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Cisco Duo pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco

4.4 out of 5

78 reviews
96% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Cisco Duo provides robust multi-factor authentication to secure logins effectively, offering users an easy deployment experience and improved security posture. Integration with Azure Active Directory and AWS Cloud enables seamless connectivity, while its quick setup is valued for simplicity. Administration tools support comprehensive security management. Areas for improvement include integration with Active Directory, telephony credits alerts, and better Microsoft tool compatibility. Enhancements in these areas could mitigate licensing issues and improve user notification on feature updates.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Duo's easy integration with existing infrastructure saves time during setup.

Push notifications are praised for their simplicity and security in the authentication process.

The ability to manage user access and integrate with Azure Active Directory and AWS is highly valued.

Multifactor authentication provides an added layer of security against unauthorized access.

Cisco Duo's role in enhancing security through features like geo-locking and OTP authentication is appreciated.

CONS

Cisco Duo's telephony credits system is problematic and would benefit from improvements or elimination.

The update period for Cisco Duo is too long compared to competitors like Palo Alto firewalls.

Technical support for Cisco Duo needs improvement, as it requires agreements for assistance.

Integration with Active Directory and other Microsoft tools has posed challenges for users.

Cisco Duo's licensing model and pricing need strategic reconsideration to provide better value and prevent inflated usage costs.

Cisco Duo Pros review quotes

Solutions Architect at Winslow Technology Group

Jun 15, 2023

The ease of deploying Cisco Duo Security and onboarding has greatly benefited our customers.

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Senior Professional Services Engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees

Jun 23, 2022

Documentation is the most valuable feature, and if you ever have to reach out to them with a question, their support is also fantastic.

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reviewer1905501

Sales engineer manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 5, 2022

We like the different ways that it allows you to push notifications to people. It can do text, a phone call, and email. We liked the versatility for all of our different end-users, regardless of their level of understanding of the technology.

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Networks and Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Aug 8, 2022

The most valuable feature is the ability for users to connect securely to the office using the VPN.

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SM

IT Security manager at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

May 19, 2021

The multi-factor authentication process and the geo-locking features are great.

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Network Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 15, 2023

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.

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Sayantan Chatterjee

Director of Product at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jun 15, 2023

Duo Security provides a high level of certainty regarding the identity of the individual performing an action. Whether it's logging into a system, using VPN, or utilizing Autopay, establishing that trust is crucial. I can't imagine any security company, organization, or IT team that wouldn't prioritize having multifactor authentication enabled when accessing critical systems.

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CTO at Charter

Jun 26, 2022

It was a simple way of providing two-factor authentication for remote access when we hit the COVID pandemic. It was very easy and quick to get it going.

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RS

Ricardo Simonis

Assistant IT Director at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 15, 2023

Duo Security gives us an additional layer of security that would give us added confidence that our network will be less likely to get hacked, compromised, or otherwise.

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Chief Technology Officer at University of Redlands

Jun 9, 2025

The Verified Duo Push feature is valuable. It gives an extra level of security beyond just the regular push.

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Cisco Duo Cons review quotes

Solutions Architect at Winslow Technology Group

Jun 15, 2023

Cisco can further enhance the integrations, as they possess exceptional integrations with various providers' products and feature sets.

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Senior Professional Services Engineer at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees

Jun 23, 2022

More automation and device insights would be helpful in achieving a seamless single pane of glass. Having the additional capability to streamline processes would also make things better.

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reviewer1905501

Sales engineer manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 5, 2022

Duo was clearly purchased, and Cisco has a lot of other panels for their Firepower products, et cetera. They need to continue bringing it, Umbrella, and the endpoint pieces even more together and make the integration a little more seamless among all of them.

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Free Report: Cisco Duo Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Cisco Duo. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.

871,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Networks and Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Aug 8, 2022

We have had instances where Duo Security stops working on a user's device, which we have fixed by uninstalling and then reinstalling it.

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SM

IT Security manager at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

May 19, 2021

We had some trouble with the password reset function.

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Network Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 15, 2023

The pain point for us at one point was the Duo Authentication Proxy since we're on-premises and not in the cloud. We had to have a proxy machine that's in our DMZ to talk to Duo for us. The configuration of that was a little complicated.

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Sayantan Chatterjee

Director of Product at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jun 15, 2023

While two-factor authentication with mobile devices provides a high level of security, it's still not foolproof, as someone could potentially steal your phone. It would be beneficial to have information about the authentication location.

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CTO at Charter

Jun 26, 2022

We found it difficult to integrate it into our broader product family of Microsoft tools and other applications used across our organization.

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RS

Ricardo Simonis

Assistant IT Director at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 15, 2023

There is a little bit of apprehension for some users thinking, well, "How do I know this app is not collecting personal information from my personal device?"

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Chief Technology Officer at University of Redlands

Jun 9, 2025

I would appreciate seeing Cisco Duo improved with a tighter integration with Active Directory to secure not just Remote Desktop to a server, but all the remote levels of connection that you can make to a server.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 73)

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