F5

An app security and delivery platform for hybrid clouds.

F5 provides a converged application delivery and security platform for hybrid multicloud environments. It addresses the challenge of managing application performance, availability, and protection across on-premises, cloud, edge, and Kubernetes deployments through a unified set of controls.

The platform includes load balancing, API gateways, CDN, enterprise DNS, and hybrid multicloud networking. Security capabilities cover WAF, API security, bot management, DDoS mitigation, zero-trust access, secure web gateway, and SSL/TLS orchestration. AI security features include AI Guardrails, AI Red Team, AI Gateway, and Workforce AI Security. Product families include BIG-IP, Distributed Cloud, and NGINX Enterprise, deployable as hardware, software, SaaS, or cloud-native.

F5 is designed for enterprises managing complex application estates across distributed environments. The platform is available through term subscriptions, the Flex Consumption Program, and perpetual licensing, with free trials offered for pre-production testing.

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Key facts

Starts at: Contact sales
Free plan: No
Free trial: Yes
Open source: No

What it does

Api access
Api
Automation
Cdn
Cli
Cloud hosting
Compliance reporting
Customization
Dashboards
Data exports
Ddos protection
Dns management
Documentation
Encryption
Firewall advanced protection for networks data centers and services ssl tls orchestration decrypt inspect and orchestrate encrypted traffic across security tools web application scanning continuously scan external attack surfaces for vulnerabilities ai red team continuously test ai systems for vulnerabilities and adversarial risks ai gateway the control plane for enterprise ai govern models agents and mcp tools cut costs up to 60 with built in guardrails workforce ai security mitigate shadow ai and build a foundation for secure ai adoption with rapid visibility into ai tools f5 big ip high performance delivery and security for apps and apis f5 distributed cloud saas based delivery security and networking across multicloud environments f5 nginx enterprise cloud native delivery and security for modern apps kubernetes and apis deployment options cloud native cloud native application delivery and security with nginx hardware purpose built hardware delivering maximum performance scale and reliability software virtualized application delivery and security across hybrid multicloud dpu offload data processing to accelerate networking and security saas unified saas platform connecting and protecting apps everywhere f5 application delivery and security platform adsp delivers consistent enterprise cybersecurity enforcement across every application data path on premises in the cloud at the edge and in kubernetes environments by operating directly in the path of application traffic f5 blocks exploits before they reach vulnerable code virtually patches live applications while teams build permanent fixes and enforces a single security policy for every app api and ai model wherever it runs f5 converges waf continuous api discovery and protection bot management and ddos mitigation into one line of defense that stops exploits automated fraud and business logic abuse in any environment including air gapped f5 secures ai apps models and agents at runtime by blocking prompt injection and data leakage uncovering vulnerabilities before attackers do and extending zero trust access to agents and mcp servers f5 applies zero trust principles where attackers most often gain access your applications and apis identity and context aware access granted per app and per user contains east west movement and shrinks the blast radius of any compromise while full encrypted traffic visibility eliminates blind spots f5 delivers crypto agility without a forklift upgrade enabling nist standardized post quantum algorithms across the data plane while preserving complete traffic visibility through the transition f5 ai powered waf that risk scores every request automated virtual patching that shields live apps the moment a scan finds a flaw and a platform continuously hardened by frontier ai models f5 waap with f5 ai guardrails earned a 9709 total security score and f5 ai guardrails achieved a 9836 overall score across 20000 adversarial test cases including 993 effectiveness against prompt injection f5 works with leading security and technology vendors to close the gaps no single product can together we address customers hardest problems protecting data wherever it moves stopping threats before they spread and securing modern workloads at runtime so organizations can modernize with confidence f5 and equinix secure distributed ai workloads and protect data across global infrastructure f5 and nvidia secure ai inference at scale protecting gpu accelerated workloads at runtime f5 and dell secure data pipelines at scale protecting information wherever it moves f5 embeds crowdstrike falcon into big ip stopping threats before they spread across networks f5 meets ai driven threats with ai powered defense analyzing ai app and api traffic across hybrid multicloud to detect and stop malicious activity without adding friction for legitimate account holders or slowing the applications they depend on f5 provides security aligned to the nist cybersecurity framework across the mission critical applications apis and ai systems agencies