Hotspot management & captive portal software
The Wi-Fi login page that works for your business.
Hotspot management for South African venues, without anyone at the venue having to manage anything. A captive portal is the screen a guest sees before they get online. Ours puts your brand on that screen, lets you decide whether access is free, advertising-supported, voucher-based or paid, gives you a guest list and the numbers behind it, and puts guests on their own network instead of the one your till is on.
Packages start at R399 per location per month, ex VAT. That includes the branded splash page, your access rules, POPIA-aware consent, the managed router and our support.
New to all this? Start with what a captive portal is and what it costs in South Africa. Want to charge for access? See WiFi billing and vouchers.
Welcome to
Hotwireless
Guest WiFi login
- Free access
- Voucher
- Premium
Why managed guest Wi-Fi
What a router with the password on the wall actually costs you.
None of this is dramatic and none of it needs a hacker. It is what happens when the guest Wi-Fi is whatever the router was doing on installation day.
The password stops being yours
A password on a chalkboard gets screenshotted, sent on in a group chat and saved on every phone that has ever walked in. It rarely changes, because changing it means telling the whole neighbourhood again. Former staff still know it.
The guests and the till share one network
On most venue routers there is only one network. The card machine, the office PC, the camera recorder and a guest phone all sit on it together, because the router was set up once on the day it was installed and nobody has looked at it since.
Nobody can prove what was agreed
There is no record that any guest was shown terms, no consent for the details you may be holding on a mailing list, and nothing to point at if a guest complains or the Information Regulator asks how you handle their data.
One device takes the whole line
Without a limit per device, one long download or one afternoon of video flattens the connection for the whole room. The venue phones the internet provider, and the internet provider finds nothing wrong.
Your venue name is easy to borrow
Anyone can broadcast a network called after your venue from a phone in the corner. A password on a wall gives your guests no way of telling which network is really yours.
What the portal changes
The parts we take off your hands.
A managed portal does not solve everything on this list, and we say below which parts it does not touch. These are the ones it does.
Guests go on their own network
The network we build puts guests on their own network, separate from the one we install for your business. Your card machine and your back office are not on the same network as the room. No card data ever touches us.
A record of who accepted what
Your terms and a plain-language, POPIA-aware consent line sit on the login step, so every guest actively accepts before going online. Consent is captured at the moment details are given, alongside a session record: device identifier, when the session started and ended, and how much data it used.
No shared password to leak
There is nothing written on the wall to walk out of the building. Access is granted per session through the portal, on the terms you set, and you change those terms without re-telling every regular.
A limit per guest, set by you
Time and bandwidth limits are set per access tier and enforced on the router itself, so one laptop cannot swallow the line and a session ends when you say it ends.
Straight answers
What this does not do, said plainly.
You will hear all of this from somebody eventually, so you may as well hear it from us first and decide with the facts in front of you.
The guest network is open on purpose
There is no Wi-Fi password on the guest network. A login page can only appear once a device has joined, and a shared password would put you straight back on the chalkboard. The trade is that traffic between a guest phone and the access point is not encrypted at the Wi-Fi layer, exactly as on any public hotspot. Sites that use HTTPS, which is banking, email, messaging and nearly everything else today, stay encrypted end to end between the guest device and the site they are using.
The details a guest gives us travel encrypted
When a guest types their name, email and cell number into the login page, those details are submitted to us over an encrypted connection. Their guest list sits behind a login of your own, and the separation between one venue and the next is covered by an automated test we run against the portal.
We do not inspect or block what guests look at
We log connection metadata: device identifiers, session times and data volumes. We do not inspect the content of your traffic, and we do not sell website blocking by category. That is a deliberate privacy position rather than a gap we are hiding, and it is written into our acceptable usage policy.
Read the acceptable usage policyTreat the guest network as a public space
A guest network is a public space, the same as the WiFi at an airport or a shopping centre. That is why we keep it apart from the network your business runs on, and why nothing belonging to the business should sit on it. Your till, your office PC and your camera recorder belong on your own side, not alongside whoever walked in for a coffee.
We cannot stop somebody imitating your name
No venue can prevent a stranger broadcasting a network named after it, and we make no claim to spot one. What a consistent branded login page does give you is regulars who know what your page looks like, so a screen that looks wrong is easier for a guest to notice. That is a good habit, not a security control.
Three packages
Start simple. Move up when you want more.
Same portal, same brand on the screen. What changes is how much you learn about the guests using it.
Basic
R399/month
Per location, ex VAT
Your branded Wi-Fi front door.
Venues that want guests online in one tap, with their own name on the screen.
Full feature listBasic + Data Collection
R599/month
Per location, ex VAT
Know who walked through the door.
Venues that want a guest list they can actually use.
Full feature listBasic + Data + Guest Insights
R799/month
Per location, ex VAT
See who came back.
Venues that want to know their busy hours and their repeat custom, not just their guest count.
Full feature listEverything the software does
Safety is one reason. It is not the reason you will keep it.
The portal earns its place on a Saturday service: your name on the screen, a guest list you can actually market to, and numbers that tell you when your venue is busy.
Branded splash page
Your logo, your colours, your wording. Guests land on your name, not a generic router page, and you can put the specials, the bookings link or the Instagram handle on it.
All packages
Free, advertising, voucher or paid access
Give access away, run it with advertising on the page, sell vouchers at the till, or charge for it. Mix them as the room needs.
All packages
Time and bandwidth limits
Set how long a guest stays online and how much speed each access tier gets, enforced on the router at the venue.
All packages
POPIA-aware consent
Plain-language consent wording at the login step, captured at the moment a guest hands over any details.
All packages
Guest details captured
Guests enter name, email and cell number before they go online, so you know who walked through the door.
From R599
Your guest list, exportable
The list belongs to you. View it and export it whenever you want to run a newsletter or a specials message.
From R599
Guest Insights
Connections and visitor counts by day, week and month, busiest hours, and how long guests stay connected.
From R799
New versus returning guests
See your repeat custom. A returning guest is recognised without us keeping anything that identifies the device itself.
From R799
What we handle
You run the venue. We run the Wi-Fi.
This is the hotspot management part. The monthly fee covers the software, the equipment and the people who look after it, so nobody at the venue ends up owning a network they did not ask for.
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We supply and manage the equipment
We supply, set up and look after the equipment at your venue, and we build the guest side of the network when we install it. Nobody at the venue has to log into anything.
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Changes happen without a site visit
New wording on the login page, a different access rule, a fresh batch of vouchers. We make the change from our side, so you are not waiting on a technician to drive out.
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Looked after the same way as every other site
Your venue is managed alongside every other Hotwireless site in South Africa, on the same routine, rather than being set up once and forgotten.
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Fixed monthly fee
One price per location per month, ex VAT. No usage-based costs and no surprise line items.
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Support Monday to Friday
Our support hours are Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 SAST.
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Simple to leave
Cancel with one calendar month’s written notice.
Want to see the portal on your own phone?
Tell us about your venue and we will show you the guest login flow, then quote you on the package, the hardware and the installation.
Or call us on 071 437 6694