Duo Security vs Keycloak

Duo Security and Keycloak are both mfa & zero trust access solutions. Duo Security cisco's MFA and zero trust access platform known for ease of deployment, while Keycloak open-source IAM platform with SSO, identity brokering, and fine-grained authorization. The best choice depends on your organization's size, technical requirements, and budget.

Updated Feb 2026
How we compare:This comparison is based on official documentation, public pricing, community discussions, and aggregated user feedback, not hands-on testing by our team. We organize what real users and practitioners are saying across the web.

The Bottom Line

Choose Duo Security if exceptionally easy to deploy — fastest MFA rollout in the industry is your priority and organizations prioritizing easy-to-deploy MFA across VPNs, cloud apps, and legacy systems, especially those in Cisco networking environments. Choose Keycloak if completely free — no licensing costs regardless of user count matters most and organizations with engineering expertise that want full control over their identity platform, avoid vendor lock-in, and eliminate IAM licensing costs.

Choose Duo Security if:

  • You value exceptionally easy to deploy — fastest MFA rollout in the industry
  • You value duo Push is the most user-friendly MFA experience available
  • You value strong VPN and legacy application MFA support
  • You want to avoid requires significant engineering effort to deploy, scale, and maintain
  • You want to avoid no managed cloud service — you own all infrastructure operations

Choose Keycloak if:

  • You value completely free — no licensing costs regardless of user count
  • You value full source code access enables deep customization
  • You value self-hosted deployment gives complete data sovereignty
  • You want to avoid sSO capabilities are less mature than dedicated IAM platforms like Okta
  • You want to avoid limited identity lifecycle management and provisioning features

Feature Comparison

FeatureDuo SecurityKeycloak
PricingFree (up to 10 users) / Essentials $3/user/month / Advantage $6/user/month / Premier $9/user/monthFree (open source) / Red Hat SSO for enterprise support
Pricing ModelPer-user monthly subscription with free tierFree open source with optional commercial support
Open SourceNoYes
DeploymentCloudSelf-Hosted
Best ForOrganizations prioritizing easy-to-deploy MFA across VPNs, cloud apps, and legacy systems, especially those in Cisco networking environmentsOrganizations with engineering expertise that want full control over their identity platform, avoid vendor lock-in, and eliminate IAM licensing costs
Push-based multi-factor authenticatio...SupportedNot available
Device trust and health verificationSupportedNot available
Adaptive access policies based on use...SupportedNot available

Sources

Related

Duo Security AlternativesKeycloak AlternativesDuo Security OverviewKeycloak Overview