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Cisco Duo vs RSA Adaptive Authentication comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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
6.9
Number of Reviews
156
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (5th), Access Management (5th), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st), AI Data Analysis (3rd)
RSA Adaptive Authentication
Ranking in Authentication Systems
26th
Average Rating
6.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.9%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RSA Adaptive Authentication is 1.4%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo3.9%
RSA Adaptive Authentication1.4%
Other94.7%
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.
Directorc4e7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Cyber Security at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
We need better ease of use; the product is overly complicated
There are many use cases that we have defined based on our business needs Ingestion of logs and raising alert space on those logs are the most valuable features. The product is basically unusable. We need better ease of use; it's overly complicated. It has taken years to implement. We used RSA…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable aspect is the authentication and the SSO."
"It's fast; the whole process takes less time compared to other tools we've used before, which is very helpful."
"The features of Cisco Duo have benefited our organization in terms of security level because before, it was not secure—anybody could get your password and log in—however, with that second layer of defense, it helps us and helps our community."
"Duo Security provides a high level of certainty regarding the identity of the individual performing an action. Whether it's logging into a system, using VPN, or utilizing Autopay, establishing that trust is crucial. I can't imagine any security company, organization, or IT team that wouldn't prioritize having multifactor authentication enabled when accessing critical systems."
"I am happy that we went with Cisco Duo because it is just easier to use."
"The features of Cisco Duo that I like the most are the simplicity, and the benefits of these features to my organization include security components and security authentication components."
"Cisco Duo just works; that is the best feature."
"For me, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Duo is my time."
"Our customer are seeing value from the product, as they experience cost reductions. They can stop fraud from their customers, then their customers can have a better experience from their services."
"Ingestion of logs and raising alert space on those logs are the most valuable features."
"Risk Engine’s risk score, eFN, GeoIP, and device binding all coming together in the Policy Rules to decide when to escalate to MFA."
"The most valuable feature is the stock tokens. That works the best for us."
"Once we started adopting these products, we've seen the fraud losses go down considerably."
"The capability to manage your business policy related to security when required without vendor involvement."
"One of the most valuable features is the fraud detection capability with minimal friction in the customer experience."
"It has reduced false positives greatly in our fraud detection ability."
 

Cons

"Cisco Duo could be improved with more interesting rules or correlation rules between all the data sources such as Windows and Azure."
"The only issue I encountered was related to the expiration of Duo Unix versions below 2.0.3 on February 3rd."
"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."
"Sometimes, it's a little harder for customers to adopt."
"Improving Cisco Duo might involve alerting us about telephony credits when people receive texts. We hit zero at one point, and we were running around in circles without any idea until I discovered it. That's my only complaint."
"Compared to other vendors, Cisco Duo is on the pricey end."
"I think Cisco Duo could be improved by including email authentication, as there is currently only SMS, SMS push, and code generation, but having email authentication could be beneficial when you don't have a phone."
"I'd like to see it integrated into other applications. I know there are some integrations, but I haven't been able to explore that any further."
"It's an okay solution. It's just old technology and it's time to move on."
"RSA Adaptive Authentication lacks a mechanism to verify the identity of a new user in the Enrollment event workflow."
"The product is basically unusable. We need better ease of use; it's overly complicated."
"I would like to see a more adaptive type of solution, something that we could use on our web pages..."
"It has taken years to implement."
"Better filters when searching for events. The current features for current filters when searching fraud events are not very comprehensive. You can only filter by certain fields in the transaction."
"Reporting modules is one of the major areas that can be improved further."
"I think I would like to see them use more of our data, and give us more ability to control or configure how the protection patterns work for a specific business, and also provide more transparency into the methodology."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Duo Security is free."
"Cisco has the most expensive products because market leaders tend to charge a lot."
"Price-wise, the solution has been very, very reasonable...Licensing is the last thing I think about Duo Security because it's so easy, and I had no problems with it."
"Its price is reasonable. It is not highly expensive."
"It's a bit confusing because we're on a three-year plan with a certain number of licenses, and we've gone over that number. They told us that when we renew, they will add all these licenses. We've expanded quickly, so everyone's kind of scared because no one knows what the bill is with the long pricing cycle."
"I haven't seen any information on the pricing in four years, so I can't comment on that."
"It has a fair pricing model. I know they have different tiers, but it would be nice to have different types of licenses for certain groups of users in our organization. That way, we wouldn't have to lump everybody into one group. That would be also one complaint."
"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."
"You may need to opt for second best if funding is low and the number of users is huge. However, the pricing is able to be negotiated if your user figures are huge."
"The pricing is $50 per head, yearly."
"Customers need to deploy the solution in a very expensive infrastructure. RSA should should think about a less expensive infrastructure for customers because the solution costs around $100,000, and the infrastructure needed to support that solution may be even more expensive than that price."
"Keep the proxy service layer on premises. That consumes SaaS security services on the back-end."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
30%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise78
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
 

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?
My experience with the pricing, the setup cost, and the licensing of Cisco Duo is that it is really inexpensive in the first place, but the value that I get in return is hard to beat, especially wh...
What needs improvement with Duo Security?
For the next release, Cisco Duo could be improved by adding touchless authentication and biometric features.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
ADP, Ameritas, Partners Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. RSA Adaptive Authentication and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.