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Cisco Duo vs ForgeRock 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Cisco Duo enhances productivity and security while reducing costs and breaches, proving cost-effective despite initial setup challenges.
Sentiment score
5.2
ForgeRock enhanced market efficiency, security, and customer trust, reducing staffing needs and improving time to market without exact ROI figures.
Not having MFA means you cannot put a price tag on that because you will be hit with ransomware immediately.
Director at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I think Cisco Duo offers a good return on investment for startups, newer organizations, or those utilizing cloud-based applications.
Identity and Access Management Principal at Mobily
I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system.
Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.
On a B2B level, it opened up the market for TomTom to sell its services in a more efficient way to car companies.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
We can use a Linux image from ForgeRock with different systems, applications, websites, and mobile apps to create various types of access for users.
Assistant Architect at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
I can definitely see that fewer employees are needed compared to using different SaaS applications.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Cisco Duo's customer service is efficient and knowledgeable, with high satisfaction despite occasional initial support delays.
Sentiment score
5.8
ForgeRock customer service is flexible and responsive, but improvements are needed for professional services and ticket resolution speed.
They got back to us quickly, were nice, and gave us what we needed.
Infrastructure Engineer at a government with 501-1,000 employees
I would rate their support 10 out of 10.
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
I would rate support for Cisco Duo a 10, as I have never had a negative experience.
Information Technology Contractor at Insight global
The support portals offer comprehensive documentation, troubleshooting guides, and community forums that have been helpful for resolving common issues independently.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
For standard support tickets, response times were very decent, and the support team was helpful in identifying configuration issues, especially with authentication trees, token settings, and directory replications.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
The customer support is very flexible and supportive, particularly in the area of automation and customer deployments.
Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberBackbone
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Duo's cloud-based infrastructure offers seamless scalability and flexible licensing, efficiently supporting diverse and expanding user bases.
Sentiment score
7.3
ForgeRock offers scalable solutions for diverse enterprises, supporting seamless expansion, efficient administration, and integration across multiple environments.
In my last contracting position, it was a large one for a major worldwide airline that had hundreds of thousands of devices that could use Cisco Duo, and it scaled very well.
Information Technology Contractor at Insight global
You would not need many more engineers to manage Cisco Duo even if we scale up to 500 employees because it is so simple to manage.
Manager, Customer Success at SRC.SI sistemske integracije d.o.o.
Cisco Duo is scalable for organizational growth.
Technical Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The access management layer is stateless, so I can scale horizontally by adding more nodes behind a load balancer as traffic increases.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
The platform provides flexible authentication trees, enabling us to design custom MFA flows tailored for different user groups and risk profiles.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We scaled up with ForgeRock. My team received an award for implementing it for a 60 million customer base, which was the largest implementation at that time.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Duo is praised for reliable performance, minimal outages, prompt notifications, and effective support, with disruptions rarely being internal.
Sentiment score
7.3
ForgeRock is stable and reliable, though customization affects stability, with users rating it seven to nine out of ten.
We have not had any Cisco Duo outages across all the companies I have worked for that utilize Cisco Duo.
Senior Engineer at Frontline Fighter Ltd
The stability has been excellent.
Manager, Customer Success at SRC.SI sistemske integracije d.o.o.
I did not notice any downtime or crashes with Cisco Duo.
CTO at Red IT Solutions
ForgeRock supports integration with legacy systems in our organization by offering a wide range of connectors and APIs.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
ForgeRock is very stable because it manages access, authentication, and authorization effectively.
Assistant Architect at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Duo requires enhancements in integration, pricing, UI, documentation, authentication methods, AI features, and update speed.
ForgeRock users suggest improving documentation, UI, DevOps support, onboarding, and training for better customization and admin experience.
If you don't have internet access, you can't access your computer, only local access is available.
Security and Network Team Lead
It lacks some dynamic identity management features compared to other products such as SailPoint.
Senior Iam Associate at Cognizant
Cisco should allow easier integration with third-party equipment because Cisco's own equipment is expensive.
Procurement Officer at Emerging Systems
ForgeRock needs to focus on low-code, no-code solutions that allow for drag-and-drop functionality with good orchestration.
