Comparison
Purple Engage vs Airship
Airship and Purple Engage compared on tills, PMS, WiFi capture, offers, messaging, measurement and pricing. Every statement about Airship comes from its own website and links to its source.
Airship or Purple Engage: which fits your venue?
Choose Airship if you run Zonal, OPERA or Guestline and want unlimited email sends at a published price per location. 457
Choose Purple Engage if you want WiFi sign-ins as contacts natively, offer codes checked or read back at the till, WhatsApp campaigns, and each campaign measured against a held-back group.
How do Airship and Purple Engage compare, feature by feature?
Checked on airship.co.uk on 30 September 2026. The Airship column says only what its own pages state, each with a numbered source. Where its site does not mention something, the cell says “Not listed on their site”, which is not the same as “No”.
Scroll across to compare all columns.
| Feature | Airship | Purple Engage |
|---|---|---|
| Guest WiFi capture | Through WiFi partner integrations. Purple is one of the WiFi providers their integrations page lists. 5 | Every guest WiFi sign-in becomes a contact with a visit history, from Purple WiFi, Cisco Spaces, Cisco Meraki or Juniper Mist.Also runs without Purple WiFi: venues can be created in Engage. |
| Till integrations | EPOS integrations including Zonal, Tabology, Cinchio Solutions and Comtrex, at varying levels. 567 | Square, Lightspeed X-Series, Lightspeed K-Series, Toast, Epos Now, Loyverse and Oracle Simphony.Zonal Aztec. |
| Offers redeemed at the till | A code shown to your server to enter into the till. 9 | Codes pushed into Lightspeed X-Series and Shopify, checked live at Toast and Lightspeed K-Series, and read back from Square, Epos Now, Loyverse and Oracle Simphony sales.Zonal Aztec. |
| Table bookings | Through booking integrations, including Zonal Tables, ResDiary, SevenRooms and OpenTable. 5 | No native bookings.Booking data from ResDiary, and a completed booking can start a journey.OpenTable and SevenRooms connectors. |
| Hotel PMS | Opera by Oracle, Guestline and Zonal Hotel Solutions. 5 | Mews and apaleo: stays land on the guest record, and a hotel checkout can start a journey.Oracle OPERA and Cloudbeds. |
| Email marketing | Unlimited email sends on every plan. 4 | A drag-and-drop builder with a brand kit, campaigns, A/B tests and journeys. |
| SMS | SMS Marketing, listed at 3.5p. 4 | Through your own Twilio account, at Twilio's price with no Purple markup. |
| Not listed on their site | Template campaigns through your own Twilio account. Not to US numbers, which Meta does not allow.WhatsApp steps in journeys. | |
| Automated journeys | Journeys: personalised emails and SMS sent to guests. 8 | Started by a WiFi visit, a purchase, a completed booking, a hotel checkout, a birthday and more, with split paths and held-back groups. |
| Loyalty | Rewards, an add-on “booster”, with offers such as 2 for 1 and 10% off. 9 | No points or stamps loyalty.Wallet passes. |
| Review management | Through feedback integrations, including Reputation, ReviewPro and HGEM. 5 | A “leave a review” button on surveys.A Google review inbox with AI reply drafts that a person approves. |
| Guest surveys | Airship Feedback, an add-on booster. 10 | 15 question types, with answers written to the guest profile and NPS benchmarks. |
| Results against a held-back group | Proof of Presence® visit reporting, and before-and-after tracking. A held-back group is not listed on their site. 1113 | Extra visits, bookings and till revenue measured against a held-back group, with a confidence range. |
| AI assistant | Ask Airship, AI Email Builder and Airship Flight Assist AI. 412 | An agent that works towards your goals, prepares campaigns and measures results. Choose individual approvals or bounded autopilot. |
| MCP server | Not listed on their site | A remote MCP server with read and draft scopes. No scope can send. |
| Public API | APIs for third-party development. 1 | A public REST API, and webhooks with 34 event types. |
How are Airship and Purple Engage priced?
Airship
Airship publishes its prices per location, per month, in GBP, with one-off onboarding fees on top. Every plan includes unlimited email sends, contacts and users, and SMS at 3.5p. 4
Airship Feedback is priced separately, per location per month, from £45 for one location down to £5 at 100+ locations. 10
| Locations | Essentials | Plus | Expert |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £150 | £300 | £400 |
| 2 to 5 | £120 | £220 | £300 |
| 6 to 15 | £90 | £165 | £240 |
| 16 to 30 | £75 | £125 | £195 |
| 31 to 50 | £55 | £90 | £140 |
| 51 to 100 | £45 | £75 | £95 |
| 101+ | Contact Sales | Contact Sales | Contact Sales |
As shown on airship.co.uk on 30 September 2026. Prices change, so check their site before you decide.
Purple Engage
Purple Engage publishes its prices. You pay for Actions, where one message sent is one Action, and contacts are unlimited. The free plan includes 500 Actions a month with no card, and paid plans run from £12 to £948 a month. Twilio bills SMS and WhatsApp on your own account, with no Purple markup.
See Purple Engage pricingWhen is Airship the better choice?
When one of these describes your venues, going by what Airship's own site says.
