Today's bots solve CAPTCHAs faster than humans and use AI to thwart defense mechanisms in real time.
These sophisticated bots:
execute credential stuffing attacks that test thousands of stolen credentials per minute and perform account takeovers
bypass multifactor authentication through phishing proxies
hoard inventory for resale at higher prices, frustrating real customers
scrape content, causing loss of competitive data and application performance degradation
brute force crack gift card numbers to siphon off balances
validate stolen credit card data through application logins, racking up chargeback fees and fines for the impacted enterprise
and create fake accounts for the pursuit of fraud
How do you block bad bots without frustrating users? F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense accurately identifies malicious bots through deep signal collection and behavioral analysis by human experts and AI. It not only distinguishes bad bots from legitimate traffic with a near-zero false positive rate, but it also uses machine learning to detect and block rapid attacker retooling. Advanced code obfuscation adds further protection by preventing reverse engineering of F5 detection methods.
AWS Marketplace now accepts line of credit payments through the PNC Vendor Finance program. This program is available to select AWS customers in the US, excluding NV, NC, ND, TN, & VT.
Pricing is based on the duration and terms of your contract with the vendor. This entitles you to a specified quantity of use for the contract duration. If you choose not to renew or replace your contract before it ends, access to these entitlements will expire.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
This listing has one pricing dimension, F5 XC SaaS (Units), billed under a contract model. You buy a set quantity of units for the F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense service, delivered as SaaS. Pricing scales with the number of units you commit to, so a higher unit count raises your total cost. There are no separate tiers or instance sizes to choose from. The service directs your web and API traffic to real-time bot detection. To size the right unit quantity for your traffic, contact the vendor.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
What counts as one unit for billing this Bot Defense service?
The pricing table lists F5 XC SaaS (Units) as the single billing measure but does not define what one unit represents in traffic or transaction terms. Unit sizing depends on your web and API traffic volume. Contact the vendor to map units to your expected traffic before you commit.
How does this contract billing work compared to paying as I go?
You commit to a set number of units upfront under this contract listing. You pay for that committed quantity for the term regardless of actual traffic. The vendor also notes a separate pay-as-you-go option exists for Distributed Cloud on AWS Marketplace, which meters usage without commitment.
What happens to my cost if my traffic grows beyond my committed units?
The listing sells a fixed quantity of units under contract, so growth in traffic can push you past your committed amount. There are no separate tiers or instance sizes to select. The listing does not specify overage handling, so contact the vendor to confirm how excess traffic is billed.
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Identifies malicious bots through deep signal collection and behavioral analysis using human expertise and AI to distinguish bad bots from legitimate traffic
Machine Learning-based Threat Response
Uses machine learning to detect and block rapid attacker retooling and evolving bot tactics in real time
Multi-platform Deployment
Supports flexible deployment options across AWS CloudFront, AWS AMIs, and third-party platforms
Advanced Code Obfuscation
Implements code obfuscation to prevent reverse engineering of detection methods and protect defense mechanisms
OWASP Automated Threats Coverage
Provides protection against all OWASP Automated Threats including credential stuffing, account takeover, inventory hoarding, content scraping, brute force attacks, and fake account creation
OWASP Top 10 Protection Coverage
Comprehensive ruleset protecting against all OWASP Top 10 web application threats including SQL Injection, Cross Site Scripting, General and Known Exploits, Malicious Bots, and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)
Threat Intelligence Updates
Regular updates based on latest threat information from FortiGuard Labs security research
Configurable Response Actions
Rules can be configured to log, alert, and/or block detected threats
AWS WAF Integration
Managed rule group compatible with AWS WAF for web application firewall deployment
Multi-Region Support
Deployable across multiple AWS regions with per-region configuration capabilities
Threat Intelligence Integration
Rulesets regularly updated with latest threat alerts using Cyber Threat Intelligence
OWASP Top 10 Coverage
Managed rules designed to mitigate and minimize all vulnerabilities on OWASP Top 10 Web Application Threats list
Code Injection Prevention
Targeted rules for common code injection techniques including SQLi, NoSQLi, and OS command injection
Technology-Specific Vulnerability Detection
Managed rules targeting known exploits in Apache Struts2, Apache Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic, WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla
Malicious Bot Detection
Rulesets for identifying and blocking malicious bot traffic
Unified policies have simplified traffic management and have strengthened client security posture
Reviewed on Sep 07, 2026
Review provided by PeerSpot
What is our primary use case?