CIAM Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It would be better if they were available for support whenever the customer needs it, especially during migration or go-live time periods.
IAM Solution Architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The main area is complexity. ForgeRock is extremely flexible, but the learning curve can be steep.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Duo offers user-based pricing with straightforward setup, while Microsoft integration can be a competitive consideration for some.
ForgeRock offers flexible pricing with community and enterprise options, seen as fair, supporting various features and open-source choices.
The pricing is acceptable to them.
Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc
Their website lists $3 per month per user for the Essential license.
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
One of my customers recently received a billing statement charging 3,600 US dollars for 100 users for one year.
Sr. Network Security Engineer at Topnet Internet Services Provider. Riyadh, Saudi A
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing are very straightforward, which is a good success.
Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberBackbone
One has to spend considerable time trying to understand the different modules and different needs for those modules on the licensing front.
Principal Consultant at Road2Value
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Duo offers simplicity, integration, and security with features like passwordless authentication, intuitive management, and phishing-resistant measures.
ForgeRock offers flexible authentication, scalability, and DevOps support with strong API integration, enhancing security and operational efficiency.
From a management perspective, I appreciate that we can enroll or control devices on the back end for people who get a new phone and forget to handle Cisco Duo properly and need to add a new device.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Our company benefits from all those features of Cisco Duo with confidence, and we feel very secure with it in terms of authentication of our logins.
Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc
The benefit of having a complete passwordless environment in our organization is that it's gotten people away from using the sticky note under their keyboard - which is a huge problem.
Director, Technology at Deer Creek High School
Centralized management makes the biggest difference because it allows us to define, update, and enforce security and compliance rules from a single location.
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
ForgeRock positively impacts our organization as we manage a large number of users with ease, providing a standard IAM solution that simplifies our processes.
CIAM Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
ForgeRock has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to migrate from the older system to the newer ForgeRock component, enabling us to go live with many products across geographies, enhancing security as it is all cloud-based, and with the company taking care of availability, it has reduced costs for the company.
IAM CONSULTANT at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Duo
Ranking in Access Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
116
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (3rd), Authentication Systems (2nd), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st)
ForgeRock
Ranking in Access Management
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (5th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.1%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ForgeRock is 5.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo3.1%
ForgeRock5.2%
Other91.7%
Access Management
 

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.
SR
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Centralized access control has improved secure onboarding and supports strict compliance
I wish we had used ForgeRock's adaptive risk-based authentication, which allows dynamic adjustment of authentication requirements based on user behavior. This could have helped us further strengthen our security. Another hidden gem is the built-in support for custom authentication modules and scripting, which gives a great deal of flexibility to tailor authentication flows. The self-service capabilities for password resets and account recovery have been very helpful in reducing support overhead and improving user experience. Discovering and utilizing these features would have definitely made our integration even smoother and would have provided additional value for both our users and our security team. One area of improvement would be the user interface for policy and workflow configuration, which can become complex and sometimes unintuitive, especially for new administrators. A more streamlined and user-friendly UI would help reduce the learning curve. Enhanced out-of-the-box analytics and reporting would also be valuable, as our current options often require custom development or integration with external tools. While extensibility is a strength, documentation for advanced customizations and integrations could be more comprehensive and easier to follow. Improved support for seamless upgrades and backward compatibility would also help minimize downtime. In terms of performance, optimizing the platform for high concurrency environments would be beneficial, especially for organizations with large user bases or peak usage periods. Enhanced scalability features such as more granular or horizontal scaling options would provide better support for distributed deployments. For integrations, having more pre-built connectors and easy integration with modern cloud-native services would accelerate adoption. Improved monitoring and real-time health dashboards would help proactively identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise54
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise18
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ForgeRock?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing are very straightforward, which is a good success. I appreciate that it is very straightforward and helpful.
What needs improvement with ForgeRock?
I wish the JavaScript part could be improved, as not everyone is proficient in JavaScript, so automating that or reducing the reliance on it could be beneficial. Additionally, having only one realm...
What is your primary use case for ForgeRock?
My main use case for ForgeRock is designing user journeys, specifically customer user journeys, and how they interact with the system. A specific example of a user journey I designed using ForgeRoc...
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. ForgeRock and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.