Guest WiFi for MSPs: reselling and white-label captive portals
An MSP that installs and supports a venue's WiFi has most of a guest WiFi product in place already: the access points, a guest SSID on its own VLAN, and the support relationship. A captive portal platform adds the part the venue sees. Guests sign in on a branded page, and the venue builds a guest list with marketing consent that the platform's emails and review requests work from. Sold per venue per month, it becomes another recurring line on a contract the MSP already holds.
This guide is for MSPs, WiFi installers and IT providers choosing a platform to resell. Facts about controllers and the law link to the vendor or the regulator, and CaptiFi's terms come from its partner pages, which carry the current rate card.
What the portal layer adds to a WiFi contract
The network stays with the MSP: access points, switching, VLANs, firewall rules and the controller. The platform hosts the sign-in page, stores the guest data, sends the marketing and runs the dashboard the venue logs in to. The MSP onboards each venue, points the controller's portal settings at the platform and takes the first call when a guest cannot get online.
For the venue, the result is a list of people who came in, with their consent recorded, and tools to bring them back, such as a review request the morning after a visit or an offer to a regular who has not been in for two months. For the MSP, it is a service the owner can see working in a monthly report.
Refer, resell or white-label
The three arrangements differ in who bills the venue, who supports it and whose name the venue sees. The table uses CaptiFi's terms as published on its partner programme page.
| Referral | Reseller | White label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who sells to the venue | You introduce, CaptiFi closes | You | You |
| Who bills the venue | CaptiFi, at its published prices | You, at your own price | You, at your own price |
| Who supports the venue | CaptiFi, end to end | You first line, CaptiFi second line | You first line, CaptiFi second line |
| What you earn | 20% of every payment, for the client's lifetime | Your price minus wholesale: 30 to 40% at the public price | The same as a reseller |
| Brand the client sees | CaptiFi | CaptiFi | Your logo and colour on the dashboard and reports; your logo or name and support email on client emails |
| Commitment | None | None | A minimum monthly commitment, agreed when you upgrade |
Referral suits an installer or consultant who meets venue owners but does not want to invoice anyone or take support calls. Reselling suits an MSP that already bills its clients monthly: guest WiFi becomes another line on the invoice, and you set the price. White label is for an MSP whose clients buy from it by name, where a supplier's logo on the dashboard would raise questions.
At the public price a referral earns 20% and a resold plan 30 to 40%, but the reseller also carries billing and first-line support, so count each venue's support hours before choosing.
What white label should cover, and how to check it
White label can mean a logo in a dashboard header or a product with no trace of the vendor. Sign in to a demo account, check each surface a client or guest can reach, and get the vendor's answer on each in writing:
- the dashboard the venue logs in to, including its sign-in page and its web address
- monthly reports and exports
- account emails to the venue, such as password resets, device alerts and team invitations
- marketing emails to guests, and the domain they are sent from
- the unsubscribe page a guest reaches from those emails
- any vendor credit on the splash page
- the support contact shown to the venue
On CaptiFi, a white-label partner sets a logo, a primary colour and a support email on the Branding page of the partner dashboard. Clients sign in at my.captifi.io. Once signed in, they see your logo and colour across the dashboard and your support email on its support page. On Growth and Pro, the monthly report PDF carries your brand. Your logo or name and your support email appear on client emails for device offline and online alerts, new-guest allowance warnings, team invitations and the monthly analytics digest, and on the unsubscribe and re-subscribe pages guests reach from a marketing email. Guest marketing goes out from the sender configured on each venue, and splash pages keep each venue's own design. The settings reach every client account you manage within a few minutes of saving, and the white-label page lists what is branded.
One portal across mixed hardware
A client base built up over years can include several brands of access point. Cisco Meraki and TP-Link Omada, for example, can both hand the sign-in page to an outside server. Meraki calls a splash page hosted on your own server EXCAP, and its setup guide has you enable the walled garden and list the server's address. Omada's portal settings offer an External Web Portal, where you "specify the URL of the authentication login page provided by the External Web Portal server", alongside built-in options that include vouchers, SMS and RADIUS.
