WiFi Billing

    WiFi billing system for Kenya

    Software that shows your prices, takes M-Pesa, opens the router, and closes it again when the time is up. Here is what it does, what it costs, and what to check before you buy one — from anybody.

    ✓ 3% of revenue, KSh 1,000 minimum✓ No per-site licence✓ Free to set up yourself

    What a WiFi billing system actually is

    Selling Wi-Fi has two halves that have to happen together: taking the money, and changing what the router allows. Do them separately and you are the integration — reading M-Pesa messages, typing codes into the router, remembering who expires tonight.

    A WiFi billing system is what joins those two halves. A customer connects, picks a package, pays on their phone, and the router opens for exactly as long as they paid for. The same system closes it afterwards. That loop runs a few hundred times a day at a busy site, and none of those times involve you.

    The test that matters

    Ask any system this: when a customer pays, does the router change by itself? If the answer is no, it is a payment record, not a billing system — and you are still the one doing the work.

    Six things it does so you do not

    Shows your prices

    A customer connects to your Wi-Fi and their phone opens your login page instead of the internet. Your packages and prices are on it.

    Takes the money

    They pick a package, enter their number, and an M-Pesa prompt appears on their phone. No till number to remember, no reference to type wrong.

    Opens access

    The moment M-Pesa confirms, the router lets them through. Nobody hands them a code and nobody has to be awake.

    Closes it again

    When the package expires the router cuts them off and the login page comes back. They buy again if they want more.

    Generates vouchers

    For customers paying cash, or for a shop reselling on your behalf, you print codes that work the same way.

    Tells you what happened

    What sold, at which site, on which day — and which packages nobody buys, which is usually the more useful half.

    What it costs, and what “free” costs

    Free open-source systems exist and they are a legitimate choice. “Free” just refers to the licence, not to the total — so here is the whole bill, both ways.

     Free / self-hostedJasiyo
    Software licenceFree3% of hotspot revenue, KSh 1,000/month minimum
    Server to run it onA VPS you rent and maintain — roughly KSh 1,500–3,000/monthNone. It runs in the cloud.
    M-Pesa integrationRarely included. Usually custom development or a paid plugin.Built in — STK Push and Paybill
    Updates and security patchesYours to applyHandled
    When it breaks at 2amCommunity forumsA person to call
    SetupYours to do, on LinuxFree if you do it yourself; KSh 500 one-off if you want it done for you

    When free is the right answer

    If you are comfortable on a Linux server, have fewer than about 50 users and are still proving the idea works in your location, an open-source system will teach you the fundamentals and cost you nothing. Switch when downtime starts costing you more than the licence would have.

    What to check before you buy one

    This list is not about us. Take it to whoever you are considering, including us.

    M-Pesa STK Push at the login page

    The prompt has to arrive on the customer's phone while they are standing there. Anything that asks them to go to the M-Pesa menu and type a till number loses sales.

    Direct MikroTik control

    The system should open and close access on the router itself, not just record who paid. If a payment does not change what the router does, you are still doing the work by hand.

    Vouchers

    For cash customers and resellers. Codes that expire on their own.

    Per-package speed limits

    So a KSh 20 hour and a KSh 500 week are not the same product, and one heavy user cannot flatten the site.

    Revenue reporting you trust

    Numbers that reconcile against your M-Pesa statement. If they do not match, one of them is wrong and you will not know which.

    A trial before you commit

    Any claim on this page, including ours, should survive you testing it on your own router with your own customers.

    Common questions

    What is a WiFi billing system?
    Software that controls who gets onto your Wi-Fi and collects the money for it. A customer connects, a login page appears on their phone listing your packages, they pay — usually by M-Pesa — and the router lets them through for the time they bought. When that time is up, access stops on its own.
    How much does a WiFi billing system cost in Kenya?
    Jasiyo charges 3% of hotspot revenue with a KSh 1,000 monthly minimum, so a hotspot earning KSh 10,000 a month pays the KSh 1,000 floor and one earning KSh 100,000 pays KSh 3,000. There is no per-router or per-site licence. Setting up yourself is free; having our team configure your router is an optional one-off KSh 500. Other systems charge a fixed fee per subscriber, a flat monthly tier, or nothing at all for the licence while you carry the server costs — compare the total, not the headline.
    Is there a free WiFi billing system?
    Yes, several open-source ones. "Free" covers the licence and not much else: you rent and maintain the server (roughly KSh 1,500–3,000 a month), you apply the security patches, you build the M-Pesa integration or pay for a plugin, and when it stops working at 2am you have a forum rather than a phone number. If you are technical, have fewer than about 50 users and are proving the idea, that is a reasonable trade. Once you have customers who have paid you, downtime costs more than the licence ever did.
    Do I need a MikroTik router?
    For Jasiyo, yes — it controls MikroTik directly over RouterOS, which is what makes payment and access the same event instead of two jobs. MikroTik is also the standard in Kenya because it is cheap and scriptable. A starter router that handles 50 hotspot users costs well under KSh 10,000.
    How long does it take to set up?
    A few hours on a router you already have, most of which is deciding your packages and prices. There is no server to provision. The router configuration is written for you once you paste in its address.
    What is the difference between a WiFi billing system and a hotspot billing system?
    Nothing, in practice — they are two names for the same thing, and which one people use tends to depend on whether they think of what they are selling as "Wi-Fi" or as a "hotspot". Both mean software that gates access to a wireless network and bills for it.
    Can I run it across more than one site?
    Yes. Each site has its own router and its own packages, and the reporting separates them so you can see which location is actually earning. There is no extra licence per site — the fee is a share of revenue, wherever it comes from.

    Try it on your own router

    Seven days, your router, your customers, your prices. Setting up yourself is free and there is no card to enter.