F5 BIG-IQ vs IBM BPM comparison

F5 and IBM are both solutions in the Process Automation category. F5 is ranked #26 with an average rating of 7.0, while IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. F5 holds a 0.9% mindshare in PA, compared to IBM’s 5.3% mindshare. Additionally, 75% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

F5 BIG-IQ

Read 15 F5 BIG-IQ reviews

1,186 Views
1,186 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

IBM BPM

Read 113 IBM BPM reviews

10,623 Views
5,312 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IQ

IBM BPM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM BPM and F5 BIG-IQ compete in process management and application delivery, respectively. IBM BPM leads with extensive process automation features, while F5 BIG-IQ excels in centralized management and security optimization.

Features: IBM BPM is known for robust integration layers, easy deployment, and compliance with BPMN standards. It helps streamline complex processes through automation. F5 BIG-IQ is focused on centralized application management, offering effective load balancing, workflow streamlining, and advanced security features.

Room for Improvement: IBM BPM could benefit from a more intuitive installation process and enhanced debugging capabilities. Users express a need for simplified technical requirements and better integration with custom solutions. F5 BIG-IQ requires improvements in ease of use and further automation. Users suggest refining the graphical interface and better integration with third-party solutions to simplify security configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM BPM offers hybrid cloud and on-premises deployments, but customer service experiences vary, with some noting slower response times for complex issues. F5 BIG-IQ focuses on on-premises configurations, noted for consistent support, although technical assistance could be more efficient, particularly for complex inquiries.

Pricing and ROI: IBM BPM's pricing is high, often suited for large enterprises due to its complex licensing, yet it delivers significant ROI by enhancing process efficiency. F5 BIG-IQ offers a more straightforward, cost-effective licensing, appealing to budget-conscious organizations seeking centralized management benefits for a solid ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 BIG-IQ vs. IBM BPM Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IQ vs. IBM BPM

April 2026

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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-IQ

Ranking in Process Automation

26th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM BPM

Ranking in Process Automation

8th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

113

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (5th), Application Infrastructure (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of F5 BIG-IQ is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 5.3%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM BPM	5.3%
F5 BIG-IQ	0.9%
Other	93.8%

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Bikale Kassu

Manager for Implementation and Administration at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Has faced challenges with visibility and technical support but allows centralized management of multiple sites

The configuration part is complex for F5 BIG-IQ. The simplicity and visibility part needs improvement. The dashboard, especially the analytics part, needs to be more simple and presentable. For the security part, it is difficult to present to our management, so we have to capture it and prepare manual reporting options rather than getting them directly from the system. The automation part in F5 BIG-IQ is limited; we are still using it only for load balancing for some services. We haven't integrated it with our Accesso or implemented any automation options. The setup process for F5 BIG-IQ would rate a five out of ten.

Read full review

Ateeq Rehman

Unit Head System Implementor at Allied Bank Limited

Automation platforms streamline processes and offer flexibility, but AI integration and version upgrades pose challenges

In the technology world, there is always room for improvement. Technologies evolve day by day, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence and generative AI models. Although IBM BPM is a substantial product, adopting and integrating new technologies quickly is not easy due to the migration and upgrade paths involved. Every time new versions are released, we face business and production challenges that make rapid adoption challenging. The main concern bothering me today regarding IBM BPM is the integration of AI components.

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

"There is a lot less risk involved in having applications available on the Internet."

"The product is excellent."

"The backup, monitoring and logging are the best features."

"We mainly use F5 BIG-IQ to protect our web-based applications, such as our email and website, so we use it as a web-based application firewall for those services."

"The backup, monitoring and logging are the best features."

"The GUI is fine, at least from an engineer's perspective."

"The F5 solution scales very easily, and if we have more boxes then we can just join them to the cluster."

"Scalability: To move from larger boxes to smaller boxes, along with virtualization. So, we are not locked into a particular size."

More F5 BIG-IQ pros

"IBM BPM is equipped with all the functionalities which are needed for building BPM enterprise-level applications."

"The integration capabilities of IBM BPM are excellent."

