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Cisco Duo vs Fortinet FortiToken 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
7.4
Cisco Duo enhances security, boosts staff morale, saves costs, and improves operations, despite perceived productivity impacts.
Sentiment score
6.5
Fortinet FortiToken enhances security, reduces unauthorized access, and delivers high ROI, benefiting both large enterprises and smaller entities.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Duo's support is highly rated for expertise and solutions, but some users note delays and improvement needs.
Sentiment score
6.4
Fortinet FortiToken support is generally good but varies in response times and problem understanding, improved by dedicated contracts.
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.
Their resolution time is timely, and they provide solutions efficiently.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Duo is scalable, easily integrates across sites, and supports thousands of users without disruptions, adapting to various applications.
Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiToken offers scalable user management, suitable for small to mid-sized companies, but faces hardware and migration challenges in larger contexts.
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.
There is a need to scale more effectively to accommodate a larger number of users and bulk users.
Regarding Fortinet FortiToken's scalability, we can purchase licenses according to our needs.
FortiToken is scalable and accommodates the needs for updates effectively.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco Duo is highly stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and quick issue resolution, maintaining productivity efficiently.
Sentiment score
8.0
Fortinet FortiToken is reliable and stable with minor sync issues, highly rated by users for dependable performance.
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.
FortiToken is stable, but there are some restrictions when it comes to supporting two-factor authentication in multi-factor environments.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Duo needs telephony credit, integration, deployment, and user interface improvements, plus better licensing, documentation, and older app compatibility.
Fortinet FortiToken users desire improved integration, enhanced features, better support, pricing, and flexibility in authentication and compatibility.
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.
There has to be a way to make the whole process of push notifications easier, so that when I have my phone with me, I do not have to do anything.
This would allow for broader distribution among a larger number of system admins and software engineers, which is currently not feasible with the existing hardware-only approach.
If I can receive it on email, it would be more flexible.
FortiToken should provide enhanced SMS services for those users who do not have smartphones.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Duo's pricing is competitive, flexible, straightforward, and suited for large enterprises, with premium support and moderate setup costs.
Fortinet FortiToken is affordable and competitive, though some regions face higher prices and unpredictable cost increases.
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.
Discounts are often provided to close deals, making it a cost-effective solution.
The pricing for FortiToken is not low; I regard it as medium-priced.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Duo is praised for its versatile multi-factor authentication, integration, user-friendly interface, and adaptability to hybrid environments.
Fortinet FortiToken is cost-effective and user-friendly, offering versatile two-factor authentication with both soft and hard tokens.
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.
The main use case of FortiToken is that it is a hardware-based solution, providing secure two-factor authentication for administrators.
It is very user-friendly and easily integrates with various firewalls, making it convenient to use within diverse environments.
The solution is unique in catering to Fortinet, making it very useful and secure.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Duo
Ranking in Authentication Systems
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (4th), ZTNA as a Service (7th), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
Fortinet FortiToken
Ranking in Authentication Systems
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
30
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 Fortinet FortiToken is 6.0%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

Patrick Stevenson - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sachin Vinay - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates secure 2FA for admins, facilitates OTP generation, and enhances security
One suggestion is to develop a more user-friendly solution that is cost-effective so that a hardware-based solution can be provided to all users using VPN services or any configuration service requiring confidentiality. This would allow for broader distribution among a larger number of system admins and software engineers, which is currently not feasible with the existing hardware-only approach.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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...
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 Fortinet FortiToken?
The solution is simple and similar to Google Authenticator. It follows time-based authentication. We use it for hardware and software in one environment. The tool offers simple and fast authenticat...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiToken?
I am using FortiToken for logging into the Fortinet hardware. I have four FortiGate hardware units. I am connected through a simulator on FortiToken.
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Duo vs. Fortinet FortiToken and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.