Cisco Duo vs. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Duo
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Duo is a two-factor authentication system (2FA), acquired by Cisco in October 2018. It provides single sign-on (SSO) and endpoint visibility, as well as access controls and policy controlled adaptive authentication.
$3
per month per user
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
F5 Networks provides BIG-IP Access Policy Manager as an identity and access solution which can be deployed as a standalone solution or as an add-on to F5 Networks' flagship BIG-IP TLM or F5 Advanced WAF applications.N/A
Pricing
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Editions & Modules
Duo Essentials
$3
per month per user
Duo Advantage
$6
per month per user
Duo Premier
$9
per month per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Features
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Virtual Private Network
Comparison of Virtual Private Network features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Duo
-
Ratings
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
7.8
9 Ratings
14% below category average
AES 256-bit Encryption00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Kill Switch00 Ratings7.75 Ratings
Multi-Platform Support00 Ratings7.96 Ratings
Split Tunneling00 Ratings8.53 Ratings
IP Address Masking00 Ratings7.54 Ratings
No-Logs Policy00 Ratings5.24 Ratings
Multiple Server Locations00 Ratings6.95 Ratings
Automatic Wi-Fi Protection00 Ratings9.11 Ratings
Simultaneous Connections00 Ratings8.07 Ratings
Customer Support Services00 Ratings7.76 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Small Businesses
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 8.9 out of 10
Norton 360
Norton 360
Score 6.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 8.9 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID
Score 9.0 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
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User Ratings
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(153 ratings)
8.4
(20 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(10 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.7
(76 ratings)
8.2
(8 ratings)
Availability
9.9
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(90 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.9
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco DuoF5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco Duois is well suited in all kinds of scenarios where you need to ensure proper security measurements, I think. We can't just rely on our passwords only, as they can be easily stolen through phishing or data breaches thus keeping multi factor authentication is quite essential. I always prefer MFA or at least 2FA for any critical system.
Read full review
F5
I think that the platform is well suited to many Remote Access VPN solutions, but I also think there is a lot of room for improvement on the backend. If you are hoping to deploy your APM solution across many different datacenters or colos, it may not be the best choice for the final solution.
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Pros
Cisco
  • So outside the obvious of multifactor and it being important, one thing I really like about DUO is the integrations and the options it has for integrations are pretty great. And I'd say versatile. I use Cisco ICE as well and I find I'm more most impressed with Cisco Duo specifically with the weird applications we could come up with for it in using it. So I had say the versatility of authentication and other AAA factors with the Cisco duo are why we like it so much.
Read full review
F5
  • SAML 2.0 identity federation support.
  • Integrates with third-party SSO solutions.
  • Bridging modern authentication and authorization (SAML, OAuth/OIDC) and classic authentication and authorization methods.
  • Policy routing
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • Documentation is oftentimes missing key information for proper implementation. This is circumvented by reading third-party guides or contacting support for additional details.
  • They do not push Fail-Closed as much as I think they should. Fail-Open is fairly trivial to bypass and it should be made known to the customer during setup how much this will affect overall security.
  • More vendor integration is something that is always craved by administrators. There are so many third-parties to integrate with.
Read full review
F5
  • There's some more advanced configurations within OAuth that I think could be fleshed out and easier to approach.
  • There's a lot of things in F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager policies that I find myself recreating every policy. An easier way to copy objects from one to policy to another.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
There are a lot of competing solutions on the market; however, Duo "just works", and there is little to no learning curve for the new members to be acclimated to it. As long as that continues I see it as the preferred option moving forward
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F5
Integration with F5 BIG-IP systems that we plan to keep using for a while.
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Usability
Cisco
La interfaz es intuitiva y fácil de navegar, lo que permite a los usuarios administrar sus dispositivos y acceder a las políticas sin problemas. La integración con las aplicaciones SSO y SaaS facilita aún más el proceso de acceso, mejorando la experiencia del usuario.
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F5
If F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager usability is fine it's not hard to use if you read the documentation but it does feel dated and could use a responsive design update to modernize user interface to current standards.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Cisco
In the last 5+ years we've been using Duo, there may have been 1 outage that impacted us. We do receive periodic notifications of issues but, for the most part, they impact carriers or functionality that we either don't use, or do not care about.
Read full review
F5
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cisco
We do not see any degradation of performance of the protected applications. There are occasional lags in receiving the push but no show stooppers.
Read full review
F5
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
I have not needed direct support for Cisco Secure Access by Duo as I have not had a problem with it, but I have full confidence that the support is outstanding. It is now a core component of the corporate technology stack - a problem would mean a serious degradation in the ability of the company to function.
Read full review
F5
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Cisco
There was no in person training but checking the box was the only way I could complete all of the questions.
Read full review
F5
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Cisco
This was not organized training but the videos that Duo provides to teach you how to install a particular integration are top notch.
Read full review
F5
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cisco
Implementation was straight forward and you can isolate different scenarios in order to test new application setup or add to an existing setup. Gui interface is pretty easy to understand and follow. I had no experience with Duo and still manage to easily set up new policies and rules.
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F5
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
It's easier to deploy. When comparing the quality of technical support, Duo Security is the preferred option. Duo has better integration options for out-to-the-box on-premise and cloud applications. The dashboard brings you more reports, and the access event logging is very complete. The quality of end-user training and documentation is superior. I think the relation price vs. value Cisco Secure Access by Duo has the best rating: service & support, integration & deployment, licensing, and capability.
Read full review
F5
It is open platform so support is not good and than F5 and features visibility as not good as F5. F5 Set up and easy to use to admin console. Also have more feature visibility for load balancing, web server accelerator, application server ddos protection and WAF. F5 more efficient to handle concurrent request.
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Scalability
Cisco
So far, the only limits we've encountered were tied to our imagination. Duo's strong list of supported integrations is amazing.
Read full review
F5
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Very positive ROI given it is inexpensive for a small group and helps us secure our most valuable IT assets.
  • Lack of extreme policy granularity results in higher administrative overhead, as there is no middle ground (i.e. MFA every time or not at all).
Read full review
F5
  • Simplified our approach to company-wide VPN solutions greatly by allowing us to use a single product instead of multiple products like we had before
  • Can handle 15000-20000 users at once with no issues
  • Was able to configure to support users travelling with 4G connections on their laptops and accommodate constant changing IP addresses
Read full review
ScreenShots