What is a captive portal? Paid Wi-Fi login pages explained

A plain-English explanation of captive portals (Wi-Fi login pages): how they work on phones, what a good one includes, and how they're used to sell Wi-Fi.

By the Wispot teamUpdated 29 Sept 2026 3 min read

When you join Wi-Fi at an airport or hotel and a page pops up asking you to sign in, accept terms or pay, that page is a captive portal. Your device is "captive" until you complete it.

How it works

  1. You join the network. The router gives your device an address but blocks the internet.
  2. Your phone quietly checks whether it's online (every phone does this when joining Wi-Fi).
  3. The router intercepts that check and answers with the login page, so your phone opens it automatically.
  4. Once you sign in or pay, the router lets your device through.

Before you're signed in, the router still allows a short list of sites, called the walled garden, so the login page and payment pages can load.

What a good Wi-Fi page includes

For a business selling Wi-Fi, the captive portal is the shop window. A good one:

  • opens by itself on iPhone and Android;
  • shows your business name, logo and colours;
  • lists plans clearly: time, data, speed and devices;
  • takes the payment methods people use locally: card, bank transfer, USSD or mobile money;
  • accepts voucher codes for cash sales;
  • shows your terms before payment;
  • lets returning customers see their plan and top up without asking staff;
  • works on slow connections and small screens.

Why it matters for sales

The Wi-Fi page is the moment someone decides whether to buy. Clear plans, a trusted payment page and your own branding make that decision easy. A confusing or broken page loses the sale.

Captive portals in Wispot

Every location gets its own Wi-Fi page, branded with your logo and colour, on your own address. Your MikroTik router sends phones there automatically, and access opens only after the payment is confirmed with your payment provider. See Branding and domain and MikroTik hotspot billing.

Common problems

  • The page doesn't open by itself: usually the walled garden or the router's DNS. See Troubleshooting.
  • Payment pages don't load before paying: the payment provider's domains need to be in the walled garden. Wispot's setup script adds them for you.