I address security threats to my clients and customers through the capabilities of F5 Distributed Cloud Services, but I need clarification on some details.
What is most valuable?
The key benefits that my clients have seen from using F5 Distributed Cloud Services are the ease of configuration and the platform itself. It provides a unified platform for all policies and configurations, making it very easy and user-friendly, unlike the Big-IP appliance.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services helps improve traffic management efficiency. My clients previously worked with load balancers and LTM policies on Big-IP, and they now manage these from F5 Distributed Cloud Services itself, making configuration much easier.
What needs improvement?
I do not have any specific areas that need improvement. There do not appear to be any features that clients would like to see included or functionalities that can be enhanced at this time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not experienced any stability issues with F5 Distributed Cloud Services. I find it to be very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding scalability, it is easy to scale up or scale out.
How are customer service and support?
I am familiar with F5 customer service and the technical support team, as I opened a support ticket from my tenant to the Distributed Cloud support.
I would evaluate F5 technical support as not particularly fast in replying, but it is effective.
On a scale of one to ten, I think seven would be a fair rating for the technical support. This rating is based on the response time, which needs to be improved.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not worked with any other technologies or vendors personally, but I hear about them from competitors in the market.
How was the initial setup?
The setup process is straightforward, and I have not encountered any challenges or complexities.
What about the implementation team?
I work with F5 directly; however, I procure F5 Distributed Cloud Services through a distributor here in Egypt.
What was our ROI?
I do find F5 Distributed Cloud Services to be cost-effective, as it brings benefits and a strong return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, I believe the prices are much higher than I expected, but for the time being, the customer is still paying. It is not really a cheap product.
From a pricing perspective, there should be more flexibility in the pricing model, as this leaves room for improvement. We are a platinum partner for F5, so we have aggressive discounts from the F5 team, but there is still competitive pricing pressure regarding the same product from other vendors.
What other advice do I have?
Unfortunately, I do not have any examples that demonstrate improvements in security posture with F5 automated threat detection, as I did not investigate it on the technical side.
Given my extensive experience with F5 technologies, I have no piece of advice or recommendation that I can share with other organizations considering F5 Distributed Cloud Services.
Overall, I would recommend it. It is very easy to use and effective, and you can immediately configure the policies and configurations you need, with results appearing in seconds.
Other organizations do not need to keep anything specific in mind, as I have no specific advice to share before they consider moving to F5 Distributed Cloud Services.
I have given this review an overall rating of 8.5 out of 10.
Dimitrov Nikolay
Improved traffic management and cost savings have highlighted the need for richer customization
Reviewed on Sep 04, 2026
Review provided by PeerSpot
How has it helped my organization?
It helped for many customers, and it is cheaper than Silverline, the previous service.
What is most valuable?
Regarding F5 Distributed Cloud Services, Silverline is no longer in use. I have been working with F5 Distributed Cloud Services and was even part of the migration of some customers from Silverline to F5 Distributed Cloud Services.
F5 is attempting to make F5 Distributed Cloud Services function in the cloud similarly to BIG-IP, bringing the same processes the TMOS operating system uses into the cloud environment. F5 Distributed Cloud Services is based on Envoy proxy. F5 Distributed Cloud Services is not as robust as desired. Although it has many beneficial features, it does not have TMOS in the background. It has the same WAF daemon; the BD daemon is the same WAF. They use the same WAF processes across their products: NGINX, BIG-IP, and F5 Distributed Cloud Services.
Regarding the DDoS protection feature in F5 Distributed Cloud Services, I would rate it seven out of ten. It provides layer three and four DDoS protection, and it also has layer seven DDoS protection. It has improved. Previously, I would have rated it six out of ten. Now it is seven out of ten because it includes machine learning capabilities.
For some virtual servers, the feature should trigger earlier, and for others, it should trigger later, depending on the virtual server's purpose and transaction volume.
What needs improvement?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services needs to add iRule support. This is the primary improvement needed.
For additional features I expect from F5 Distributed Cloud Services, iRule support is definitely necessary, along with more support for customizing layer three and four settings and layer seven, similar to BIG-IP, including TCP profiles and HTTP profiles. F5 Distributed Cloud Services does not have as much functionality to customize the TCP or HTTP settings.
