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Cisco Duo vs WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA comparison

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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
160
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (5th), Authentication Systems (2nd), Access Management (5th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), AI Data Analysis (3rd)
WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA
Ranking in Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Authorization Software (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 15.7%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA is 2.3%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo15.7%
WatchGuard AuthPoint MFA2.3%
Other82.0%
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.
MF
Senior IT Tech at PCSL
Strong security measures and easy initial setup
I did reach out to WatchGuard for some features I'd like to see. I have a security license where AuthPoint could be used as a secondary authenticator for Office 365 users. It would be great to leverage AuthPoint for external authentication for Office 365, especially since some users prefer familiar tools, even with Microsoft's recent 2FA rollout. Additionally, I'm currently testing WatchGuard EDR, and I'd love to see full visibility into the cybersecurity status of assets, including vulnerabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I feel that I am using a good product that not only secures my accounts but also will not be a headache to use."
"Regarding the stability and reliability of Cisco Duo, it is very good."
"It's easy to deploy. It's easy to manage. It's easy to integrate with other applications."
"All features of the solution are effective, Duo supports BYOD policies by allowing users to authenticate securely from their personal devices."
"We're working remotely. It helps us keep people more safe. Its adoption has been fine. I like the fact that you can bypass it if you need to because there are situations where the internet doesn't work, etc."
"The feature that my organization started using more recently in Cisco Duo is offline authentication."
"We get fewer threats to remediate due to the two-factor authentication, which does not allow as many threats through."
"Cisco Duo has improved my operational efficiency and reduced costs in areas such as authentication, IT support, and security operations."
"The token-based two-factor verification (2FA) for user logins is valuable. It's the primary reason we use AuthPoint, and I find it very effective."
"The WatchGuard firewall includes many security features, such as UDP, block filters, web filtering, and GeoBlock."
"Personal notifications are very easy to use."
"The integrations are good."
"It can be implemented as an app on the phone, rather than with a hardware token."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"We use well-prepared templates to integrate AWS and Office 365 so it's very, very easy to implement for our needs."
"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."
 

Cons

"The cost will become expensive for large user accounts."
"I cannot think of a specific feature that should be focused on for improvement, but perhaps addressing the trouble we have when people are changing phones would help."
"Cisco Duo could definitely be improved, particularly regarding some of the reporting it does, as it currently lacks detail; for example, we had an issue where someone was getting prompted multiple times, but the console only detected it that one time."
"Technical support could be improved. I don't think all support should have to go through an agreement."
"I would like to see Duo Security increase the time that the users have to log into the devices. The maximum time interval is 50 minutes at the moment, and I would like it to be 60 minutes. When you try to log into a device and have to authenticate yourself, sometimes it's not very pleasant. It's not the best thing particularly if you have to do this every 50 minutes, which is the maximum time that Duo gives. This makes it difficult to use and does not save time."
"The product price needs improvement."
"The new smart license model doesn't always work. It's very complicated."
"They can make authentication easier. It should be done in a shorter time. Sometimes, it can take a bit more time to get the answer on your phone. You have to wait a bit longer to get the SMS code and other things. There can be some internet or connection issues. They should make it faster because sometimes, it's urgent, and you need to access something as soon as possible."
"We would like the zero trust feature of this solution to be completed, with more details added and more laptop management capability."
"The product must enable administrators to restrict the privileges of remote users."
"It's not so simple to configure."
"Documentation on cloud could be improved."
"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."
"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."
"My only concern is the segmentation of services, which I understand is common in SaaS."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Price wise, it's not cheap, but it's not expensive at all either. It's in the middle."
"During testing we are allowed a certain number of licenses for free."
"Cisco's licensing is always a bit complicated to understand, but the price is fair. It could be more expensive than others, but the way they integrate everything, it has a fair price."
"I haven't seen it in a while, but it's at par with everything else licensing-wise."
"The pricing was a lot more than what we were paying for our previous solution."
"Duo Security is free."
"It falls in line with everything else."
"The pricing, I believe, is around $3 a user a year. It is quite reasonable."
"We got the product at a low price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise79
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 pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cisco Duo indicates that the main setup cost for us has been the time and effort required to integrate Duo with existing applications, auth...
What needs improvement with Duo Security?
Cisco Duo is generally easy to use, but there are a few areas where it could be improved. The initial setup and configuration can require some technical knowledge, especially when integrating Duo w...
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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: September 2026.
914,938 professionals have used our research since 2012.