⚡ Open source · Free plan · 14-day Pro trial, no credit card

Open-Source Digital Signage Software.
Flat price, any screen.

A complete digital signage CMS for TVs, video walls and kiosks — scheduling, playlists, remote control and proof-of-play. Every competitor bills you per screen, every month. We don't. Self-host it free, or use our managed cloud.

Not sure what to run it on? See certified hardware →

11
platforms, one CMS
$0
per extra screen
Self-host
or managed cloud

15 screens for a year

ScreenTinker Pro
$989
Yodeck
$1,440–2,160
OptiSigns
$1,620–2,430
ScreenCloud
$3,600–5,400
Compare the math →
ScreenTinker open-source digital signage dashboard showing 4 online displays with playlist assignments

Fully Open Source

MIT licensed. Self-host on your own infrastructure or use our managed cloud. Your data, your rules.

github.com/screentinker/screentinker

Up and Running in Minutes

No proprietary hardware, no complicated setup.

1️⃣

Connect a screen

Install the free player on an Android TV, Fire TV, Raspberry Pi, BrightSign, Samsung Tizen or a Windows PC. Or just open a browser tab. Then pair it with a code.

2️⃣

Add your content

Upload images and video, build playlists and multi-zone layouts, or design screens with built-in widgets.

3️⃣

Schedule and publish

Assign content to displays or groups, set day/time schedules, and push live. Change it any time from your phone.

Everything You Need

Every feature you'd expect from an enterprise digital signage CMS: video walls, scheduling, proof-of-play, and remote monitoring. All free and open source.

🤖

Run It From Your AI Assistant

ScreenTinker speaks the Model Context Protocol. Point Claude, or any MCP client, at your server and ask it in plain English — “what’s offline?”, “put this video on the lobby screen”. Set it up →

📜

E-Paper Signs That Run For Months

A battery ESP32 and an e-paper panel, with no browser on the device. The server renders and dithers the frame, tells the board how long to sleep, and answers 304 when nothing changed so it never wakes the panel for nothing. How it works →

🕐

Display Power Schedules

Panels switch themselves off outside opening hours and back on before the doors do. Per screen or per group, on a calendar.

🔁

Group Sync

A wall of screens starts the same frame at the same moment — and keeps doing it with the internet unplugged.

🌐

Node Mesh

One screen on a site pulls a video once and hands it to its neighbours over the LAN. A whole store updates on one download.

🏗

Scale-Out Replicas

Put a server in each region and let screens connect to the nearest one. Thousands of displays without one box carrying them all.

🔑

SSO With Your Identity Provider

OIDC per organisation with DNS-verified domains, so staff sign in with the account they already have.

🛡

Two-Factor Authentication

TOTP from any authenticator app, with recovery codes. Included, not an enterprise upsell.

🎧

Consent-Gated Support Access

Support can only look inside your account after you grant it, for a window you choose, and every action is logged.

📱

Portrait-Native Panels

Screens that are portrait in hardware — menu boards, wayfinders — fill edge to edge without a rotation hack.

🔌

Plugins

Extend ScreenTinker with plugins: extra widget types, data-source connectors, and event hooks, without forking core. Trusted local code on a self-hosted node, off by default.

📄

PDF to Playlist

Upload a PDF and every page becomes a full-screen slide, rendered in the browser. No manual export step.

📅

Meeting Room Signs

Connect a calendar (iCal / Webcal) to show live Busy / Available, agendas and the next meeting, in every language the dashboard speaks.

📺

Multi-Zone Layouts

Split screens into zones with a drag-and-drop editor. 7 built-in templates or create your own.

🎬

Video Wall

Combine multiple displays into one giant screen. Automatic bezel compensation. Any grid size.

🖥

Remote Control

See what's on screen in real-time. Send key presses, navigate menus, power on/off remotely.

📅

Scheduling

Visual weekly calendar with recurrence rules. Schedule per device or for whole groups. Device rules override the group.

🎶

Playlists

Share one playlist across many displays. Draft changes, preview, then publish. Or revert to the last published version.

🏢

Directory Board

Scrolling lobby, building, and staff directories. Categories, dark & light themes, anti-burn-in. Not found in any other open-source CMS.

📝

Slides

Design a slide properly, with headlines, photos, panels and rules, plus live clocks, dates, countdowns and QR codes on the slide itself. Add a voiceover per slide, or music under the whole deck.

