Compare the top captive portal platforms that work with HPE Aruba Instant On access points. Capture guest emails, automate Google and TripAdvisor reviews, and run WiFi marketing - without replacing a single AP.
The best captive portal software for Aruba Instant On in 2026 is CaptiFi.
CaptiFi connects to every cloud-managed Instant On access point through the External RADIUS Server splash page type and turns guest WiFi logins into first-party customer data. Every plan includes branded splash pages, guest email capture with consent, guest analytics and monthly new-guest allowances from 1,000 to 50,000 by plan; the Growth plan and above add automated Google and TripAdvisor review requests, built-in email marketing, native Toast, Square, SumUp, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, EmailOctopus and Pepper integrations, and a customer REST API with webhooks. Pricing starts at £39/month on annual billing (£49 month-to-month), billed in GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD or NZD, with a 30-day free trial. Setup follows the Aruba setup guide and takes about 15 minutes.
CaptiFi is a guest WiFi marketing platform for venues, restaurants, hotels, cafés, retail spaces and short-term rentals. It turns branded WiFi logins into first-party customer data, automated Google review requests, repeat visitor insights and email marketing lists.
Feature-by-feature comparison of the leading options for Instant On networks, verified as of August 2026.
| Feature | CaptiFi | MyPlace | Spotipo | Instant On Built-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works with Aruba Instant On | ✅ External RADIUS portal | ✅ Aruba listed | ⚠️ Confirm with vendor | Built-in |
| Guest email capture | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ Terms screen only |
| New guest contacts per month | ✅ 1,000 to 50,000 by plan | ❌ 100/200/300 + paid bundles | Not published | N/A |
| Automated Google + TripAdvisor review requests | ✅ Growth plan and above | ✅ Review Starter in all plans | ❌ | ❌ |
| Built-in email marketing | ✅ Growth plan and above | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Marketing email sends per month | 2,000 to 10,000 by plan (Growth up) | Not published | ❌ No email marketing | N/A |
| POS integrations (Toast, Square, SumUp) | ✅ All three, Growth plan and above | ⚠️ $20-$30/mo tiers when not included | ❌ | ❌ |
| Email platform sync (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, EmailOctopus) | ✅ Growth plan and above | ⚠️ $20-$30/mo tiers when not included | ❌ | ❌ |
| White-label / MSP programme | ✅ Published wholesale rates | ❌ Affiliate-only | ✅ $50/mo white-label (annual billing) | N/A |
| Plug-and-play hardware option (refundable hold) | ✅ | Not published | ❌ | N/A |
| Billing currencies | 6 (GBP/USD/EUR/CAD/AUD/NZD) | USD | USD | Free |
| Starting price | £39/mo annual (£49 monthly), or local equivalent | $49/location/mo | ~$49-66/location/mo retail | Free (basic) |
CaptiFi connects through Instant On's External RADIUS Server splash page type, MyPlace lists Aruba among its supported hardware, and the built-in portal is the free baseline. For the other platforms, confirm Instant On compatibility for your exact setup with the vendor before committing. Pricing verified as of August 2026.
Hospitality-focused guest WiFi marketing that layers onto your existing Instant On APs over RADIUS. Every plan includes branded splash pages, guest email capture with consent, guest log with CSV export, analytics and monthly new-guest allowances from 1,000 to 50,000 by plan. The Growth plan and above add automated Google and TripAdvisor review requests, built-in email marketing with 2,000 to 10,000 sends per month by plan, native Toast, Square, SumUp, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, EmailOctopus and Pepper integrations, and a customer REST API with webhooks. A plug-and-play WiFi device with a refundable hold is available on every plan if you have no APs yet.
Pricing: From £39/month on annual billing (£49 month-to-month), billed in GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD or NZD. 30-day free trial, monthly billing available.
Best for: Cafes, pubs, restaurants, hotels and multi-venue hospitality groups on Instant On who want the WiFi to grow their list and their reviews.
Per-location guest WiFi and marketing app supporting UniFi, Meraki, Cambium, Ruckus, Omada, Aruba, Zyxel and Datto gear, and listed on the Cisco Meraki Marketplace. Plans are capped by new emails collected per month (100, 200 or 300, with paid bundles from 250 emails at $30/month up to 10,000 at $700/month), and integrations outside your tier cost $20 or $30/month each. Its Review Starter review tool is now included in all plans. The partner programme is affiliate-only.
Pricing: $49, $79 or $159 per location/month, as of August 2026.
Enterprise WiFi analytics and guest engagement built for large, IT-managed estates with procurement teams. Overkill for independent venues: there is no self-serve sign-up, pricing is quote-led and not published in a comparable form, and you should confirm Instant On compatibility with Purple directly before committing.
Pricing: Quote-based.
Multi-vendor captive portal software aimed at MSPs and ISPs, with a white-label option at $50/month on annual billing and a 14-day full-platform trial with no card required. It handles splash pages and data capture but has no built-in email marketing or review automation, so venues need separate tools for the marketing side. Confirm Instant On compatibility for your exact setup with Spotipo before committing.
Pricing: Around $49-$66 per location/month retail; white-label $50/month on annual billing.
UK-focused guest WiFi marketing with email capture, campaigns and Google review requests. Hardware support is more limited than the multi-vendor platforms here, so confirm Instant On compatibility for your exact setup before committing, and note that headline pricing assumes annual billing.
