Cisco Firepower 4100 Series vs. F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco Firepower 4100 Series’ 1-rack-unit size is presented by the vendodr as ideal at the Internet edge and in high-performance environments. They further state that it shows what’s happening on your network, detects attacks earlier so you can act faster, and reduces management complexity.N/A
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
F5 Networks offers the F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager, a firewall software combining a number of features including DDoS, DNS security, and other protections.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Editions & Modules
Firepower 4100
50,000-250,000
per appliance
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Features
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
8.6
4 Ratings
0% below category average
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
8.6
2 Ratings
0% below category average
Identification Technologies8.24 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.24 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Content Inspection8.03 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.24 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP10.03 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.14 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.84 Ratings8.02 Ratings
VPN9.74 Ratings10.01 Ratings
High Availability9.54 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Stateful Inspection10.04 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Proxy Server5.52 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Small Businesses
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.4 out of 10
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Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(4 ratings)
8.3
(5 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesF5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
When we are asked by local partners which security equipment we use we always recommend our Cisco security products. The Firepower firewall is no exception and we can easily recommend this to others who need a fast, secure, and well built system that integrates well with all your existing hardware and software.
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F5
We were able to eliminate a firewall from our network architecture by integrating the module into our existing F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM). This allowed us to save on tech refresh costs, since the F5 was able to handle the module without much additional strain on the device. However, if a firewall had features that the AFM lacked, then using that firewall in tandem with an F5 would be preferable.
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Pros
Cisco
  • Packet filtering
  • Great vpn client
  • Integrates correctly with other vendors
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F5
  • Load balancing using pools
  • SSL offloading
  • iRules for threat handling
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Cons
Cisco
  • Too much time to deploy changes
  • When there are a lot of entries in the ldap mapping the device runs slow
  • You can not make config changes via CLI, only via GUI
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F5
  • If unsure, can be overly cautious.
  • There are few changes the end user can make.
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Usability
Cisco
It not easy to understand the different features it offers. Sometimes you need to spend a couple of minutes to implement a change or even open a ticket with cisco tac to figure it out. Once support is on the phone with you they know how to resolve problems. But it's not an intuitive tool
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F5
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
No answers on this topic
F5
F5 Advanced Firewall Manager has been a solid, strong solution to both keep our systems safe and being seamless for our end users. Most of the time, the end-user is not impacted and does not even know F5 Advanced Firewall Manager is running which is exactly what we are looking for.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
As I mentioned before, the Fortigates have better failover. I think the Cisco interface is easier to use that that of the FortiGate. My only criticism would be that with multiple CLIs, it can get a bit confusing when you are trying to configure something or troubleshoot from the CLI.
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F5
Both F5 [BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager] and Radware require training as they are not easy to use. But Radware uses some configuration that needs deep learning and proper labs. From an admin's perspective, Configuration and management for F5 [BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager are] less. Also, the cost of implementing F5 [BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager] is lesser than that of Radware Alteon.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Very stable and does not cause major interruption.
  • Supports most of the business requirements.
  • Enhance security, risk and compliance.
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F5
  • When we had to decide on whether to buy different hardware our team were all in support of renewal for F5 [BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager]
  • F5 [BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager] requires proper training on tools and clear concepts of packets, headers, and content to create WAF policies
  • Overall, we are satisfied by the ROI provided by our F5 AFM and GTMs
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ScreenShots