Arbiter vs PacketFence

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.

PacketFence is an enterprise network access control platform for organizations managing wired, wireless, and VPN access. It can enforce policy through SNMP or RADIUS, inline Layer 2 or Layer 3 deployment, VLAN assignment, and quarantine isolation. Authentication options include 802.1X/EAP, directory services, external RADIUS, OAuth2 social login, SAML 2.0, and PKI certificates. Guest workflows include self-registration, sponsored access, email or SMS confirmation, and CSV imports. Self-service provisioning can configure 802.1X profiles for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS. The platform checks antivirus, operating system patch level, and security-agent presence, and can quarantine devices that fail policy. Administrators get a web interface, command-line tools, REST API, customizable captive portals, and Perl extension points. The self-hosted Community Edition is GPL v2+ with unlimited devices and full source code. Its listed minimum requirements include Debian 12.x or RHEL 8.x, four CPU cores, 16 GB RAM, 200 GB disk, and a network interface. Paid plans include Starter at $5,000 /year for up to 250 registered devices.