F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs Kemp LoadMaster comparison

F5 and Progress Software are both solutions in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category. F5 is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.8, while Progress Software is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5. F5 holds a 0.5% mindshare in ADC, compared to Progress Software’s 6.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Read 10 F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition reviews

1,600 Views
80 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kemp LoadMaster

Read 50 Kemp LoadMaster reviews

2,756 Views
2,425 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Kemp LoadMaster

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition and Kemp LoadMaster based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Kemp LoadMaster Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Kemp LoadMaster

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

6.8

Users experienced enhanced performance, reduced outages, and cost savings from F5 BIG-IP through improved traffic control and SSL offloading.

Sentiment score

7.4

Kemp LoadMaster is a cost-effective solution that enhances efficiency, security, and offers significant returns quickly in various industries.

With F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, we have not faced any RMAs, which has made a positive operational impact.

Abdul Rehman Manzoor

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

There is a significant performance improvement in the website and website speed.

Hammad Halim

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

I have seen a return on investment with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, especially when I have a bundle of renewal orders where F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition gives more discounts, allowing me to save significantly on license renewals.

Abdul Azim

Network Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.0

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition offers generally responsive support, with occasional challenges and potential extra costs for advanced assistance.

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.

Abdul Rehman Manzoor

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

Customer support for F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is excellent.

Hammad Halim

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

We have not received technical support from Kemp LoadMaster without a license.

IshtiaqKhalil

Information Security Engineer at BOK

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.9

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition efficiently scales to meet traffic demands, offering seamless resource adjustments in public and private environments.

Sentiment score

8.2

Kemp LoadMaster is highly scalable, supporting smooth upgrades and adaptable licensing for both small and large enterprises.

When my organization needs to handle more traffic or add more applications, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition scales up easily without running into any issues, and it is very smooth.

Abdul Rehman Manzoor

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

We can scale F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition very quickly in public cloud environments and also in our on-premise private environment.

Hammad Halim

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

Kemp LoadMaster is a scalable solution.

IshtiaqKhalil

Information Security Engineer at BOK

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.9

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition's stability varies, with improvements noted, but connection overloads may still cause occasional instability.

Sentiment score

8.7

Kemp LoadMaster is praised for its stability, reliability, high availability, and effective server load management with minimal downtime.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

With the license purchase afterwards, if it expires, it begins dropping the HTTP traffic, also the DNS traffic.

IshtiaqKhalil

Information Security Engineer at BOK

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Room For Improvement

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition faces limitations in resources, costs, and usability, needing enhancements for microservices and user experience.

Kemp LoadMaster needs UI, security, documentation enhancements, improved monitoring, automation, analytics, and better cloud integration.

It is a somewhat expensive solution, and the price needs to be improved based on what our customers have told us.

Hammad Halim

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.

Abdul Rehman Manzoor

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

When the evaluation license's time expires, F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition disables some features without any warning.

Abdul Azim

Network Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

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.

IshtiaqKhalil

Information Security Engineer at BOK

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Setup Cost

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition offers high performance but is costly for small businesses, with separate module licenses impacting expenses.

Kemp LoadMaster offers flexible, cost-effective licensing and setup with positive user feedback and a 30-day free trial.

The licensing is also expensive because we need to have separate licenses for separate modules.

Hammad Halim

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Valuable Features

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition provides advanced virtualization, security, and scalability, enhancing application security and performance while simplifying management.

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.

Hammad Halim

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

The documentation has helped me significantly by allowing me to avoid having to install new hardware or separate appliances for WAF, BIG-IP, load balancers, and different ADCs, as I can manage everything in one big box and purchase the licenses.

Abdul Rehman Manzoor

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

The best features F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition offers include availability and application delivery capabilities.

Abdul Azim

Network Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition report

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.

IshtiaqKhalil

Information Security Engineer at BOK

For more quotes and insights, download the Kemp LoadMaster report

Categories and Ranking

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

11th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kemp LoadMaster

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

9th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (20th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (18th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is 0.5%. The mindshare of Kemp LoadMaster is 6.7%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Kemp LoadMaster	6.7%
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition	0.5%
Other	92.8%

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

Hammad Halim

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

Load balancing has increased web availability and improves performance for critical applications

I rate F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition 10 out of 10.I gave it a 10 out of 10 because F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition truly solves a significant problem of high availability and traffic and performance improvement in web applications. The metrics showing performance and availability improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition include less downtime. Since we have increased redundancy on the web servers by placing three web servers behind F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition, if one of the servers fails, the other two will serve the traffic. Additionally, faster response time is achieved because we have more compute power with three servers serving the same purpose and hosting the same website. I would highly recommend F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition to everyone because we have had a phenomenal experience using this device. It is a very capable solution. We have used the Local Traffic Manager and we are in the process of implementing the Advanced Security Module, Application Security Module, or Advanced WAF. F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is a very good solution that solves many of the problems faced by small to medium-sized businesses.

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IshtiaqKhalil

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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881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	16

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?

I believe F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition can be improved because the 25 megabits throughput cap is small.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition?

My advice for others looking into using F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition is to be aware of the throughput cap and how complex it can be. I would rate this product a 9 overall.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kemp LoadMaster?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 18% of the time

F5 Distributed Cloud Services vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 17% of the time

SOCKS5 Proxy Server with Web Panel vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 13% of the time

UBIKA WAAP Cloud vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 9% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition Competitors

HAProxy vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 16% of the time

NetScaler vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 13% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 10% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 9% of the time

Barracuda Web Application Firewall vs Kemp LoadMaster

Compared 3% of the time

More Kemp LoadMaster Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

January 2026

Download F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition product report

Buyer's Guide

Kemp LoadMaster

January 2026

Download Kemp LoadMaster product report

Also Known As

No data available

LoadMaster Load Balancer

Overview

When you need to move faster than hardware allows, BIG-IP Virtual Editions (VEs) deliver the application services you need in a more agile and flexible form factor. Get the scalability, security, and automatability BIG-IP products are known for—all in software designed for use in single-, hybrid-, or multi-cloud architectures.

Kemp LoadMaster is a powerful load balancing solution that also serves as a web application firewall. Its primary use case is load balancing and application load balancing, making it an ideal solution for organizations that must distribute traffic across multiple servers. Kemp's integration with an active directory for ESP usage, hosting/deployment of SSL certificates, and pricing are some of its most valuable features.

Using Kemp has helped organizations mitigate cross-scripting vulnerabilities, cookie-related issues, and content security policy issues. It has also allowed them to handle everything with Kemp instead of working on each application individually.

Progress Software

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

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Kemp LoadMaster

December 2025

Free Report: F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Kemp LoadMaster

Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Kemp LoadMaster and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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