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

F5 and Broadcom are both solutions in the Access Management category. F5 is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5, while Broadcom is ranked #12 with an average rating of 6.8. F5 holds a 2.1% mindshare in AM, compared to Broadcom’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Read 18 F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) reviews

3,128 Views
719 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Symantec Siteminder

Read 75 Symantec Siteminder reviews

2,360 Views
1,605 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Symantec Siteminder

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Symantec Siteminder and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) are both robust access management solutions. F5 BIG-IP APM seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced functionalities and superior security capabilities despite its higher costs.

Features: Symantec Siteminder is praised for its comprehensive authentication capabilities, seamless integration with various applications, and reliability. F5 BIG-IP APM is valued for its advanced security features, strong endpoint inspection, and flexible policy creation. The primary difference is F5 BIG-IP APM's superior adaptability and security functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Users indicate that Symantec Siteminder could benefit from an easier configuration process, more intuitive management tools, and improved documentation. For F5 BIG-IP APM, users suggest better documentation, reduction of complexity in certain features, and streamlined user interface. Needed improvements for Symantec Siteminder are focused on usability, whereas for F5 BIG-IP APM, simplifying complex setups is key.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec Siteminder is often highlighted for its straightforward deployment but requires significant time for proper setup and customization. Customer service receives mixed feedback, with room for constructive support enhancements. F5 BIG-IP APM, while more complex to deploy, is backed by strong customer service that aids in navigating its setup intricacies. F5 BIG-IP APM's customer support provides a more reliable framework that can ease the deployment process.

Pricing and ROI: Symantec Siteminder's costs are generally seen as acceptable relative to the features provided, with a decent return on investment reported by many users. F5 BIG-IP APM is noted to be more expensive, but users often find the pricing justified by its robust features and higher security capabilities. The return on investment for F5 BIG-IP APM is perceived to be strong despite the higher initial setup costs.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Symantec Siteminder Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Symantec Siteminder

December 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

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Ranking in Access Management

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (15th), Network Access Control (NAC) (7th), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (10th)

Symantec Siteminder

Ranking in Access Management

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (13th), Web Access Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 2.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 2.8%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Access Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)	2.1%
Symantec Siteminder	2.8%
Other	95.1%

Access Management

Featured Reviews

SÜ

SalihUcpinar

Senior Cyber Security Consultant at KoçSistem

Has provided reliable policy controls and secure web access for large enterprises

I consider Cloudflare when evaluating centralized access control features; Cloudflare utilizes multi-factor authentication and full API support, while F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) needs to enhance its API support. I recommend F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) for large companies such as Tüpraş and Ford. Tüpraş is one of the biggest companies in Turkey, along with other customers such as Tofaş, Euroko, Koç Holding, and more. For on-premises deployment, I would rate it a 10. For cloud deployment, I would rate it a seven. I primarily use it on-premises. I rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) eight out of ten.

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Muzi Lubisi

Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa

Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation

The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.

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

"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."

"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."

"F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) provides excellent WAF and bot defense solutions."

"Our customers have never complained about the stability"

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

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

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

"The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows."

"All of our applications get a point, click, and you are in, while we increase security at the same time."

"The most valuable feature is the integration with the Active Directory."

"The single sign-on is the solution's most valuable feature"

"It provides the breadth and the width to provide solutions for the different kinds of technologies which we have."

"The solution is easy to use for our managers."

"Symantec Siteminder has simplified user access for our customers from user login to their web applications."

"Siteminder allows us to manage identity and portability control efficiently."

More Symantec Siteminder pros

Cons

"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."

"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) is not user-friendly and operates slowly."

"The operational deployment is not great."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"To add more value to this solution it needs to be more user-friendly."

"They need to make configurations easier, and not have the engineer having to guess what will happen when he changes a particular setting."

"The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect."

"The support could be faster."

"The main thing is we do not have the traceability and good monitoring that CA can provide us to capture problems when they occur."

"As we are moving in to the mobility space, this is where we really see SiteMinder and their other product really come together to provide a solution base to a different area where the IoT is coming, the different business communications are happening. All of those things require authentication and we really want to see this product grow into that role."

"The initial setup of Symantec SiteMinder was a bit tricky. I would rate it a seven on a scale of one to ten, where ten indicates an easy setup."

"CA has reporting at the moment. With the reporting, every particular segmented product has a reporting engine. I would like to see centralized reporting for all of them together."

More Symantec Siteminder cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Recently, they have simplified the licensing"

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

"The product is very expensive."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."

"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."

"The solution's pricing is competitive."

"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The licensing is fair for this solution."

"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."

"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

25%

Insurance Company

Marketing Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	69

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.

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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) is not user-friendly and operates slowly. Additional features for architecture such as Anycast would be beneficial. The ability to run the Anycast feature woul...

See all answers

What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?

It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Siteminder?

My experience with pricing is that it is all good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?

Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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

Compared 6% of the time

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

Compared 5% of the time

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

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 4% of the time

Symantec Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 4% of the time

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

Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 18% of the time

Okta Platform vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 11% of the time

Keeper Enterprise Password Manager vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 8% of the time

Akamai Identity Cloud vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 3% of the time

More Symantec Siteminder Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

February 2026

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

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

Buyer's Guide

Symantec Siteminder

January 2026

Download Symantec Siteminder product report

Also Known As

F5 Access Policy Manager

SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder

Overview

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.

Symantec® SiteMinder is designed to secure the modern enterprise through a unified access management platform that applies the appropriate authentication mechanism to positively identify users; provides single sign-on and identity federation for seamless access to any application; enforces granular security policies to stop unauthorized access to sensitive resources; and monitors and manages the entire user session to prevent session hijacking. Finally, Symantec SiteMinder is battle-tested and has been deployed in the largest IT environments in the world.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

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

British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Symantec Siteminder

December 2025

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. Symantec Siteminder

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