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Cisco Duo pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco

4.4 out of 5

60 reviews
94% willing to recommend

1,098 followers

Pros & Cons summary

Cisco Duo bolsters security with its multi-factor authentication, geo-locking, and seamless integration with platforms like Azure Active Directory. It enhances management efficiency and supports distributed workforces with versatile authentication methods. However, improvements are needed in compatibility with enterprise applications, technical support, and pricing models. Additionally, a more intuitive authentication process and support for legacy systems could enhance its capability and accessibility.

Buyer's Guide

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

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Duo provides a high level of certainty regarding the identity of the individual performing an action, whether it's logging into a system or using VPN, establishing trust as crucial.

The flexibility of Cisco Duo, allowing the use of an app on a phone for authentication at different locations, is highly valued.

Cisco Duo is quick to deploy and easy to start, earning a high overall rating from users.

Multi-factor authentication in Cisco Duo is noted for enhancing security by adding an additional protective layer to prevent account compromises.

Push notifications in Cisco Duo are praised for providing a seamless, fast, and secure user experience, reducing clicks needed for network access.

CONS

Cisco Duo's pricing model lacks a clear advantage for yearly contracts, leading to unusual pricing structures.

The telephony credits system and documentation need improvement, including offering documentation in French for French-speaking countries.

Improvements are needed in the integration with third-party vendors and support for legacy applications.

Cisco Duo could benefit from enhancing its authentication speed and automation for easier user access.

The integration process, especially with Microsoft tools and Cisco products, should be more straightforward and seamless.

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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reviewer2251362

IT Director at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 3, 2023

I lead an IT organization that has a significant amount of technical debt, and we're not in a zero-trust architecture yet. I'm pushing in that direction. Duo helps me considerably with my identity in an environment where I don't have zero trust. It's helping me bridge the gap until I can build a zero trust architecture.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 59)

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: April 2025.

849,190 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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reviewer2251362

IT Director at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 3, 2023

The only challenge is finding the right person sometimes. From what I've seen, being a named account is a big deal.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 58)

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