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Cisco Duo vs Symantec VIP Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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
7.9
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (4th), ZTNA as a Service (6th), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
Symantec VIP Access Manager
Ranking in Authentication Systems
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 9.2%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec VIP Access Manager is 1.8%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Botts - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing security policies effectively with seamless authentication
The feature of Cisco Duo that I prefer the most is the policies, being able to control what we need to within the policies. You can get pretty granular. There isn't a lot of training that goes on in school districts. Email is an easy way where many people give out their credentials, so the level of protection is something that we definitely need in a school district. Cisco Duo's strong security authentication system has been easy when logging in, although the teachers don't appreciate it as much. We have it configured so users essentially just hit accept. If it sees any sort of built-in risk, then it steps up authentication. It's pretty easy. I appreciate it. I've encountered advantages with Cisco Duo in that it has stopped significant pushback from teachers. It has prevented credential sharing and unauthorized access. We've seen a huge decrease since we've rolled it out across the entire district.
Berk Onur - PeerSpot reviewer
With its mobile application, this tool offers a convenient and user-friendly experience to its users
To improve the tool, I think that the solution should consider integrations with other cybersecurity and IT technologies, such as Privileged Access Management and Site Integration. Additionally, the implementation of second-factor authentication via Symantec VIP Access Manager, CyberArk, and Delinea, among other technologies, could be best for the product. While the existing technology is okay, improving the integration capabilities for Symantec VIP Access Manager would benefit the product. I would like to see the solution meet the integration needs at our company. While many cybersecurity solutions can function independently, they often lack integration with our systems due to missed integration points. Improving the solution's integration feature would be beneficial.

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 with the growing needs of our organization by making it easy to acquire more licensing, especially with an enterprise agreement, which allows built-in growth and minimizes worries about licensing as we expand."
"They are users who, as mentioned before, utilize RDPAP and MDPAP. It includes functionalities related to finance, specifically in single sign-on."
"Cisco Duo has benefited our company overall by giving us the ability to have multi-factor authentication."
"Duo offers dual-factor authentication for our logins. I put in my credentials and hit go. Then I get an alert on my Apple watch, and I approve it. That part is just phenomenal."
"The single pane of glass management is very important and it is part of the reason we went with Duo. Anything we can do to save time for our administrators, help desk staff, and engineers, is valuable to us."
"The ease of deploying Cisco Duo Security and onboarding has greatly benefited our customers."
"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 valuable feature of Duo Security is the ability for the user to easily approve access. The application prompts the user, and they can see the location and the IP address. This makes it easy for the user to approve it and go through the process of logging in to the VPN."
"Cloud-based service and management."
"The product is useful for providing user access from an in-built office server as we follow the work-from-home model."
"It's a good tool. It's pretty straightforward."
"The tool has been very stable, in my experience. Also, I haven't faced any issues or problems with integration or connectivity."
"The two-factor authentication is most definitely valuable and moves us closer to being able to check off those important boxes for compliance."
"In this version 9.1, lots of changes are done for the dashboard, User Store etc."
"It offers more platform support, like Apple, Android, and Microsoft."
"Other than it provides us with remote access, so it's fairly easy to install, fairly easy to set up, and provides us the ability to get into our corporate environment."
 

Cons

"The technical engineers in the first line of support should improve their knowledge."
"The only thing I can think of to improve for tech support is to have a dedicated engineer but then I would get an engineer that has priorities in one area or another and maybe not the scope I need."
"Duo Security should have more customized use cases. For example, if a client needs to have more customization, it would be better to connect directly with Duo's R&D to try to discuss the issues together in order to add customizations."
"I would appreciate seeing Cisco Duo improved with a tighter integration with Active Directory to secure not just Remote Desktop to a server, but all the remote levels of connection that you can make to a server."
"I'm unsure how to disable the ping notification sound on my phone when using Cisco Duo. I don't know how to silence it."
"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."
"For upgrades, there should be a better notification of when they're coming out. We always have a testing phase, so we need to be ahead of it. It takes us longer before we can upgrade to the newest version."
"There is always room for improvement."
"In the next release, I would like the ability to work offline with remote access."
"The User Store synchronization part needs to improve. Also, the logs, reports, and dashboard can be improved."
"It gets out of sync with Active Directory or whatever it might be, whatever the authentication piece is on Active Directory, and they just reset it on the backend. I never have to contact the vendor."
"If they had dashboards or a report for managers or executives, then it would allow them to see the status and have it make sense to them."
"Every time that I have a new phone or computer, it takes a little longer to deploy it."
"It is challenging to use when installing a new version."
"Geofencing needs improvement."
"The gateway server is a RADIUS server, but it lacks the functionality of returning RADIUS attributes other than those that are required for the gateway to authenticate the users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco has the most expensive products because market leaders tend to charge a lot."
"Our licensing fee is currently on an annual basis."
"I haven't seen any information on the pricing in four years, so I can't comment on that."
"The product’s pricing is reasonable."
"From a reseller perspective, it's still challenging to explain the whole license strategy to a client, so we really have to be ahead of that for all the true forward conversations."
"My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been good, with no issues. I am pleased that the prices remained stable after Cisco acquired the solution."
"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."
"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."
"There is a one-time setup fee plus the licenses are provided as per the number of users. For SMS and voice calls, the costs are separate."
"Licensing and pricing seems very fair."
"There are additional costs for maintenance."
"I can say that the solution is worth the money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about Duo Security?
They are users who, as mentioned before, utilize RDPAP and MDPAP. It includes functionalities related to finance, specifically in single sign-on.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Duo Security?
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco Duo is honestly above my pay grade. I don't know any of that.
What do you like most about Symantec VIP Access Manager?
The product is useful for providing user access from an in-built office server as we follow the work-from-home model.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec VIP Access Manager?
The pricing would most likely charge per user based on how many accounts have access to the IT managers.
What needs improvement with Symantec VIP Access Manager?
The product's connection speed needs improvement. Sometimes, I need help connecting my mobile to the main office's system due to a version upgrade. It is challenging to use when installing a new ve...
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
Symantec VIP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Maine Medical Center, Aria S.p.A
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. Symantec VIP Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.