I would also like to see more artificial intelligence capabilities. Some kind of artificial intelligence learning would be valuable. F5 Distributed Cloud Services has artificial intelligence for the WAF, but it does not have a BIG-IP WAF policy builder where the WAF policy is built from traffic. F5 Distributed Cloud Services does not have a policy builder feature.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services has open API discovery, but that is only useful for API traffic. F5 Distributed Cloud Services does not have such a feature for web traffic from normal users.
Concerning the price, I would say it is at a medium level. It is cheaper than Silverline, so it is a medium level.
Regarding room for improvement, sometimes it times out. However, I believe that is normal for a SaaS-based service in the cloud.
How are customer service and support?
For technical support regarding F5 Distributed Cloud Services support, I would rate it seven out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I find BIG-IP pricing is high, but as I mentioned, it is worth it. BIG-IP, the previous product, is expensive but worth it. F5 Distributed Cloud Services is at a medium price point.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services has good competition, including Akamai and Cloudflare, and essentially all the SaaS offerings. They are also good. I am not a big fan of Akamai, but Cloudflare and CloudFront are alternatives. CloudFront was another option.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate F5 Distributed Cloud Services seven out of ten overall.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services still does not have the same flexibility as BIG-IP. It does not have iRules. It has service policies that are a way of scripting, but they are not on the same level as BIG-IP. F5 Distributed Cloud Services uses Envoy proxy in the background, which is open-source.
For their real-time intelligence feature, I would rate it seven and a half out of ten.
There is room for improvement.
Regarding the load-balancing feature, I rate it seven out of ten, as mentioned. It is similar to the general platform because it does not have the same iRule capabilities. It has some scripting with a service policies feature, but it is not at the level of F5 iRules on BIG-IP.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services has helped improve my traffic management efficiency overall because it is cheaper than Silverline. In that respect, it is better than Silverline.
IRule support is definitely needed.
Speaking of the interface, the GUI is not the greatest, but I would rate it eight out of ten. It is a modern GUI.
It is much newer. It is not ten years old like BIG-IP. It is approximately three or four years old.
My overall rating for F5 Distributed Cloud Services is seven out of ten.
Umair Shahid
Unified cloud security has reduced bot attacks and is improving multi‑channel protection
Reviewed on Sep 01, 2026
Review from a verified AWS customer
What is our primary use case?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services is primarily used in our environment for unified multi-cloud app security, edge DDoS mitigation, API discovery and behavioral security, and advanced bot defense.
During a major device launch and our marketing campaigns, we faced significant challenges when our customer portal was targeted by automated inventory scrapers and credential stuffing bots, as well as microservices changes that introduced undocumented shadow APIs, bypassing the baseline security checks. For the API discovery rollout, we integrated F5 Distributed Cloud Services API Security across our Kubernetes ingress nodes in passive mode, utilizing machine learning models to analyze live traffic.
What is most valuable?
The best features F5 Distributed Cloud Services provides are all-in-one WAAP integration because it combines the WAAP, API protection, bot defense, and DDoS into a single SaaS control plane, replacing complex fragmented point security tools. Another valuable use case is that it provides automated operational efficiency by leveraging native AI or ML for real-time threat intelligence.
What I appreciate most is the AI-driven bot defense, which is very useful in our environment. It directly supports our revenue and infrastructure costs by eliminating automated credential stuffing. I would also recommend enabling the zero-friction user experience. Unlike traditional solutions that rely on intrusive CAPTCHAs, it leverages JS telemetry and mobile SDK signals to maintain smoother customer transactions.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services has provided an excellent solution in our environment through automation. It has enabled us to reduce our efforts and respond to issues related to WAF or API protections. It has increased our uptime and reduced the security risks to the environment.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services deserves a rating of eight. It has an outstanding unified WAAP capability, market-leading bot defense, and excellent edge DDoS offloading that significantly reduces the backend compute load and SOC overhead.
Regarding F5 Distributed Cloud Services' AI capabilities and governance, it has excellent runtime governance for AI prompts and automatically detects credit card data.
In terms of reliability and output, F5 Distributed Cloud Services has very high efficiency for bot and WAF signals. Real-world accuracy is exceptional for intent-based bot detection, at approximately 98% and above.
