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
Twilio
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Twilio offers a CPaaS and CCaaS solution, with the combination of its programmable Voice, Video, and Messaging APIs, as well as the Twilio Flex cloud contact center. Additional capabilities include Twilio's Elastic SIP Trunking, as well as API for WhatsApp.
$0
per min per participant
Pricing
Cisco DuoTwilio
Editions & Modules
Duo Essentials
$3
per month per user
Duo Advantage
$6
per month per user
Duo Premier
$9
per month per user
Programmable Video
$0.0015
per min per participant
WhatsApp Business API
$0.0042
Per WhatsApp Template message sent
WhatsApp Business API
$0.005
Per WhatsApp session message
Elastic SIP Trunking
$0.007
Per min for termination
Programmable Messaging
$0.0075
per message sent or received
Programmable Voice
$0.0085
per minute to receive a call
Programmable Voice
$0.013
per min to make a call
Elastic SIP Trunking
$0.045
Per min for origination
Twilio Conversations
$0.05
per active user per month
Twilio Authy
$0.09
per authentication
Programmable Wireless
$0.1
per MB
Twilio Flex (Contact Center)
$1
per active user hour (5000 hours free)
Programmable Wireless
$2.00
per SIM card
Twilio SendGrid Email API
$14.95
per month up to 100k emails. (Up to 40k emails free for 30 days)
Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns
$15
per month for 5,000 contacts and 15,000 emails. Your first 2,000 contacts are free
Twilio Flex (Contact Center)
$150
per named user per month (5000 hours free)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco DuoTwilio
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details1. Pay-as-you-go pricing: Simple usage-based pricing means you don’t get locked into big contracts. 2. Volume discounts: Discounts trigger as your usage grows, so you always get a fair price. 3. Start building today with free trial credit and full API access.
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
Cisco DuoTwilio
Small Businesses
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 9.0 out of 10
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WatchGuard AuthPoint
WatchGuard AuthPoint
Score 9.0 out of 10
Bright Pattern Contact Center
Bright Pattern Contact Center
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID
Score 8.9 out of 10
Conversica
Conversica
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco DuoTwilio
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(135 ratings)
6.6
(70 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(10 ratings)
8.1
(5 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(76 ratings)
9.5
(10 ratings)
Availability
9.9
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(4 ratings)
7.0
(15 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(91 ratings)
5.7
(16 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.7
(10 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco DuoTwilio
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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Twilio
Twilio excels in customer service applications, enabling automated SMS updates or voice calls for order confirmations and support. It's ideal for implementing two-factor authentication, enhancing security for online services. However, it's less suitable for businesses needing in-depth, custom telephony infrastructure, as it primarily offers standard, API-driven solutions, or for regions with limited internet connectivity, where cloud-based services may be unreliable.
Read full review
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
Twilio
  • Easy to see my team in one place, when they log in and out and what call status they are in.
  • Twilio is a simple, user friendly way to log in and out of work activities.
  • Excellent services and support.
  • The omnichannel feature which allows agents to get request from all channels.
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
Twilio
  • In my opinion, online support is extremely subpar for clients.
  • In my experience, no way to talk with anyone without a $1,500 investment monthly in their service.
  • In my experience, be prepared to wait at least 2-4 days to receive even one response from their support.
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
Twilio
We have standardized our processes surrounding Twilio. The entire process just works! There is no significant gap that we need to fill. Instead of thinking about Twilio's replacement, we'd rather focus on our customers with Twilio. It meets all our uses-cases currently. We haven't even explored the entire suite of applications to determine what other use cases we may potentially use.
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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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Twilio
Overall the product API is extremely well documented so it is very easy to build a product with their technology. The website is a little bit cumbersome to use as they have greatly expanded the number of products that they have over the years, but the dashboard UI has not been improved much since.
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.
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Twilio
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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Twilio
The problem tends to be us, the user, rather than Twilio. We don't reach out to support fast enough (spend time struggling), but when we have, they've solved our issue immediately. We are rural, so there are signal issues to accommodate, however, we find that a few staff on a few cellular networks can triangulate where we all have signal to put up a sign.
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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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Twilio
I've never had to contact Authy's support. Of course, that's because Authy is so simple and easy to use that there hasn't been any need to. Authy correctly implements the time-based one-time password (TOTP) protocol, and becomes it conforms to the standard, it easily replaces Google Authenticator for your needs.
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
Twilio
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
Twilio
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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Twilio
The developer APIs and SDKs are super easy to follow.
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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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Twilio
Twilio was referred to me by a business colleague, and I can't be more thankful! Twilio has helped my Facebook page by leaps and bounds, and I haven't even considered trying another chat option for my page. It is easy to set up, and customer service is quick to answer any and all questions you may have. I highly recommend it!
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Twilio
Being in South Africa, direct local currency support would be nice
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
Twilio
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
Twilio
  • Adding in phone numbers onto our onboarding sequence has increased our user activity by about 30%. We believe due to the users being more invested in the application now.
  • On top of that, our first SMS has increased our week 1 retention by about 15%. Pushing users to go on the app more than 2-3 times has been a struggle and SMS seems to be a solid driver in retention.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Twilio Screenshots

Screenshot of To access any of the products in Console, head over to the “Explore Products” section and start building.Screenshot of Whether you prefer to build with a drag-and-drop visual editor or with code, Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns helps you engage your customers through email.Screenshot of Flex is a programmable Contact Center that puts you in control.