⚡

Triggers

Let a Crestron or Extron panel, a PLC or a button put a playlist over whatever is showing. Resolved on the screen itself, so an alarm still works with the internet down.

🖱

Kiosk Mode

Create interactive touchscreen interfaces. Wayfinding, directories, check-in screens.

📊

Proof-of-Play

Track what played, when, and on which device. Export CSV reports for ad verification.

🔔

Alerts & Monitoring

Email alerts when devices go offline. Full telemetry: battery, storage, WiFi, uptime.

🔌

Offline Resilience

Displays keep playing cached content when the internet or your server drops. They catch up automatically when you're back.

📱

Mobile Dashboard

Manage everything from your phone. The full dashboard works on any mobile browser, so there is no separate app to install.

🔒

Self-Hosted Option

Deploy on your own infrastructure. Your data never leaves your network. Lock down signups with a single env var.

🎨

White Label

Custom branding, colors, logo, and domain. Resell under your own brand.

👥

Teams & Workspaces

Separate workspaces per client or site, with owner, editor and viewer roles. Invite by email, or sign in with your own identity provider.

🔄

Auto-Update

Devices automatically update when you push a new version. Zero manual intervention.

Digital Signage for Any Space

One platform, every use case.

🛒

Retail & QSR

Menu boards, promotions, and price updates pushed to every location instantly.

🍽

Restaurants & Cafés

Digital menu boards with dayparting. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus that switch themselves on schedule.

💡

LED Walls

The LED processor hands the wall’s native resolution to the player over EDID, so a 2808×648 wall is just a screen with an odd shape. ⚠️ Streaming sticks can’t drive one — they only output standard resolutions — so use a Raspberry Pi or a small PC. Verified in production by Watterott electronic. LED wall guide →

🏢

Offices & Corporate

Lobby welcome screens, meeting-room signs, KPI dashboards, and internal comms.

🏫

Schools & Universities

Campus announcements, event calendars, and emergency alerts across every building.

🏥

Healthcare & Clinics

Waiting-room info, wayfinding, and check-in kiosks that keep playing even offline.

⛪

Churches & Nonprofits

Free, self-hostable signage for lobbies and sanctuaries with no recurring cost.

🏋

Gyms & Fitness

Class schedules, promos, and live directories on any screen you already own.

🏢

Building & Staff Directories

Scrolling lobby, tenant, and staff directories with categories and anti-burn-in.

Runs on Everything

No hardware lock-in. Use any screen you already have — every platform has its own setup guide, and every player is downloaded from your own server.

Browse certified hardware, with prices →

Simple, Honest Pricing

All plans include remote control, monitoring, and unlimited content

How We Compare

ScreenTinkerYodeckOptiSignsScreenCloud
Billing modelFlat per plan — extra screens freePer screen, per monthPer screen, per monthPer screen, per month
Price (15 screens/yr)$989$1,440–2,160$1,620–2,430$3,600–5,400
Price (50 screens/yr)$1,989$4,800–7,200$5,400–8,100$12,000–18,000
Cost per screen/month at 50$3.31$8–12$9–13.50$20–30
Free tier✓ 1 device✓ 1 screen✓ 3 screens✗
Self-Hosted✓ Only us✗✗✗
Source you can read and change✓ Open source✗✗✗
Video Wall✓ IncludedBasicPaid add-onBasic
Live screen view + remote key presses*✓ All plansLimitedLimitedLimited
Kiosk/Touchscreen✓ Included✓✓Limited
Proof-of-Play✓ All plans
Display power schedules✓ All plansPlayer-dependentPlayer-dependentPlayer-dependent
E-paper / microcontroller displays✓ Server-side rendering✗✗✗
Control from an AI assistant (MCP)✓ Built in✗✗✗
Site-local content distribution✓ Node mesh✗✗✗
White Label✓ Included
Email Alerts✓ All plans
Platforms supported11, incl. e-paperOwn player + a few OSSeveralSeveral

* Live screen view + remote key presses is Android only and requires granting the on-device accessibility permission.
Prices read off each vendor's own pricing page on 24 September 2026. Ranges are their cheapest to mid tier at that screen count, on annual billing where they offer it; ours is the annual price of the plan that covers those screens. Spot an error? Open an issue on GitHub and we'll fix it — and say who found it.

