Cisco Duo vs. Fortinet FortiGate

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
FortiGate
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
FortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.N/A
Pricing
Cisco DuoFortinet FortiGate
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 DuoFortiGate
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFortiGate pricing starts at $250 for home office use, up to $300,000 for large enterprise appliances. Must contact sales team for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco DuoFortinet FortiGate
Considered Both Products
Cisco Duo
Chose Cisco Duo
I believe it would be on-par with a number of services that exist. It will all come down to if it is available for your platform you wish to integrate it with and if the price is not prohibitive.
Chose Cisco Duo
I tried out Deepnet DualShield. It was great in that it integrated with so many solutions. However, it was sooooo clunky and very buggy. Duo was such a better solution
FortiGate

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco DuoFortinet FortiGate
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Duo
-
Ratings
Fortinet FortiGate
9.1
40 Ratings
6% above category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings9.038 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.738 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings9.339 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.340 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings9.039 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings9.040 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings7.740 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings9.040 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings9.735 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.638 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings10.028 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco DuoFortinet FortiGate
Small Businesses
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 8.9 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 8.9 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Cloud App ID
IBM Cloud App ID
Score 10.0 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco DuoFortinet FortiGate
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(150 ratings)
9.2
(67 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(10 ratings)
9.9
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(76 ratings)
9.0
(8 ratings)
Availability
9.9
(9 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.8
(90 ratings)
8.6
(26 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(10 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.9
(9 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(4 ratings)
9.8
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco DuoFortinet FortiGate
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
Fortinet
For FortiGate Firewall, the basic functionality and requirement is met easily as Fortigate is among market leaders in NGFW. There are some extra points that inclined us to use Fortigate as our main Firewall. [Fortinet]Fortigate has a very well refined and functional SD-WAN solution when it comes to load balancing for normal Internet Traffic. SD-WAN - Load balancing of Internet traffic is a USP of Fortigate and makes it stand tall in the competition. Be it 3 or more Internet Links, multiple Subnets/segments of users to distribute and bandwidth load balancing for links and users. SLA based monitoring of Internet Links / MPLS links, makes it even better to choose the links on the basis of performance (Latency, packet loss, Jitter etc). SSL VPN configuration - The deep CLI-level debugging is also very helpful in troubleshooting. Type of tunnel can be easily configured - Full Tunnel or Split Tunnel for SSL. Though, I think Fortigate is one of the best options for small and mid-sized organizations, there are some areas for improvement. First, the CLI interface is very hard to adapt as the commands and directory hierarchy is very different for common syntax and standards.
Read full review
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
Fortinet
  • It is the most reliable NGFW that we have ever been touch with it.
  • You can easily upgrade the firewall cluster firmware without user attention!!!
  • User IDentity based feature is fantastic and intrusion prevention just works with least false-positive possible.
  • Very reachfull and intuitive GUI, just love it
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
Fortinet
  • When we switched to Fortinet Fortigate, it took some time getting used to and become familiar with the new interface. Being used to strictly command-line interfaces, a full GUI-based firewall was something brand new. Careful planning had to be done when creating rules to ensure we didn't miss anything. However, once we got used to the new GUI interface, going from one Fortinet product to another was simple, as Fortinet used the same interface for all of its devices.
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
Read full review
Fortinet
Fortinet's products have kept improving with new software releases and they continue to deliver great value. Their support is also very good. I believe that as a small enterprise, their products have given us competitive advantage delivering features and functionality that enable us to innovate and do things better. They also continue to be a leader in the markets they serve.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Fortinet
The user interface shared among many simultaneous users is very easy to get around. With shared favorites among users, most tasks are easily bookmarked and can quickly be found and edited. Their strategy for web filter integration is easy to understand and manage as well. With some general direction, setup and maintenance were easy to do and easy to teach others in the organization to do as well.
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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
Fortinet
We had didn't any hardware failures at our two main office locations and upgraded our units last year after using them for about 5-6 years
Read full review
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
Fortinet
Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
Read full review
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
Fortinet
We live in Turkey. Fortinet's Turkey office [dealt] constantly with us in our every problem or our experience. In addition, global support teams also supported every ticket we opened in every problem we encountered. They support innovative approaches and evaluate and offer solutions. In this context, they were very supportive of the problems we encountered in previous versions.
Read full review
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
Fortinet
I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
Read full review
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
Fortinet
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.
Read full review
Fortinet
Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version
Read full review
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
Fortinet
[Fortinet] FortiGate is not only cost effective but it gives the comprehensive security against the APT attacks and gives the complete traffic visibility and granular control. You can easily create the VDOMs (Virtual firewall) within a Fortigate firewall and customize the dashboard as per your requirement if you have multiple VDOMs within a single firewall.
Read full review
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
Fortinet
My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
Read full review
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
Fortinet
  • Fortigates have an interesting bundle model for support and subscription services that make it an attractive option to deploy Firewall, IDS, Ant-virus, anti-SPAM in a single device. The cost of the bundle is pretty much what you pay for the device, not requiring huge expenditures on it's time to renew the hardware.
Read full review
ScreenShots