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Cisco Duo vs Delinea Authentication Service comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Duo
Ranking in Authentication Systems
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (4th), Access Management (4th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st)
Delinea Authentication Service
Ranking in Authentication Systems
17th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Bridge (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 4.2%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Delinea Authentication Service is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo4.2%
Delinea Authentication Service0.6%
Other95.2%
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

Charles Slaustas - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Contractor at Insight global
Supports seamless authentication for users across multiple organizations and personal portals
The features I use in Cisco Duo include Duo Pushes to confirm my identity to the device, and eventually as MFA security was increased, I actually had to use exchange passcodes. Sometimes, I have to go into the site and get into Cisco Duo to retrieve the passcode, and many of them have been two-factor, where the sites send a passcode that I have to enter into Cisco Duo. It has been more of the latter. I have not seen issues with lagging or crashing on Cisco Duo's end; it was usually on the client end, often because someone set up a bad upgrade or there were connection issues with the Cisco Duo cloud through the administrative site.
Francesco Panacea - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at Deloitte Risk Advisory
Offers a reliable platform for securing administrative access and reduces cloud maintenance overhead
I have not found many drawbacks in Delinea Authentication Service, but perhaps they could focus more on the development of the platform for all of the products. I mean, rather than having Secret Server and Privilege Manager as silos, they could have a unique platform. In future updates of this solution, I would like to see features that other PAM vendors are adding, such as machine identities, AI, agentic security, and perhaps certificate security for Delinea. Delinea integrates with third-party tools by having some out-of-the-box connectors, but not for all. Adding more connectors could be an evolution for the next product. Responsiveness could be another area of improvement. They are pretty much slow to respond or perhaps I don't get the answers I want.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Cisco Duo scales very well with the growing needs of my company; during COVID, when we had a higher number of users, there were no problems at all."
"The app has greater stability than rival solutions such as Google Authenticator, and Duo Push authentication is a valuable feature."
"It is very easy for users to enroll, and there are a lot of insights that we get from using the app on devices that people use to authenticate."
"Duo Security gives us an additional layer of security that would give us added confidence that our network will be less likely to get hacked, compromised, or otherwise."
"The most appealing feature of Cisco Duo is the phone notification system that simply pops up on your phone."
"For me, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Duo is my time."
"My impression of Cisco's identity intelligence capability to detect and respond to identity-based risks effectively is that it's a great product."
"Looking back at my initial investment in Cisco Duo versus the total value it has delivered over time, I see that it has paid more than what we invested, so we are getting a good return and a good service with improved security."
"The best feature of Delinea Authentication Service, in my opinion, is that Delinea is a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for PAM solutions, particularly with Secret Server, which we used, and also the Privilege Manager."
 

Cons

"Areas that have room for improvement in Cisco Duo include pricing, as Cisco is quite expensive, and the fact that Cisco Duo relies heavily on external identity providers such as Active Directory or Entra ID and does not offer full identity lifecycle management on its own, which leads organizations to often pair Cisco Duo with another IAM solution for complete identity governance."
"I rate it a nine because there is still a specific feature regarding Cisco Duo Desktop that must be enabled and optimized better than the current situation."
"The deployment experience was more difficult than we expected because we had some problems with the version of the OS that we have in our servers."
"While two-factor authentication with mobile devices provides a high level of security, it's still not foolproof, as someone could potentially steal your phone. It would be beneficial to have information about the authentication location."
"I evaluate the stability and reliability of the solution as somewhat tricky. Cisco Duo Access Gateway is mostly VM-based, and while I'm not sure whether there is an on-premises hardware-based solution, having this VM-based solution can be buggy."
"The product price needs improvement."
"Often, people do not receive expiration messages, and sometimes, for security reasons, accounts get disabled without notifying the end user, so they mistakenly think something has gone wrong when it really just needs to be re-enabled on the external system."
"Often, people do not receive expiration messages, and sometimes, for security reasons, accounts get disabled without notifying the end user, so they mistakenly think something has gone wrong when it really just needs to be re-enabled on the external system."
"Responsiveness could be another area of improvement. They are pretty much slow to respond or perhaps I don't get the answers I want."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"During testing we are allowed a certain number of licenses for free."
"I am not aware of the pricing. There are two departments, and I don't have any information about them."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"Our licensing fee is currently on an annual basis."
"Its price is reasonable. It is not highly expensive."
"It is affordable for what's coming to the table with it, but in this day and age, the cost is looked at under a microscope, and companies need to very finely define what is needed versus what is critical. In some cases, it might not be cost-effective for a company to have it. In a lot of other cases, it is the cost of doing business."
"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."
"My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco Duo has been great. We've been there for 10 years. While we haven't gone through the setup part for a while, licensing is straightforward and convenient for higher education because student populations are included. So, we don't have to pay extra for it. We just pay for our knowledge workers, which has been great, and the cost is reasonable."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise57
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does Duo Security compare with Microsoft Authenticator?
We switched to Duo Security for identity verification. We’d been using a competitor but got the chance to evaluate Duo for 30 days, and we could not be happier. Duo Security is easy to configure a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Duo Security?
I cannot speak to the financial planning of the organization, but I can confirm that Cisco Duo falls within the security budget that has been allocated to us.
What needs improvement with Duo Security?
Areas that have room for improvement in Cisco Duo include pricing, as Cisco is quite expensive, and the fact that Cisco Duo relies heavily on external identity providers such as Active Directory or...
What needs improvement with Delinea Authentication Service?
I have not found many drawbacks in Delinea Authentication Service, but perhaps they could focus more on the development of the platform for all of the products. I mean, rather than having Secret Se...
What is your primary use case for Delinea Authentication Service?
I use the product to secure the system administrators' access to the crown jewels of the customer.
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
Centrify Authentication Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cisco, Okta and others in Authentication Systems. Updated: March 2026.
886,664 professionals have used our research since 2012.