Beambox vs Purple WiFi Compared (2026)
Beambox and Purple often end up on the same shortlist. Both turn your captive portal into a way of building a guest list, and both will send guests marketing once they've opted in. Look at how each one sells it, though, and they're quite different: Beambox puts its prices and plan contents on its website, while Purple starts free and puts its paid WiFi plans behind a call, with marketing sold as a separate product.
Everything below comes from the two companies' own websites: Beambox's pages checked on 28 Oct 2026 and Purple's on 27 Oct 2026. The pages are listed under Sources at the end. CaptiFi is our product and appears as a third option, labelled as ours.
The short version
Beambox sells three plans, Essential, Growth and Pro, at £29, £45 and £60 a month per location on monthly billing on its UK pricing page, with yearly plans also available. You get a 30-day trial with no set-up costs, and the first Beambox access point is included with the trial. Email marketing and automated Interactions start on Growth; the Review Automator, 250 free texts a month and the API are on Pro.
Purple's Connect plan is free and needs no card. It gives you a branded login page and social and email sign-in, but Purple's Connect page says that collecting contact lists needs its Capture or Engage plan, and those are priced on a call (with a 30-day trial). Marketing is in Purple Engage, a separate product with a free tier of 500 credits a month and paid plans from $16 a month for 5,000 credits.
What each platform is
Beambox is a guest WiFi marketing platform that says over 12,000 businesses use it. It comes as a software layer on your own access points, or with its own access point, the first of which is included with the trial. Plans are per location, and its help centre gives discounts for extra locations that share the same branding: 15% off the second to tenth and 25% from the eleventh.
Purple sells guest WiFi to venues of every size. Alongside the Connect, Capture and Engage plans, its small business site sells a Purple Hub router for $129 one-off and the Purple plan at $13 a month or $130 a year. For larger estates its pricing page lists staff WiFi, xPSK and Passpoint. Our Purple WiFi review covers its plans in more detail, and our Beambox review does the same for Beambox.
Side by side comparison
| Lo que obtienes | Caja de haz | Purple | CaptiFi (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Precio publicado | Essential £29, Growth £45, Pro £60 a month per location on monthly billing (UK site); yearly plans also available | Connect free; Capture and Engage not published; Purple Engage from $16 a month | Lite $24.99 a month, Essentials $69, every plan up to Pro on the pricing page |
| Free plan or trial | 30-day trial, no set-up costs | Connect is free; 30-day trial of Capture and Engage | 30-day trial on every plan; you add a card to start |
| WiFi box from the provider | First Beambox access point included with the trial; more for a one-time fee | Purple Hub router, $129 one-off (small business) | The CaptiFi device on a refundable deposit of $99, with every plan |
| Access points it works with | UniFi, Meraki and Omada as cloud integrations; self-install guides for Aruba, MikroTik, Ruckus and Cambium | 44 brands on its current supported list | Setup guides for 9 vendor ecosystems |
| Marketing por correo electrónico | Unlimited emails and automated Interactions from Growth | In Purple Engage, one credit per email | From Essentials: 1,000 emails a month (2,000 on Growth, 5,000 on Pro) |
| Texts and WhatsApp | 250 free texts a month on Pro; Twilio from Growth | Texts and WhatsApp in Purple Engage, through your own Twilio account | 250 free texts a month from Growth; no WhatsApp |
| Solicitudes de revisión | Review Automator on Pro, to Tripadvisor, Google, Yelp and Facebook; ratings of 3 stars or less go to an internal feedback form | Listed as in pilot on Purple Engage's pricing page | From Essentials, to Google, Tripadvisor, Yelp and more; lower ratings open a private feedback form that still shows your public links |
| Lealtad | Interactions emails can reward loyal customers | Purple Engage rewards are vouchers; the Engage WiFi plan lists loyalty programme integration | Points or a stamp card, with tiers, from Growth |
| Tills | Square, on Growth and Pro | Purple Engage names Square, Epos Now and Loyverse | Square from Growth |
| Other connections | Mailchimp, Zapier, Twilio, the API and CSV export | Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Eagle Eye and an open API, on Capture and Engage | Mailchimp, HubSpot and Klaviyo, Salesforce through Zapier, plus an API and webhooks, from Growth |
The biggest difference is where the guest list and the marketing sit. On Beambox they're in the same subscription, getting more complete as you go up the plans. On Purple, Connect gives you the login page for free, the contact list comes with Capture or Engage, and marketing is a second product priced by usage.
