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Secret Double Octopus vs Thales Authenticators comparison

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Executive Summary

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

Cisco Duo
Sponsored
Ranking in Authentication Systems
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
176
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (5th), Access Management (5th), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (1st), AI Data Analysis (7th)
Secret Double Octopus
Ranking in Authentication Systems
36th
Average Rating
7.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Passwordless Authentication (9th)
Thales Authenticators
Ranking in Authentication Systems
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.7%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Secret Double Octopus is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Thales Authenticators is 1.9%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Duo3.7%
Thales Authenticators1.9%
Secret Double Octopus0.7%
Other93.7%
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

Charles Slaustas - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Contractor at Insight global
Supports seamless authentication for users across multiple organizations and personal portals
The features I use in Cisco Duo include Duo Pushes to confirm my identity to the device, and eventually as MFA security was increased, I actually had to use exchange passcodes. Sometimes, I have to go into the site and get into Cisco Duo to retrieve the passcode, and many of them have been two-factor, where the sites send a passcode that I have to enter into Cisco Duo. It has been more of the latter. I have not seen issues with lagging or crashing on Cisco Duo's end; it was usually on the client end, often because someone set up a bad upgrade or there were connection issues with the Cisco Duo cloud through the administrative site.
Gaurav Gaurav - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
A solution with good capabilities across a wide range of platforms that comes with a useful mobile application, but upgrades cause issues
We have noticed that patches and upgrades cause issues with how the application functions, due to the lack of stability of the product. However, we would recommend the solution because it has good capabilities, across a wide range of platforms, and the mobile application allows for use via Bluetooth, so users don't have to be connected to the internet. I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Gustavo Merighi - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation and Telecommunications Analyst at Grupo Energisa
Has an easy-to-use management interface and a straightforward initial setup process
Our primary use cases include multifactor authentication for VPN connections and access to security tools like jump servers and firewalls. We also use it to enhance security measures in an enterprise environment The most valuable feature is the YAML 2.0 integration. It has an easy-to-use…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable aspect is the authentication and the SSO."
"In my opinion, the best features Cisco Duo offers include its 2FA authentication, which is very good, everything is perfect about the features, it is very easy to use, and the integration with other systems is very good."
"Multifactor authentication and secure two-factor authentication are the most valuable features. It's been around for a while, but now it's becoming an enforced behavior as opposed to something that you used to do as optional."
"My overall rating for the solution is ten out of ten."
"What I appreciate the most is that you can push a notification with your phone and log in to your computer."
"Cisco Duo benefits my organization because we do not have too many logins since everything is in one place and we can use Cisco Duo for VPN, applications, and cloud solutions."
"Regarding the stability and reliability of Cisco Duo, it is very good."
"Everybody loves it. They feel a sense of security when they get that prompt to send them a text, or an email."
"This solution has a mobile application, which comes with multi-factor authentication; allowing for more flexible usage, without having to sacrifice system security."
"The solution has helped our organization by allowing all users to connect securely."
"We use this solution to log into virtual machines like VMware and VMware Horizon."
"The technical support services are good."
"The most valuable feature of SafeNet Authentication Manager is authentication."
"I like how the solution allows me to support different types of hardware tokens and integrate with OTP."
"The solution is scalable and stable."
 

Cons

"Reducing or eliminating the "telephony credits" system used by Duo would be great."
"I chose eight out of ten because there are some features which we are awaiting from Cisco that they are building."
"Compared to other vendors, Cisco Duo is on the pricey end."
"I would love to see improvements around Identity and Access Management with Cisco Duo, specifically how we can use that as a central source of truth for all of our IAM tools, including Active Directory."
"The reason I chose a seven rating for Cisco Duo is that, as I mentioned before, it's not cheap, and one of the key features that comes to mind is its dependency on the internet to make Cisco Duo reachable, which can lead to a failure."
"At the moment, I believe that more integration between Cisco Duo Identity Intelligence and the classic Cisco Duo console can be improved, since it is still a separate platform, and when I click on Identity Intelligence, I have to open a new window and log in again."
"Duo Security should have more customized use cases. For example, if a client needs to have more customization, it would be better to connect directly with Duo's R&D to try to discuss the issues together in order to add customizations."
"The experience of the deployment with Cisco Duo is pretty rough."
"The product suffers from frequent disturbances in service, that have impacted our end users when we deploy software updates."
"The stability could improve."
"The solution should allow for support of multi-tenant architecture."
"The product could be improved by adding more features for sending tokens via SMS or phone calls."
"The problem with SafeNet is that it's not integrated with Microsoft 365."
"I'd like to see integration with other platforms."
"The scalability could improve, we have a lot of downtimes two years ago; this was in the cloud environment, because we purchased SafeNet Authentication Manager as a cloud service, and sometimes it was down for two or three hours."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Our licensing fee is currently on an annual basis."
"Price wise, it's not cheap, but it's not expensive at all either. It's in the middle."
"The cost was reasonable. Licensing was pretty straightforward for a change."
"My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been good, with no issues. I am pleased that the prices remained stable after Cisco acquired the solution."
"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 believe the licensing model is excellent as it offers flexibility to our customers, allowing them to adopt a crawl, walk, or run approach."
"Overall, the pricing is fair. Customers can wrap it into their Enterprise Agreement, making it easier for them to solve their issues."
Information not available
"Thales is more expensive than its competitors."
"There is an annual licensing fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business66
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise93
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Duo Security?
Regarding the pricing, what actually happened was that we got the product purchased through our HQ, so the costing as...
What needs improvement with Duo Security?
I do not have a straight answer for how Cisco Duo can be improved at this time. With the implementation that we are g...
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Also Known As

Duo Security
Octopus Authenticator
Gemalto Ezio, Ezio, Gemalto Authenticators, SafeNet Authentication Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
United Technologies (UTC), American Family Association, ASL Airlines France, BNP Paribas, A Fortune 50 Bank, Bingham County Idaho, Britannia Financial Services, Carolina Behavioral Health Alliance LLC, European Commission, County of Midland Michigan, JRM Construction Management, Greer Commission of Public Works, Poste Italiane, Kennedy Wilson Europe, Key Mechanical, Marker Therapeutics Inc, Mediawan, Ministero Dell'interno, FairPrice, NTUC Health, Mercatus, TBC, Techni-Photo, Tinsa Group, Yates Law, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Z-Medica Corporation, A Member of the 5 largest US law firms.
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB)
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cisco, Okta and others in Authentication Systems. Updated: October 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.