F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs. FortiClient

I think that the platform is well suited to many Remote Access VPN solutions, but I also think there is a lot of room for improvement on the backend. If you are hoping to deploy your APM solution across many different datacenters or colos, it may not be the best choice for the final solution.

Incentivized

Overall, my experience with the client is good, and because of its performance and lightweight, I recommend this software to my colleagues. Before this, I also used other apps for the same purpose, but my search ended when I came to Forticlient.

Incentivized

• SAML 2.0 identity federation support.
• Integrates with third-party SSO solutions.
• Bridging modern authentication and authorization (SAML, OAuth/OIDC) and classic authentication and authorization methods.
• Policy routing

Incentivized

• Virtually a one-click action connection to my work network while remote. I just enter my network username & Password, click connect, and I can access all the fileshares as if I were on-site.
• Speed - I have used other virtual network clients in the past, and the speed while working remote with one of them (even on a high speed connection) was easily 10x slower than if I were physically on the network. FortiClient is different, where the speed degradation is on the magnitude of only 2-3x slower - A significant and noticeable difference compared to other clients on the market.
• On MacOS, FortiClient has a little toolbar icon that gives me a status, as well as actions to quickly connect or disconnect from my work network. It is a small thing, but a super handy feature!

Incentivized

• There's some more advanced configurations within OAuth that I think could be fleshed out and easier to approach.
• There's a lot of things in F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager policies that I find myself recreating every policy. An easier way to copy objects from one to policy to another.

Incentivized

• font way too small on login, unable to select an option, for example, to see each letter of password as typed promotes errors at login
• login errors and failure rate extremely high as [reported] by all our physicians and other providers: not infrequently one will have to return to office after hours in order to complete charts or access charts to answer patient after hours questions
• frequent disconnects in spite of excellent internet signal
• unacceptable interruptions in patient care

Integration with F5 BIG-IP systems that we plan to keep using for a while.

Incentivized

Because the software is very simple and easy to use, very efficient, and has a stable connection that allows the user to perform tasks without problems. Also, this software does not need to be configured by IT technicians, since it comes with a very developed and understandable set up guide.

Incentivized

If F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager usability is fine it's not hard to use if you read the documentation but it does feel dated and could use a responsive design update to modernize user interface to current standards.

Incentivized

We have used Forticlient for a number of years now and have found only minor faults with the application. The fact that our end users request little to no training to be able to utilize our VPN says a lot compared to the product we previously used to use for similar tasks. The Forticlient shield is a quick way to 'demonstrate confidence in security' at a glance among our end users - if you see the shield, you are protected. The only downside we've experienced is a few false positive AV detections, but this is more linked to Fortiguard labs/signatures.

Incentivized

FortiClient is a security suite with which we can keep our equipment well-protected. And it is that in a system like Windows, which is always the target of all kinds of attacks, it is not enough to have a simple antivirus.

Incentivized

It is open platform so support is not good and than F5 and features visibility as not good as F5. F5 Set up and easy to use to admin console. Also have more feature visibility for load balancing, web server accelerator, application server ddos protection and WAF. F5 more efficient to handle concurrent request.

Incentivized

My current organization is using FortiClient and they decided to use it since longer period. The main advantages is we are using it for connect RDP and and access private URL. But main reason is one time configuration is help us to connect it any time from anywhere. It's sending OTP to the work mail and helps us to validate it. While Cisco or other VPN ask mobile OTP auth or authenticator app which is much complex process. Hence FortiClient is best!

Incentivized

• Simplified our approach to company-wide VPN solutions greatly by allowing us to use a single product instead of multiple products like we had before
• Can handle 15000-20000 users at once with no issues
• Was able to configure to support users travelling with 4G connections on their laptops and accommodate constant changing IP addresses

Incentivized

• The free version of FortiClient VPN works great.
• The fact that we have to pay for any version beyond 6.0.3 to connect to our firewalls that we already pay for licensing on is a little silly.
• There is some support overhead with our clients and users to keep the software updated since it doesn't upgrade to new major versions automatically.

Incentivized