Pricing: Approximately £29-£59/month on annual billing.
UK-centric captive portal with a free single-venue tier and a low-cost paid plan. It is bring-your-own access point only with no hardware option, lists 18+ controllers on its integrations page, and includes sentiment-routed review requests to Google and TripAdvisor. Square is listed among its integrations; Toast and SumUp are not, as of August 2026. The partner programme is informal. Confirm Instant On compatibility for your exact setup before committing.
Pricing: Free single-venue tier; Growth plan £33 per venue/month on annual billing (£40 month-to-month).
Instant On ships with two internal portal types: Internal Authenticated (pre-created accounts) and Internal Acknowledged (a terms acceptance screen with your logo and colours). It costs nothing and is fine if all you need is a tidy accept-and-connect page. It captures no emails, has no native social login, and does no marketing. Our Aruba Instant On captive portal guide covers exactly where it stops and how the external portal picks up.
Pricing: Free with your Instant On subscription.
Works across the Instant On range, from the Wi-Fi 5 AP11 family to the Wi-Fi 6 AP2x models and Wi-Fi 6E AP32, using the External RADIUS Server splash page type. The step-by-step Aruba setup guide gets you live in about 15 minutes with no new hardware.
Every guest who connects is prompted for their email, with a separate, unbundled marketing opt-in. Plans allow 1,000 to 50,000 new guests per month - 10x to 100x MyPlace's 100 to 300 new-email caps - and captured contacts are kept without per-contact fees. Marketing email sends run from 2,000 to 10,000 per month by plan on Growth and above.
On the Growth plan and above, automated Google and TripAdvisor review requests run alongside built-in email marketing for welcome and win-back campaigns. Guest data syncs natively to Klaviyo, Mailchimp, EmailOctopus, Toast, Square, SumUp and Pepper, with a REST API and webhooks for everything else.
Running Instant On at one site and UniFi or Omada at another? CaptiFi manages Aruba Instant On, UniFi, Omada, Meraki, Cisco Catalyst 9800, MikroTik and Ruckus from one dashboard, and the white-label MSP programme publishes its wholesale rates in six currencies, which is rare in this niche.
Instant On hands guests to an external portal over RADIUS. Five steps in the Instant On portal or mobile app, all covered in detail in the Aruba setup guide:
Want the fuller background on what Instant On's built-in portal can and cannot do first? Read the Aruba Instant On captive portal setup guide on the blog.
CaptiFi works with all major access point brands, each with its own setup guide: Aruba, UniFi, Omada, Meraki, MikroTik, Cisco and Ruckus. If you run Instant On today and expand with other hardware later, CaptiFi grows with you.
CaptiFi integrates with the world's leading enterprise WiFi brands. No rip-and-replace, no extra costs - just connect your existing access points and you're live.
Don't have compatible hardware?
CaptiFi is the best captive portal software for Aruba Instant On in 2026. It connects through Instant On's External RADIUS Server splash page type and captures guest emails on every plan, with monthly new-guest allowances from 1,000 to 50,000 by plan. The Growth plan and above add automated Google and TripAdvisor review requests and built-in email marketing. Pricing starts at £39/month on annual billing (£49 month-to-month), billed in GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD or NZD, with a 30-day free trial.
No. Instant On's built-in portal offers only two internal page types: Internal Authenticated (credentials for pre-created accounts) and Internal Acknowledged (a terms acceptance screen with your logo and colours). Neither collects an email address, and there is no database, social login or marketing behind them. To capture guest data you point the guest network at an external captive portal such as CaptiFi.
In the Instant On guest network settings you set the portal type to External, point the portal URL at your provider's sign-in page, create a RADIUS profile with the provider's server address and shared secret (CaptiFi uses radius.captifi.io on ports 1812 and 1813), and add the provider's domains to the Allowed Domains walled garden. With CaptiFi this takes about 15 minutes following the step-by-step Aruba setup guide.
As of August 2026: CaptiFi starts at £39/month on annual billing (£49 month-to-month), billed in GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD or NZD, with a 30-day free trial; email marketing, review automation and integrations are included on the Growth plan (£89/month, roughly £69/month on annual billing) and above. MyPlace charges $49, $79 or $159 per location per month with monthly new-email caps of 100, 200 or 300 plus paid bundles beyond that. Spotipo retails at around $49-$66 per location per month. CaptiveWiFi offers a free single-venue tier and a paid plan at £33 per venue per month on annual billing (£40 month-to-month). Purple WiFi is enterprise quote-based.
No. CaptiFi runs on the Instant On access points you already own, across the range from the Wi-Fi 5 AP11 family to the Wi-Fi 6 AP2x models and the Wi-Fi 6E AP32. If you are starting from scratch, CaptiFi also offers a plug-and-play WiFi device with a refundable hold on every plan - an option bring-your-own-hardware platforms such as CaptiveWiFi do not offer.
Yes. CaptiFi works with Aruba Instant On, UniFi, TP-Link Omada, Cisco Meraki, Cisco Catalyst 9800, MikroTik and Ruckus. If you run Instant On at one venue and different hardware at another, CaptiFi manages them all from one dashboard.
Start capturing guest emails, automating Google reviews, and driving repeat visits - on the access points you already own, in about 15 minutes.
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