Purple vs Cisco Spaces
Cisco Spaces (formerly Cisco DNA Spaces) is Cisco's cloud platform for location-based services and smart buildings. It uses Cisco wireless — Catalyst, Aironet and Meraki access points, plus Webex devices — as sensors to deliver indoor location, occupancy and density analytics, IoT services, a captive portal and OpenRoaming. It is a deep, enterprise-grade choice for organisations standardised on Cisco hardware that want rich location intelligence and smart-building use cases. Purple takes a different, vendor-neutral approach: a guest WiFi platform with branded captive portal, visitor analytics, marketing automation and first-party data capture that runs as a cloud overlay on whatever access points you already have — Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Meraki or Ubiquiti — so you are not tied to a single hardware vendor.
Last fact-checked 2026-06-17. Cisco Spaces: Cisco's cloud location-based services and smart-building platform (formerly Cisco DNA Spaces), with apps for location analytics, captive portal, engagements, OpenRoaming and IoT across Cisco wireless infrastructure.
Best for Purple
Venues and multi-site estates that want guest WiFi, captive portal, visitor analytics and marketing automation in one platform, running on mixed-vendor access points without a hardware swap.
Best for Cisco Spaces
Enterprises standardised on Cisco wireless that want the deepest indoor location intelligence, occupancy and density analytics, IoT services and smart-building use cases natively integrated with their Cisco infrastructure.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Purple | Cisco Spaces |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware / vendor support Purple is hardware-agnostic; Cisco Spaces is designed for Cisco infrastructure. | Vendor-neutral overlay on Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Meraki and Ubiquiti | Cisco wireless only — Catalyst and Aironet access points, Meraki, and Webex devices as sensors |
| Captive portal | Branded captive portal with social, SMS and email login, marketing consent and CRM-ready data capture | Captive Portal app with social/SMS/email login, used to capture user details and trigger engagements |
| Marketing automation & CRM Purple is marketing-led; Cisco Spaces focuses on location-triggered engagement. | Built-in segmentation, automated email/SMS journeys and integrations with CRM and marketing tools | Engagements app sends location-triggered notifications and offers; not a full marketing-automation/CRM suite |
| Visitor & location analytics Cisco Spaces goes deeper on real-time indoor location; Purple focuses on visitor and marketing analytics. | Presence analytics — footfall, dwell time, visit frequency and repeat-visitor insight | Deep indoor location, occupancy, density and behaviour analytics (Detect and Locate, Right Now) |
| IoT & smart building | Not an IoT/smart-building platform; focused on guest WiFi, engagement and analytics | IoT Services, environmental and smart-workspace apps for building automation and sustainability |
| Passpoint / OpenRoaming | Passpoint and OpenRoaming supported for frictionless, passwordless guest onboarding | OpenRoaming app for frictionless guest WiFi onboarding |
| Passwordless staff WiFi & RADIUS | Cloud RADIUS with EAP-TLS, iPSK and SAML/SSO for passwordless staff WiFi | Not its focus; secure network access is handled by separate Cisco identity products (e.g. ISE) |
| Deployment model | Cloud overlay on existing access points; no hardware swap, live in weeks | Cloud platform that connects to Cisco wireless controllers, Meraki dashboard or a Spaces connector |
| Licensing posture Verify current pricing with each vendor — positioning moves. | Platform subscription, hardware-agnostic | Tiered, access-point-based licensing layered on top of Cisco wireless infrastructure |
When Purple is the right call
Purple wins when you run mixed or non-Cisco access points, or simply do not want to be tied to one hardware vendor. It deploys as a cloud overlay on Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Meraki and Ubiquiti, so there is no hardware swap and you are live in weeks. The same platform delivers a branded captive portal, marketing consent and first-party data capture, automated email and SMS journeys, visitor analytics and passwordless staff WiFi — making it the stronger fit when guest engagement and marketing, rather than building automation, are the goal.
When Cisco Spaces is the right call
Cisco Spaces wins when you are standardised on Cisco wireless and want the deepest location intelligence and smart-building capability. Its real-time indoor location, occupancy and density analytics, IoT services and environmental and smart-workspace apps are tightly integrated with Cisco Catalyst, Aironet and Meraki hardware, and it scales to very large enterprise estates. If your priority is granular indoor analytics, IoT and building automation on infrastructure you have already committed to Cisco, Cisco Spaces is a deep, proven platform.
Frequently asked
Is Purple a direct replacement for Cisco Spaces?
For guest WiFi, captive portal, visitor analytics and marketing, Purple covers the same need and runs on any vendor's access points, not just Cisco. If you specifically need deep real-time indoor location, IoT services and smart-building use cases on Cisco hardware, Cisco Spaces goes deeper on those.
Does Cisco Spaces work with non-Cisco access points?
No. Cisco Spaces is designed for Cisco wireless infrastructure — Catalyst and Aironet access points, Meraki, and Webex devices as sensors. Purple is vendor-neutral and runs as a cloud overlay on mixed-vendor hardware.
Do I need to replace my hardware to use Purple?
No. Purple deploys as a cloud overlay on your existing access points across Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Meraki and Ubiquiti, so there is no hardware swap.
Where Purple beats Cisco Spaces
See the product hub and the industries where teams pick Purple over Cisco Spaces.
See Purple running on your infrastructure
Purple deploys as a cloud overlay on your existing access points - Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cambium, Extreme, and Fortinet. No hardware swap, and you can be live in weeks.