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Multi-factor authentication · September 2026 Edition

Cisco Duo vs Okta

Seven of twelve models named Cisco Duo first on the direct prompt; four named Okta. Both were named by all twelve models and Cisco Duo carries 60 labels and Okta 49, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Cisco Duo

endorsed leader

Named in four categories this edition.

Okta

accepted challenger

Named in five categories this edition.

First-choice share42%9%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate2%12%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels6049A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Cisco Duo reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Microsoft Entra ID was named alongside these two in eleven of the twelve direct answers. Cisco Duo vs Microsoft Entra ID · Microsoft Entra ID vs Okta

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the multi-factor authentication page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Cisco DuoFirst choices, of twelve modelsOkta
Direct743 against Okta
Paraphrase811 against Okta
Comparative76
Budget-constrained70
Scale-constrained001 against Okta
Negative001 against Cisco Duo · 1 against Okta
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Cisco Duo and Okta stood in it.

Both were the first choice

1 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.
Llama 4 MaverickCisco Duo, Okta alternatives: Microsoft Entra ID

Cisco Duo first, Okta an alternative

6 of 12 modelsOkta was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Gemini 3.5 FlashCisco Duo alternatives: Clerk, Datawiza, Descope, Kinde, Microsoft Entra ID, WorkOS
Perplexity SonarCisco Duo alternatives: Descope, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, WorkOS
Grok 4.1 FastCisco Duo alternatives: Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
DeepSeek V4 FlashCisco Duo alternatives: Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
Kimi K2Cisco Duo alternatives: JumpCloud, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
GLM 4.7 FlashXCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID

Okta first, Cisco Duo an alternative

3 of 12 modelsCisco Duo was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Mistral SmallOkta alternatives: Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta alternatives: Cisco Duo
MiniMax M2.5Okta alternatives: Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID, Rippling

Neither was the first choice, one was named

1 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniMicrosoft Entra ID alternatives: Cisco Duo

Neither was named

1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Cisco Duo leads by forty-three points.
Cisco Duo45%#1 of 11
Okta2%#6 of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Cisco Duo leads by thirty-two points.
Cisco Duo42%#1 of 9
Okta9%#3 of 9
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Cisco Duo leads by four points.
Cisco Duo30%#2 of 6
Okta26%#3 of 6
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Cisco Duo

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.

“Be Wary of: Push Notification Approvals (Duo, Okta, Microsoft)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Microsoft Entra ID (if using Microsoft 365) or Cisco Duo's free tier (for small teams) offer the best balance of features, reliability, and cost.” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
“Choose Cisco Duo if you want to deploy a highly secure, easy-to-use MFA on top of a variety of existing, scattered systems with minimal IT headache.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Start with Cisco Duo if you want simple, scalable MFA without overhauling identity management—it's frequently #1 for mid-sized businesses” Grok 4.1 Fast · direct prompt · first choice

What the models said about Okta

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. One of one in this category shown.

“If you need a flexible, cross-platform solution with adaptive security, Okta Adaptive MFA is the top recommendation.” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
Also compared
Cisco Duo vs Microsoft Entra IDMicrosoft Entra ID vs OktaThe full MFA standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.