- You run a Zonal estate and want a CRM that takes Zonal POS data directly. 7
- You want unlimited email sends and contacts at a published price per location. 4
- You want a long list of existing integrations, including OPERA and Guestline, with Proof of Presence® visit reporting. 2511
Where Airship is ahead today
- OPERA and Guestline PMS integrations. 5Purple Engage:Connect Oracle OPERA hotel data to Engage.Connect Mews and apaleo hotel data.
- Zonal EPOS today. 7Purple Engage:Connect Zonal Aztec to Engage.
- Unlimited email sends on every plan. 4Purple Engage:Engage prices on messages sent, with unlimited contacts.
- A Rewards booster for loyalty. 9Purple Engage:Engage has offers and surveys.Engage has no loyalty programme.
When is Purple Engage the better choice?
When one of these describes your venues.
- You want every guest WiFi sign-in to become a contact natively, from Purple WiFi, Cisco Spaces, Cisco Meraki or Juniper Mist.
- You want offer codes handled by the till: pushed into Lightspeed X-Series and Shopify, checked live at Toast and Lightspeed K-Series, or read back from Square, Epos Now, Loyverse and Oracle Simphony sales.
- You want WhatsApp campaigns, sent through your own Twilio account.
- You want each campaign measured against a held-back group, with a confidence range.
- You want SMS and WhatsApp at Twilio's price on your own account, with no Purple markup.
How do you switch from Airship to Purple Engage?
Switching from Airship: what changes, step by step.
Moving from Airship
- If your venues run Purple WiFi, Engage imports your historic Purple WiFi guests on setup.
- If you depend on Zonal or OPERA, check timing with us first.
- Connect Zonal Aztec to Engage.
- Connect Oracle OPERA hotel data to Engage.
- Create your venues in Engage, or connect Purple WiFi, Cisco Spaces, Cisco Meraki or Juniper Mist.
- Import your contacts by CSV. Engage records which channels each contact's consent covers.
- Connect your till, booking system or PMS, so visits, spend, bookings and stays land on the guest record.
- Set up your own sending domain for email, and your own Twilio account for SMS and WhatsApp.
- Rebuild your automations as journeys, and measure your first campaign against a held-back group.
Questions
Is Purple Engage an alternative to Airship?
For guest data, email, SMS, journeys, offers, surveys and measurement, yes. Engage connects to Zonal Aztec and Oracle OPERA. Compare the data flows and the integrations your venues need below. 57
Does Purple WiFi work with Airship?
Airship lists Purple among the WiFi providers on its integrations page. Purple Engage is a separate product: it takes guest WiFi sign-ins from Purple WiFi directly. 5
How is Purple Engage priced compared with Airship?
Airship publishes a price per location per month with unlimited email sends. Engage publishes a price per message sent, with unlimited contacts, and SMS and WhatsApp are billed by Twilio on your own account with no Purple markup. 4
Can I move from Airship to Purple Engage?
Yes. Import your contacts by CSV, and Engage records which channels each contact's consent covers. Then connect your WiFi, tills, bookings or PMS and rebuild your automations as journeys.
Where do these facts come from?
Every statement about Airship on this page comes from airship.co.uk, read on 30 September 2026. Each source below lists the words we relied on. Purple Engage facts come from our own product pages.
- Airship home pagehttps://airship.co.uk/
The Hospitality CRM
Fully supported third party development on our APIs
- Why Airshiphttps://airship.co.uk/why-us
We only work with hospitality brands.
80+
- Airship company pagehttps://airship.co.uk/more/company
a CRM and email marketing platform, used solely by hospitality businesses.
- Airship pricinghttps://airship.co.uk/pricing
Unlimited email sends
Unlimited Contact Storage
Select below your number of locations
One-off onboarding fees apply
Unlimited Users
SMS Marketing (3.5p)
AI Email Builder
Airship Flight Assist AI
Contact Sales
- Airship integrationshttps://airship.co.uk/all-about-it/integrations
Opera by Oracle
Purple
EPOS
Table Booking
Property Management System
Feedback
- Airship FAQshttps://airship.co.uk/more/f-qs
We integrate with different EPOS providers on varying levels.
- Airship and Zonalhttps://airship.co.uk/zonal
POS data from Zonal flows directly into your Airship dashboard
- Airship journeyshttps://airship.co.uk/all-about-it/journeys
Personalised, contextual emails and SMS sent to your guests
- Airship Rewardshttps://airship.co.uk/airship-rewards
They may just show a code for your server to input into the till
Yes, Rewards is a ‘booster’ that you add on
All sorts!! Think 2 for 1, 10% off.
- Airship Feedbackhttps://airship.co.uk/airship-feedback
Understand what your guests truly think.
- Airship Proof of Presencehttps://airship.co.uk/all-about-it/proof-of-presence
see who actually came into your venues, how often they return
- Ask Airshiphttps://airship.co.uk/ask-airship
Ask Airship
- Airship AIhttps://airship.co.uk/airship-ai
By tracking guests before and after activation
Purple Engage sources
Other comparisons
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Purple Engage vs SevenRooms
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Purple Engage vs Mailchimp
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Purple Engage vs Klaviyo
An AI marketing platform and B2C CRM, with product reviews for Shopify and WooCommerce stores and a page for restaurants. Its site says it powers 205,000+ brands.
All comparisons
Every comparison, and how the facts on these pages were checked.
See Purple Engage on your own venues
Start free with 500 Actions a month and unlimited contacts. No card needed.