Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Cisco Duo comparison

Cato Networks and Cisco are both solutions in the ZTNA as a Service category. Cato Networks is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.9, while Cisco is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6. Cato Networks holds a 12.0% mindshare in ZaaS, compared to Cisco’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cato Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

We compared Duo Security and Cato Networks across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

Ease of Deployment: Users found Duo Security's setup to be simple and fast, with no major problems. Similarly, the setup for Cato Networks was also efficient, but in some cases, it took longer due to the need to manage remote sites and schedule deployments.

Room for Improvement: Duo Security could improve in terms of compatibility with other vendors, user-specific permissions, and providing password-free login options. On the other hand, Cato Networks could enhance their security measures, improve networking features, and expand language options in their user interface.

Pricing: Duo Security has a range of setup costs, with some customers finding it affordable and flexible. However, it may be expensive for small businesses. In contrast, Cato Networks is seen as costly but beneficial in the long run, and customers are generally happy with the pricing.

ROI: Duo Security offers benefits in terms of enhanced security, risk reduction, and cost savings. On the other hand, Cato Networks demonstrates cost savings and efficiency enhancements, although its ROI is currently under assessment.

Service and Support: Duo Security's customer service is commended for its quick and knowledgeable assistance. On the other hand, Cato Networks generally receives positive feedback, but some users encountered delays and inconsistent support, suggesting a need for better internal communication.

Comparison Results: Based on the reviews, Duo Security is commended for its user-friendly setup process and extensive documentation. It offers valuable features like two-factor authentication, easy management, and integration capabilities. However, there are areas that need improvement, such as compatibility, user-specific permissions, technical support, and device insights. The pricing is fair and competitive, with positive ROI and satisfactory customer service. On the other hand, Cato Networks also has a straightforward setup process, but it lacks some security measures and advanced networking features. The pricing is considered expensive but profitable, with positive ROI and generally good customer support.

To learn more, read our detailed Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Cisco Duo Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Cisco Duo

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 873,085 peers since 2012

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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 2.3%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cato SASE Cloud Platform is 12.0%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Duo is 2.4%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

ZTNA as a Service Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cato SASE Cloud Platform	12.0%
Cisco Duo	2.4%
iboss	2.3%
Other	83.3%

ZTNA as a Service

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

Read full review

YOGESHSINGH

Chief Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Have streamlined policy configuration and improved network adaptability with some need for better reporting and observability

I may not be that equipped now, but there are certainly growth areas for them, especially around how they provide reporting and monitoring and then flexibility of combining it with an observability part attached to it. This would remove the need to integrate another specialist tool for observability or monitoring part. They would certainly employ AI, especially agentic AI. I think that should be already part of their roadmap as a transversal. But certainly, the kind of integrations they offer today, in the future, I would think they would add more and more feature sets, especially around where they remove the dependency of having specialist solutions on a typical monitoring side. I think it's a fair price. It's positioned very well in the market. It's not low or very high. In the future, I hope that with more services being bundled as part of the solution on the cloud side, they should reduce the price being, provide bundle service. I think in the future they will come up with reduced pricing, more competitive pricing. But today it's fair. It's not very low or very high.

Read full review

Thomas Botts

Senior Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1-10 employees

Managing security policies effectively with seamless authentication

The feature of Cisco Duo that I prefer the most is the policies, being able to control what we need to within the policies. You can get pretty granular. There isn't a lot of training that goes on in school districts. Email is an easy way where many people give out their credentials, so the level of protection is something that we definitely need in a school district. Cisco Duo's strong security authentication system has been easy when logging in, although the teachers don't appreciate it as much. We have it configured so users essentially just hit accept. If it sees any sort of built-in risk, then it steps up authentication. It's pretty easy. I appreciate it. I've encountered advantages with Cisco Duo in that it has stopped significant pushback from teachers. It has prevented credential sharing and unauthorized access. We've seen a huge decrease since we've rolled it out across the entire district.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"Our primary use case for this product is DLP,"

"The security aspect of the solution, particularly the malware behind it, is excellent. That's something that really helped us out. It's not just a simple proxy that just blocks the insights of potential threats that come on behind it. They do malware detection and that helps us a lot."

