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Cisco Duo vs CyberArk Privileged Access Manager 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Cisco Duo enhances security, reduces threats, lowers costs, and boosts morale with efficient multifactor authentication, yielding substantial ROI.
Sentiment score
6.6
Organizations gain enhanced security, compliance, and cost savings with CyberArk, improving efficiency, user adoption, and risk reduction.
I think Cisco Duo offers a good return on investment for startups, newer organizations, or those utilizing cloud-based applications.
Identity and Access Management Principal at Mobily
I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system.
Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Duo is the security and the ease of setting it up.
Chief Technology Officer at University of Redlands
The return on investment lies in improved security infrastructure, addressing over-privileged access, and reducing the risk of credential compromise, which is a major source of data breaches.
Cyber Security Engineer at Isolutions Associates Ltd (ISOLS)
The end users have the authority to reconcile the password or verify it before using session isolation, which is one of the unique features that can be enabled through Privileged Session Manager, preventing any attacks from happening within the organization when connected with sessions through CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.
Senior Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager has helped customers save on costs primarily by reducing the number of engineering and information security personnel.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Duo's customer service is generally positive, with quick responses and strong documentation, but some users note delays.
Sentiment score
6.5
CyberArk's support receives mixed reviews, praised for expertise but criticized for delays, especially at Tier One, yet committed to improvement.
They got back to us quickly, were nice, and gave us what we needed.
Infrastructure Engineer at a government with 501-1,000 employees
I would rate their support 10 out of 10.
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
I would rate support for Cisco Duo a 10, as I have never had a negative experience.
Information Technology Contractor at Insight global
CyberArk has been exceptional in coming back to us with immediate responses.
IT Cyber Security Lead at a mining and metals company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It could be forever until you talk to someone who knows what they are doing.
Senior PAM Consultant at iC Consult GmbH
Based on the issue resolution and support quality, I rate the support 10 out of 10.
Operation Specialists at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Duo is highly regarded for its scalability, flexibility, and seamless integration, efficiently supporting diverse organizational needs.
Sentiment score
7.6
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager scales efficiently for diverse needs, with flexible deployment options and positive user feedback on growth adaptability.
In my last contracting position, it was a large one for a major worldwide airline that had hundreds of thousands of devices that could use Cisco Duo, and it scaled very well.
Information Technology Contractor at Insight global
I believe Cisco Duo is very scalable because it is cloud-based.
Identity and Access Management Principal at Mobily
We started out with just the basics, getting a token, and then we changed to push, and now, we have added the offline mode.
Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.
The CPM can reportedly handle up to 50,000 accounts independently without issue.
Privileged Access Management Engineer at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
IT Cyber Security Lead at a mining and metals company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They had 40,000 passwords in this one safe, and it was saving the last ten iterations of each password object. That means they had 400,000 password objects in this safe. They exceeded the limit.
Senior PAM Consultant at iC Consult GmbH
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Duo is highly stable, with rare outages, positive user feedback, effective communication, and proactive updates ensuring reliability.
Sentiment score
7.7
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is praised for its robust stability and high availability, with minor issues noted under heavy load.
We have not had any Cisco Duo outages across all the companies I have worked for that utilize Cisco Duo.
Senior Engineer at Frontline Fighter Ltd
When there is a bigger problem, we get notifications from Cisco Duo saying, 'Hey, we have a problem,' and that has helped us.
Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.
We have never experienced any downtime.
Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc
Proper fine-tuning and expertise ensure the product performs well.
Cybersecurity Specialist at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Overall, the stability of the solution is high.
Senior Cybersecurity Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It has a large customer base and positive feedback within my network.
Senior Manager at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Duo users seek improvements in telephony, integration, pricing, on-premise support, authentication speed, and legacy system compatibility.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager needs UI, integration, documentation, performance, complexity improvements, better plugins, licensing, reporting, and support.
If you don't have internet access, you can't access your computer, only local access is available.
Security and Network Team Lead
It lacks some dynamic identity management features compared to other products such as SailPoint.
Senior Iam Associate at Cognizant
Cisco should allow easier integration with third-party equipment because Cisco's own equipment is expensive.
