Every category where a model named F5 for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant	Since September 2026
Load balancers	Network and edge	0%	92 of 94	67%	9	under 10 labels · led by HAProxy at 29%
API security platforms	Security operations	0%	92 of 93	57%	7	under 10 labels · led by Aikido Security at 12%
DDoS protection	Network and edge	0%	44 of 58	50%	2	under 10 labels · led by Cloudflare at 82%	=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
AI security platforms	Security operations	0%	157 of 233	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by SentinelOne Singularity at 11%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for F5 yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment and per category, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated F5 across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

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Model	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	1	1	0	2
GPT-5.4 mini	0	1	1	2
Gemini 3.5 Flash	0	0	0	0
Perplexity Sonar	0	0	0	0
Grok 4.20	1	0	0	1
Mistral Small	0	1	0	1
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	0	4	4
Llama 4 Maverick	0	2	0	2
Qwen 3.7 Flash	0	0	4	4
Kimi K2	0	0	1	1
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	0	1	1
MiniMax M2.5	0	1	0	1
GPT-6 Luna	0	0	0	0
Muse Glimmer 30B	0	0	0	0

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct7 labels1

Paraphrase8 labelsNone

Comparative2 labelsNone

Budget-constrained3 labelsNone

Scale-constrained11 labelsNone

Negative18 labels2not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative49 labels in all, every segment counted; 1 of the 3 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“For enterprise features: F5 or Citrix if you need advanced capabilities like SSL termination, WAF, and sophisticated routing” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Load balancers · direct prompt · alternative

“F5/Imperva (strong for WAAP)” Grok 4.20 · API security · scale prompt · alternative

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“using a standard WAF (like a legacy Check Point WAF, F5, or generic Cloud WAF) as an API security solution... Why to avoid” GLM 4.7 FlashX · API security · negative prompt · hard negative

“Avoid unless you are a large Fortune 500 company with a dedicated IT security team.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · DDoS · negative prompt · hard negative

“Skip expensive commercial appliances (F5 BIG-IP, NetScaler) — these are overkill” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Load balancers · budget prompt · hard negative

“Legacy WAFs rebranded (some F5, Barracuda, ThreatX deployments): Gartner noted these vendors tumbled from "Visionaries" or "Challengers" to "Niche Players"” Kimi K2 · API security · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as F5, over the 49 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and F5 was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

NGINX19 of 494Not among the top eight

HAProxy19 of 493Not among the top eight

Citrix ADC16 of 490Not among the top eight

Akamai API Security9 of 491Not among the top eight

Imperva API Security9 of 490Not among the top eight

Azure Load Balancer8 of 491Not among the top eight

Salt Security8 of 490Not among the top eight

AWS Elastic Load Balancing7 of 492Not among the top eight

Akamai Prolexic7 of 491Not among the top eight

AWS Shield7 of 490Not among the top eight

A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named F5. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 37 of the 49 answers that named F5 and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

g2.com20

radware.com15

f5.comYour site10

kemptechnologies.com9

loadbalancer.org9

sourceforge.net9

aws.amazon.com8

guideflow.com8

learn.g2.com7

ciopages.com6

Ninety-one of the 101 domain citations in answers naming F5 came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

radware.com/cyberpedia/application-security/choosing-api-security-solutions7

ciopages.com/buyer-guides/api-security6

learn.g2.com/best-api-security-tools6

esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-vendors5

g2.com/categories/api-security5

loadbalancer.org/blog/whats-the-best-cloud-load-balancer5

onenoughtone.com/learning-path/system-design-hld/learning/load-balancer-comparison/55

zuplo.com/learning-center/best-api-security-tools-20265

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

f5.com ranks first on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, F5 takes 0% of first choices and HAProxy takes 29%.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Position for “load balancer”

Position for “load balancers”

–

not in the top ten

Searches for its name, Google: 27,100 a month (“f5”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 17,155 a month
Organic visits to its site: about 178,423 a month
Searches its site ranks for: 34,068 · 1,976 in the top three
Sites linking to it: 36,879
Paid Google search: 2 searches its ads show for, about 136 clicks and $5 a month (estimate)

Ads on GoogleDetailLess

120+ ads · 94 text, 14 video, 12 image · 120 shown in the last 30 days

First shown June 2024, as F5, Inc., verified. Ads started 2025-10 to 2026-09: 115 in the year, 5 before.

On Google's pages: 1 2 3 4

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

rank 92 of 94 in load balancers

Segment leader

29%

HAProxy

First choices: 1 across its categories
Named in: 49 answers
Its own site cited: in 37 of the answers that named it

Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.

What it publishes

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Addresses on f5.com

17,480

subdomains included

Content

5,031

counted in the table below

Documentation

9,823

Product · Integration

233 · 111

Kind	Pages	Last 90 days	Latest	Categories named
Blog	2,764	0	2026-05-12	WAF, API gateways
Glossary or explainer	523	0	2026-03-31	IaC, ASM
Webinar or virtual event	498	3	2026-08-06	WAF, CDN
News or press	492	1	2026-09-17	WAF, DDoS
Report or ebook	253	0	2026-03-27	WAF, MFA
Comparison	156	9	2026-08-18	API management, API gateways
Conference or event	154	6	2026-09-01	WAF, DDoS
Case study	98	8	2026-09-11	WAF
Podcast or video	91	0	2025-11-14	API gateways, API management
Template or tool	2	0	2025-07-07

Most recent

2026-09-17F5 positioned as market shaper in the gartner emerging market quadrant for ai application news or press
2026-09-11Hcww secures resilient water services in egypt with f5 adsp case study
2026-09-02Rackspace technology accelerates growth with f5 innovation and tools case study
2026-09-01Healthcare system adopts hipaa compliant ai with f5 case study
2026-09-01F5 to participate in upcoming financial conference 0926 conference or event
2026-08-31Four reasons not to miss the f5 post mythos security summit conference or event

Events in person

Last twelve months

September 22, 2026F5 Partner Gala DinnerReif Kushiyaki Seasons, Egypt · hosted
September 16, 2026Accelerate & Secure Enterprise AI Pipelines with F5 and NetAppNUSS Suntec City Guild House · hosted
September 9, 2026F5 Solution Day Riyadh 2026Movenpick Hotel and Residences Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia · hosted

As the event pages on f5.com state them, read September 28, 2026.

How it is countedHide how it is counted

Every page f5.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. Of its titles that name a category, most name WAF (87); 0 name its categories the models place it in. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.

Names read as F5

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as F5; a claim can dispute any of them.

F5 (BIG-IP) 1

Follow F5

An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.

Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.

The company

F5 is its own company.

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In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: Hybrid multicloud app security & delivery for the AI era
f5.com
For: enterprise
f5.com
Free plan or trial: Start a free trial f5.com
Certifications: FIPSNISTISOJIST PKEF5-certifiedapproved UNITY Partnerendorsed Cloud Service Provider
Customers named: RackspaceDocusignA financial services firmA public safety agencyCardinal HealthHDI SigortaXcel EnergyServus Credit Union
Not stated on the pages read: Price, starting price, integrations, hosting

What F5's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: f5.com, trust.f5.com, f5.com/products/waf, f5.com/case-studies, f5.com/partners. A claimed page can correct any of them.

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when F5's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as F5, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives

A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for F5 by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where F5 is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
who was chosen in the answers that did not name F5, and every reason the record gives;
a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.