Cisco Duo vs RSA Adaptive Authentication comparison

Cisco and RSA are both solutions in the Authentication Systems category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while RSA is ranked #27. Cisco holds a 9.3% mindshare in AS, compared to RSA’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of RSA users who would recommend it.

Cisco Duo

Read 74 Cisco Duo reviews

5,778 Views
2,348 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

RSA Adaptive Authentication

Read 6 RSA Adaptive Authentication reviews

257 Views
150 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

Cisco Duo

RSA Adaptive Authentication

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Cisco Duo and RSA Adaptive Authentication are two key products in the identity authentication market. Cisco Duo stands out with user satisfaction in pricing and support, while RSA Adaptive Authentication excels in features and is perceived as worth the investment.

What features are offered by Cisco Duo in comparison to RSA Adaptive Authentication?

Cisco Duo's valuable features include ease of integration, robust security measures, and straightforward deployment. RSA Adaptive Authentication offers comprehensive risk-based authentication, extensive analytics capabilities, and advanced threat identification and prevention. Users find RSA Adaptive Authentication's features more beneficial due to its advanced security functionalities.

What areas of improvement can be found in Cisco Duo in comparison to RSA Adaptive Authentication?

Cisco Duo users suggest enhancements in multi-device management, request more detailed reporting, and better scalability options. RSA Adaptive Authentication users highlight the need for a more intuitive setup process, improved customer support, and a more user-friendly interface. Overall, Cisco Duo's areas for improvement are less significant compared to RSA Adaptive Authentication's larger setup challenges.

How is the ease of deployment and customer service of Cisco Duo in comparison to RSA Adaptive Authentication?

Cisco Duo users appreciate its straightforward deployment and proactive customer service. In contrast, RSA Adaptive Authentication faces criticism for its complex deployment process and less responsive support. Cisco Duo is recognized for being easier to deploy and having superior customer service.

What setup costs and ROI can be seen with Cisco Duo in comparison to RSA Adaptive Authentication?

Cisco Duo offers competitive setup costs and a clear ROI. RSA Adaptive Authentication requires a higher initial investment but delivers strong long-term ROI through advanced security features. While Cisco Duo is more cost-effective initially, RSA Adaptive Authentication's ROI justifies its higher price.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Duo vs. RSA Adaptive Authentication Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo vs. RSA Adaptive Authentication

June 2025

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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 Authentication Systems

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (4th), ZTNA as a Service (7th), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)

RSA Adaptive Authentication

Ranking in Authentication Systems

27th

Average Rating

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 9.3%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RSA Adaptive Authentication is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Authentication Systems

Featured Reviews

Patrick Stevenson

Senior Network Engineer at Shentel

Centralized authentication simplifies logins and saves time

There aren't any new features or functionalities in Cisco Duo that my company has started using recently; we use it primarily for the authentication portion. There are other features we can use, yet we haven't turned those options on yet, so that's more a matter of time than anything. We have many different vendors and types of devices that we require MFA for login. That said, Duo helps bring all of those accounts into one system, in conjunction with ISE, you have one username, one password, and you access all the devices instead of having every device have its own credentials. It lowers the number of passwords you need to have. Cisco Duo is on the right track for improvement. A lot of their devices already integrate with it now. They keep adding features for more devices that interact natively with it, instead of having to have a third-party server to reach out to Duo. I would rate Cisco Duo overall about an eight out of ten; it's a strong product.

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Directorc4e7

Director of Cyber Security at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

We need better ease of use; the product is overly complicated

There are many use cases that we have defined based on our business needs Ingestion of logs and raising alert space on those logs are the most valuable features. The product is basically unusable. We need better ease of use; it's overly complicated. It has taken years to implement. We used RSA…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Multifactor authentication is the most valuable feature."

"The solution is pretty secure."

"The ability for users to authenticate via phone, from any random phone number, has been very helpful for managing a distributed workforce. Using it across a distributed network for securing access to our applications is big for us."

"By deploying Duo, we have virtually eliminated the risk of direct deposit redirection as a result of credentials that have been compromised via phishing."

"I appreciate the simple login feature of Cisco Duo; being able to log into your actual page and then having all your apps there is convenient."

"It's easy to deploy. It's easy to manage. It's easy to integrate with other applications."

"Another feature is the single pane of glass management. That's important for analytics and also for troubleshooting. It means there's one place that you go to at least start the troubleshooting process."

"For me and my customers, the best feature is that it's very easy to integrate with the existing infrastructure. It takes a few minutes to configure it."

More Cisco Duo pros

"The capability to manage your business policy related to security when required without vendor involvement."

"Ingestion of logs and raising alert space on those logs are the most valuable features."

"Our customer are seeing value from the product, as they experience cost reductions. They can stop fraud from their customers, then their customers can have a better experience from their services."

"Risk Engine’s risk score, eFN, GeoIP, and device binding all coming together in the Policy Rules to decide when to escalate to MFA."

"The most valuable feature is the stock tokens. That works the best for us."

Cons

"The technical engineers in the first line of support should improve their knowledge."

"We use Yubikey for pushing it to the phones. Yubikeys can get expensive because people tend to lose those for some reason. Fifty dollars a device is pretty high."

"The only challenge is finding the right person sometimes. From what I've seen, being a named account is a big deal."

"To improve Cisco Duo, the biggest consideration is the licensing standpoint; the most common issue I've found is customers not setting up the Active Directory sync properly, leading to inflated licensing usage when they try to delete inactive users that are still being charged."