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

More iboss pros

"The scalability is quite good."

"I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users."

"It is quite simple and easy to use."

"We appreciate the optimization and acceleration of the performance of SDP users."

"The feature that I find to be the most valuable is the bandwidth aggregation."

"Cato SASE Cloud Platform's self-healing model is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features."

"When I first encountered Cato, I didn't know how to use it, but after a week of training, I could onboard our systems to it, so the solution was easy to learn and navigate."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pros

"All features of the solution are effective, particularly those involved in identifying vulnerabilities and updates."

"The product is reliable and easy to use."

"Cisco Duo is rock solid in terms of stability and reliability."

"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."

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

"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."

"My impression of Cisco's identity intelligence capability to detect and respond to identity-based risks effectively is that it's a great product."

"Since Duo Security provides a single place to log in for our SaaS applications, we don't have to manage user accounts and remember passwords for each specific application."

More Cisco Duo pros

Cons

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"Its pricing could be better."

"Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

More iboss cons

"The product's technical support could be more responsive."

"The different languages in the user interface should be enhanced."

"The solution is not cheap."

"Cato Networks security could be better."

"The tool should improve its interface."

"I'd rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform's pricing as about five or six out of ten. It's not the cheapest solution, but it is cheaper than Palo Alto and even VeloCloud."

"The price could be better."

"Its functionality is a bit limited in some areas as compared to a Cisco solution. It is not as granular. It doesn't have the manageability, feature set, and capabilities of a larger or an enterprise-level solution. It just needs a more robust feature set and granularity."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform cons

"Most of my colleagues from other companies use the Microsoft MFA solution because it's included in Office 365. Few people are considering Cisco Duo. That's the primary problem in our area. It's a solution mostly adopted by Cisco users."

"I believe there are two new features. I am interested in adding auto-admin services and incorporating icons for easier navigation. This could contribute to a new business idea platform. I have seen the features, and they make things easier, resolving issues from before. The platform has been updated, and there's now another link in my platform for media access. When it comes to improvements, the UI can be more user-friendly, and there is room for easier navigation. Perhaps there could be enhancements in customization. I haven't faced issues in storage or backup, but I am open to improvements in customization functionality. It's not my environment, but I see possibilities for improvement in the deployment of funds. The addition of new features is appreciated, and for customization, it could provide more freedom for users."

"We use Yubikey for pushing it to the phones. Yubikeys can get expensive because people tend to lose those for some reason. Fifty dollars a device is pretty high."

"It could be a little bit more intuitive when it comes to the sign-up process. I know they send out an email, but sometimes our users get a little confused. It could be an end-user problem, but Cisco could work on that a little."

"Duo Security could be improved with the addition of more applications."

"There was an issue related to integration with third parties."

"The product price needs improvement."

"We had some trouble with the password reset function."

More Cisco Duo cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"Cato Networks seems more expensive than Cisco Meraki."

"If you compare with VeloCloud, the price is the same or even cheaper."

"The price of Cato Networks is in the middle range compared to other solutions. NetFoundry is a less expensive solution than Cato Networks."

"The pricing is on the higher side, almost an eight out of ten."

"The pricing of this solution depends on what you need. It is based on bandwidth."

"The price is not an issue for us, as it is priced more competitively than some other vendors."

"The solution has reasonable pricing. It has a yearly subscription. The pricing depends on the permit to code. Sometimes, we need to increase the permit, and the cost will automatically change. There's no fixed cost. Unless we request additional modules such as DNS security, ELP, and decent features, there will be no additional cost."

"The platform is expensive."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

"It falls in line with everything else."

"The cost was reasonable. Licensing was pretty straightforward for a change."

