No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

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
157
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (3rd), Access Management (4th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), 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 August 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.8%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RSA Adaptive Authentication is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo3.8%
RSA Adaptive Authentication1.4%
Other94.8%
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

"What I appreciate the most is that you can push a notification with your phone and log in to your computer."
"Cisco Duo is quick to deploy and easy to start."
"Duo is a very consistent product and flexible in how it can be deployed and has good support."
"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."
"Since we onboarded it, since we started using Cisco Duo, we have never had any operational glitch."
"The UI of Cisco Duo is easy to use, especially the web backend, and it's really intuitive and easy to set up."
"In my opinion, the best features Cisco Duo offers include its 2FA authentication, which is very good, everything is perfect about the features, it is very easy to use, and the integration with other systems is very good."
"The flexibility is the most valuable feature. We use it for the app on the phone. When we're at different locations, the phone is usually there, so we can use that. It has just been a very flexible option."
"One of the most valuable features is the fraud detection capability with minimal friction in the customer experience."
"Ingestion of logs and raising alert space on those logs are the most valuable features."
"It has reduced false positives greatly in our fraud detection ability."
"Once we started adopting these products, we've seen the fraud losses go down considerably."
"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."
"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."
"The capability to manage your business policy related to security when required without vendor involvement."
 

Cons

"I believe Cisco Duo needs to be improved on the delay process because there is a delay when we send a Duo Push or when we are signing into any applications."
"When discussing areas for improvement in Cisco Duo, especially for Secure Access, I noted that the licensing structure could be better and more user-friendly."
"There are limitations because Cisco Duo does not support Hotmail accounts, which many people use to log in to their systems."
"It is easy to use when logging in, but at times, there's a delay in getting the pop-up on a phone, requiring users to occasionally retry authentication depending on backend services."
"There is always room for improvement."
"Cisco Duo can be improved by exploring a way to make it a more seamless integration and by deploying an in-house server."
"I think the prices of Cisco Duo are quite fair, but the main problem is that Microsoft Authenticator is built-in with Microsoft 365, so everyone is switching to that and not using Cisco Duo because it is a standalone product that costs extra, despite the price being fair."
"Cisco Duo is doing exactly what we need it to do, so I cannot really give a suggestion for areas that could be improved since we do not use everything that it currently offers."
"Reporting modules is one of the major areas that can be improved further."
"The product is basically unusable. We need better ease of use; it's overly complicated."
"RSA Adaptive Authentication lacks a mechanism to verify the identity of a new user in the Enrollment event workflow."
"I would like to see a more adaptive type of solution, something that we could use on our web pages..."
"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."
"It's an okay solution. It's just old technology and it's time to move on."
"It has taken years to implement."
"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

"During testing we are allowed a certain number of licenses for free."
"Cisco has the most expensive products because market leaders tend to charge a lot."
"The cost was reasonable. Licensing was pretty straightforward for a change."
"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."
"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."
"I am not aware of the pricing. There are two departments, and I don't have any information about them."
"With regard to pricing, for a small business buying a one off, it's pretty expensive. If it's an enterprise that has thousands of employees, however, it's really nothing to protect your data because if your network goes down or it's breached, you're losing millions of dollars every minute. When it comes to a large enterprise, it's priced where it should be because you're talking business to business. You're not talking business to consumer."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Authentication Systems solutions are best for your needs.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Construction Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise79
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: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.