Getting set up
Beambox offers three ways in. UniFi, Meraki and Omada connect as cloud integrations, Aruba, MikroTik, Ruckus and Cambium have self-install guides that Beambox describes as completely self-managed, and you can use the Beambox access point instead, the first of which comes with the trial. Its splash page lets you change colours, logos, fonts and more.
Purple's Connect plan needs no card or payment details, so you can put the login page on your own WiFi without paying; its Connect page names Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba, Ruckus and Ubiquiti UniFi hardware, and its supported list runs to 44 brands. The Capture and Engage plans come with a 30-day trial. Small businesses can skip their own hardware and buy the Purple Hub, a router pre-configured for Purple.
CaptiFi is self-serve too: a 30-day trial on any plan, setup guides for 9 vendor ecosystems, and the CaptiFi device if you'd rather not touch your own kit. The supported list is on the hardware page.
Automation, reviews and marketing
Beambox's Interactions are automated emails or texts: welcoming new guests, birthday wishes, rewarding loyal customers and winning back people who haven't been in for a while. They start on Growth, alongside unlimited emails and integrations with Zapier, Mailchimp and Twilio. The Review Automator, on Pro, asks guests to review you on Tripadvisor, Google, Yelp or Facebook, and sends anyone who picks 3 stars or less to an internal feedback form.
Purple Engage handles email, texts and WhatsApp, with texts and WhatsApp going through your own Twilio account and, Purple says, no markup. Each email is one credit and each text one credit per segment of about 160 characters. Its rewards are vouchers, redeemed with a staff PIN or on the guest's own screen, and reviews are listed as in pilot.
On CaptiFi, review requests and email campaigns start on Essentials, and the guest list, the campaigns and the review requests sit in the same plan. The Google Reviews integration handles the review flow, and Mailchimp and Klaviyo connect from Growth if you'd rather send email from there. There's more on the mechanics in our guide to automating Google reviews.
Hardware and larger estates
On hardware, Purple's supported list is the longer one, at 44 brands against the seven Beambox names. Purple also lists staff WiFi with 802.1X and Cloud RADIUS, xPSK, and Passpoint on its Engage plan, which matters if you run a large site and want guest and staff WiFi from one company.
For groups, Beambox prices per location with discounts for locations that share branding. CaptiFi includes one venue on every plan and, from Essentials, adds more for a flat $35 a month each, with every venue side by side on Pro; our multi-location WiFi management guide goes through how that works.
Pricing and what it costs you
Beambox's prices are on its pricing page: £29, £45 and £60 a month per location on monthly billing on its UK site, with yearly plans also available. Its help centre adds that every plan includes 1,000 guests in your Beambox guest database, with a charge of £10 a month for each band of guests above that.
Purple's Connect plan is free. Capture and Engage aren't priced on its website, so you'll need a call to get a number. The small business route is priced: $129 for the Purple Hub and $13 a month or $130 a year for the Purple plan, plus Purple Engage from free to $16 a month for 5,000 credits and up, depending on how much you send.
CaptiFi's prices are on the pricing page in six currencies, from $24.99 a month for Lite, and Enterprise is priced on request. CaptiFi has allowances too: up to 500 new guests a month on Lite, 1,000 on Essentials, 5,000 on Growth and 15,000 on Pro. Our 2026 pricing comparison lines up ten platforms' published prices.
Which fits which venue
- If you want a free branded login page first and the guest list later, Purple's Connect plan is the one that costs nothing.
- If you want published prices, a trial with an access point included, and email, reviews and texts in one subscription as you go up the plans, Beambox sets all of that out on its website.
- If your access points are a brand Beambox doesn't name, or you need staff WiFi, xPSK or Passpoint, Purple's lists are the longer ones.