"The pricing was a lot more than what we were paying for our previous solution."

"Price-wise, the solution has been very, very reasonable...Licensing is the last thing I think about Duo Security because it's so easy, and I had no problems with it."

"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."

"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."

More Cisco Duo pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which ZTNA as a Service solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

873,085 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	16
Large Enterprise	36

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cato Networks?

The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity....

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cato Networks?

Actually, we propose Moogsoft as a solution. Previously we were using the solution for our customer, and we were basi...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Cato Networks?

My experience would be four out of five. I personally need to understand it more deeply. But it appears good at this ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Duo Security?

They are users who, as mentioned before, utilize RDPAP and MDPAP. It includes functionalities related to finance, spe...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Duo Security?

My experience with pricing, setup, costs, and licensing is that I do not get into pricing much; I leave it to procure...

See all answers

Comparisons

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Lightspeed Filter vs iboss

Compared 4% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 15% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Netskope vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 6% of the time

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform Competitors

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Cisco Duo

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Cisco Duo

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiToken vs Cisco Duo

Compared 9% of the time

Yubico YubiKey vs Cisco Duo

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco Duo

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Duo Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

October 2025

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform

November 2025

Download Cato SASE Cloud Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo

November 2025

Download Cisco Duo product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Cato Networks

Duo Security

Overview

Iboss offers a comprehensive cloud-based security platform valued for its scalability and autonomous features, ensuring robust security with easy deployment and management capabilities.

Renowned for its robust security architecture, Iboss integrates seamlessly within diverse networks, delivering efficient granular filtering and advanced content categorization. Its single pane of glass console provides ease of management, allowing rapid scalability suitable for rapidly deploying environments. Operates in BYOD setups due to inline filtering without device installation. Integration with cloud-based applications enhances user control, and features like SASE, SSL inspection, and ChatGPT risk protection stand as highlights. Despite its strengths, users have pointed out areas for enhancement like direct navigation in reports, SSL decryption, and better cloud integration while having room to improve data loss prevention.

What are the most important features of Iboss?

Scalability: Supports rapid deployment across diverse networks.
SASE: A consolidated approach to secure access.
SSL Inspection: Ensures safe data transmission.
Granular Filtering: Detailed control over accessible content.
Single Pane Management: Unifies control through a centralized console.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing with robust features.
Autonomous Operation: Reduces management overhead.
Responsive Support: Provides assistance when needed.
Flexible Deployment: Available for both cloud and on-premises environments.

The usage of Iboss spans educational institutions, specifically K-12, to enforce internet policies, protect data, and support remote work environments. It provides web filtering and security frameworks to ensure safe browsing. Its platform-as-a-service model offers flexibility for both cloud-based and on-premises requirements, integrating seamlessly to deliver enhanced security features suitable for various deployment needs including zero trust, CASB, and network security for work-from-home setups.

iboss

Cato Networks is a leading SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, combining SD-WAN and network security to obtain a cloud-native service. Cato Networks optimizes and secures application access for users and identities. The platform delivers a next-generation secure networking architecture that minimizes legacy IT infrastructures’ complexity, costs, and risks. The goal of Cato Suite is to connect any user to any application securely and optimally.

Cato Suite runs on a private global network of more than 65 PoPs (points of presence) connected via SLA-backed network providers. The service can connect branches, data centers, users, and clouds. Cato can be deployed in stages to augment legacy network services.

Cato Suite delivers end-to-end route optimization for WAN and cloud traffic. The architecture is self-healing, enabling a high service uptime.

Cato Features

Cato Cloud has a global backbone to deliver a reliable, global network. Here are some key SD-WAN features of Cato Cloud.

