What users are saying about

Cloudflare vs BIG-IP

Cloudflare
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Top Rated
162 Ratings
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BIG-IP
52 Ratings

Cloudflare

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Top Rated
162 Ratings
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Score 9.1 out of 100

Based on 162 reviews and ratings

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BIG-IP

52 Ratings
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Score 8.3 out of 100

Based on 52 reviews and ratings

Attribute Ratings

  • Cloudflare is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Support Rating
  • Cloudflare and F5 BIG-IP are tied in 1 area: Usability

Likelihood to Recommend

9.1

Cloudflare

91%
75 Ratings
8.8

BIG-IP

88%
13 Ratings

Likelihood to Renew

10.0

Cloudflare

100%
1 Rating

BIG-IP

N/A
0 Ratings

Usability

9.0

Cloudflare

90%
1 Rating
9.0

BIG-IP

90%
1 Rating

Support Rating

8.5

Cloudflare

85%
53 Ratings
7.7

BIG-IP

77%
7 Ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

Cloudflare

I can't think of a single scenario where Cloudflare isn't useful. Our company uses Cloudflare for ALL sites. In fact, as a Web Development Agency, we don't work with clients unless they allow us to use Cloudflare. It's really that good ;-) and necessary for modern websites and apps.

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Jason Janes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jason Janes
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BIG-IP

The product provides a very successful solution for both VPN and Load Balancing, especially for medium and large-sized companies. It can be preferred in small-sized companies, but due to the price and licensing model, I think this would be an unnecessary expense. This product is very successful especially if you have more than 2 servers on the Internet, DMZ side and you are going to balance the load between them. On the local side, if you are managing a large database, this solution of F5 is truly unrivaled.

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Evren BOZTEPE | TrustRadius Reviewer
Evren BOZTEPE
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Pros

Cloudflare

  • When you need a FREE and EASY TO SETUP SSL certificate on your page (if you don't have the locked locker icon when opening your page, you need it)
  • When you want to obfuscate your webpage's IP (any connection will give the Cloudflare's IP)
  • You need to speed up the connection for static content (it will not help database connections or dynamic content)
  • IF your DNS isn't good (Cloudflare's DNS is amazing, quick, easy, and works pretty well)

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Igor Neumann | TrustRadius Reviewer
Igor Neumann
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BIG-IP

  • Easy connection: you can connect to your corporate network with two clicks.
  • IP restriction: F5 has a list of possible insecure IP numbers, if someone tries to connect using one of these numbers, F5 BIG-IP won't connect.
  • Always on feature: Very handy feature, if you install always on, you won't need to click connect.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Cons

Cloudflare

  • There is a huge jump in price between the mid-tier and enterprise solutions which is hard to justify for smaller businesses, or companies owning many small businesses.
  • It is difficult to convert from a CNAME installation back to a DNS based one
  • Setting up page-level caching with web workers is counterintuitive for simple websites

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Nicholas Tantillo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nicholas Tantillo
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BIG-IP

  • The appliance had power supply problems, replaced 2 over the 5 years, $3000 each
  • The appliance as a hardware device had no support 2 years after we bought them, moved to virtual
  • Requires F5 knowledge, their terminology and way of doing things needs training

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Pricing Details

Cloudflare

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Starting Price

$0

Cloudflare Editions & Modules

Edition
FreeFree
Pro$202
Business$2002
EnterpriseContact sales team
  1. none
  2. per month
  3. none
Additional Pricing Details
—

BIG-IP

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Starting Price

—

BIG-IP Editions & Modules

—
Additional Pricing Details
—

Usability

Cloudflare

Cloudflare 9.0
Based on 1 answer
While there are some parts of the service that can be tricky to implement if you have a very custom site, like holepunching for cache, for the most part, the service works very well out of the box and is easy to use

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Ramon Khan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Ramon Khan
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BIG-IP

BIG-IP 9.0
Based on 1 answer
Great customization and easy to use help reference menus

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Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP
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Support Rating

Cloudflare

Cloudflare 8.5
Based on 53 answers
I (fortunately) have not encountered an issue I deemed severe enough to require me to submit a ticket to support. Most of the time, the problems I have encountered were fixable by simply waiting (as is usual with DNS services); or Googling and perusing their perfectly serviceable documentation and browsing support forums.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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BIG-IP

BIG-IP 7.7
Based on 7 answers
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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Paul Luchini | TrustRadius Reviewer
Paul Luchini
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Alternatives Considered

Cloudflare

CloudFlare is always innovating fast and adding new interesting solutions to the CDN, DNS, and DDoS problems that keep appearing as the internet grows and matures. Due to network effects, using CloudFlare is easier, faster, and more reliable than the competitors, and their support is super fast. I have used other solutions in previous companies like Akamai but their APIs were not very easy to use and their interfaces were not that friendly, also their CDNs were not as fast to clear the cache.

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Daniel Anjos | TrustRadius Reviewer
Daniel Anjos
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BIG-IP

I can't recall the name of the previous software we used for remote intranet access, but it was much less reliable. F5 BIG-IP is consistent and easy to use--the authentication process happens quickly and reliably via my cell phone's facial recognition feature which is convenient and secure. No need to carry a key fob or enter a verification code. The previous software required email codes be sent and entered to verify access.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Return on Investment

Cloudflare

  • Uptime: With Cloudflare's website protection, we have avoided panic-inducing outages and downtime.
  • Reduced hosting load: Cloudflare's CDN allows us to use smaller servers and greatly diminish bandwidth usage.
  • Reduced domain renewal cost: Most of our domains could be transferred to Cloudflare, where domain renewals are as cheap as possible.
  • Increased total website cost: All of Cloudflare's features aren't free, and they increase our monthly overall website cost. The protection and other features are helpful, just not free.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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BIG-IP

  • Load balancing is a requirement in most serious web environments, and this allows us to keep sites up and running in the event of partial server outages.
  • Keeping sites extra secured with the advanced security and routing features is a plus.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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