MikroTik does not publish a number that says “this router handles forty guests.” Nobody does. What follows is a straight answer about which one fits, based on what actually decides it — ports, PoE and routing headroom — not a catalogue of specifications you don’t need to size a network.
A router and an access point are different jobs, and this page only covers the first one: the box doing NAT, DHCP, the firewall and the captive portal. Wi-Fi coverage — how many access points, and where — is a separate question that depends on your floor plan, not on which router you buy. Fit MikroTik access points, or somebody else’s; the router underneath does not need to match the brand of the Wi-Fi.
If you run a single small room where one box can reasonably do routing, Wi-Fi and the sign-in page together, that is a different and cheaper arrangement — see equipment for a café or small site and the MikroTik hAP or cAP setup page. This page is for sites that want, or already have, a separate router: more than one access point, a PoE switch to feed them, or a line fast enough that the router itself becomes worth choosing carefully.
Current MikroTik Ethernet routers, restricted to the ones a café or restaurant would realistically buy — nothing carrier-grade, nothing that needs a rack of its own.
Five Gigabit ports, a 2.5G SFP uplink and PoE out on the last port. The straightforward pick for one room, one internet line, a handful of access points fed from a separate switch.
Eight Gigabit ports plus a 2.5G SFP cage, PoE in and out, and a case built to rack four of them in 1U. Pick it for the port count and the PoE budget, not for extra routing headroom — see the caveat below.
Meaningfully more routing headroom than the other two, with a 10G uplink for fibre. The one to pick for a busy restaurant, several access points, or a gigabit-class line. Need PoE out on every port?
The one to leave off any shortlist: the original hEX and hEX S. Both are still sold and both still work, but the 2025 refreshes above are the better pick new — the design has moved on.
Not a full spec sheet — we don’t sell this hardware, so it isn’t our catalogue to keep. Just the two things that decide which one fits: how many devices you can wire into it, and how much routing headroom it has in reserve.
| Model | Ports | PoE | Routing headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| hEX refresh | 5× Gigabit | In only | Standard |
| hEX S (2025) | 5× Gigabit + 2.5G SFP | In & out (1 port) | Standard |
| L009UiGS-RM | 8× Gigabit + 2.5G SFP | In & out | Below standard — see the note below |
| RB5009UG+S+IN | 7× Gigabit + 2.5G + 10G SFP+ | In only | High |
| RB5009UPr+S+IN | 7× Gigabit + 2.5G + 10G SFP+ | In & out (all 8 ports) | High |
The caveat that changes the shortlist: the L009 has more ports than the hEX S, but less routing headroom, not more — MikroTik’s own published test figures put it well below the hEX S, and installers report the same gap in practice. Pick the L009 for its port count and PoE budget when you’re feeding several access points from one box. Pick the hEX S when five ports is enough and routing speed is what matters. Neither is a step up from the other — they trade the same routing headroom for different port counts.
For a café or restaurant, the internet connection runs out long before any of these routers do. The line speeds most small venues actually have sit well inside what even the cheapest router here can push.
Which means the question to answer first is not “which router is fastest” but “how much internet does this venue need,” and that depends on guest count, contention and whether you cap what a single device can take. We work through that arithmetic properly, with a worked example, in how much Wi-Fi does a venue actually need — the same maths applies to a restaurant, just at a smaller scale than the hotel example there.
Three situations move the router from an afterthought to the actual constraint:
Any of those, and the jump from an hEX-class router to an RB5009 is the one that buys you headroom — not a jump between the hEX S and the L009, which are the same routing engine either side of a port count.
Ranges, not exact figures — nobody, MikroTik included, can tell you a precise number without knowing what your guests actually do. These follow the same method as our hotel guide: a per-guest speed cap, enforced by the equipment, and a contention ratio that assumes not everyone is pulling hard at once. A café or restaurant runs busier concurrently than a hotel room overnight, so the ratio here is tighter than the hotel example.
| Simultaneous guests | Minimum | Preferred |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 | 30 Mbps | 50 Mbps |
| Up to 20 | 50 Mbps | 100 Mbps |
| Up to 30 | 75 Mbps | 100–150 Mbps |
| Up to 40 | 100 Mbps | 150 Mbps |
| Up to 50 | 150 Mbps | 200 Mbps |
| Up to 60 | 200 Mbps | 250–300 Mbps |
| Up to 80 | 300 Mbps | 400 Mbps |
| Up to 100 | 400 Mbps | 500 Mbps |
This is independent of which router you pick. Any of the five above sits well inside these speeds — the line is what you’re provisioning here, not the box routing it. Past 100 simultaneous guests, or once you’re past a single room, this is exactly the point to get a site survey done rather than extrapolate the table further.
One access point on a separate PoE injector or switch, an internet line under 300 Mbps. Five ports is plenty.
Choose the L009 if you want PoE-out for the access points straight from the router. Choose hEX S if they are already powered another way.
Meaningfully more routing headroom, a 10G SFP+ uplink for fibre, and room to grow into a faster line later without changing the router again.
Identical routing power to the UG+S+IN, with PoE-in and PoE-out on every port — run the access points off the router with nothing else in between.
MikroTik does not state a figure, and neither should anyone else — guest count is not the constraint for any of these routers at café scale. The internet line, the number of access points, and the per-guest limits you set matter far more than which of these boxes is doing the routing.
Not for routing. MikroTik’s own published throughput puts the L009 well below the hEX S. The L009 earns its higher price with eight ports and a PoE budget built for feeding several access points, not with routing speed.
Almost never. The hEX S (2025) has routing headroom well beyond what a typical small-venue internet line can fill. The RB5009 earns its price on a fast line, several access points on one box, or PoE-out to power them directly.
None of the five above — these are pure routers. For a single small room where one box can do routing, Wi-Fi and the sign-in page together, see the MikroTik hAP or cAP page instead.
The router handles NAT, DHCP and the network the guest sign-in page runs on; Resort Manager Hotspot runs the sign-in page and the checkout logic. See MikroTik (RouterOS) for how the two connect.
Not for a single room — the guidance above is enough. Anything bigger, and walls, materials and where people actually sit decide the access point count and placement far more than which router you buy. Get that surveyed properly before ordering hardware.
Tell us the room, the line speed and how many access points you are planning, and we will tell you which of these fits — and quote for the hardware if you want us to supply it.
