Purple vs IronWiFi: Guest Marketing or Identity Security?

IronWiFi is a unified WiFi identity platform that combines RADIUS authentication, captive portals, guest WiFi management, and network analytics in one service. Purple WiFi is a venue analytics platform focused on footfall tracking, customer behavior, and WiFi marketing. Purple requires separate RADIUS infrastructure for 802.1X authentication, while IronWiFi includes everything in a single platform. IronWiFi publishes its pricing — from $13/AP + $6.50/user per month, billed monthly or annually, with a $65/month minimum.

Last fact-checked: July 10, 2026

Different Problems, Different Approaches

Purple's recent competitor page frames this choice as an "authentication tool versus a guest-engagement platform" and calls IronWiFi "narrower by design." That framing is fair — if the question you're answering is how to run marketing campaigns off your WiFi, Purple is built for it. But it quietly assumes the only thing worth measuring is guests. For most schools, hospitals, enterprises, MSPs, and coworking operators, the harder problem is identity: proving who and what is on the network, keeping bad actors off, and satisfying a security team's audit.

That's the axis where the two platforms genuinely diverge. IronWiFi built an authentication-first platform — cloud RADIUS, 802.1X, WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise, and certificate management — then added captive portals, guest WiFi, and analytics on top. There is a set of capabilities a guest-engagement platform structurally cannot offer because it never sees the authentication exchange:

• 802.1X / EAP-TLS depth. Full EAP-TLS, PEAP, and EAP-TTLS — certificate- and credential-based WiFi, not just a splash page.
• RADIUS CoA (change-of-authorization). Push a live session into quarantine or off the network mid-connection — something no analytics overlay can do.
• WiFi ITDR. Behavioral identity-threat detection on authentication traffic, flagging anomalies a marketing dashboard never sees.
• AI Agent Identity. Issue and govern identities for autonomous agents on the network, not just people carrying phones.

How They Compare

Capability	IronWiFi	Purple WiFi
Primary Focus	Authentication + Analytics	Analytics + Marketing
RADIUS Authentication	Built-in	Not included
WPA2-Enterprise / 802.1X	Built-in	Not included
Captive Portal	✓ Built-in	✓ Built-in
Social Login	✓	✓
Guest WiFi Management	✓	✓
Venue Analytics	✓ Network-level	✓ Advanced
Footfall / Dwell Time	✗	✓ Specialized
Certificate Management	✓ Built-in	✗
OpenRoaming / Passpoint	✓	✗
RADIUS / EAP method depth	✓ EAP-TLS, PEAP, EAP-TTLS	✗
RADIUS CoA (change-of-authorization)	✓ Live quarantine	✗
IdP integrations	✓ Entra ID, Okta, Google, AD, LDAP, SCIM	✗
Cloud PKI / SCEP enrollment	✓	✗
WiFi ITDR / anomaly detection	✓	✗
AI Agent Identity	✓	✗
Published per-AP price	From $13/AP + $6.50/user per month	Quote-based
MSP white-label + multi-tenant billing	✓	✗ Limited
AP vendor breadth	✓ 200+ vendors	Limited
Requires Separate RADIUS	No - all-in-one	Yes - for 802.1X

The Real Cost: Unified vs Separate

With Purple, you get excellent analytics but still need separate RADIUS infrastructure. That means two vendors, two dashboards, two support contacts, and integration overhead. With IronWiFi, it's one platform for everything.

Feature by Feature

Feature	IronWiFi	Purple WiFi
EAP-TLS (certificates)	✓	✗
PEAP-MSCHAPv2	✓	✗
MAC Authentication	✓	✗
Microsoft Entra ID	✓ Native	✗
Okta / Google / SAML	✓ Native	✗
Captive Portal	✓ Built-in	✓ Built-in
Social Login (Facebook, Google)	✓	✓
Email / SMS Collection	✓	✓
Venue Footfall Analytics	✗	✓ Specialized
Customer Behavior Heatmaps	✗	✓
Network Usage Analytics	✓ Real-time	✗ Limited
SCEP Certificate Enrollment	✓	✗
OpenRoaming / Passpoint	✓ WBA Partner	✗
Multi-vendor AP Support	✓ 200+ vendors	✓ Multi-vendor
AI-Powered Intelligence	✓ AI Center	✗

When Does Purple WiFi Make Sense?

To be clear: Purple is the stronger product for marketing automation, footfall and dwell-time analytics, and large-venue guest engagement. If what you're buying is a campaign engine — splash-page journeys, customer profiling, retail heatmaps, and the measurement to prove engagement lift — choose Purple. IronWiFi does not try to be that, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. Purple is the right tool when analytics and marketing are your primary need. It's likely the better choice if:

• Venue analytics (footfall, dwell time, heatmaps) is your top priority
• You already have a working RADIUS/authentication infrastructure
• You need advanced customer journey mapping across physical locations
• Your main goal is WiFi marketing and customer engagement

When Is IronWiFi the Smarter Choice?

IronWiFi is the stronger pick when you need authentication and analytics together. Choose IronWiFi if:

• You need RADIUS authentication and don't want to manage it separately
• WPA2-Enterprise or 802.1X is required alongside guest WiFi
• You want captive portals, authentication, and analytics in one dashboard
• OpenRoaming or Passpoint connectivity is on your roadmap
• Certificate-based authentication (EAP-TLS, SCEP) is part of your security plan
• Simpler vendor management matters - one platform, one support contact

Passpoint & OpenRoaming: Engagement vs. Federation

Purple points to a large-venue Passpoint track record through its "SecurePass" offering, and for onboarding guests at scale that's a real capability. But Passpoint is only half the story. The value of seamless roaming comes from the federation behind it — the trust framework that lets a device authenticate on a network it has never seen before, with no splash page at all.

IronWiFi provides OpenRoaming RADIUS and Passpoint / Hotspot 2.0 as core platform features, and IronWiFi's team co-chairs the WBA OpenRoaming settlement and interoperability work — a standing seat in the industry body that defines how roaming federation actually settles between providers. That's not a logo on a page; it's a hand on the standard. For an identity platform, OpenRoaming is a network-effect moat: every federated identity IronWiFi can authenticate makes the next silent, secure connection possible, without asking a user to re-register. A guest-engagement platform optimizes the splash page; an identity platform optimizes the trust that lets you skip it.

Compliance & Trust: Read the Fine Print

Because Purple's business is built on capturing and profiling everyone who connects, the compliance question matters. When you run guest WiFi through an analytics platform, you become the data controller for footfall, dwell, and demographic records — with the GDPR and privacy exposure that comes with it. For a school, hospital, enterprise, MSP, or coworking operator, that's a liability, not a feature. IronWiFi authenticates the connection, logs the session for security and troubleshooting, and stops there. Guest data flows out via webhook to the tools you choose — not into an ad-tech pipeline you have to explain to your DPO.

On the audit trail itself, look past the badges. IronWiFi holds a SOC 2 Type II report — an independent audit of security controls over a period of time, issued with no exceptions — the attestation enterprise and public-sector procurement teams actually ask to see first. It's published, alongside SOC 3 and our DPA, on the IronWiFi Trust Center. Ask any vendor which report their security team wants to review before signing.