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Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs UserLock 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
6.7
Number of Reviews
173
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)
UserLock
Ranking in Authentication Systems
29th
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (34th)
 

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 UserLock is 1.1%, up from 1.1% 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%
UserLock1.1%
Other92.1%
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.
it_user1816350 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Xcel Mechanical Systems
The user login insights are helpful
We needed a simple solution to enable admin multi-factor authentication on our internal Windows network, and a consultant recommended UserLock because he had previously implemented it at another company. UserLock also monitors logins on all tracked devices, telling you if the sign-in was successful…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Everybody loves it. They feel a sense of security when they get that prompt to send them a text, or an email."
"The biggest benefit of Cisco Duo for my customers is the license because they count licenses for the user—one user can use many applications integrated with Cisco Duo."
"The experience of deploying Cisco Duo is great; it is fast and not too complex in my opinion, as you can integrate basically anything into Duo, so I would say the experience is overall very great as an administrator."
"Cisco Duo has been very reliable from my point of view so far, as I have not had any issues with it."
"The most valuable feature of Duo Security is the ability for the user to easily approve access. The application prompts the user, and they can see the location and the IP address. This makes it easy for the user to approve it and go through the process of logging in to the VPN."
"Cisco Duo has improved my operational efficiency and reduced costs in IT support, as we do not really hear anything from the end users unless it is not working for them, because it is really easy to use; they just get a pop-up, press the button, and that is all they are using it for."
"We're working remotely. It helps us keep people more safe. Its adoption has been fine. I like the fact that you can bypass it if you need to because there are situations where the internet doesn't work, etc."
"I would assess the stability and reliability of Cisco Duo as excellent because once we got it working, we have never had an issue."
"I work a lot with Fortinet products and I call the support often. They are very quick to respond and the support is very good."
"It integrates very tightly with the rest of the Fortinet ecosystem."
"The first valuable feature is being able to see everything on one platform. This includes logs and authentication failure."
"The solution is very easy to manage."
"The integration into tools, including CI/CD pipelines, is easy and handy."
"The ease of use is really nice. Using Authenticator, I've been able to actually work better on my authentication due to the fact that I have a single fabric to authenticate control from my firewall and on my access points. Authentication takes place from this area."
"The solution is an integral part of our security for our email network, and like I said, we'll begin using it for other cloud applications."
"The web feature is quite versatile. It serves as the sole server authenticator and is valuable not only with FortiGate products but also within the entire Forti system, making it highly useful for me."
"It is affordable, integrates easily with Active Directory, and is simple to install and maintain."
"The most valuable features are two-factor authentication and real-time logon monitoring."
"We mainly implemented UserLock for multi-factor authentication, but the user login insights are also nice."
"UserLock was pretty easy to set up and simple to use, and the documentation covered everything."
 

Cons

"We were considering purchasing other products, like AMP for Endpoints, and it was not properly integrated with the firewall function. It might be better now with SecureX."
"I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system. You have to authenticate and do your regular login and your Active Directory logins."
"The deployment experience was more difficult than we expected because we had some problems with the version of the OS that we have in our servers."
"I cannot think of a specific feature that should be focused on for improvement, but perhaps addressing the trouble we have when people are changing phones would help."
"It already integrates with lots of products, but it can integrate with more products. There should be easy integration with Cisco products because sometimes, it can be quite complicated."
"I think the location accuracy could use a little improvement because it does not always show the exact location from which I am signing in."
"My experience with Cisco Duo's strong security authentication system is that sometimes there are difficulties, and sometimes users just won't be able to log in. We have to reset their password so they can use Duo."
"Cisco Duo can be improved by including some more pieces as far as pattern analysis."
"I would like to see more integration and inclusion of features for ransomware protection directly within the FortiAuthenticator without requiring additional devices."
"I think the tool could provide this solution on the cloud."
"FortiAuthenticator should integrate with other applications."
"Fortinet FortiAuthenticator provides only authentication. It should also enable authorization services"
"We have issues with HA (high availability). These should be addressed in future releases."
"Other features that would improve the product are a single sign-on where people can use their Gmail ID to log-in, etc."
"Initially, we deployed Fortinet FortiAuthenticator on VMware and faced challenges when migrating to an OpenStack environment, which required reconfiguration. I recommend Fortinet make its images migratable between environments."
"We would like to see Linux-based operating systems be able to integrate with FortiAuthenticator to get two-factor authentication running on them. as well. This is a shortcoming that I have faced a few times already."
"The product and service are already great as it is but if I could add one feature, I guess it would be nice to have another factor of authentication (two additional factors) like your phone and a token for example, for when people forget their phone at home."
"I would like to see UserLock add the ability to automatically create a group policy in Active Directory. That might streamline the setup process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I haven't seen it in a while, but it's at par with everything else licensing-wise."
"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."
"From a reseller perspective, it's still challenging to explain the whole license strategy to a client, so we really have to be ahead of that for all the true forward conversations."
"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."
"The pricing is pretty competitive. It's pretty cheap. Anybody can adopt it."
"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."
"With regard to pricing, for a small business buying a one off, it's pretty expensive. If it's an enterprise that has thousands of employees, however, it's really nothing to protect your data because if your network goes down or it's breached, you're losing millions of dollars every minute. When it comes to a large enterprise, it's priced where it should be because you're talking business to business. You're not talking business to consumer."
"I would rate the pricing a four out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. It is not that costly. It is cheap, easy to manage, easy to install, and easy to configure."
"The licensing structure is cost-effective for us compared to some of the other solutions that have recurring monthly costs."
"I rate the product price as two or three on a one-to-ten scale, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The pricing is fair."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"We pay for licensing on a yearly basis."
"FAC is an affordable solution for Middle Range (200E/400E) and also needs a package of mobility agents (2,000) perpetual."
"The price seems okay. It's not that expensive compared to other authenticators."
"You will be hard-pressed to find better pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
19%
Construction Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business66
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise92
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise11
No data available
 

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 ava...
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
Barclays, US Department of Justice, National Bank of Kuwait, Turkish Aerospace, New York Albany School District, Regtransfers, University of Kent, Camden City School District, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Bank of Cyprus, Detran-PE: Pernambuco State Traffic Department
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs. UserLock and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,338 professionals have used our research since 2012.