depend on enforcing zero trust on every request human or machine from hybrid multicloud to air gapped environments and blocking lateral movement so a breach stays contained f5 addresses security with advanced app api protection across hardware software and saas without re architecture to continuously monitor and block credential abuse and protect web and api traffic f5s global scale and industry leading converged application delivery and security platform provide unrivaled insight into the challenges and threats facing modern and legacy apps in the ai era our solutions are built to ensure that every app every api anywhere is fast available and secure with deep expertise and strong partnerships we help our customers deliver exceptional experiences every time over 80 of the fortune global 500 rely on f5 converging app delivery and cybersecurity on a single platform the f5 application delivery and security platform adsp converges the critical services required for ensuring every app api and component from the cloud to edge has consistent comprehensive security high availability and intelligent orchestration for the most intensive workloads key benefits include comprehensive app delivery and security deployable anywhere in any form factor unified management with fully programmable data planes rich analytics and actionable insights the f5 adsp helps you reduce blind spots build stronger defenses and drive better business outcomes f5 recognized as leader in web application and api protection waap in the kuppingercole 2025 leadership compass report f5 and equinix expand partnership to accelerate ai ready infrastructure for secure global application delivery xcel energy protects critical infrastructure and apps while gaining efficiency with hybrid multicloud app security and consolidated visibility from f5 adsp servus credit union secures member finances with f5 as cybercrime continues to threaten global institutions canadas servus credit union relies on its longtime partnership with f5 to help it secure member finances rackspace technology increases agility for cloud customers while enhancing automation by replacing a disappointing vendors hardware with f5 big ip virtual edition f5 earned multiple 2026 trustradius top rated awards based on customer reviews for the application delivery and security platform and products f5 was recognized an overall leader in waap and named a leader in innovation product and market categories f5 offers both self directed and instructor led courses as well as a suite of f5 certifications designed to help you develop the knowledge and hands on skills to deploy configure and manage f5 products f5 professional certification validates your expertise in managing the entire application stack from traditional network knowledge all the way to advanced application layer understanding with the ability to integrate those two worlds f5s leadership team is driving f5 into the future life at f5 is exciting and ever changing we are constantly identifying industry trends and disruptions innovating to get ahead of future customer needs f5ers create technologies that help the worlds leading organizations deliver their critical business apps faster and with the highest levels of flexibility security performance and support at f5 we believe that the connection between our digital code and our human code is how we help build support and empower our communities therefore we are committed to wholeheartedly doing our part by putting forward our best individual and collective efforts to help every person feel valued and connected to the greater whole together we actively build a culture where everyone feels they can be themselves and reach their full potential we know the magic ingredient is our differences when embraced with humility and respect and because we know this we believe that top talent is found in a diversity of individual backgrounds experiences and perspectives since f5 formed the environmental social and governance esg team in late 2020 our focus has been on bringing the environmental program up to the standards weve proudly set over the last 30 years in social and governance f5 is trusted by more than 80 of the fortune 500 source fortunecom discover how businesses thrive with f5 rackspace boosts private cloud agility with virtualization by making it easy with a trusted brand and a reasonable price point f5 has a really strong value proposition today bryan litchford vice president of private cloud rackspace technologies docusign delivers reliable contract management for 1 billion users the f5 solution bridges the gap between complex network demands and rapid deployment were very pleased with the performance and the efficiency we get for our dollar rich gocheco senior manager systems engineering docusign a leading european asset manager learned the hard way that object storage alone cannot absorb the concurrency of ai workloads after a client misconfiguration triggered a denial of service event the firm deployed f5 solutions to ensure reliable scalable and high performance s3 data delivery for ai model training autonomous platforms generate continuous vision and sensor data that a national public safety technology agency stores transforms and feeds into rag services f5 big ip r4600 appliances sit in front of the agencys weka and vast data storage to secure and load balance that ingestion path protecting data at the perimeter and ensuring