Feature support can differ by brand even when the portal works on all of them. On CaptiFi, paid WiFi speed tiers are enforced on UniFi, so check each feature you plan to sell against each client's hardware, along with the controller version, the walled garden and a guest VLAN with client isolation.
CaptiFi runs on UniFi, TP-Link Omada, Aruba, Cisco Meraki, Cisco, Ruckus, MikroTik and Fortinet FortiAP networks, each with its own setup guide, and the partner pages name UniFi as the best-supported route for MSPs. For a venue with no compatible kit, the CaptiFi plug-and-play device connects to the existing network with no controller, and WiFi kit is included on every plan for a refundable deposit. Set-up takes about 5 minutes with the CaptiFi device and under an hour on your own controller. The hardware page lists what is supported.
Who is responsible for guest data
A sign-in page that asks for an email address or a mobile number collects personal data. The ICO defines a controller as the body that "determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data", and a processor as one that "processes personal data on behalf of the controller". A venue that decides to collect guest details and what to send them acts as a controller, and a platform that stores the data and sends emails on its instructions acts as its processor.
Reselling adds a link to that chain. The roles follow who decides what happens to the data: an MSP that only processes guest data on the venue's instructions is a processor, and on CaptiFi each client venue holds its own account and is the controller under CaptiFi's data processing agreement. Article 28 of the UK GDPR sets what a processor contract must contain, and the ICO's guidance on what the contract must include lists the terms: processing only on the controller's documented instructions, a duty of confidence, appropriate security, rules on sub-processors, help with data subjects' rights, assisting the controller, end-of-contract provisions, and audits and inspections. A processor must not engage another processor "without the controller's prior specific or general written authorisation", and has to pass the same obligations down by contract.
Before the first client, read the platform's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, and decide which party each venue contracts with for guest data. CaptiFi's data processing agreement is public and names the venue as controller and CaptiFi as processor for guest data. Consent belongs on the splash page itself. On CaptiFi, marketing consent is asked separately from getting online: on the standard sign-in page it is its own question after the guest taps Connect, with Accept and Reject buttons, and guests who reject still get online; and the guide to guest WiFi marketing laws by country sets out what each market requires, including the UK, EU and Canadian rules against marketing consent bundled into the WiFi terms.
Pricing guest WiFi for your clients
A price for guest WiFi has to cover the wholesale cost, your onboarding and support hours, any hardware and your margin. You can charge a monthly fee per venue inside the managed service contract, plus a one-off set-up fee for the splash design and controller work.
CaptiFi publishes its wholesale rate card on the MSP programme page in six currencies: GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD and NZD. Each partner account has one currency, set when you join, and the rate card, statements and payouts all use it. Rates are per client plan with the first site included, plus a rate for each extra site. Resold at the public price, the margin is 30 to 40%, and you can set your retail price higher. Public plans start from $69/mo for Essentials.
Match the plan to what the venue will use. Essentials covers the branded splash page, contact capture, email export, paid WiFi and vouchers. Growth adds automated review requests, email marketing, SMS, integrations, API access and webhooks, rewards, event ticketing, reservation check-in and monthly PDF reports. Pro adds the multi-site dashboard with combined figures, automation workflows and the option to remove CaptiFi branding. Partners can also put a client on a capture-only plan with the Essentials feature set and 1,000 new guests a month, billed at the Essentials wholesale rate on the statement.
If a client sells WiFi passes, that income belongs to the venue. CaptiFi's paid WiFi pays into the venue's own Stripe account and takes no commission, so charge for setting it up as part of your own fee.
Running a fleet of client venues
With twenty client venues, the platform has to show every venue's health in one place and warn you before the owner calls.
