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Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs RSA Adaptive Authentication comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

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
6.6
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)
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator
Ranking in Authentication Systems
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (10th), Identity Management (IM) (15th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
RSA Adaptive Authentication
Ranking in Authentication Systems
24th
Average Rating
6.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is 3.1%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RSA Adaptive Authentication is 1.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo3.7%
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator3.1%
RSA Adaptive Authentication1.4%
Other91.8%
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.
reviewer2848395 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Business Development Manager at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Multi-factor security has improved device protection but still needs broader application coverage
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator could be improved in its cost structure. Although it is not expensive, other solutions offer more value for less money. Cisco Duo provides better value in this regard and connects to web applications much more easily, scaling effectively in that sense. While I have never used Cisco Duo to secure other devices in IoT environments, I know Cisco Duo is capable of doing so, whereas Fortinet FortiAuthenticator cannot. Additionally, Cisco Duo is also cheaper. These are the main reasons why we switched away from Fortinet FortiAuthenticator, as it was very limited compared to other solutions available. Fortinet FortiAuthenticator was primarily missing the ability to scale to web applications.
Directorc4e7 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's easy to use for the security part, and it helps to improve our security posture."
"From an administrative point of view, I find Cisco Duo user-friendly because the console is very easy to use, and when it comes to the Cisco Duo agent installations, the documents are pretty clear."
"Cisco is the perfect product for our current size, and I don't think we'll have problems with scalability as we grow."
"It's a lot easier for our end users to connect to our network. You don't have to type in a code. You get push notifications, that's probably the best thing about it. The fewer clicks they have to do to be online, the better it is. They can easily get into the network and do remote work."
"Cisco Duo benefits my organization because we do not have too many logins since everything is in one place and we can use Cisco Duo for VPN, applications, and cloud solutions."
"Cisco Duo has improved my operational efficiency and reduced costs by better managing authentication for our clients and helping to reduce potential compromises and brute force attacks."
"The most valuable aspect is the authentication and the SSO."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility in using the SMS messages."
"It is used for SSO, single sign-on, and as a captive portal."
"We have not had issues with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator. It is stable."
"Technical support is excellent with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator."
"We use this product for SSL two-factor authentication and FortiToken management."
"Once you configure it properly, it runs fine."
"The product is stable and reliable."
"It integrated with the existing Cisco wireless infrastructure to solidify the way people authenticate onto the network."
"The capability to manage your business policy related to security when required without vendor involvement."
"The most valuable feature is the stock tokens. That works the best for us."
"Once we started adopting these products, we've seen the fraud losses go down considerably."
"Ingestion of logs and raising alert space on those logs are the most valuable features."
"It has reduced false positives greatly in our fraud detection ability."
"One of the most valuable features is the fraud detection capability with minimal friction in the customer experience."
"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."
 

Cons

"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."
"Cisco Duo did not help reduce the cost of the overall authentication method that we have in our company; instead, it increased, obviously."
"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."
"We first deployed Duo Security for our company with the VPN, and afterward, about a year later, we implemented it for a customer of ours where we offered infrastructure as a service. When I tried to establish a VPN connection through Duo Security, it did not function well on that version, which was the latest one at the time. So, I had to make a copy of the machine and then implement Duo Security with the VPN because it did not function well with the newer version."
"Cisco Duo can be improved by exploring a way to make it a more seamless integration and by deploying an in-house server."
"For a non-prepared, non-technical user, it could be tricky and quite complex."
"I think that the dashboard needs to be improved."
"One area that might be improved is that setting up SMS texting is not as easy as using the app, even though it does support it."
"I would like to see more support from Fortinet with tech support people who have as much expertise on the authenticator as they do on their firewalls."
"I would like to see more integration and inclusion of features for ransomware protection directly within the FortiAuthenticator without requiring additional devices."
"If you want some other FortiAuthenticator from one site to another site, you should have requirements, but really if you have authentication and directory or another solution, you should change the password of the authenticator between the solution and the directory and other things. So transfer of data and other information should be simpler."
"Improvements in the product could start from the dashboard, overall customization, and configuration."
"It would be helpful to receive a code by yourself for authentication instead of it registered to a phone."
"The solution's command line interface could be improved to provide better support for low-level debugging and advanced configurations."
"Technical support used to be much better. Fortinet seems to be downgrading, so everything takes longer to get a response in comparison to the past."
"These are the main reasons why we switched away from Fortinet FortiAuthenticator, as it was very limited compared to other solutions available."
"I would like to see a more adaptive type of solution, something that we could use on our web pages..."
"It has taken years to implement."
"It's an okay solution. It's just old technology and it's time to move on."
"Reporting modules is one of the major areas that can be improved further."
"The product is basically unusable. We need better ease of use; it's overly complicated."
"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."
"I think I would like to see them use more of our data, and give us more ability to control or configure how the protection patterns work for a specific business, and also provide more transparency into the methodology."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."
"I haven't seen any information on the pricing in four years, so I can't comment on that."
"The licensing is very good because it does not cost a lot of money. It's affordable for all-sized customers, including enterprises. There is an additional cost for premium support."
"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."
"It's very simple. Its price is fair. We use the hardware tokens as well. You get what you pay for. In terms of licensing, Cisco has very complicated products, but Duo Security was surprisingly easy."
"I haven't seen it in a while, but it's at par with everything else licensing-wise."
"My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been good, with no issues. I am pleased that the prices remained stable after Cisco acquired the solution."
"Overall, the pricing is fair. Customers can wrap it into their Enterprise Agreement, making it easier for them to solve their issues."
"The price seems okay. It's not that expensive compared to other authenticators."
"FAC is an affordable solution for Middle Range (200E/400E) and also needs a package of mobility agents (2,000) perpetual."
"The pricing is fair."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price and ten is a low price, I rate the pricing a seven."
"The product could be more competitively priced."
"The customers need to pay for licenses, and some pay on a yearly basis while others pay on a three-yearly or five-yearly basis. Also, it is not an expensive solution."
"Between paying them to help with the configuration, the box itself, and the support, it came to like $12,500, including a three-year service agreement."
"When we buy the Fortinet FortiAuthenticator device there is a comparison between price and security."
"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."
"The pricing is $50 per head, yearly."
"Keep the proxy service layer on premises. That consumes SaaS security services on the back-end."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Construction Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

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 Business38
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
My experience with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator's pricing found the pricing to be good. There are better solutions...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator could be improved in its cost structure. Although it is not expensive, other solutions of...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator was implemented as a multi-factor authentication solution to serve as a second barrier fo...
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Also Known As

Duo Security
FortiAuthenticator
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
ADP, Ameritas, Partners Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs. RSA Adaptive Authentication and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.