Procurement Officer at Emerging Systems
They want everything to be on the cloud, but even in the SaaS version of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, they need to deploy some servers on-premises.
Presales Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
We cannot generate a plug-in for web-based applications.
Contractor at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
If they want clients to move to the cloud, they need to support them in real-time.
Senior Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Duo offers affordable, flexible pricing for enterprises, balancing cost-effectiveness with premium features and scalability for user needs.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is costly but offers robust features and security, providing value despite higher pricing.
The pricing is acceptable to them.
Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc
Their website lists $3 per month per user for the Essential license.
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
One of my customers recently received a billing statement charging 3,600 US dollars for 100 users for one year.
Sr. Network Security Engineer at Topnet Internet Services Provider. Riyadh, Saudi A
CyberArk is expensive compared to other products I know.
Cybersecurity Specialist at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
CyberArk is comparatively expensive compared to other PAM solutions, such as Delinea, especially during renewal.
Presales Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CyberArk's SaaS solution is particularly expensive.
Senior Manager at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Duo offers seamless integration, multi-factor authentication, geo-locking, and intuitive management for robust network security and identity verification.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager offers password management, session monitoring, and threat analytics to enhance security and compliance.
From a management perspective, I appreciate that we can enroll or control devices on the back end for people who get a new phone and forget to handle Cisco Duo properly and need to add a new device.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Our company benefits from all those features of Cisco Duo with confidence, and we feel very secure with it in terms of authentication of our logins.
Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc
The benefit of having a complete passwordless environment in our organization is that it's gotten people away from using the sticky note under their keyboard - which is a huge problem.
Director, Technology at Deer Creek High School
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager helps ensure data privacy because we now know who is using which credentials and at what time.
Senior Cybersecurity Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It keeps a record of activities, allowing me to easily fetch screen recordings to detect any misuse and see who did what and what happened.
Senior Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
It can integrate with Splunk, SNMP, and other solutions and technologies.
Technical Support Analyst at Capgemini
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Duo
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (3rd), Authentication Systems (2nd), Access Management (4th), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st)
CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
229
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
 

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.
SI
Senior PAM Consultant at iC Consult GmbH
Makes privileged access management easy with automation and granular control
Many people underestimate the value of these tools because they treat them as simple automated password management. Once you realize the volume of passwords in your organization and factor in nonhuman passwords, you realize its value. Last year, CyberArk Impact cited 45 nonhuman passwords for every human password. If you have 10,000 employees, you can imagine the number of passwords. There are also many other operations. For example, you have a Qualys scanner that needs to reach out and touch all your endpoints and scan them for vulnerabilities. They use an API call to CyberArk to pull out a Privileged credential that allows them to log in to that target. This is an automated machine call. It is tapping into CyberArk to get that credential. There can be hundreds of thousands of those operations a day. You do not want to manage those passwords by hand. Some people marginalize the significance of such a solution by saying that it is just a fancy password changer. It goes well beyond that, especially with API calls and automation. Its importance extends beyond merely changing passwords; it involves automation, API calls, and process integration, crucial in agile environments for standing up new Amazon servers or other processes needing privileged credentials. CyberArk can automate these tasks into their build processes. Another critical feature is the proxy service via Privileged Session Manager (PSM), providing not only a proxy between your user and the target servers, protecting against malware but also offering session recording. Many companies I have worked with implemented a PAM product as a knee-jerk reaction to SOX audit requirements. They discovered they needed session recording and retention for regulatory compliance. This has become a major factor for clients instituting CyberArk, so PSM is a big deal in addition to regular password rotation.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise40
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise173
 

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 reveals that one of the most powerful features is the licensing model and the price. According to the pricing, it is really fantastic to get th...
What needs improvement with Duo Security?
One downside of Cisco Duo is the expense, as there are clients that can afford only the basic package, which does not include Geo-fencing, leaving them unable to pay for the more expensive level, w...
How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
My thoughts on the pricing of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depend entirely on the vendors' requirements. If they want their things to be secure, they have to spend accordingly. We have four t...
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Rockwell Automation
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.