We have seen a 99% reduction in bot-driven traffic and it has mitigated over 95% of credential stuffing. We have experienced 70% faster incident resolutions.
What needs improvement?
There is always room for improvement with F5 Distributed Cloud Services. Sometimes the UI/UX console navigation is a bit tricky, and the deep configuration menus can feel overly complex and could be simplified. Additionally, expanding regional presence should be done in specific local telecom markets to further lower the latency of our hyper-local load latency workloads.
Long-term log retention and cold storage analytics need to improve. Native SIEM log retention on the console is limited. Introducing deeper built-in historical analytics would avoid having to offload all raw security logs to external SIEMs such as Splunk for long-term compliance audits.
Regarding backend TLS verification enforcements, custom edge routes strictly enforce TLS validation on backend endpoints, which requires manual management and uploading of private and public root CAs rather than providing simple certificate bypass toggles for development environments.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with F5 Distributed Cloud Services for the past couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Based on my experience with F5 Distributed Cloud Services in the company, it has been very reliable and has delivered around consistent 99.99% uptime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, F5 Distributed Cloud Services can be scaled through elastic global edge scaling. Volumetric DDoS and heavy layer 7 bot attacks are absorbed seamlessly by F5's regional edge SaaS network. In terms of horizontal customer edge expansion on-premise, it has good scaling as well.
How are customer service and support?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services customer support has been pretty good. We received enterprise-grade network expertise from support engineers who possessed deep technical network and security expertise. They understand complex BGP routing, IP security, overlay topologies, and Layer 7 WAF logics, rather than just reading basic script templates.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used a different solution from another vendor called Akamai. We had a normal to acceptable experience with that solution, but we switched over to F5 Distributed Cloud Services because there were much more overheads and the pricing was higher.
How was the initial setup?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing for F5 Distributed Cloud Services, it is streamlined onboarding that helps us eliminate upfront hardware CAPEX. It has a multi-tiered licensing structure, allowing us to upgrade and downgrade at any time. It has actually reduced our total cost of ownership.
What about the implementation team?
We procured F5 Distributed Cloud Services through the AWS Marketplace, which allowed us to draw down directly on our AWS enterprise discount program. It also helped us consolidate our software licenses into a single AWS invoice.
What was our ROI?
In terms of return on investment for F5 Distributed Cloud Services, we have seen at least a 30% reduction in infrastructure and compute costs, with 20 to 30% engineering time saved and 85% reduction in support desk overheads. On another level, we have been able to reallocate or replace our staff headcount. It has fast payback and full ROI.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing F5 Distributed Cloud Services, we evaluated other solutions, including Cloudflare Enterprise and AWS native security features such as AWS WAF and Shield.
What other advice do I have?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services comes highly recommended. I am happy with the services provided, and I will recommend F5 services to others. I have covered most of the relevant topics, and my overall review rating for F5 Distributed Cloud Services is eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
reviewer2868081
Layer 7 protection has strengthened application security and now reduces our first‑year costs
Reviewed on Jul 04, 2026
Review provided by PeerSpot
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for F5 Distributed Cloud Services is WAF protection.
I am using F5 Distributed Cloud Services primarily for securing my infrastructure with layer 7 protection, which F5 provides. The scenarios and use cases I am protecting involve geo-blocking, rate limiting, and allowing specific traffic to my applications. I have OWASP Top 10 protections enabled, as F5 Distributed Cloud Services offers OWASP Top 10 for layer 7 protections, which provides multiple protection capabilities.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate the UI of F5 Distributed Cloud Services and the backend cost, alongside the actual value proposition that they provide with the load balancer, which is excellent.
In my opinion, the best features F5 Distributed Cloud Services offers include their ability to operate without running on the cloud, which is why they provide good value to Indian customers. This feature benefits my organization by providing overall value and cost with the product. When I say the product is not hosted on the cloud, I mean that the product itself is managed by data centers as most clouds do. However, their seamless management of their own data center and the fact that F5 Distributed Cloud Services holds its own data center is what benefits customers in India.
What needs improvement?
One area where F5 Distributed Cloud Services can be improved is in API security, which can be enhanced.
