Cisco Duo vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) comparison

Cisco and F5 are both solutions in the Access Management category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.8, while F5 is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.3. Cisco holds a 3.2% mindshare in AM, compared to F5’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of F5 users who would recommend it.

Cisco Duo

Read 86 Cisco Duo reviews

6,543 Views
1,636 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Read 18 F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) reviews

2,814 Views
619 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Cisco Duo

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Duo and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Access Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Duo vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

December 2025

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Helped 881,114 peers since 2012

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

6.8

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager offers cost savings, quick ROI, and enhances security by ensuring crucial access and reducing costs.

I think Cisco Duo offers a good return on investment for startups, newer organizations, or those utilizing cloud-based applications.

Chandan Tripathi

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.

Roger Gough

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.

Chris Kincaid

Chief Technology Officer at University of Redlands

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

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

6.8

F5 BIG-IP APM customer service receives mixed reviews, with some praising responsiveness and others citing delays and communication issues.

They got back to us quickly, were nice, and gave us what we needed.

reviewer2718387

Infrastructure Engineer at a government with 501-1,000 employees

I would rate their support 10 out of 10.

Thatchapon Wongsri

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.

Charles Slaustas

Information Technology Contractor at Insight global

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

Even if they respond, they don't update me with the process or what's going on.

reviewer2644098

Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees

Most of the technical support is managed in-house due to our extensive experience with F5 products.

STRATOS GEROU

Business Development Manager at Pylones

F5 technical support is responsive and helpful.

ChrisLam

Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

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

7.3

F5 BIG-IP APM scales for diverse deployments, offering flexibility and effective tools, though hardware limitations might challenge scalability.

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.

Charles Slaustas

Information Technology Contractor at Insight global

I believe Cisco Duo is very scalable because it is cloud-based.

Chandan Tripathi

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.

Roger Gough

Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

The product's flexibility and company culture contribute to resolving these challenges.

STRATOS GEROU

Business Development Manager at Pylones

I would rate the scalability of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) between seven and eight.

ChrisLam

Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

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

7.9

F5 BIG-IP APM is praised for reliability, performance, and minimal bugs, with minor suggestions for log clarity improvement.

We have not had any Cisco Duo outages across all the companies I have worked for that utilize Cisco Duo.

Dawid Viljoen

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.

Roger Gough

Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.

We have never experienced any downtime.

Ebbinghans Reaport

Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

On a scale from one to ten for stability, I would rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) a ten.

ChrisLam

Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited

Sometimes, the logs are not quite informational or easy to understand.

reviewer2644098

Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Room For Improvement

Cisco Duo users seek improvements in telephony, integration, pricing, on-premise support, authentication speed, and legacy system compatibility.

F5 BIG-IP APM requires improvements in pricing, cloud integration, user interface, documentation, support, and additional features for enhanced performance.

If you don't have internet access, you can't access your computer, only local access is available.

Boaz Avinery

Security and Network Team Lead

It lacks some dynamic identity management features compared to other products such as SailPoint.

Mohammed Abdul Hafeez Qureshi

Senior Iam Associate at Cognizant

Cisco should allow easier integration with third-party equipment because Cisco's own equipment is expensive.

Wajid Khattak

Procurement Officer at Emerging Systems

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

If I could copy and paste objects instead of picking and configuring them from scratch each time, it would be great.

reviewer2644098

Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees

The main improvement needed for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is to integrate into the cloud-delivered services from F5.

STRATOS GEROU

Business Development Manager at Pylones

The ability to run the Anycast feature would be valuable, as the current solution only operates on-premises.

SalihUcpinar

Senior Cyber Security Consultant at KoçSistem

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

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Setup Cost

Cisco Duo offers affordable, flexible pricing for enterprises, balancing cost-effectiveness with premium features and scalability for user needs.

F5 BIG-IP APM is costly but valued for high performance, with unpredictable cloud pricing and additional fees for features.

The pricing is acceptable to them.

Ebbinghans Reaport

Vice President at Next Info Tech Solutions Inc

Their website lists $3 per month per user for the Essential license.

Thatchapon Wongsri

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.

MUHAMMAD ASHER

Sr. Network Security Engineer at Topnet Internet Services Provider. Riyadh, Saudi A

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability.

STRATOS GEROU

Business Development Manager at Pylones

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Valuable Features

Cisco Duo offers seamless integration, multi-factor authentication, geo-locking, and intuitive management for robust network security and identity verification.

F5 BIG-IP APM offers secure remote access with SSL VPN, multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive integration and security features.

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.

Charles R

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.

Ebbinghans Reaport

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.

ScottPaul

Director, Technology at Deer Creek High School

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Duo report

APM is quite flexible for customers to use, providing secure remote access through various host-checking conditions for both machines and users.

ChrisLam

Solutions Manager at Macroview Telecom Limited

It provides robust security and offers integration with multi-factor authentication systems, which is crucial for an organization's security policy.

STRATOS GEROU

Business Development Manager at Pylones

A lot of features are useful to me, including mostly the authentication, SAML, or SSO, with no sign-on.

reviewer2644098

Professional Services Specialist at a security firm with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Duo

Ranking in Access Management

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (3rd), Authentication Systems (2nd), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st)

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Man...

Ranking in Access Management

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (15th), Network Access Control (NAC) (7th), SSL VPN (5th), Remote Access (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.2%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Access Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Duo	3.2%
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)	2.0%
Other	94.8%

Access Management

Featured Reviews

Charles Slaustas

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.

Read full review

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SalihUcpinar

Senior Cyber Security Consultant at KoçSistem

Has provided reliable policy controls and secure web access for large enterprises

I consider Cloudflare when evaluating centralized access control features; Cloudflare utilizes multi-factor authentication and full API support, while F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) needs to enhance its API support. I recommend F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) for large companies such as Tüpraş and Ford. Tüpraş is one of the biggest companies in Turkey, along with other customers such as Tofaş, Euroko, Koç Holding, and more. For on-premises deployment, I would rate it a 10. For cloud deployment, I would rate it a seven. I primarily use it on-premises. I rate F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) eight out of ten.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	40

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

In my opinion, the GUI is perfect with the configuration options provided. F5 BIG-IP has given customization options and policy configuration tools in the GUI. It's good and good enough to work.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

F5 products are more expensive than other solutions but are valued for their quality and reliability, akin to purchasing a Bentley as opposed to an Audi.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)?

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is not user-friendly and operates slowly. Additional features for architecture such as Anycast would be beneficial. The ability to run the Anycast feature woul...

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Comparisons

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Cisco Duo

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Cisco Duo

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiToken vs Cisco Duo

Compared 6% of the time

Yubico YubiKey vs Cisco Duo

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco Duo

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Duo Competitors

Ivanti Connect Secure vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 6% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 5% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Compared 4% of the time

More F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo

January 2026

Download Cisco Duo product report

Buyer's Guide

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

January 2026

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) report

Download F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) product report

Also Known As

Duo Security

F5 Access Policy Manager

Overview

Cisco Duo is a cloud-based identity security platform safeguarding critical resources for any user and device worldwide. Known for its ease of use, Duo offers seamless protection across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

Cisco Duo is designed to secure access with identity-first protection and provides extensive visibility throughout an organization's identity ecosystem. Offering multi-factor authentication, Duo facilitates easy integration and management, allowing teams to protect data effectively on VPNs, applications, and networks. Its single-pane management improves security processes while enhancing trust, making it suitable for diverse IT infrastructures.

What are the key features of Cisco Duo?

Multi-factor Authentication: Strengthens user verification with multiple methods.
Push Notifications: Simplifies authentication with quick approvals.
Single Sign-On: Enhances convenience by allowing one set of credentials.
VPN Access: Secures remote connections with reliable authentication.
User Activity Visibility: Offers comprehensive insights into access patterns.

Which benefits and ROI should users consider?

Quick Deployment: Facilitates rapid integration within existing systems.
Effective Management: Streamlines IT operations with centralized control.
Regulatory Compliance: Aids in meeting industry standards for data protection.
Enhanced Trust: Strengthens security posture across networks.
User-friendly Approach: Simplifies authentication for non-technical users.

In industries like education and finance, Cisco Duo is widely employed to secure multi-factor authentication across platforms such as email, databases, and servers. Its integration capabilities with Microsoft 365, Active Directory, and VPNs like AnyConnect are instrumental in verifying user identities using mobile apps or OTPs, catering effectively to both remote and on-premise environments.

Cisco

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.

BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.

BIG-IP APM Benefits:

Ease of use
Flexibility
Ability to integrate with other systems
Security features
Granular access control
Responsive and helpful support team

BIG-IP APM Features:

Support for Identity Aware Proxy (IAP) enabling Zero Trust application access
Context-based authorization with dynamic L4/L7 ACLs
Integration with third-party MFA solutions
DTLS 2.0 mode for delivering and securing applications
SAML 2.0 identity federation support
Support for OAuth 2.0 authorization protocol
SSO support for classic authentication (Kerberos, header- based, etc.), credential caching, OAuth 2.0, SAML 2.0, and FIDO2 (U2F)
AAA server authentication and high-availability
Integration with leading IAM vendor products (Microsoft, Okta, Ping Identity)
BIG IP Edge Client and F5 Access integrate with VMware Horizon ONE (AirWatch), Microsoft Intune and IBM MaaS360
Risk-based access leveraging third-party UEBA and risk engines (HTTP Connector)

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.

Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."

Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."

Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

December 2025

Free Report: Cisco Duo vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

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