reliably up to date data for ai applications f5 hardens its own code with frontier ai models while protecting your apps apis and ai models in the data path blocking zero day and emerging ai driven threats at runtime digital sovereignty is reshaping application strategy learn how f5 supports digital sovereignty with adaptable application strategies ensuring compliance without fragmenting delivery security or operations deliver and secure enterprise ai at the speed of inference learn how to effectively scale secure and orchestrate ai infrastructure and applications through industry leading best practices and insights f5 was named a leader in the idc marketscape worldwide waap platforms 2026 vendor assessment download an excerpt of the idc marketscape with the f5 vendor profile today to learn why we have been named a leader with perfect scores in security efficacy and false positive avoidance secureiqlab recognizes f5s leadership in waap when ai traffic and ai threats arrive through the same front door application delivery and security can no longer live on separate platforms protecting ai workloads demands both in one the cloud waap market continues to evolve as organizations seek more advanced and adaptive protection for modern applications this evolution is accelerated by growing interest in api based architectures increased deployment of ai applications and the overall complexity of already distributed environments get the report to find out why gigaom chose f5 as a leader and a fast mover in app and api security and why they highlighted f5s focus on optimizing and protecting applications across diverse customer environments with unmatched flexibility while remaining at the forefront of security innovation get comprehensive security for sensitive data apps and apis on a single platform leveraging ai ml and other advanced technologies plus defend against a wide range of threats to web apps and apis including exploits automated attacks denial of service and fraud explore the use case for web app and api protection access the f5 application delivery and security platform adsp through any of our buying programs including term subscriptions the flex consumption program fcp and perpetual licensing contact f5 sales to learn more explore ai powered virtual patching with f5 distributed cloud f5 waf for distributed cloud is ai powered securing multi agent systems with f5 ai guardrails simplify f5 waf policy management with f5 nginx one console explore how multi model ai and distributed inferencing are evolving to impact app delivery and security and what it could mean for you get the state of application strategy report explore f5s latest solutions through demos on delivery security and xops test f5 products in your pre production environment well assess needs and link you to the right cloud provider reseller or f5 get support and manage subscriptions and big ip ve keys explore the f5 blog for insights trends and expert advice on digital innovation strategic insights on the future of app services and ai assisted evolution the latest news awards recognition and announcements about f5 and nginx updates on whats new improved and fixed get the who what when and whats next in cyberattacks to inform your security f5 experts help to solve problems share ideas and discuss trends gain know how and hands on skills to deploy set up and manage f5 products were dedicated to building partnerships that drive your business forward f5 positioned as market shaper in the gartner emerging market quadrant for ai application security f5 announces strategic partnership with omnissa to deliver secure high performance digital workspaces f5 distributed cloud bot defense adds device intelligence and agentic ai detection to guard against automated account abuse f5 expands ai security platform with f5 workforce ai security f5 named a leader in the 2026 idc marketscape for worldwide waap platforms for the second time f5 application delivery and security product categories the f5 portfolio of enterprise grade application services ensures that apps are fast available and secure across any on premises or multi cloud environment introducing f5 application delivery and security platform the first application delivery controller adc solution that fully converges app and api security with industry leading high performance load balancing and traffic management application delivery api gateway security first api gateway with built in waf and ddos protection content delivery network cdn global cdn accelerating apps with caching and integrated security enterprise dns high performance dns improving reliability scale and attack resilience hybrid multicloud networking securely connect and manage applications in distributed environments including on premises cloud and edge locations at scale load balancing high performance load balancing for reliable secure applications telecom networking and optimization carrier grade networking for secure scalable 5g and 6g services unified management and automation unified visibility automation and control for application delivery application security access control and management zero trust access control for legacy and modern applications api security discover govern and protect apis across your entire attack surface bot management and security stop automated threats using advanced bot detection and mitigation client side protection detect and mitigate large scale network