Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Duo vs Microsoft Active Directory 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Duo enhances security with multifactor authentication, offering cost savings and ease of use despite minor productivity impacts.
Sentiment score
5.0
Microsoft Active Directory enhances productivity by streamlining user management and access control, providing significant time and cost savings.
I think Cisco Duo offers a good return on investment for startups, newer organizations, or those utilizing cloud-based applications.
I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system.
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Duo is the security and the ease of setting it up.
The solution is really time-saving since I don't need to create users in each server or system manually, and user access control is streamlined.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Cisco Duo's customer support garners mixed reviews, with praise for some aspects but noted variability in responsiveness and improvement needed.
Sentiment score
5.7
Microsoft Active Directory support quality varies; users experience mixed results influenced by representatives' skills and response times.
They got back to us quickly, were nice, and gave us what we needed.
Other support sections have failed miserably because of the lack of response time.
I would rate the technical service and customer support of Cisco Duo a ten out of ten.
Support documents are available on the internet in every language.
If you purchase retail, the support will be more difficult because they will assess the priority or rating from the customer.
Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Duo excels with scalable, seamless integration and adaptability, making it ideal for organizations of varying sizes and needs.
Sentiment score
6.0
Microsoft Active Directory is scalable, adaptable for diverse users, and effective for organizations of all sizes with Azure integration.
I believe Cisco Duo is very scalable because it is cloud-based.
We started out with just the basics, getting a token, and then we changed to push, and now, we have added the offline mode.
It scales easily because it is just tied into our identity provider, and it grows along with that.
Microsoft Active Directory scales effectively; I don't foresee any issues with that at all.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco Duo is highly reliable, with minimal downtime and efficient issue resolution, earning consistent positive user feedback.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Active Directory is stable and reliable, with high ratings, minor issues, praised scalability, and requires proactive growth planning.
When there is a bigger problem, we get notifications from Cisco Duo saying, 'Hey, we have a problem,' and that has helped us.
It is very reliable, easy to use, and I don't have too many issues with it.
There has been no downtime, crashes, or performance issues with Cisco Duo.
If you meet the installation requirements from Microsoft, it will be very stable.
With multiple domain controllers, stability is ensured.
I've been working with Microsoft Active Directory for over 3 years, and we've had no problems.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Duo aims to improve integration, simplify authentication, enhance compatibility, and refine pricing and user experience across platforms.
Microsoft Active Directory requires improved integration, security, synchronization, usability, scalability, and support to better serve organizational needs.
If you don't have internet access, you can't access your computer, only local access is available.
Cisco should allow easier integration with third-party equipment because Cisco's own equipment is expensive.
There needs to be consideration for how to launch Cisco Duo with a handheld device that is not native, where you can install the application.
Exporting and verifying group memberships require command line scripts, which isn't simple.
There are some features that need improvements in terms of ease of use and frequency of updates.
Sometimes, it can be overly complicated, and when you apply Group Policy in an Active Directory environment, sometimes those settings apply and sometimes they don't.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Duo offers competitive pricing, flexible payment options, and cost-effective scalability with straightforward licensing and free trials available.
Active Directory costs differ by organization, often moderate to high, with cloud solutions like Azure reducing expenses for some.
The approximate cost is around eighty dollars per user.
Licensing is straightforward and convenient for higher education because student populations are included.
I am pleased that the prices remained stable after Cisco acquired the solution.
For the cloud solution in our region, the pricing of Microsoft Active Directory is very high.
I consider Microsoft Active Directory expensive because if you buy this thing bundled with the Windows Directory Server, you get five user licenses for about a thousand euros, or a little bit less than this.
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing with Microsoft Active Directory is straightforward; you just buy the server and then have to buy the user CALs.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Duo provides robust multi-factor authentication and efficient access management, ideal for secure, flexible remote and hybrid work environments.
Microsoft Active Directory provides integration, scalability, access control, and security, making it vital for large organizations seeking efficient management.
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.
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.
A valuable feature of the solution is its hybrid structure, which involves proxy agents running on-premises while other services are on the cloud.
To assess the impact of Microsoft Active Directory's centralized domain management on security protocols and access permissions, Microsoft Active Directory itself has constraints with security because when we have a solution such as SSO or Single Sign-On, which makes it easier for users to log in, some parts have security openings.
One valuable feature is the centralized creation of IDs.
I can control all the devices in my domain by just changing the group policies in one place.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Duo
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (2nd), Access Management (5th), ZTNA as a Service (5th), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
Microsoft Active Directory
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 5.0%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 3.2%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Duo5.0%
Microsoft Active Directory3.2%
Other91.8%
Single Sign-On (SSO)
 

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.
Giovanni Baruzzi - PeerSpot reviewer
Mature technology delivers consistent capability and enhances centralized user management
I think Microsoft Active Directory could be more intuitive. My impression of the integration of Microsoft Active Directory with third-party applications is that it can be made better. It's not the tendency of Microsoft to use a standard, but to modify it to their needs. This is catastrophic if you have to integrate other applications that use the same standard. This creates a major problem, so you have to be very careful and implement step by step, knowing that the partner is Microsoft. I would leave Microsoft Active Directory as it is and build possibly interfaces. For example, there is a provisioning protocol standard named SCIM. It seems that Microsoft Active Directory does not yet have a SCIM interface, which is a problem.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions are best for your needs.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise36
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
 

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 Microsoft Active Directory?
The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?
I think Microsoft Active Directory could be more intuitive. My impression of the integration of Microsoft Active Directory with third-party applications is that it can be made better. It's not the ...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
My usual use case for Microsoft Active Directory is to share groups of authorization among many different applications. The other use case for Microsoft Active Directory is the authentication of us...
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. Microsoft Active Directory and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.