F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway comparison

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition vs. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

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:

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

6.1

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway enhances ROI by reducing infrastructure costs, simplifying setup, and using cost management tools for accurate assessments.

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.

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

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

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

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway significantly impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance.

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

If we can use a shared resource, then the return on investment is really nice.

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

We have seen a return on investment in terms of time-saving and cost-saving by not creating our own infrastructure.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation

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

6.4

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway support experiences vary; some praise expertise, while others criticize delays and inconsistent quality.

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.

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

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

I would say they provide the best support for Application Gateway because they own the product, so their support is top-notch.

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

There is room for improvement, specifically in paid support, by providing more direct contact.

Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation

I would rate Microsoft support as good because they have a very skilled technical support team in the background

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates

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

7.4

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway provides scalable solutions but has mixed reviews regarding cost and ease of scaling and upgrades.

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

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.

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

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a very scalable product.

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

It has the autoscaling feature, so there is not much concern around performance; it can scale significantly.

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a scalable solution.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates

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

7.6

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is stable and reliable, with high ratings, despite occasional issues due to misconfiguration.

No quotes available

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

We have been using it for the past two to three years, and there have been good results with no problems so far.

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

The stability is good, and except for a few instances, I don't see the non-availability of Azure Cloud services.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates

Room For Improvement

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

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is criticized for high costs, complexity, lacking documentation, and needing improvements in security, scalability, and support.

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.

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

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

One feature I mentioned is the support for non-HTTPS protocols such as TCP, which could allow one endpoint for all kinds of protocols.

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

There is room for improvement in terms of support, such as assigning agents directly for more straightforward engagement.

Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation

In future releases of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would like to see more AI functionalities and a better dashboard as well as some customizations.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

Setup Cost

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

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's cost is debated; appreciated for scalability but potentially expensive with additional fees compared to AWS.

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition solves a very significant problem of high availability and performance.

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

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

We would prefer to have it cheaper, but it is still expensive.

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Azure solutions are quite expensive.

Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation

When it comes to pricing for Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would rate it a seven out of ten.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

Valuable Features

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

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway provides secure, efficient traffic management with integration, automation, and scalability benefits for straightforward application deployment.

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

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

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition offers extensive documentation available for any help required and the capability for multiple licenses within a single platform.

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

Senior Network And Security Engineer at Mobily

We are using it for some of the security features for our applications, particularly for securing traffic in transit with SSL.

Information Security and Compliance Officer at Carnation

The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats.

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

The gateway's Web Application Firewall feature enhances security as it is the first entry point to your network from the outside world.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Cloud Head at White-Spunner & Associates

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

Microsoft Azure Application...

Ranking in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

4th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (5th)

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 Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 6.6%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway	6.6%
F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition	0.5%
Other	92.9%

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

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

IT consultant at Beginning Solutions IT

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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Mutual TLS has secured our web services and now needs broader protocol support

Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable feature we have found in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is mutual TLS. We find mutual TLS valuable because we can verify the client securely by setting up the trust certificate of the client, and also if we do it at the client side as well. This successfully develops mutual trust, ensuring that we know the client who is calling our service is a legitimate client. That is a very nice feature.Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has helped manage our traffic efficiently because we have many web services that we can put behind the same URL, and we can have different URLs with the same Application Gateway with a limited number of listeners. We can do host-based routing as well as URL-based routing or path-based routing. It supports both, so we can have even a single URL supporting many applications, or we can have different URLs for different applications respectively. We have both use cases.

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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	22
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	24

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 can be improved because the 25 megabits throughput cap is small.

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.

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the performance side of things, which is why we use it.

Squid Proxy Cache Server vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

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Compared 17% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

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

Compared 13% of the time

Wordpress on Amazon Linux vs F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

Compared 8% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition Competitors

F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 8% of the time

HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 8% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 8% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 8% of the time

NetScaler vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

January 2026

Download F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition product report

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

January 2026

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Download Microsoft Azure Application Gateway product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway

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.

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell