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Okta Platform vs Opal comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 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 Access Management
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
163
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (5th), Authentication Systems (2nd), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st), AI Data Analysis (7th)
Okta Platform
Ranking in Access Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
127
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (3rd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (2nd), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (1st), AI IT Support (1st)
Opal
Ranking in Access Management
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (10th), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (20th)
 

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.
SN
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
Automated lifecycle management has cut onboarding times and now drives secure, clean access
Although I am a fan of Okta Platform overall, there are areas where it could improve security outcomes and reduce admin friction. My top improvement areas include the system log and analytics upgrade, which are great for point troubleshooting, but trending and root cause analysis across large tenants still require exporting to SIEM. Verbose queries and long-range retention costs can add up. Additionally, while certificate rotations are better than most, the process is still manual for busy portfolios, especially concerning multi-SP SAML certificate rotations and app metadata drift. Two more buckets of potential improvements for Okta Platform involve user experience and security. There is the issue of push fatigue and prompt sprawl, where users receive multiple prompts across different apps and sessions. I arrived at the rating of eight because the core controls are strong and reliable, but a few operational UX and UI gaps prevent it from being rated higher. The reasons for not giving it a nine or ten include ongoing issues concerning safety and change safety, the complexity of group rules and mappings, and the lack of robustness in policy management. Additionally, there remains a need for more manual involvement than necessary, especially for large portfolios and dual certificate rotation, along with proactive SP data metadata validation.
Mohammed Mudasser - PeerSpot reviewer
AI/ML Engineer at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees
Automated access reviews have improved least privilege and simplified identity governance
The best features Opal offers are automated access reviews, centralized visibility, and just-in-time access. I especially appreciate the ability to enforce time-bound access and automatically revoke privileges, which makes least privilege management much more practical. The automated access reviews have made the process much more efficient by giving us a structured way to review and revoke unnecessary permissions. Instead of manually checking every entitlement, we can focus on exceptions and higher risk access, which makes the review process more manageable and consistent. I would also add that the context Opal provides during access reviews is valuable. You can see the access relationship and risk rather than simply approving or denying it blindly. This makes the decisions more informed and gives the team a much better audit trail.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The two-factor authentication is valuable because that is the use case for which we are using it."
"The two-factor login is great. I receive a message and just have to press okay."
"The features of Cisco Duo that I like the most are all of the above, especially the multifactor authentication that is very easy to use now."
"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 has definitely improved my operational efficiency and reduced costs in areas like authentication and IT support, as evidenced by a reduction in security tickets since we don't see too many password change requests or forgotten password calls anymore."
"My overall rating for the solution is ten out of ten."
"The Verified Duo Push feature is valuable. It gives an extra level of security beyond just the regular push."
"I appreciate the features that Cisco Duo offers."
"The feature that is most valuable to me is the automated user provisioning that we set up using Okta as a major part of that process."
"We primarily use it to manage the community onboarding and offboarding of users, and it's quite a simple solution for that."
"Okta Platform stands first in my experience because the user interface is very good and it is very easy to use."
"Ease of use and the ability to trust the product are what I value most."
"Okta Platform has positively impacted my organization by bringing more automations with Okta Workflows, resulting in a drastic change in the manual efforts, as most things are being automated and Okta Platform is very convenient with their workflow management."
"This product is very stable and is one of our best applications."
"It is a very stable solution."
"It's very stable we have 99.999% uptime on the base"
"The clearest outcome I have seen is less manual effort during access reviews and better control over unnecessary or standing access, which improves the overall security posture."
"Opal has positively impacted my organization by reducing stress and increasing effectiveness for all our employees; it works better so all our employees have more time to sleep and they can investigate more."
"Previously, my phone usage was around nine hours and fifteen minutes or more, but it has significantly reduced to around six hours and thirty minutes to seven hours, meaning two and a half to three hours has been reduced after using Opal as my primary screen time blocker."
 

Cons

"I think the prices of Cisco Duo are quite fair, but the main problem is that Microsoft Authenticator is built-in with M365, so everyone is switching to that and using it instead of Cisco Duo because it costs extra as a standalone product."
"I think that the dashboard needs to be improved."
"For the next release, Cisco Duo could be improved by adding touchless authentication and biometric features."
"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."
"The product price needs improvement."
"Regarding the stability and reliability of the Cisco Duo solution, we have experienced some outages over the last few years that are significant because people can't log in."
"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."
"It is easy to use when logging in, but at times, there's a delay in getting the pop-up on a phone, requiring users to occasionally retry authentication depending on backend services."
"I would like to see the provisioning simplified."
"Initial technical support is not very responsive, it's only after escalation that we get proper support."
"Okta Platform can be improved by enhancing the mobile application because sometimes it has issues."
"What I'd like to see improved in Okta Customer Identity is the process of exporting users."
"I would expect Okta Platform to include more features over time in their less expensive subscriptions."
"The initial setup can be complex at first."
"A couple of things need to be improved at Okta Platform level."
"The only area of concern in the solution stems from the fact that my company needs some help regarding the setup phase from a partner."
"The core platform is already strong, but I would appreciate more flexibility in customizing workflows and access review policies."
"Opal can be improved in some ways."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."
"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."
"Its price is reasonable. It is not highly expensive."
"It was very reasonable."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"It has a fair pricing model. I know they have different tiers, but it would be nice to have different types of licenses for certain groups of users in our organization. That way, we wouldn't have to lump everybody into one group. That would be also one complaint."
"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."
"From a business perspective, it is a little bit costly. The licensing is on a per-user basis."
"The price of the solution is good."
"The cost per user for this solution is really high and could be reduced."
"Workforce Identity is well-priced."
"The price of this product could be lower."
"License is around US$20,000 annually."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors."
"It is costly for large companies."
"The solution’s pricing needs to be reasonable. You are dealing with a lot of components and the pricing is component-based."
Information not available
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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
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise82
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise65
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 Okta Workforce Identity?
Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however, I don't have access to the commercial aspect.
What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?
Currently, in Okta Workforce Identity we get the two-digit authentication code. Instead of getting the two-digit auth...
What is your primary use case for Okta Workforce Identity?
I don't have many details about Okta Workforce Identity. I use the tool just to sign in to different applications tha...
What needs improvement with Opal?
The core platform is already strong, but I would appreciate more flexibility in customizing workflows and access revi...
What is your primary use case for Opal?
The main case I am using Opal is for identity and access governance, particularly managing application access and enf...
 

Also Known As

Duo Security
Okta Customer Identity, Workforce Identity
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Okta Platform vs. Opal and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.