and application ddos attacks ddos detect and mitigate large scale network and application ddos attacks network firewall security advanced firewall protection for networks data centers and services secure web gateway services policy driven web access with advanced filtering and threat protection ssl tls orchestration decrypt inspect and orchestrate encrypted traffic across security tools waf protect applications and apis from owasp threats and bots web application scanning continuously scan external attack surfaces for vulnerabilities ai security ai security platform security for ai models apps agents and data across the entire lifecycle ai guardrails secure ai models applications and agents with policy guardrails ai red team continuously test ai systems for vulnerabilities and adversarial risks ai gateway the control plane for enterprise ai govern models agents and mcp tools cut costs up to 60 with built in guardrails workforce ai security mitigate shadow ai and build a foundation for secure ai adoption with rapid visibility into ai tools product families f5 big ip high performance delivery and security for apps and apis f5 distributed cloud saas based delivery security and networking across multicloud environments f5 nginx enterprise cloud native delivery and security for modern apps kubernetes and apis deployment options cloud native cloud native application delivery and security with nginx hardware purpose built hardware delivering maximum performance scale and reliability software virtualized application delivery and security across hybrid multicloud dpu offload data processing to accelerate networking and security saas unified saas platform connecting and protecting apps everywhere next steps start a free trial experience f5 in action by testing our products in your pre production environment contact us we can assess your needs and connect you with the right cloud provider reseller partner or f5 sales engineer find a reseller were dedicated to building partnerships that drive your business forward compare f5 see the difference between your stack and f5 protect against the ever changing threat landscape automated attacks api sprawl fragmented controls and looming quantum risk the threat landscape keeps shifting but the exposure gaps remain the same f5 protects every app api and ai model with one consistent set of security controls with distributed enforcement in the data path everywhere you operate when the patch window is zero runtime is your line of defense attackers have industrialized automated tooling now accelerated by ai finds and weaponizes flaws faster than patch cycles can close them and every new app api and integration adds another point to defend meanwhile most organizations protect their hybrid multicloud estate with a patchwork of tools and policies and the seams between them have quietly become the attack surface the f5 application delivery and security platform adsp delivers consistent enterprise cybersecurity enforcement across every application data path on premises in the cloud at the edge and in kubernetes environments by operating directly in the path of application traffic f5 blocks exploits before they reach vulnerable code virtually patches live applications while teams build permanent fixes and enforces a single security policy for every app api and ai model wherever it runs the risk surface is expanding faster than the tools built to defend it 88 of organizations have faced at least one ai related security or operational challenge 193 of organizations operate across hybrid multicloud environments 190 of organizations say agentic ai in production introduces new security challenges 1 explore enterprise cybersecurity solutions web app and api protection ai security zero trust architectures post quantum cryptography readiness every app and api is an entry point including the ones you dont know you have f5 converges waf continuous api discovery and protection bot management and ddos mitigation into one line of defense that stops exploits automated fraud and business logic abuse in any environment including air gapped explore waap solutions ai adoption is outpacing governance and shadow ai puts sensitive data in motion beyond your visibility f5 secures ai apps models and agents at runtime by blocking prompt injection and data leakage uncovering vulnerabilities before attackers do and extending zero trust access to agents and mcp servers adoption doesnt have to mean exposure explore ai security solutions a single compromised credential shouldnt become a breach f5 applies zero trust principles where attackers most often gain access your applications and apis identity and context aware access granted per app and per user contains east west movement and shrinks the blast radius of any compromise while full encrypted traffic visibility eliminates blind spots explore zero trust architecture solutions harvest now decrypt later attacks are already underway any data with a long shelf life is already at risk f5 delivers crypto agility without a forklift upgrade enabling nist standardized post quantum algorithms across the data plane while preserving complete traffic visibility through the transition explore pqc readiness solutions web app and api protection every app and api is an entry point including the ones you dont know you have f5 converges waf continuous api discovery and protection bot management and ddos mitigation into one line of