An honest comparison
UniFi gives you a guest portal for free. Start there.
If you run UniFi, you already own a perfectly good hotspot portal — for some venues it's all they need, and this page will tell you when that's you. Zest is for the venues that want the guest list — with the paperwork done properly.
Credit where it's due
What the built-in portal does well.
UniFi's built-in hotspot portal is part of the kit you already own, and it's genuinely capable. Checked against Ubiquiti's own documentation, here's what it gives you:
- Free with your kit
- It ships with UniFi — no extra licence, no monthly fee.
- A branded landing page
- Your logo, colours, welcome text and terms wording — with a live preview as you edit.
- Terms acceptance
- Guests click to accept your terms before they're connected.
- Password access
- One simple password guests enter to get online.
- Vouchers
- Codes with time, bandwidth and data limits — set to suit the venue.
- Paid access
- Charge for Wi-Fi if that suits, with payment taken through Stripe.
- A redirect after sign-in
- Send guests to a page you choose once they're connected.
- Per-site setup
- Each venue configures its own portal.
If that list covers everything you want from guest Wi-Fi — use it, with our blessing. It's good, and it's free.
Side by side
Where Zest picks up.
Zest runs on the same UniFi kit, and it isn't trying to replace what you've just read — vouchers and paid access stay the built-in portal's job. Zest picks up the jobs that portal doesn't set out to do: the guest list, and the paperwork behind it.
A dash isn't a failing, in either column — it just isn't the job that product set out to do.
| Feature | UniFi built-in | Zest |
|---|---|---|
| Branded sign-in page | Yes | Yes |
| Terms acceptance | Yes | Yes |
| Vouchers & paid access | YesTime, bandwidth and data limits; paid access via Stripe. | NoNot something Zest does — this is the built-in portal's job. |
| Email capture into a usable list | No | Yes |
| Separate marketing opt-in, provable | No | Yes |
| Versioned consent records | No | YesOnly ever added to — never quietly edited. |
| Retention & erasure on schedule | No | Yes |
| Sync to marketing tools | No | YesWebhooks today; Mailchimp due in the coming weeks. |
| Per-venue guest lists, exportable CSV | No | Yes |
| Someone to ring about the guest-data side | NoUbiquiti supports the kit itself. | YesEmail, and a person answers within one working day. |
Checked against UniFi's documentation: July 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@netmo.it and we'll put it right.
Your call
The honest decision.
Read both lists — whichever sounds like your venue is the right answer.
Keep the free portal if…
- You want branding, terms and vouchers — and you don't want guest data.
- You already email your customers from a list they've consented to somewhere else.
- You'd rather not pay £20 a month for anything.
Zest earns its £20 if…
- You want the list — quiz night, the quiet Tuesday, the rebooking note.
- You want the consent paperwork to keep itself.
- You want consented sign-ups reaching your marketing tools on their own.
If you do collect guest details and market to them, UK rules expect you to be able to show what each person agreed to — that record-keeping is exactly the part Zest does for you.
Genuinely torn? Email hello@netmo.it with what you're trying to do — if the built-in portal covers it, we'll say so.
Already on UniFi? You're two working days from the list.
Setup is self-serve on the kit you already own — most venues are live within two working days, and if anything snags, the people who built Zest step in.
£20 per site, per month + VAT · rolling monthly · cancel anytime