Arbiter vs NACIO

Arbiter is a cloud-hosted network access control product that determines which devices can connect and what they can access. It identifies and catalogs devices by type and vendor without endpoint agents. Access controls include certificate-based EAP-TLS and 802.1X, plus MAC authentication bypass for headless devices. Its on-premises Edge appliance connects over RadSec and can continue authenticating locally during a WAN outage using cached decisions. A live Microsoft Intune integration reads device compliance and can quarantine non-compliant devices to a remediation VLAN. SIEM event forwarding supports Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic, TLS syslog, Splunk HEC, and generic HTTPS webhooks. The service supports wired and wireless access control in a hybrid deployment. The Asset Discovery tier profiles and inventories devices but does not enforce access; the access-control plans include the full feature set and vary by endpoint count. Asset Discovery costs €29 a month after a 60-day free trial. Essential costs €149 a month for 100 endpoints, Professional costs €399 a month for 500 endpoints, and Enterprise costs €999 a month for 1,500 endpoints. Arbiter is designed for SMEs and the MSPs or MSSPs that support them.

NACIO is network access control software for 802.1X RADIUS authentication, device profiling, compliance enforcement, and captive portals. It supports wired, wireless, and VPN access control and is currently in pre-release, with early access available by request. NACIO can be self-hosted on customer infrastructure or used as a cloud-hosted service. Its built-in RADIUS supports EAP-TLS, PEAP-MSCHAPv2, EAP-TTLS, EAP-FAST, and CHAP. Identity sources include Active Directory, Azure AD/Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, SAML 2.0, LDAP/LDAPS, RADIUS proxy, and a local user database. Windows and macOS agents check patch level, antivirus, disk encryption, firewall status, and custom rules before access. NACIO also provides an internal certificate authority, endpoint profiling from DHCP, HTTP user-agent data and network behavior, and guest portals with sponsor approval, verification, social login, and time limits. Licensing uses perpetual per-device licenses tied to a major version, with optional upgrades. Pricing is available on request.