Top 20 passwordless authentication software by AI search visibility (2026)
Identity platforms used to replace passwords with passkeys, biometrics, magic links, device trust, and phishing-resistant authentication flows. Ranked by a composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 06, 2026At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
Microsoft Entra leads the passwordless authentication software category with a visibility score of 87.5%, compared to a category average of 21.9% — a gap of nearly 66 percentage points. Cisco Duo sits second at 75.0%, meaning the top two brands alone dwarf every other player. Brands ranked 3 through 6 cluster at exactly 50.0% visibility, while ranks 8–10 drop sharply to 12.5%, confirming a steep two-tier structure where enterprise incumbents dominate AI Overviews mentions and challenger brands struggle to register consistently.
Despite their visibility dominance, both Microsoft Entra and Cisco Duo carry a citation rate of 0.0%, meaning AI Overviews names them without linking to their domains. Ping Identity and FusionAuth are the only brands in the top 10 that achieve any citation at all, both at 12.5% — making them more trusted as source material than far more visible peers. This divergence between being named and being cited is sharp: high visibility does not translate to sourcing authority within this category, and the average citation rate across all brands is just 1.2%.
The sources Google AI Overviews anchors on for this category are notably neither the leading brands nor their own domains. The top cited sources include oloid.com, supertokens.com, g2.com, techrepublic.com, and passkeys.com — third-party review and editorial properties dominating the citation layer. fusionauth.io is the only brand domain appearing in the top cited sources list, which explains FusionAuth's 12.5% citation rate. Google AI Overviews is the top engine for every brand in the dataset, indicating the category's AI visibility battle is concentrated entirely on that single surface.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
Microsoft Entra 0% → 88% · rank #0 → #1+88pp
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Cisco Duo 0% → 75% · rank #0 → #2+75pp
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Ping Identity 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #3+50pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
microsoft.com
|
88% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Microsoft Entra's 87.5% visibility is 65.6 points above the 21.9% category average, yet its 0.0% citation rate means AI Overviews references it without sourcing its domain. |
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| 2 |
duo.com
|
75% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Cisco Duo at 75.0% visibility is second only to Microsoft Entra but shares the same 0.0% citation rate, making it highly named but entirely uncited across AI Overviews responses. |
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| 3 |
pingidentity.com
|
50% | 12% | Google AI Overviews |
Ping Identity matches FusionAuth at 50.0% visibility and 12.5% citation, making both the only top-5 brands whose domains carry any sourcing authority in AI Overviews. |
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| 4 |
fusionauth.io
|
50% | 12% | Google AI Overviews |
FusionAuth is the sole brand domain appearing in the top cited sources list, which directly explains its 12.5% citation rate — the joint highest in the top 10. |
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| 5 |
stytch.com
|
50% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Stytch sits at 50.0% visibility — more than double the 21.9% category average — but its 0.0% citation rate means it gains mentions without any domain-level trust signal from AI. |
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| 6 |
magic.link
|
50% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 7 |
yubico.com
|
38% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 8 |
auth0.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 9 |
descope.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 10 |
hypr.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 11 |
hanko.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 12 |
frontegg.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 13 |
secretdoubleoctopus.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 14 |
beyondidentity.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 15 |
passage.1password.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 16 |
transmitsecurity.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 17 |
trusona.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 18 |
ownid.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 19 |
loginradius.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 20 |
clerk.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on passwordless authentication software, these are the domains Google AI Overviews cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own passwordless authentication software brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about passwordless authentication software AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in passwordless authentication software?
Microsoft Entra leads with 87.5% visibility, followed by Cisco Duo at 75.0%, both well above the category average of 21.9%. These two brands create a substantial gap over all other players in the category.
Which brands are actually cited by AI Overviews in this category, not just mentioned?
Only Ping Identity and FusionAuth achieve any citation, both at 12.5%. All other top-10 brands, including the two most visible — Microsoft Entra and Cisco Duo — have a 0.0% citation rate.
What sources does AI cite most for passwordless authentication software research?
The top cited sources are third-party properties including oloid.com, supertokens.com, g2.com, techrepublic.com, and passkeys.com. FusionAuth's fusionauth.io is the only brand domain appearing in this cited sources list.
Which AI engine dominates visibility for this category?
Google AI Overviews is the top engine for every single brand in the dataset, indicating the entire AI visibility contest for passwordless authentication software is concentrated on that one surface.
How does citation rate compare to visibility rate across this category?
The category average visibility is 21.9% versus an average citation rate of just 1.2%, confirming a strong disconnect between how often brands are named and how often they are sourced by AI.
Is there a visibility gap between enterprise incumbents and challenger brands in this category?
Yes — Microsoft Entra and Cisco Duo sit at 87.5% and 75.0% respectively, while brands ranked 8–10 such as Auth0, Descope, and HYPR register only 12.5% visibility, reflecting a clear two-tier structure.