Optimizes traffic flows: The Cato Suite can individually optimize traffic flows in the last mile - from the customer’s location to the point of presence, and also between PoPs. This feature eliminates the need for internet providers to hand off traffic to each other, avoiding the resulting latency and congestion.
Controls and manages bandwidth: The software-defined overlay is encrypted across the entire cloud infrastructure. This overlay uses application-aware routing, analyzing latency and loss data to choose the best route according to network conditions. These features, like protocol priority marking, enable the system to ensure the performance of real-time applications.
Delivers redundancy and failover: By connecting the points of presence with multiple Tier-1 IPs, Cato builds the redundancy needed to ensure security and highly available service.
Cloud-native: Cato is built as a scalable, resilient, and elastic cloud service.
Converged: The platform converges SD-WAN and network security into a single infrastructure framework.
Secures all edges: Cato Network can secure and optimize traffic from all users, locations, applications, and clouds.

What challenges does Cato Network solve?

Migration to SD-WAN

MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) networks are usually expensive and limited in their capacity. Cato simplifies migrating to a faster, higher-capacity internet and SASE cloud. Cato SD-WAN appliances enable customers to improve usable capacity and resiliency.

Global connectivity optimization

Customers who suffer from the challenge of high latency and network inconsistency can use Cato to deliver a consistent connection and user experience to access on-premises and cloud applications.

Securing branch internet access

Cato’s complete network security stack connects all branch locations to the Cato cloud, therefore protecting all traffic, both internet-bound and WAN, with enterprise-grade, cloud-based security services. This capability avoids having to backhaul internet traffic to a data center or hub or having to implement stand-alone cloud security solutions.

Cloud acceleration and control

Organizations using Cato notice an acceleration of cloud traffic. Cato achieves this by routing all traffic from the edges to the PoP closest to the data center. Because of the close distance between the two, the latency is near zero.

Reviews from Real Users

An IT manager/project coordinator at a healthcare company says that “[Cato is] a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything. They are the classic SaaS solution.”

Yeong-Gi L., a network engineer at Snetsystems, notes that “The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. Technical support was always helpful and responsive. The integration capabilities are not a problem at all.”

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features," says Lorenzo S., senior solutions consultant Lead at MDI.

Cato Networks

Cisco Duo is a cloud-based identity security tool offering easy and wide-ranging access protection for users and devices worldwide. It assures identity-first security with clear visibility across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

Cisco Duo provides robust multi-factor authentication and seamless integration capabilities with existing infrastructures. Appreciated for its stability and speed, it supports distributed workforces by securing VPN access, corporate networks, and cloud services. Duo’s comprehensive identity ecosystem supports easy deployment and management through a single-pane-of-glass management interface. It seamlessly merges with popular platforms like Active Directory and Office 365 across diverse hardware.

What are Cisco Duo’s Essential Features?

Multi-Factor Authentication: Offers secure access with options like push notifications and hardware tokens.
Seamless Integration: Easily fits with existing systems and third-party applications.
User-Friendly Management: Provides centralized control with a single-pane-of-glass interface.
Wide Compatibility: Supports broad applications and devices, enhancing security management.
Stable and Fast: Reliable speed and intuitive interaction for users across platforms.

What Benefits and ROI Can Cisco Duo Users Expect?

Enhanced Security: Increases protection with versatile MFA options for critical resources.
Ease of Use: Simplifies deployment and management with intuitive interfaces.
Scalability: Adapts to growing needs with broad compatibility and integration support.
Support for Distributed Workforces: Ensures secure remote access for teams anywhere.

Cisco Duo finds extensive applications across education, finance, retail, and government sectors by fortifying network and application access security. Organizations leverage it for its MFA capabilities, integrating with ERP systems, ensuring protected connectivity with VPN and cloud-based services, crucial in maintaining secure and efficient operations.

Cisco

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Paysafe, AdRoll, Pet Lovers Centre, Arlington Orthopedics, Humphreys & Partners Architects

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Cisco Duo

September 2025

Free Report: Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Cisco Duo

Find out what your peers are saying about Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Cisco Duo and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

873,085 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Cisco Duo report.

See our list of best ZTNA as a Service vendors.

We monitor all ZTNA as a Service reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.