Barracuda Web Application Firewall vs. F5 BIG-IP

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Barracuda Web Application Firewall
Score 5.6 out of 10
N/A
Barracuda Web Application Firewall, from Barracuda Networks in Campbell, California, protects web applications from bots, DDoS attacks, and other advanced threats to enterprise apps.N/A
F5 BIG-IP
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
F5 BIG-IP software from Seattle-based F5 Networks is a load balancing and application protection solution suite available on cloud or via virtual editions, on a subscription or perpetual licensing basis.N/A
Pricing
Barracuda Web Application FirewallF5 BIG-IP
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda Web Application FirewallF5 BIG-IP
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda Web Application FirewallF5 BIG-IP
Best Alternatives
Barracuda Web Application FirewallF5 BIG-IP
Small Businesses
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.6 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.6 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
Score 9.3 out of 10
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Barracuda Web Application FirewallF5 BIG-IP
Likelihood to Recommend
7.3
(5 ratings)
9.1
(198 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.6
(7 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(71 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(8 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda Web Application FirewallF5 BIG-IP
Likelihood to Recommend
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Easy to use and reliable, with very little maintenance required and zero downtime to date. For the education sector, ease of use is hugely important as IT Managers/Technicians are often "Jack of all trades" with a good, broad general knowledge but perhaps lacking specific expertise in certain aspects. Being provided with easy-to-follow tutorials and instructions has been very useful in setting up and configuring the firewall, especially as my background is more in desktop support.
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F5
Definitely in larger environments, more mature organizations that obviously have the budget to spend and want best in class. Where it struggles is those organizations that don't have the funding and money to spend on it and need more basic functionality. So I'd say that's smaller customers we've worked with and kind of mid-market. They tend to get scared when they get the quotes. Also we've had some struggles with account team consistency. So for the sales team, just a lot of turnover and a lot of missteps on customer calls.
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Pros
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Email Filtering and Inspection
  • Web-based intrusions and attacks
  • Traffic Patterns
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F5
  • I mean from a basic level, it actually satisfies all the use cases we have, which is basically to have multiple web servers for the front end and then you want that to be equally split across. The traffic comes in from all over the world. We use DRA protection and everything, but then we also internally want to make sure all the servers are being utilized and we provide much more availability across all servers. We just make sure BIG-IP sits in between and handles the traffic accordingly. And it's pretty basic and it comes to drawing traffic. It's pretty easy to configure and set it up and then forget.
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Cons
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Reports could be somewhat confusing.
  • The initial setup was a little difficult for our Security Admin team.
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F5
  • Recently we have been deploying F5 web application firewall and we have started the deployment. We have already moved applications out there, but we are not yet to the point wherein I could comment any positive feedback or any negative feedback because we are still going through it, right. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't see any drawbacks or any shortcomings on the F5 product lineup.
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Likelihood to Renew
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
F5
So far experience with F5 BIG-IP has been good, but we are only 6 months into the deployment and will depend on how things run over time.
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Usability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
F5
It's not difficult to understand the parts of application configurations and features. Setting up new virtual servers with multiple profiles, certificates, and nodes is easy for new users through the web interface, which also translates to programability in scripts, DevOps, or other configuration management use-cases. Users from different backgrounds such as networking and infrastructure can use F5 BIG-IP, while users who are familiar with API calls can easily configure objects without needing to understand the platform at all.
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Support Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
The Barracuda Web Application Firewall is easy to use. Support from Barracuda is great also. Load Balancing of the Web Application Firewall is also nice. This allows you to do maintenance or have large loads for the end-user. Threat monitoring of our network and traffic coming into our services within our cloud solution.
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F5
On the occasions when we've had to engage f5 support, they have been great. They have always resolved our issues quickly and been easy to work with and professional. The reason I give them a 10 out of 10, however, is because when we've had issues that have crossed over between the f5 BIG-IP, our Cisco switches, and our Microsoft IIS server the f5 support representatives have been extremely knowledgeable about every product and device involved and have been able to troubleshoot end-to-end without having to engage other vendors.
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Implementation Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
F5
implementation is fine
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Alternatives Considered
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
We have used SonicWalls and WatchGuard firewall appliances neither are even remotely close to the Barracuda Web Application Firewall. In addition, Barracuda support is fantastic. Throw in the 4 year (free) refresh cycle and there is no reason we would even consider the other two again (at least for the foreseeable future).
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F5
That's the one thing that really stood out. It was a lot easier to use from an administrator standpoint, so I think that's the one thing that really made our team decide to go with this product versus another competitor. Just ease of use.
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Return on Investment
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Negative impact: a default port was open and missed by one of our techs.
  • Positive impact: it protects us everyday now that we have it locked down.
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F5
  • F5 BIG-IP has a highly positive impact on the customers. The main impact is on the security of the web applications.
  • F5 BIG-IP provides an easy and safe way to connect employees to assets and applications that reside in an on-premises environment.
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ScreenShots

Barracuda Web Application Firewall Screenshots

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