"Setting it up is fairly easy. If somebody has knowledge of the system, he or she will be able to do it fairly quickly."

"We like that it does not require a lot of hours to train our people."

"The functionality to design UI to be responsive and can run on multiple devices."

"It introduces process orchestration with adherence and process optimization into the organization."

"We use it for automating certain processes which previously took a lot of time for agents to set up different products for customers. They would have to enter a lot of different systems. This has now mostly been automated."

"There is information during the process that the analyst will look at, their procedures. We created a part of the application such that the business can change those procedures as needed, on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. As the reps go through the process, they don't necessarily know it's changing, they just know they have to refer to some documentation, and the business can keep that up to date."

More IBM BPM pros

Cons

"You do need to have a good and solid background or foundation for networking and you need to understand how to configure F5 appliances in order to properly use it."

"The solution should improve pricing. It's expensive in comparison to other American solutions."

"If they had a GUI interface for creating security rules then it would make it easier."

"For stability, F5 BIG-IQ rates a two or three because currently we are integrating it with our third party as a port forwarding service. We created many VIPs, but on average, weekly, we lose three to five connections, making the troubleshooting part a headache for us."

"F5 BIG-IQ should improve by being a complete certificate management solution because currently, it is only for Venafi. Other automation platforms, should be added."

"For us, right now, F5 is too expensive."

"I would like the product to be cheaper."

"Sometimes the solution does not work."

More F5 BIG-IQ cons

"Where it can be improved is Integration."

"Yes, on the Process Center (development environment), especially when you have too many developers working on it. Then, it becomes unstable."

"There is room for improvement in the stability."

"Importing and exporting between multiple environments is more difficult with other tools."

"Also, we would like to see integration with artificial intelligence, machine learning-type of technical capabilities. Right now, there are a lot Watson libraries out there. Building those integrations more, out-of-the-box, from IBM would be a good direction."

"Development of user interfaces Load time (performance) of the user interfaces"

"I have an interest around the robotic piece, and integrating that with the processes. I think that is certainly a good direction to be going."

"I would like to see a lot more case studies."

More IBM BPM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is only one licensing fee for F5 BIG-IQ and everything is included in the price."

"Users have to pay an annual subscription fee for the solution's iSeries."

"I would like the product to be cheaper."

"F5 BIG-IQ is a cheap solution."

"I give the pricing an eight out of ten."

"IBM could improve the price. It is far too expensive."

"It has a low cost to implement. You'll get your money back in the same year that you complete the project."

"The solution is highly-priced."

"Our customers do see ROI. They'll identify some particularly painful or uncoordinated processes to start with, then build out from there, picking off low hanging fruit."

"The price of the solution is fair for an enterprise solution that has both cloud and on-premise deployments and when comparing to competitors. Recently IBM has introduced Cloud Pak which allows for more flexible licensing options for automation and other features."

"The pricing is quite high, I would rate it two out of five."

"Licensing is managed by the client, but we know it is yearly. Camunda is relatively cheaper. There is not much difference in pricing of IBM and PEGA. For large licensing, there are discounts as well."

More IBM BPM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Marketing Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	72

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IQ?

From the pricing perspective, F5 BIG-IQ rates an eight out of ten as it's reasonably priced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IQ?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IQ?

Currently for WAF, we are moving to another device, F5. We are not using Imperva. F5 BIG-IQ is the Web Application Firewall we're currently using, but regarding the Imperva products, now we are flo...

See all answers

Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?

We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?

Once it is installed, maintaining it is not a big issue.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM BPM?

There are negative aspects, such as IBM BPM being quite heavy and not lightweight, and the licensing cost is higher, which has caused some companies to shift away. IBM BPM is complicated to install...