- If you want points or stamp card loyalty, table bookings and review requests in the same plan as your WiFi, with the price on the page, that's how CaptiFi is put together.
- If you run short-term rentals, look at platforms built for rentals too; our Airbnb WiFi marketing guide covers them.
If Beambox is your front-runner and you want to see the field, our Beambox alternatives roundup is the place to start.
Where CaptiFi fits as a third option
CaptiFi is our product. It keeps the guest list on every plan with each guest's marketing consent recorded, asks for that consent separately from getting online, and from Essentials adds email campaigns and review requests in the same plan. It's built in the UK and sold worldwide, with prices in six currencies.
On outcomes, 55% of the new devices that joined CaptiFi guest WiFi in September 2026 signed in, and a typical venue gained around 50 new guest emails a month from April to September (350 or more at the busiest one in ten). The head-to-heads are at CaptiFi vs Beambox and CaptiFi vs Purple, and you can start a 30-day free trial on your own WiFi.
Fuentes
Beambox's pages, checked on 28 Oct 2026:
- Beambox: pricing. beambox.com/pricing
- Beambox: home page. beambox.com/
- Beambox: captive portal (splash page). beambox.com/captive-portal-solutions
- Beambox: online reviews. beambox.com/benefits/online-reviews
- Beambox help: our pricing options. help.beambox.com/en/articles/1939466-our-pricing-options
- Beambox help: guest database charges. help.beambox.com/en/articles/8106832-guest-database-charges
- Beambox help: which installation method is right for you. help.beambox.com/en/articles/5365642-which-installation-method-is-right-for-you
- Beambox help: what are Interactions. help.beambox.com/en/articles/5909405-what-are-interactions
- Beambox help: how to grow your online reviews. help.beambox.com/en/articles/3162010-how-to-grow-your-online-reviews
- Beambox help: integrations and exporting. help.beambox.com/en/collections/121056-integrations-exporting
- Beambox: Square integration. beambox.com/townsquare/square-integration-with-beambox
Purple's pages, checked on 27 Oct 2026:
- Purple: Guest WiFi plans and pricing. www.purple.ai/en-gb/guest-wifi/pricing
- Purple: Connect, free guest WiFi. www.purple.ai/en-gb/guest-wifi/connect
- Purple: small business plans (UK site). join.purple.ai/en-gb/plans
- Purple: small business plans (US site). join.purple.ai/en-us/plans
- Purple Engage: home page. engage.purple.ai/en-gb
- Purple Engage: pricing (UK site). engage.purple.ai/en-gb/pricing
- Purple Engage: pricing (US site). engage.purple.ai/en-us/pricing
- Purple Support: Supported Hardware (last updated 9 Oct 2026). support.purple.ai/article/supported-hardware
- StayFi: guest data collection. stayfi.com/guest-data-collection, checked 28 Oct 2026
- Purple Engage: home page, tills it names. engage.purple.ai/en-gb, checked 28 Oct 2026
CaptiFi's facts come from our own pricing page and product. Prices change; if you work at Beambox or Purple and something here is out of date, email hello@captifi.io and we'll correct it. CaptiFi isn't affiliated with or endorsed by either company.
Preguntas frecuentes
Quick answers to the most common questions about this topic.
Is Beambox or Purple better?
How much do Beambox and Purple cost?
Do Beambox and Purple offer a free trial?
Which access points do Beambox and Purple support?
Do Beambox and Purple send review requests?
Do Beambox and Purple have loyalty schemes?
What is CaptiFi and how does it compare to Beambox and Purple?
Are Beambox or Purple right for a short-term rental or Airbnb?
The CaptiFi Editorial Team writes about guest WiFi marketing, captive portals, GDPR-compliant data capture, and local SEO for venue operators. When we compare CaptiFi with another platform, we use that company's own website, with the date we checked it.
Ready to turn your guest WiFi into a marketing engine?
CaptiFi captures customer data from every WiFi login, automates Google reviews and email follow-ups, and plugs into the tools you already use. The CaptiFi device comes with every plan on a refundable deposit, prices are on the pricing page, and every plan has a 30-day free trial.