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Defender by One Identity vs Idira Identity comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 20, 2026

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Authentication Systems
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
176
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (5th), Access Management (5th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st), AI Data Analysis (7th)
Defender by One Identity
Ranking in Authentication Systems
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Idira Identity
Ranking in Authentication Systems
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (8th), Authorization Software (2nd), Enterprise Password Managers (10th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (9th), Access Management (6th), Active Directory Management (6th), Cloud Resource Access Management (3rd), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.7%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Defender by One Identity is 1.7%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Idira Identity is 1.9%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo3.7%
Idira Identity1.9%
Defender by One Identity1.7%
Other92.7%
Authentication Systems
 

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.
Mahesh Malve - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Development Associate at DigitalTrack Solutions ind pvt ltd
Advanced analytics have strengthened privileged access security and reduced incident response time
While One Identity Defender is a strong solution overall, there are a few areas where I feel it could be improved. One area is the user interface and dashboard customization. Although it is functional, making it more modern and allowing deeper customization would improve the user experience, especially for quick monitoring. Another improvement could be in reporting flexibility. While it provides good reports, having more custom report building options and easier export features would be helpful for different compliance and manageability needs. From an integration perspective, while One Identity Defender works well with core systems, having more out-of-the-box integrations with modern cloud services and SaaS platforms would reduce the need for custom configuration. In terms of support, the overall support is good, but faster response times for critical issues and more detailed troubleshooting documentation would help teams resolve problems more efficiently.
Radosław Szyszko - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Clico
Modern access controls have streamlined daily MFA use and support complex privileged workflows
The area that is missing much is about the reporting part. I would rate Idira Identity in general about eight. It has a good set of features compared to other identity security platforms. It's well-composed on different layers but requires platformization to go further to make it easier to use. You can do many things in it, but you need a lot of knowledge about dependencies of many things, so it requires time and big knowledge, and for the customer, it's a tough task now. It was very bad in the past. Now it's going better, and I expect that this platformization transition will help in succeeding more in the future.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Duo is a very consistent product and flexible in how it can be deployed and has good support."
"The benefit of the features of Cisco Duo is that it secures our environment; nobody can access or join the network without it, and Cisco Duo will recognize and ensure that only people who are allowed in our environment can access our devices."
"It provides single-pane-of-glass management, which is pretty easy and straightforward. Because we manage multiple access tiers, it allows us to essentially manage everything from one viewpoint and not have many viewpoints for the same product. This is important because it is a time and resource saver. It also saves us money."
"The seamless integration of Cisco Duo into our platforms has been easy, and it has been reliable as well."
"The authentication process is very smooth and secure."
"In terms of operational efficiency, Cisco Duo has improved our security workflow significantly."
"Cisco Duo has improved our operational efficiency and reduced costs in areas including authentication, IT support, and security operations."
"What I appreciate the most is that you can push a notification with your phone and log in to your computer."
"We find that the product scales very well."
"One Identity Defender has good network protection."
"We have definitely seen a positive ROI from using One Identity Defender, as our security team now spends about twenty to thirty percent less time on manual log analytics and investigations because the system automatically highlights high-risk activities, and we did not need to increase team size despite growing infrastructure as the tool helps us handle more security events with the same team."
"If you decide to activate this solution, your infrastructure will be centered around flexibility."
"It's very fast, and it's easy to use because it's integrated with Active Directory."
"One Identity Defender has positively impacted our organization by improving overall security through the addition of MFA, which reduces the risk of unauthorized access and makes user authentication more controlled and reliable."
"The initial setup is straightforward, and it takes me up to an hour and a half."
"The tool is a very strong and valuable enterprise solution, particularly in ensuring the continuity of service."
"The most valuable features of CyberArk Identity are its ability to control access to administrative staff."
"CyberArk Identity is a mature product."
"The tool helps with authentication. It acts as an MFA for any kind of privileged access that occurs in our organization."
"The user identification is simplified, and managing user privileges, whether adding or revoking them, is also quite straightforward when utilizing CyberArk SaaS."
"The most valuable feature of CyberArk Identity is the adaptive interface."
"CyberArk Identity is at the top."
 

