Cisco Duo vs. HID DigitalPersona

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Duo
Score 9.4 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
HID DigitalPersona
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
HID DigitalPersona (formerly Crossmatch) provides a comprehensive multi-factor authentication solution. The vendor’s value proposition is that their solution frees users from cumbersome login activities while making it easy for an IT Team to secure access to their networks, data and applications.
$3.75
per user per month
Pricing
Cisco DuoHID DigitalPersona
Editions & Modules
Duo Essentials
$3
per month per user
Duo Advantage
$6
per month per user
Duo Premier
$9
per month per user
HID DigitalPersona
$3.75
per user per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco DuoHID DigitalPersona
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco DuoHID DigitalPersona
Considered Both Products
Cisco Duo

No answer on this topic

HID DigitalPersona
Chose HID DigitalPersona
We evaluated Cisco DUO but ultimately chose HID because of their support for biometrics. With DUO every user would have to have the authentication app on their personal phone and pull it out each time they had to log in. We definitely did not want this for our frontline staff …
Chose HID DigitalPersona
I didn't select HID but was part of the decision-makers to move away from HID. The HID product we used was on-prem and carries a lot of overhead (installation, upgrades, hardware). We converted overall business applications to cloud-based OneLogin. We used HID for windows …
Chose HID DigitalPersona
At this time, DUO is preferred. AS I previously stated, we need a follow up with Crossmatch to understand all of the new features.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco DuoHID DigitalPersona
Small Businesses
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 9.0 out of 10
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 9.0 out of 10
Cisco Duo
Cisco Duo
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
The Okta Identity Cloud
The Okta Identity Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
Cisco Duo
Cisco Duo
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco DuoHID DigitalPersona
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(132 ratings)
8.6
(92 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(10 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(76 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.8
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(91 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.7
(10 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(9 ratings)
7.3
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco DuoHID DigitalPersona
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco Duo is extremely well-suited for someone wanting to add MFA to an on-premise Active Directory environment. Some of the other vendors in this space do provide this feature, but they do not natively support it. One of the top competitors in this space requires signing up with another third-party service to make this integration possible. Less moving parts for something as crucial as this is a huge benefit and having only one vendor to point fingers at makes troubleshooting much simpler.
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HID Global
HID DigitalPersona works well in corporate settings with a variety of IT requirements, high-security apps, mobile and remote workers, and compliance-driven businesses. It might be less appropriate for contexts with low security requirements where more straightforward authentication solutions are more workable, small enterprises, legacy systems, and limited IT resources.
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Pros
Cisco
  • Speed - it's fast with almost no delay between triggering the MFA request and receiving the notification on an iPhone
  • Security - in addition to the added MFA layer, a simple, 4-digit passcode can be added to the authentication request
  • Ease of use - it doesn't scare users. It's simple to install, configure, and use.
Read full review
HID Global
  • Speeding up the login process with fingerprint in PIN rather than having to remember a long password. Our IT department has seen a huge decrease in the amount of account lockout and forgot password calls.
  • It is highly customizable to meet the needs of remote or on-premises workers. It is all configurable through group policy, so it is very easy to set specific requirements on certain groups.
  • Setup was quick and the administration guides are very easy to follow if you need to go back in and adjust things.
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • If you need to integrate some legacy applications to Cisco Secure Access by Duo, it's not easy.
  • If you want to have more detailed information and reports, you need to pay more for the licensing. The basic option is not enough.
  • A constraint could be that each employee has to install it on their personal smartphone, which some don't like. But, there is an alternative using SMS, although sometimes it takes too long to receive the message.
Read full review
HID Global
  • I find that sometimes I have had to delete a users fingerprints and re-add them. There must be something going on where the software believes that the user has changed their fingerprints.
  • I have on occasion come across a person where the reader was unable to create fingerprints for that user. It would be interesting to see if the sensitivity of the 4500 reader could be improved on.
  • I find that using the DigitalPersona software makes the users ultimately forget their passwords. Maybe every once in a while the software could require the user to type in their Windows password to help them remember it.
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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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HID Global
It is wonderful for multifactor authentication and gives us many options for what we use to authenticate. All of our users use it and it is engrained into our group policies and people would be very disappointed if it went away.
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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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HID Global
I think there are still fundamental enhancements needed to be added to the management consoles and I think there ought to be a Centralized, Windows Based "Thick" Management Application instead of individual utilities which vary from MMCs, Scripts, Wizards, etc.
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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.
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HID Global
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.
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HID Global
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
Since it’s a reputable company, I have received technical support when needed and I trust that if anything else happens I can contact them with any issues. I haven’t experienced bad customer service and I totally feel supported while using this authentication method. No complains so far and the high rating!
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HID Global
Extremely poor; I've never encountered such. Professional Services completely dropped us for months. Crossmatch tech support seems like it has 3 techs tops! No response to emails, calls, the absolute worst! I will never recommend DP to anyone.
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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.
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HID Global
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.
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HID Global
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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HID Global
Could use tools to audit license usage at a more granular level as to allow an administrator to free up licenses from users whom seldom use their biometrics to login.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
Our school is based in Microsoft 365. Azure has a product built into their licensing (provided you have purchased the appropriate level or the add-on product.) The MFA in Azure is a work in process and doesn't offer broad integration options as Duo does. We didn't look into any other commercial products.
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HID Global
We have used One Identity for software tokens. The Defender software tokens were originally included with our bundle and work pretty well for integration into the AnyConnect VPN client with Cisco. All that said, we use the two products for different applications and DP does what it does very well.
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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.
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HID Global
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).
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HID Global
  • I'm happy to say I'm not involved in budgeting or finance, but the financial benefits are easy to state: Less helpdesk time - helpdesk staff don't have to spend time resetting people's passwords.
  • Users don't have to wait for Helpdesk to get around to helping them log in.
Read full review
ScreenShots