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow Orchestration vs F5 BIG-IQ

Compared 26% of the time

BMC TrueSight Orchestration vs F5 BIG-IQ

Compared 16% of the time

Camunda vs F5 BIG-IQ

Compared 14% of the time

Control-M vs F5 BIG-IQ

Compared 12% of the time

Nintex Process Platform vs F5 BIG-IQ

Compared 10% of the time

More F5 BIG-IQ Competitors

Camunda vs IBM BPM

Compared 22% of the time

Appian vs IBM BPM

Compared 5% of the time

Apache Airflow vs IBM BPM

Compared 4% of the time

Pega Platform vs IBM BPM

Compared 3% of the time

IBM Business Automation Workflow vs IBM BPM

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM BPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IQ

May 2026

Download F5 BIG-IQ product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM BPM

May 2026

Download IBM BPM product report

Also Known As

No data available

WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server

Overview

F5 BIG-IQ simplifies the centralized management of BIG-IP appliances, providing load balancing and application firewall services. It ensures efficient large-scale operations and is user-friendly, enhancing seamless configuration migrations.

F5 BIG-IQ is designed for organizations seeking to manage multiple F5 appliances through a single interface, offering solutions for load balancing, web application security, and policy migration. Suitable for on-premises or cloud deployments, it caters to service providers and data centers. While some users suggest improvements in GUI usability and performance optimization, F5 BIG-IQ effectively supports web and email security, internet banking, and SSL operations. The GUI is appreciated for ease of use by network-savvy engineers, though dashboard functionality could be enhanced.

What are the standout features of F5 BIG-IQ?

Load Balancing: Manages traffic distribution efficiently across multiple servers.
Centralized Management: Streamlines control of F5 appliance settings from a single location.
Application Firewall: Offers robust protection for web applications against threats.
Seamless Configuration Migration: Allows easy transfer of configurations between devices.
Scalability: Supports operations on a large scale without compromising performance.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating F5 BIG-IQ?

User-Friendliness: Intuitive design for network experts, reducing the learning curve.
Error Reduction: Minimizes errors in policy management, leading to smoother operations.
Efficient Integration: Integrates with existing infrastructure, enhancing workflow continuity.
Cost-Effectiveness: Provides value by optimizing resource allocation and management.

F5 BIG-IQ is implemented across service providers, data centers, and diverse industries for robust load balancing and application security. It handles internet-facing web application security, supports SQL policy management, and enables efficient collaboration with F5 teams. Numerous organizations apply it for internet banking security, email protection, and spearhead SSL transactions, benefiting from its capacity to adapt to rapidly changing requirements.

IBM BPM enhances workflow efficiency with automation, integration, and a user-friendly interface, supporting reusable processes and robust analytics tools for streamlined business operations.

IBM BPM is a platform offering process automation and integration capabilities with a user-centric interface. Its design simplicity and low-code options support rapid development. The platform integrates seamlessly with other IBM products, creating a comprehensive automation suite. Its adaptability makes it easy to visualize and manage processes for efficient operations across diverse environments. IBM BPM is a reliable choice for those seeking to reduce complexity in development, enhance security, and improve scalability. However, improvements in integration, interface enhancements, and support for AI integration are desirable for an optimal experience.

What are the key features of IBM BPM?

Process Automation: Speeds up productivity with automated business tasks.
Integration: Links seamlessly with IBM products and third-party systems.
Analytics Tools: Provides robust analytics for informed decision-making.
Low-Code Development: Enables rapid development with minimal coding.
Adaptability: Customizes easily to fit various operational needs.

What benefits should users expect from IBM BPM?

Enhanced Efficiency: Streamlined workflows reduce manual efforts.
Data-Driven Decisions: Analytics tools provide actionable insights.
Improved Compliance: Aligns with industry standards.
Reduced Complexity: Simplifies operations with user-friendly design.
Scalability: Supports growing business requirements.

Organizations utilize IBM BPM to digitize workflows and automate tasks in sectors like insurance, banking, and logistics. It is effective for managing claims, opening accounts, and processing mortgage applications. The platform enables integration with legacy systems and platforms like MDM and ODM, ensuring comprehensive process management and seamless data flow across multiple applications. Companies find value in its capability to support quicker decision-making and operational efficiency.

IBM

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IQ vs. IBM BPM

April 2026

Free Report: F5 BIG-IQ vs. IBM BPM

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