MikroTik hotspot billing: how it works and how to set it up

How MikroTik hotspot billing works with a captive portal, RADIUS and online payments, what you need, and how to set it up for paid Wi-Fi.

By the Wispot teamUpdated 29 Sept 2026 3 min read

MikroTik routers are popular for Wi-Fi businesses because they're affordable, reliable and have a capable HotSpot feature built in. On its own, though, a MikroTik hotspot only knows usernames and passwords. It doesn't sell plans, take payments or keep records. That's the job of hotspot billing software.

The pieces

A paid Wi-Fi setup on MikroTik has four parts:

  1. The HotSpot on the router. It holds every new device on a login page until it's allowed online.
  2. A Wi-Fi page (captive portal) where customers see plans and pay. See what a captive portal is.
  3. A payment provider (Paystack, Flutterwave or Monnify, depending on your country) that takes local payments into your account.
  4. RADIUS: the standard way a router asks a server "is this person allowed online, and for how long?". The server answers with the plan's time, data cap and speed.

What happens when a customer buys

  1. The customer joins your Wi-Fi. The HotSpot sends their phone to your Wi-Fi page.
  2. They pick a plan and pay on the payment provider's secure page.
  3. The billing system confirms the payment directly with the provider (not just the redirect back), then creates their access.
  4. The router signs them in. RADIUS tells it the plan's limits.
  5. As they use the internet, the router reports usage. When time or data runs out, access ends automatically.

The confirmation in step 3 is what protects you from "I paid, here's my screenshot".

Why RADIUS instead of local users

You can create hotspot users directly on a MikroTik, but at any scale it becomes painful:

  • plans live on every router separately;
  • usage isn't in one place;
  • a customer can't move between your locations;
  • you can't see sales and usage together.

With RADIUS, the rules live in one system, every router asks the same place, and you get one dashboard for all locations.

Keeping it secure

Your routers talk to the billing system over the internet, so the connection should be private. Wispot connects each router over an encrypted WireGuard tunnel, uses a separate RADIUS secret per router, and only lets phones reach the Wi-Fi page and payment pages before they've paid (the walled garden).

What you need

  • A MikroTik router running RouterOS 7. See choosing a router.
  • A guest network (bridge or VLAN, IP pool and DHCP) for customers.
  • Your internet line, and access points for coverage.

Setting it up with Wispot

  1. Add your location in the dashboard.
  2. Register the router. We generate a setup script for it: commented, reviewable, and it saves a backup before changing anything.
  3. Run the script from the router's terminal. It sets up the HotSpot, the tunnel, RADIUS and the login page.
  4. Connect your payment account, create plans, and make a test purchase.

Step-by-step instructions are in Connect a MikroTik router. If you'd rather not do it yourself, our setup service will.

After setup

From the dashboard you can see which routers are online, who's connected, and what each location earned. On routers set up with the latest script you can also restart the router, back up its settings and refresh its login page remotely.