devices, it provides enhanced Zero Trust Network Access, incident management, and identity verification. Cloud application protection, including Office 365, is maximized through strategic use of Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) models, which help guard against unauthorized access, manage secure logins, and filter URL content.
What are the key features of Forcepoint ONE?Organizations use Forcepoint ONE primarily for ensuring compliance and secure data management in environments like healthcare and corporate sectors. By safeguarding sensitive information like PHI and utilizing robust role-based access control, users can enhance security measures significantly. Additionally, the system's ability to manage secure exchanges and protect resources underlines its relevance in regulated industries.
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