"It took me a while to figure it out. I went to every user and forced them to set it up. I might have done it the long way."

"I believe there are two new features. I am interested in adding auto-admin services and incorporating icons for easier navigation. This could contribute to a new business idea platform. I have seen the features, and they make things easier, resolving issues from before. The platform has been updated, and there's now another link in my platform for media access. When it comes to improvements, the UI can be more user-friendly, and there is room for easier navigation. Perhaps there could be enhancements in customization. I haven't faced issues in storage or backup, but I am open to improvements in customization functionality. It's not my environment, but I see possibilities for improvement in the deployment of funds. The addition of new features is appreciated, and for customization, it could provide more freedom for users."

"An enhancement they might make is if they can log it to Splunk since they're big into Splunk. Instead of me having to go into that portal to look at things when someone is trying to log in and they forgot their password, I can look in and tell them they forgot their password or didn't respond to the prompt. That would be an improvement."

"Cisco Duo can be improved with better ways to set users up. Currently, we might not be doing it perfectly as we're having them email in phone numbers to get them set up with Duo Mobile."

More Cisco Duo cons

"I would like to see a more adaptive type of solution, something that we could use on our web pages..."

"The product is basically unusable. We need better ease of use; it's overly complicated."

"Reporting modules is one of the major areas that can be improved further."

"Better filters when searching for events. The current features for current filters when searching fraud events are not very comprehensive. You can only filter by certain fields in the transaction."

"RSA Adaptive Authentication lacks a mechanism to verify the identity of a new user in the Enrollment event workflow."

"It has taken years to implement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The product’s pricing is reasonable."

"It falls in line with everything else."

"The pricing is pretty competitive. It's pretty cheap. Anybody can adopt it."

"Cisco has the most expensive products because market leaders tend to charge a lot."

"Their pricing model is a little bit weird. Currently, there is no price advantage in signing up for yearly contracts. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing costs."

"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."

More Cisco Duo pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is $50 per head, yearly."

"Keep the proxy service layer on premises. That consumes SaaS security services on the back-end."

"Customers need to deploy the solution in a very expensive infrastructure. RSA should should think about a less expensive infrastructure for customers because the solution costs around $100,000, and the infrastructure needed to support that solution may be even more expensive than that price."

"You may need to opt for second best if funding is low and the number of users is huge. However, the pricing is able to be negotiated if your user figures are huge."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

44%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 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.

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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.

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Comparisons

Microsoft Entra ID vs Cisco Duo

Compared 14% of the time

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Cisco Duo

Compared 14% of the time

Fortinet FortiToken vs Cisco Duo

Compared 12% of the time

Yubico YubiKey vs Cisco Duo

Compared 8% of the time

RSA SecurID vs Cisco Duo

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Duo Competitors

RSA Authentication Manager vs RSA Adaptive Authentication

Compared 100% of the time

More RSA Adaptive Authentication Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo

June 2025

Download Cisco Duo product report

Buyer's Guide

Authentication Systems

June 2025

Download RSA Adaptive Authentication product report

Also Known As

Duo Security

No data available

Overview

Cisco Duo is a cloud-based identity security tool offering easy and wide-ranging access protection for users and devices worldwide. It assures identity-first security with clear visibility across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

Cisco Duo provides robust multi-factor authentication and seamless integration capabilities with existing infrastructures. Appreciated for its stability and speed, it supports distributed workforces by securing VPN access, corporate networks, and cloud services. Duo’s comprehensive identity ecosystem supports easy deployment and management through a single-pane-of-glass management interface. It seamlessly merges with popular platforms like Active Directory and Office 365 across diverse hardware.

What are Cisco Duo’s Essential Features?

Multi-Factor Authentication: Offers secure access with options like push notifications and hardware tokens.
Seamless Integration: Easily fits with existing systems and third-party applications.
User-Friendly Management: Provides centralized control with a single-pane-of-glass interface.
Wide Compatibility: Supports broad applications and devices, enhancing security management.
Stable and Fast: Reliable speed and intuitive interaction for users across platforms.

What Benefits and ROI Can Cisco Duo Users Expect?

Enhanced Security: Increases protection with versatile MFA options for critical resources.
Ease of Use: Simplifies deployment and management with intuitive interfaces.
Scalability: Adapts to growing needs with broad compatibility and integration support.
Support for Distributed Workforces: Ensures secure remote access for teams anywhere.

Cisco Duo finds extensive applications across education, finance, retail, and government sectors by fortifying network and application access security. Organizations leverage it for its MFA capabilities, integrating with ERP systems, ensuring protected connectivity with VPN and cloud-based services, crucial in maintaining secure and efficient operations.

Cisco

RSA Adaptive Authentication is a risk-based two-factor authentication solution providing cost-effective protection for an entire user base. Adaptive Authentication secures online portals, SSL VPNs, and web access management portals for different types of organizations in the healthcare, insurance, enterprise, government, financial services, and other industries. Based on the transparent two-factor authentication technology, Adaptive Authentication works behind the scenes to authenticate end users and transactions based on individual end user and device profiles. In addition, Adaptive Authentication uses the RSA Risk Engine to estimate the level of risk for the specific activity and uses information collected from the RSAeFraudNetwork (a cross-organization, cross-application, cross-border online fraud network) to identify fraudulent activities. The Policy Manager determines what actions must be performed, depending on the risk score and other parameters.

RSA

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

ADP, Ameritas, Partners Healthcare

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo vs. RSA Adaptive Authentication

June 2025

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