How to Choose a Guest WiFi Platform

Pricing models vary: per-location/month (most common for SMB), per-AP/month, per-registration, or enterprise contract. Expect £50–£200/month for a single-site SMB deployment on a mid-tier platform; enterprise multi-site contracts are typically quoted based on AP count and feature scope. Purple publishes a pricing calculator at purple.ai/pricing — and offers a free tier (Purple Connect) for single-site basics.

No — any reputable platform should be hardware-agnostic. Most work via RADIUS integration or a captive portal redirect, both of which are supported by Cisco Meraki, Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cambium, and other enterprise-grade APs. If a vendor requires you to buy their hardware, treat that as a significant lock-in risk.

A captive portal intercepts the WiFi connection and shows a branded page — it may collect an email address or just require a click-through. A full guest WiFi platform adds: persistent visitor profiles, behavioural analytics (dwell, frequency), marketing automation (triggered emails/SMS), CRM sync, and compliance tooling (GDPR audit trails, unsubscribe management). The portal is the front door; the platform is what happens with the data afterwards.

For a standard single-site deployment on existing compatible APs: one to two weeks. Multi-site enterprise rollouts with custom portal design, CRM integration, and staff WiFi configuration typically take four to eight weeks. Ask vendors for a reference implementation timeline for a deployment of similar scale and complexity to yours.

Yes, provided consent is obtained correctly. UK GDPR requires that marketing consent is freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous — a single pre-ticked checkbox doesn't qualify. A compliant WiFi registration flow presents separate opt-ins for email, SMS, and any other channel, records the consent with an audit trail, and provides an easy unsubscribe mechanism. Both the venue operator and the platform vendor have responsibilities here — confirm both are covered in your contract.

For enterprise buyers: ISO 27001 (information security management system) is the gold standard. Cyber Essentials Plus is important for UK public sector. SOC 2 Type II is relevant for US or internationally-audited vendors. For NHS or government deployments, ask specifically about DSP Toolkit alignment and whether the vendor has prior NHS reference sites. Certifications should be current — ask for the scope document and renewal date, not just a logo.

Yes. Most full-featured platforms allow you to export hashed email audiences to Meta Custom Audiences, Google Customer Match, and LinkedIn Matched Audiences. Because this is first-party, consented data rather than a third-party segment, match rates are typically 60–80% — significantly higher than purchased lists. Confirm the platform supports audience export in your contract and that your consent language covers use for paid channel targeting.

This depends on whether your primary outcome is intelligence or activation. If you need deep footfall path analysis, predictive occupancy, and operational benchmarking (common for airports, shopping centres, and large retail chains), a dedicated analytics platform like Aislelabs may go deeper. If your priority is capturing an owned audience, driving marketing automation, and building a first-party data asset — alongside analytics — a combined platform like Purple delivers both without managing two vendor relationships.