CaptiFi's partner dashboard on my.captifi.io has a fleet overview with each client venue's device status, splash status, guests today and open alerts in one table. A morning health digest email reports any client device that has gone offline or venue that has gone quiet, with a full summary every Monday. A set-up progress pill per client tracks venue created, device online, splash live and first guest connected, and clients' support tickets come to your support address. Technicians and account managers can have their own staff logins, while payout details stay with the account owner. API keys and webhooks across client venues open once at least one live client is on Growth or Pro, and the wholesale statement, with each client's plan, venues, wholesale, retail and margin, is emailed on the 1st of each month.
Resellers and white-label partners handle first-line support for their clients and escalate technical issues to CaptiFi as second-line support at partners@captifi.io, saying if a venue is down so it is treated as urgent.
Where MSP guest WiFi projects go wrong
- The portal goes live and nobody uses the list. A venue that collects emails and never sends one has nothing to show for it at renewal, so sell the follow-up with the portal. On CaptiFi that means Growth, for email marketing and review requests.
- Marketing consent is bundled into the WiFi terms. Ask for marketing as its own question.
- Guests share a network with the tills, cameras or office computers. Give guests their own VLAN with client isolation.
- The price covers the platform and leaves nothing for the support calls.
Questions to ask a platform before you sign
| Question | Why it matters | CaptiFi's published answer |
|---|---|---|
| Which controllers does it support, and which features work on each? | A feature that works on one brand cannot be sold to every client | UniFi, Omada, Aruba, Meraki, Cisco, Ruckus, MikroTik, FortiAP and its own device; speed tiers enforced on UniFi |
| Exactly what carries my brand? | The term covers anything from a logo to a separate product | Dashboard logo and colour, support email, report PDF, listed client emails, unsubscribe pages |
| Is the wholesale rate card published? | You can price a proposal before you apply | Yes, per plan and per extra site, in six currencies |
| How are referrals credited? | An introduction should not be lost to a direct signup | 90 days from a link click; a registered referral is held for 90 days and the first registration wins |
| How do I learn the product before selling it? | You need to run a real deployment before you sell one | A 6-month internal demo licence for one test venue, plus the Demo Maker |
How the CaptiFi partner programme works
There is no fee to apply, or to become a referral or reseller partner. Approved partners get the partner dashboard, deployment guides, sales tools and a free 6-month internal demo licence for one internal test venue, for learning and demos and never for a live client venue; after six months you upgrade to a partner plan or it ends. Client venues are set up on their own accounts and start on the standard 30-day trial.
The Demo Maker builds a branded splash page demo from a prospect's website, with their logo and colours, and gives you a live link to send. Referral partners get a personal link, captifi.io/r/your-link, opening a landing page with the partner's name and logo, and commission and payout history sit on their Earnings page.
To start, apply online and choose a model, or email partners@captifi.io. You can start as a reseller and move to white label later; existing client sites pick up your branding once it is switched on for your account.
Sources: Information Commissioner's Office, What are controllers and processors? and What needs to be included in the contract?; Cisco Meraki Documentation, Configuring a Custom-Hosted Splash Page to Work with the Meraki Cloud; TP-Link Omada, How to Configure Portal Authentication on Omada Controller (v6.2 and Above); CaptiFi's partner programme, MSP and white-label pages, its data processing agreement and its customer documentation, October 2026. UniFi, Omada, Meraki, Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, MikroTik, FortiAP, Stripe and the other product names here are trade marks of their owners; CaptiFi is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the most common questions about this topic.
What is a white label captive portal?
How do MSPs make money from guest WiFi?
Should an MSP refer or resell guest WiFi?
Who is the data controller when an MSP resells guest WiFi?
What does a white-label partner's client see on CaptiFi?
How does CaptiFi credit a partner for a referral?
Who supports the venue when a partner resells CaptiFi?
The CaptiFi Editorial Team writes about guest WiFi marketing, captive portals, GDPR-compliant data capture, and local SEO for venue operators. We base our recommendations on real customer outcomes and verified third-party reviews from G2.com.
Ready to turn your guest WiFi into a marketing engine?
CaptiFi captures customer data from every WiFi login, automates Google reviews and email follow-ups, and plugs into the tools you already use. Hardware included (refundable deposit), transparent pricing, 30-day free trial.