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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

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 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...
Ranking in Access Management
10th
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), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (10th)
ForgeRock
Ranking in Access Management
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (13th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 1.9%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ForgeRock is 7.2%, up from 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Ahmet Murat Ülker - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use, but customizations can be complicated to handle
I would suggest others use the product after asking them to consider their use cases. SSO may be a use case for some, and using the product as an IDM tool may be a use case. At the moment, my company is not deploying all the components of ForgeRock itself. My company uses ForgeRock for OAuth 2.0. For example, my company is not deploying the IDM and identity gateway components. You should consider your use case and select the required components for that use case. My company does not use the SSO features of the tool. My company uses SSO to access ForgeRock's AM Console for individual users. My company does not use single sign on features of the product and instead, we use Auth0. I rate the tool a seven or eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The load balancing features are valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the virtual IP creation. It's our most frequently used feature."
"The portal access was very good."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"F5 BIG-IP APM is relatively easy to use."
"The tool is reliable and easy to configure."
"Our organization is small - a college with about 3,500 students. We use F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager to protect our site, especially from the Iranian attacks we faced last year. We restrict access to only inside the country."
"I rate the overall solution nine out of ten."
"We have found the identity and access management tools in the solution to be particularly useful for our organization."
"This is a stable solution. When you do experience any issues, you will see it in your DB logs or audit logs so you can easily reach a conclusion of might be causing it."
"I like the way it is handling authentication and authorization."
"ForgeRock products are customizable, and the out-of-the-box features are solid, too. I primarily use the OIDC compliance features. It's just a configuration. it's easy to set up and customize trees. We can add our own features if necessary. Banks and corporations have different standards and specific validations."
"Their access management solution, OpenAM, is most valuable because it meets the needs of a lot of users."
"I like the intelligent authentication feature."
"Easy to customize and adaptable to any environment."
"We used it to implement multi-factor authentication and to improve our security posture as well as reducing the potential for attacks."
 

Cons

"The price of this product can be improved."
"In my opinion, the GUI side needs some improvement based on my usage. Sometimes, it doesn't work as efficiently as the CLI side."
"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 operational deployment is not great."
"If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great."
"The solution is quite costly."
"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."
"ForgeRock is an open source solution and is available to everyone but it is not freeware. If you need support, you need a subscription for ForgeRock. Many of its functionalities need to be built up with the help of a consultant."
"We're worried about the scaling. We're told it will be okay and there won't be issues, however, I'm not 100% convinced."
"In future releases, I would like to see easier integration with other solutions, like facial recognition and KYC solutions with biometric onboarding."
"I don't think ForgeRock directly supports integrations with Slack, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Lacks simplified documentation within the tool that requires use of a separate portal."
"They should improve the solution by include reporting."
"It should be a little bit easier to implement. It is user-friendly, but there is always scope for improvement."
"The identity management model needs a bit of improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is a little bit expensive."
"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"
"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is very expensive."
"The license is purchased annually per user. However, you can negotiate if you are signing for a longer period of time. When comparing this solution to others on the market it is priced fair, it is not at the top of the price range or at the bottom end."
"ForgeRock's pricing is more competitive than other products."
"The pricing of the solution is fair but I do not have the full details."
"It's a bit pricey and could be more competitive."
"ForgeRock is an expensive solution."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis, but it also depends on the contract that you have with the vendor. They have multiple types of contracts. There are additional costs to the standard licensing fees. If you need some of the features, you have to pay more."
"Its price is comparable to other products in the market."
"We have multiple clients we are looking at right now. We are at a very small number, however, the idea and the goal is to grow. We are looking at about $100,000 and $50,000 a minimum a month cost. That'd be minimum maybe in a couple of years."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
12%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about ForgeRock?
The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ForgeRock?
Our company was considering switching back to Keycloak from ForgeRock, so as to not pay any license fees. ForgeRock also supports M-PIN and biometric features that Keycloak does not provide. My com...
What needs improvement with ForgeRock?
In the past, I saw that Splunk was integrated with a testing portal, and then it was integrated with Slack. I don't think ForgeRock directly supports integrations with Slack, making it an area wher...
 

Also Known As

F5 Access Policy Manager
ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. ForgeRock and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.