defense that stops exploits automated fraud and business logic abuse in any environment including air gapped explore waap solutions ai security ai adoption is outpacing governance and shadow ai puts sensitive data in motion beyond your visibility f5 secures ai apps models and agents at runtime by blocking prompt injection and data leakage uncovering vulnerabilities before attackers do and extending zero trust access to agents and mcp servers adoption doesnt have to mean exposure explore ai security solutions zero trust architectures a single compromised credential shouldnt become a breach f5 applies zero trust principles where attackers most often gain access your applications and apis identity and context aware access granted per app and per user contains east west movement and shrinks the blast radius of any compromise while full encrypted traffic visibility eliminates blind spots explore zero trust architecture solutions post quantum cryptography readiness harvest now decrypt later attacks are already underway any data with a long shelf life is already at risk f5 delivers crypto agility without a forklift upgrade enabling nist standardized post quantum algorithms across the data plane while preserving complete traffic visibility through the transition explore pqc readiness solutions security that works the way a ciso must one policy every environment different tools and policies for each environment create the gaps attackers exploit f5 enforces a single consistent security policy across hybrid multicloud ai that defends not just detects f5 puts ai to work for the defender with an ai powered waf that risk scores every request automated virtual patching that shields live apps the moment a scan finds a flaw and a platform continuously hardened by frontier ai models fewer tools fewer surprises every additional point product is another integration and another blind spot by converging delivery and security f5 lowers total cost of ownership and removes the seams between products proven not promised in independenttesting f5 waap with f5 ai guardrails earned a 9709 total security score and f5 ai guardrails achieved a 9836 overall score across 20000 adversarial test cases including 993 effectiveness against prompt injection integrated with the security ecosystem you already run f5 works with leading security and technology vendors to close the gaps no single product can together we address customers hardest problems protecting data wherever it moves stopping threats before they spread and securing modern workloads at runtime so organizations can modernize with confidence equinix f5 and equinix secure distributed ai workloads and protect data across global infrastructure nvidia f5 and nvidia secure ai inference at scale protecting gpu accelerated workloads at runtime dell f5 and dell secure data pipelines at scale protecting information wherever it moves crowdstrike f5 embeds crowdstrike falcon into big ip stopping threats before they spread across networks trending topics securing the new control points in the ai journey why the recent us executive order 14412 demands pqc readiness the f5 ai security platform eliminating the guesswork from ai security how cisos can measure ai security risk industry perspectives banking and financial services public sector healthcare retail and ecommerce safeguard financial data and customer trust ai is industrializing financial fraud attackers now fabricate synthetic identities to open new accounts and deploy deepfakes and stolen credentials to take over real ones moving through the same apps and apis your customers use in financial services successful cyberattacks bring fraud losses and data breaches with regulatory exposure bottom line impact and brand damage that outlasts the incident f5 meets ai driven threats with ai powered defense analyzing ai app and api traffic across hybrid multicloud to detect and stop malicious activity without adding friction for legitimate account holders or slowing the applications they depend on ai powered app and api security for bfsi keep missions running breaches contained zero trust architectures have become the foundation of cybersecurity for governments as agencies adopt ai to accelerate decision making and service delivery ai agents service accounts and apis drive a growing share of access to mission systems acting autonomously and at machine speed f5 provides security aligned to the nist cybersecurity framework across the mission critical applications apis and ai systems agencies depend on enforcing zero trust on every request human or machine from hybrid multicloud to air gapped environments and blocking lateral movement so a breach stays contained zero trust architectures for government ensure eph data security and compliance healthcare organizations from providers running epic and other ehr platforms to health insurers and pharmaceuticals depend on access to critical applications and portals attackers are using advanced bots and ai driven campaigns to launch credential stuffing and application layer attacks and a single compromise can escalate into eph pii exposure ip loss and ransomware f5 addresses security with advanced app api protection across hardware software and saas without re architecture to continuously monitor and block credential abuse and protect web and api traffic explore f5 solutions for healthcare deter ecommerce fra

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