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F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs Kemp LoadMaster comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.2
Organizations using F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition see improved performance, reduced costs, streamlined operations, and enhanced efficiency up to 40%.
Sentiment score
7.4
Kemp LoadMaster is a cost-effective solution that enhances efficiency, security, and offers significant returns quickly in various industries.
Overall, I can say the ROI includes a twenty-five to thirty percent cost reduction, with some areas achieving forty percent cost reduction in our expenses.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There is a significant performance improvement in the website and website speed.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
With F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we have not faced any RMAs, which has made a positive operational impact.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition support is highly rated for speed and knowledge, but service satisfaction may vary and costs can be high.
Sentiment score
8.8
Kemp LoadMaster support is highly rated for its knowledgeable, efficient team offering quick issue resolution and comprehensive online resources.
I would rate the customer support on a scale of one to ten as a perfect ten based on all of the experience I have had so far.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
Customer support for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is excellent.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
F5 support is knowledgeable and helpful for complex LTM and ASM issues.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We have not received technical support from Kemp LoadMaster without a license.
Information Security Engineer at BOK
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition efficiently scales resources in cloud and on-prem environments, adapting to user growth with ease.
Sentiment score
8.2
Kemp LoadMaster is highly scalable, supporting smooth upgrades and adaptable licensing for both small and large enterprises.
It is the most scalable and reliable system.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Within ten minutes of time, we can scale and boot as many virtual machines as needed in the environment.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We can scale F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition very quickly in public cloud environments and also in our on-premise private environment.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
Kemp LoadMaster is a scalable solution.
Information Security Engineer at BOK
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is praised for stability and performance, with rare instabilities linked to environmental factors.
Sentiment score
8.7
Kemp LoadMaster is praised for its stability, reliability, high availability, and effective server load management with minimal downtime.
The load balancing module still performed admirably.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
The performance increased significantly and the response times of the application improved.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The uptime improvements with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition are almost close to 100%, as it only goes down if a failover happens.
Senior Network & Security Administrator at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
With the license purchase afterwards, if it expires, it begins dropping the HTTP traffic, also the DNS traffic.
Information Security Engineer at BOK
 

Room For Improvement

F5 BIG-IP VE struggles with pricing, support, scalability, integration, security, and requires improvements in usability and resource demands.
Kemp LoadMaster needs UI, security, documentation enhancements, improved monitoring, automation, analytics, and better cloud integration.
The primary concern I noted regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is its scalability during high-load situations.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
It is a somewhat expensive solution, and the price needs to be improved based on what our customers have told us.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
With FortiWeb, we have a dashboard where I can check the policy status with just one click, and everything is easily accessible.
Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily
After that, they said if it was good, we could purchase the license, and while we found it very good, the license cost was too high.
Information Security Engineer at BOK
 

Setup Cost

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is costly due to its licensing, but its performance and security justify the price.
Kemp LoadMaster offers flexible, cost-effective licensing and setup with positive user feedback and a 30-day free trial.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's pricing structure was significantly more advantageous and aligned with our budgetary considerations.
Sr network engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition solves a very significant problem of high availability and performance.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
To be honest, the cost of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is not low, but since it provides enterprise-level security and everything, it should have that price.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is praised for its scalability, ease of use, security, and performance, boosting cost savings and stability.
Kemp LoadMaster offers ease of use, security features, Azure integration, and cost-effective load balancing for Microsoft applications.
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition helped our customers increase the high availability and performance of their applications, specifically their web applications.
IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT
If ten thousand, fifty thousand, or even a million people want to access the application simultaneously, we have configured auto-scalability.
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition has impacted my organization positively with cost savings by saving public IP addresses, and its performance and stability, which give almost 100% uptime for the application because we have high availability.
Senior Network & Security Administrator at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We had some issues in patching management, so we deployed this product for virtual patching, the IPS rule, and it gives us very good results because we have very critical servers.
Information Security Engineer at BOK
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
9th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Kemp LoadMaster
Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
10th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (22nd), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is 0.7%. The mindshare of Kemp LoadMaster is 6.9%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition0.7%
Kemp LoadMaster6.9%
Other92.4%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2800392 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud deployment has simplified traffic distribution and now supports flexible multi-zone DR
Regarding F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's improvement areas, the current dashboard is very useful, but I believe the registration process should be simplified in the virtual edition. Especially in the Azure environment, many features are not currently aligned and working with Azure. We need to make efforts to ensure it is well integrated with Azure. Currently, if we want to integrate route tables with the virtual F5 edition, we need to deploy scripting inside the virtual F5 instances, and then that script performs the virtual IP route table changes in the Azure environment. This feature should be auto-configured, and efforts are needed to ensure the virtual edition is very much aligned with the Azure environment. I am expecting this improvement in the next edition. The failover capability is also not as good as it should be. We have tested the failover functionality, and sometimes we have observed that failover fails. F5 does not successfully fail over to other instances perfectly, so that also needs to be improved. Security should also be enhanced, as in the past I have seen some security loopholes. Tightening of security should be included in the new software. These improvements should be present in near future editions.
IshtiaqKhalil - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Engineer at BOK
Displays flexible, user-friendly interface with minor licensing challenges
The product could be improved with a more intuitive interface for complex configurations and more advanced analytics. Additionally, enhanced security features, like a more robust Web Application Firewall, and stronger APIs for better automation would be beneficial. Overall, the main areas for improvement are in strengthening the advanced features to better meet the demands of large-scale enterprise environments. key features for the next release should focus on three areas. First, an enhanced, next-generation security suite with a more powerful Web Application Firewall (WAF) and integrated bot protection. Second, more advanced and customizable analytics dashboards to provide deeper insights into application performance. Finally, greater support for modern, cloud-native environments, including better APIs for automation and seamless hybrid-cloud traffic management
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
The integration capabilities of the product are easy to use, and there is no complexity involved in it.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
I believe F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition could be improved in terms of pricing and licensing transparency. However, customers who purchase through authorized partners may receive better pricing and lice...
What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
I would rate F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition 9/10 overall. Advice: Plan the sizing and licensing properly, deploy it in HA (Active/Standby) for high availability, and monitor license validity (especially...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kemp LoadMaster?
My primary advice is to carefully analyze your total cost of ownership (TCO) rather than just the initial purchase price. Kemp LoadMaster is highly competitive on price and often provides a much be...
What needs improvement with Kemp LoadMaster?
The product could be improved with a more intuitive interface for complex configurations and more advanced analytics. Additionally, enhanced security features, like a more robust Web Application Fi...
What is your primary use case for Kemp LoadMaster?
Our primary use case was traffic load balancing and distribution. The solution was essential for managing all inbound client traffic, including HTTPS and DNS requests, by routing it through our fir...
 

Also Known As

No data available
LoadMaster Load Balancer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Kent County Council, KEMP, SMA Solar Technology AG, RT€ Player , Victrix (Quebec, Canada), Texas A&M, Macmillan Cancer Support, Cisco, Austin Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Kemp LoadMaster and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.