Cons

"The only time I really had some negative feedback for them was about the UI of their mobile app, but they improved it in the last version. It is good on the functionality side, but their pricing model is a little bit weird. Currently, there is no price advantage in signing up for yearly contracts. If you are on a monthly term or a yearly contract, you basically pay the same price, and that is very unusual. Normally, there is a discount when someone signs up for the 12-month system."
"I wouldn't mind seeing some options for remembering a device for a short period of time or a specific login, particularly for administrative engineering staff, as we may be logging in to four or five different services."
"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."
"Sometimes, it's a little harder for customers to adopt."
"Cisco Duo is generally easy to use, but there are a few areas where it could be improved."
"General announcements when new features come out with Cisco Duo should be broadcasted to customers who are using it, which might bring more accessibility to their documents so users can be more in tune with updates."
"When discussing areas for improvement in Cisco Duo, especially for Secure Access, I noted that the licensing structure could be better and more user-friendly."
"I think Cisco Duo can be improved by integrating it more with developer tools; there is not a lot in terms of developer tooling with respect to authenticating to command line toolsets."
"We have some clients that are wanting to protect their Apache web servers with One Identity Defender but all the research I have done says cannot be done. It can only be oriented to an IIS server. One Identity Defender should have more integration with more types of web servers."
"Maybe it could provide support for more web applications. It seems more focused on IIS web applications."
"One Identity Defender is a strong product, but there are a few areas where it can be improved."
"The only reason it is not a ten is because response time can sometimes be slower for complex or escalated cases."
"The login capabilities could be better."
"The reporting functionality is somewhat complicated."
"The product is not cheap, especially if you opt for an on-premise deployment requiring a complex server infrastructure. On the other hand, choosing the software as a service version simplifies infrastructure requirements but necessitates being online all the time."
"I'm not sure what needs improvement. It is a good platform."
"The reporting functionality is somewhat complicated. While I would rate CyberArk Identity and Okta on the same level, Okta's reporting is crisper and clearer."
"The solution could be easier to use and I found it to be very complex involving many steps."
"More integrations would be better."
"The tool has issues with the third-party SMS gateway. The solution has its own SMS gateway. Integration support is a challenge when we don’t use their SMS gateway. The tool also needs to improve its scalability."
"They could improve their UI and make everything more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"From a business perspective, it is a little bit costly. The licensing is on a per-user basis."
"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."
"Cisco has the most expensive products because market leaders tend to charge a lot."
"Duo Security is free."
"I only need the solution for IT staff, which makes it relatively cheap. If I deployed it for the whole company, it would be costly, so it depends on the number of users. Duo Security is affordable compared to other products in the segment."
"I haven't seen any information on the pricing in four years, so I can't comment on that."
"I haven't seen it in a while, but it's at par with everything else licensing-wise."
Information not available
"In terms of pricing, BeyondTrust and CyberArk tend to be more expensive, with CyberArk receiving an eight out of ten, in this regard."
"There could be some additional costs apart from the licensing costs of the solution when you want to develop connectors in CyberArk Identity."
"There is an initial license and then there is a subscription needed."
"The pricing of CyberArk Identity is competitive."
"We find that the pricing and licensing of this solution is adequate, as compared to the other competitors in the market."
"I would rate the tool’s pricing a seven out of ten. The product’s pricing is expensive and is on a yearly basis. You will need to pay around 10,000 GBP for 500 users."
"I think it is a fairly priced tool. I rate the tool between six and seven on a scale of one to ten where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The solution is cheap and I rate its pricing an eight out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business66
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise93
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
 

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 Du...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Duo Security?
Regarding the pricing, what actually happened was that we got the product purchased through our HQ, so the costing as...
What needs improvement with Duo Security?
I do not have a straight answer for how Cisco Duo can be improved at this time. With the implementation that we are g...
What needs improvement with One Identity Defender?
One Identity Defender is a strong product, but there are a few areas where it can be improved. First, the user interf...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Defender?
One Identity Defender strengthens identity and access security through MFA, helping us ensure that only authorized us...
What advice do you have for others considering One Identity Defender?
My advice for others looking into using One Identity Defender would be first to clearly define your use case, especia...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Identity?
I am not certain about CyberArk Identity's exact pricing model. For comparison, Okta was around five dollars per ...
What needs improvement with CyberArk Identity?
The area that is missing much is about the reporting part. I would rate Idira Identity in general about eight. It has...
What is your primary use case for CyberArk Identity?
I'm working with on-premises solutions. Back in the time there were no other options. I use multi-factor authenti...
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
No data available
Idaptive
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Bakersfield Police Department, Village of Westmont, Illinois
MLB, Citi, Pfizer, SulAmerica, GE Capital, Shiseido
Find out what your peers are saying about Defender by One Identity vs. Idira Identity and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.