Specifically, the confidence level on API security that F5 Distributed Cloud Services provides can be improved, especially if they can discover APIs in a better manner than all of their competitors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using F5 Distributed Cloud Services for approximately three months.
What was our ROI?
I have seen specific outcomes where it has improved security. It has not saved time, but it has reduced costs for the first year at least.
I would estimate the cost was reduced by approximately 30 percent in the first year.
What other advice do I have?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services offers a bundle of use cases which are certainly good for a WAF and API. Regarding F5 Distributed Cloud Services's AI capabilities, I think their governance and security are good. I note that they are working on AI but have not yet released anything; they are combining something from AI and working in the backend, so I would say it is progressing well.
I rate F5 Distributed Cloud Services an eight out of ten overall.
FernandoSilva3
Cloud migrations have become smoother and application security has been significantly strengthened
Reviewed on Apr 17, 2026
Review from a verified AWS customer
What is our primary use case?
I collect reviews for F5 Distributed Cloud Services and F5 Silverline Managed Services. I work with F5 Distributed Cloud Services as a consultant in the implementation environment.
I have already implemented the cloud services for F5 environment as a service and migrated the on-premises environments to the cloud with F5 Distributed Cloud Edge Networks and customer services. I already have three projects to migrate to the cloud with the F5 solution.
I have a lot of on-premises setups, but I am already working with the cloud environment. I already have many clients that need to migrate to the AWS cloud environment. I need to work with the direct F5 Distributed Cloud Services solution.
What is most valuable?
Elastic environments are the most valuable features because I can pull these apps and migrate the on-premises environment to the Distributed Cloud environment. This capability is very strong, and the security regarding the apps is really very powerful.
I put the DDoS protection for the application solution at the company, Minera Mexico, which has many profiles for DDoS protection.
The DDoS security protection has an overview of the security available and has the streams and the capabilities to patch the security of the application in on-premises. It has a very good capability to convert an on-premises application into a Distributed Cloud application. It has the capabilities regarding that.
The real-time intelligence feature is very advanced, but at this moment, I really do not have an environment with the availability for AI or advanced features.
What needs improvement?
I need to think about this for the future. F5 Distributed Cloud Services needs to create links with Amazon and Google Cloud or other platforms. At this moment, it does not have integrated steps to work with those clouds. I think in the future, F5 Distributed Cloud Services needs to create these links with other clouds to work more reliably. I think the APIs and synchronization with other clouds or systems with OCI to Oracle needs to be implemented for the future.
More integration options are needed. The offering in Mexico has a lot of traffic to Amazon or Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. I need to integrate this solution with F5 Distributed Cloud Services and the reliable services and application delivery services.
The worst experience is that with so many solutions available, it is very complicated to know all of the solution modules, and the offers from F5 Distributed Cloud Services are vast. It is complicated to know all the solutions regarding security with WAF, delivery controller with LTM, ACM, as F5 Distributed Cloud Services really has a lot of modules.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with F5 Distributed Cloud Services around three years ago. I have been working for three years and I am still working with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The traffic management is a very good goal already with this capability that the client needs. The traffic manager is in architecture in L7, Layer 7 environments that need to deliver more complicated applications to the world. I need to control and security statements to have capabilities for that. I need the traffic management environments in distributed management, which have a very good goal to manage very difficult traffic in the world.
How are customer service and support?
I have a lot of tickets already in the F5 Distributed Cloud Services platform. I can open tickets for support with the migration plan. I have classified these tickets for different issues. I remember opening a ticket for support when I migrated the on-premises solution, needing to work with an engineer during the maintenance windows. The F5 team supported me during these maintenance windows. There is a lot of support from F5 Distributed Cloud Services and the knowledge on the page is very good and reliable.
How was the initial setup?
I participate in all the setup and implementation environments. At this moment, I may deliver the SOC or SOC support deliveries.
I have a lot of challenges regarding that. In the first steps, I need to visualize the goals of the client and establish the project plan to migrate this solution.
What about the implementation team?
I currently am working with F5 Distributed Cloud Services and other companies.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services is affordable. I think it is very affordable. I do not think it is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
F5 Distributed Cloud Services is a very nice solution to migrate the application already in Mexico. This solution in Mexico is growing very well. I have a nice relationship with the F5 team in Mexico. I think this is the strength of F5 Distributed Cloud Services. I gave this review a rating of nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?