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Thales Authenticators 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
6.6
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)
Thales Authenticators
Ranking in Authentication Systems
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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 Thales Authenticators is 1.9%, down from 2.3% 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%
Thales Authenticators1.9%
UserLock1.1%
Other93.3%
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.
Gustavo Merighi - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation and Telecommunications Analyst at Grupo Energisa
Has an easy-to-use management interface and a straightforward initial setup process
Our primary use cases include multifactor authentication for VPN connections and access to security tools like jump servers and firewalls. We also use it to enhance security measures in an enterprise environment The most valuable feature is the YAML 2.0 integration. It has an easy-to-use…
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

"Cisco Duo is a simple and effective tool that gives detailed information about users who connect to your domain."
"The administrator tool in the dashboard is the most valuable feature. It's really easy to quickly see if users are locked out from their device, firmware code, or just all the little dashboards and reports I can run to give the security for monthly reports. The dashboard's really good."
"The feature I like the most about Cisco Duo is how simple it is to understand, as the UI is designed such that you don't need very specific, in-depth training."
"I appreciate the simple login feature of Cisco Duo; being able to log into your actual page and then having all your apps there is convenient."
"The dashboard is intuitive, allowing my help desk team and the security team to identify issues with one click."
"Duo has allowed us to add an additional layer of security to our organization and to establish trust for every access request and secures our environment."
"The most valuable feature is the ability for users to connect securely to the office using the VPN."
"I am happy that we went with Cisco Duo because it is just easier to use."
"The technical support services are good."
"The solution has helped our organization by allowing all users to connect securely."
"I like how the solution allows me to support different types of hardware tokens and integrate with OTP."
"We use this solution to log into virtual machines like VMware and VMware Horizon."
"The solution is scalable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of SafeNet Authentication Manager is authentication."
"The most valuable features are two-factor authentication and real-time logon monitoring."
"It is affordable, integrates easily with Active Directory, and is simple to install and maintain."
"UserLock was pretty easy to set up and simple to use, and the documentation covered everything."
"We mainly implemented UserLock for multi-factor authentication, but the user login insights are also nice."
 

Cons

"We found it difficult to integrate it into our broader product family of Microsoft tools and other applications used across our organization."
"Regarding the pricing, setup costs, and licensing, I find that for some companies using Azure, they question why they should switch when they already have Microsoft Authenticator, which can make it commercially challenging when explaining why they need to transition to Cisco Duo."
"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."
"Compared to other vendors, Cisco Duo is on the pricey end."
"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."
"Cisco Duo has not helped my company reduce its overall authentication-related costs, as it is a cost above what we already have."
"Microsoft is somehow making it harder for Cisco Duo to do its job seamlessly with some of the hooks that Microsoft has in the OAuth connection."
"Regarding the pricing of Cisco Duo, we are actually leaving because of that. It's something that we are not going to continue with due to the cost."
"The problem with SafeNet is that it's not integrated with Microsoft 365."
"The product could be improved by adding more features for sending tokens via SMS or phone calls."
"The stability could improve."
"The solution should allow for support of multi-tenant architecture."
"I'd like to see integration with other platforms."
"The scalability could improve, we have a lot of downtimes two years ago; this was in the cloud environment, because we purchased SafeNet Authentication Manager as a cloud service, and sometimes it was down for two or three hours."
"I would like to see UserLock add the ability to automatically create a group policy in Active Directory. That might streamline the setup process."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"During testing we are allowed a certain number of licenses for free."
"It's a bit confusing because we're on a three-year plan with a certain number of licenses, and we've gone over that number. They told us that when we renew, they will add all these licenses. We've expanded quickly, so everyone's kind of scared because no one knows what the bill is with the long pricing cycle."
"My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco Duo has been great. We've been there for 10 years. While we haven't gone through the setup part for a while, licensing is straightforward and convenient for higher education because student populations are included. So, we don't have to pay extra for it. We just pay for our knowledge workers, which has been great, and the cost is reasonable."
"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."
"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."
"Its price is reasonable. It is not highly expensive."
"Duo Security's pricing is good, fair, and very comparable to today's market."
"Thales is more expensive than its competitors."
"There is an annual licensing fee."
"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%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
19%
Construction Company
14%
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 Enterprise93
No data available
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...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

Duo Security
Gemalto Ezio, Ezio, Gemalto Authenticators, SafeNet Authentication Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB)
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 Thales Authenticators vs. UserLock and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.