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Cisco Duo vs WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA 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 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
156
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (3rd), Authentication Systems (2nd), Access Management (4th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), AI Data Analysis (3rd)
WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA
Ranking in Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Authorization Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 15.4%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA is 1.9%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo15.4%
WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA1.9%
Other82.7%
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
 

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.
reviewer2245134 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Includes many security features and provides push notification feature
Technical support needs more people who have good technical skills and knowledge instead of just sharing documentation. We can refer to the documentation from our end. It will be easy for us to troubleshoot if they have someone with knowledge of how these boxes work. We contact technical support when we can't find the issue after referring to the documentation. So, when they offer us documentation, it makes no sense. We need someone with that knowledge level to understand the issue and at least recommend what needs to be done. Documentation sharing is something I can agree with. However, they share the document for any issue and ask us to refer to it. Having a TAC in place doesn't make sense if they don't want to resolve something in real time.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My total rating for Cisco Duo is ten out of ten."
"Overall, it provides functionality and security with the two-factor authentication, enabling us to mitigate rogue access requests to our network and giving our workers the ability to work hybridly and tackle day-to-day jobs securely without having to come into the office."
"Cisco Duo has improved my operational efficiency and reduced costs in areas such as authentication, IT support, and security operations."
"Documentation is the most valuable feature, and if you ever have to reach out to them with a question, their support is also fantastic."
"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 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."
"The UI of Cisco Duo is easy to use, especially the web backend, and it's really intuitive and easy to set up."
"It has definitely made our company more secure."
"WatchGuard AuthPoint is the multifactor authentication solution for our VPN and is our multifactor authentication piece to connect to our VPN back into our network."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"It can be implemented as an app on the phone, rather than with a hardware token."
"The approvals feature of this solution is very good; it is operated by just one button, and can be controlled from a mobile device if needed."
"The integrations are good."
"The WatchGuard firewall includes many security features, such as UDP, block filters, web filtering, and GeoBlock."
"Personal notifications are very easy to use."
"We use well-prepared templates to integrate AWS and Office 365 so it's very, very easy to implement for our needs."
 

Cons

"To improve Cisco Duo, wherever the team can try to reduce the number of clicks an end user needs to go through to authenticate would be good."
"There is a little bit of apprehension for some users thinking, well, "How do I know this app is not collecting personal information from my personal device?""
"End-users find it more annoying than anything else."
"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."
"We had some trouble with the password reset function."
"Duo Security could improve by being more compatible with other vendors."
"Reducing or eliminating the "telephony credits" system used by Duo would be great."
"The only issue is the price is too high when compared to other products; Cisco Duo's pricing is high."
"It's not so simple to configure."
"We would like the zero trust feature of this solution to be completed, with more details added and more laptop management capability."
"The solution should implement a tagging process, which will provide an extra layer of security for the devices connected to the VPN."
"Locking could be enhanced to be GDPR compliant."
"Documentation on cloud could be improved."
"My only concern is the segmentation of services, which I understand is common in SaaS."
"The product must enable administrators to restrict the privileges of remote users."
"It has been really great. We don't have any complaints about it at all. We've only had one or two very minor glitches, and they were just in passing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."
"I believe the licensing model is excellent as it offers flexibility to our customers, allowing them to adopt a crawl, walk, or run approach."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"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."
"The pricing was a lot more than what we were paying for our previous solution."
"Price wise, it's not cheap, but it's not expensive at all either. It's in the middle."
"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."
"We got the product at a low price."
"The pricing, I believe, is around $3 a user a year. It is quite reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
No data available
 

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 Business8
Large Enterprise2
 

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.
What needs improvement with WatchGuard AuthPoint?
It's so simple to configure. We have integration with the WatchGuard firewall.
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
AuthPoint
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Ellips, Mednet, Diecutstickers.com, Fletchers Solicitors
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.