Start your free trial Yodeck alternative → OptiSigns alternative →

Resources

Setup guides and honest comparisons.

Guide
How to set up digital signage on Raspberry Pi
Hardware, OS, install script, pairing.
Guide
Free digital signage for Android TV & Fire TV
APK sideload, kiosk mode, hardware tips.
Guide
Self-hosted digital signage guide
Sizing, deploy, TLS, backups.
Compare
ScreenTinker vs Yodeck
Features, pricing, platform support.
Compare
ScreenTinker vs ScreenCloud
Pricing breakdown at scale.
Compare
ScreenTinker vs OptiSigns
Side by side feature and price comparison.
Guide
Manage your screens from Claude
The MCP server: setup, the tools, and what a read-only token can do.
Guide
BrightSign with a CMS that is not BSN
One archive, dual output, BrightWall sync, real reboots.
Guide
Digital signage on LG webOS panels
The .ipk, USB or SI server install, fleet provisioning.
Guide
Digital signage on Windows
Kiosk-mode browser, autostart, and the settings that keep it up.
Guide
ChromeOS and Chromebox signage
Managed kiosk through the Admin console, or by hand.
Guide
Open-source digital signage explained
Why open source, and how ScreenTinker fits.
Guide
What is digital signage?
Beginner's guide: how it works and what it costs.
Compare
ScreenTinker vs Xibo
Open source vs open source, and the paid players.
Compare
ScreenTinker vs Anthias
Beyond one Pi, one screen.
Integrations
Connect Google Slides, Canva, Power BI & more
Native widgets + embed any web app.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about running open-source digital signage.

Is there free digital signage software?

Yes. ScreenTinker is free and open source (MIT licensed). The free cloud plan runs 1 display with 500 MB of storage, and if you self-host there's no per-screen fee at all, so you can run as many displays as your own server can handle. New accounts also get a 14-day Pro trial (15 displays) with no credit card required.

Can I run digital signage on a Raspberry Pi?

Yes. A Raspberry Pi 4 or newer makes an excellent low-cost signage player. Our one-line installer sets up kiosk mode, auto-start, and pairing for you. See the full walkthrough in our Raspberry Pi digital signage guide.

Does ScreenTinker work on Android TV and Fire TV?

Yes. Install the free APK on any Android TV box or Amazon Fire TV Stick to turn it into a managed signage display, complete with kiosk mode and live remote control. Step-by-step instructions are in our Android TV & Fire TV guide. ScreenTinker also runs on BrightSign players, Windows, ChromeOS, LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, and any web browser.

Does ScreenTinker run on BrightSign players?

Yes. A BrightSign runs the same web player the browser does, so it gets the same playlists, layouts, scheduling and remote control as every other screen. It can even run the ScreenTinker server itself, so a small site needs no separate box. Most open-source signage never supports BrightSign at all.

What's the difference between self-hosted and cloud digital signage?

With cloud, we host everything and you just sign in. That is the fastest way to start. With self-hosting, you deploy ScreenTinker on your own server or VPS so your content and device data never leave your network, with no recurring SaaS fees. You can switch later. Our self-hosted digital signage guide covers sizing, deployment, TLS, and backups.

Is ScreenTinker really open source?

Yes. The full platform is released under the permissive MIT license on GitHub. You can read the code, self-host it, modify it, and even white-label it. No vendor lock-in and no proprietary black box.

What can I put on my screens?

Images, video, playlists, multi-zone layouts, and live widgets: clocks, weather, RSS tickers, countdowns, QR codes, web pages, and scrolling lobby/staff directories. You can schedule different content by day and time, per display or per group.

Do my displays keep playing if the internet goes down?

Yes. ScreenTinker players cache their content locally and keep playing during an internet or server outage, then sync automatically once the connection returns. No blank screens.

Can I control my screens remotely?

Yes, on every plan. See a live view of what's on each screen, push content instantly, and send remote key presses or power commands. (Live view and key presses on Android require the on-device accessibility permission.)

Is there a limit on how many screens I can manage?

On cloud plans, your display count is set by your tier (1 free, up to 15 on Pro, more on Enterprise). If you self-host, there is no built-in device cap. You're limited only by your own hardware.

How does ScreenTinker compare to Yodeck, ScreenCloud, and OptiSigns?

ScreenTinker is typically a fraction of the price at scale and is the only one of the four you can self-host. See the detailed breakdowns: vs Yodeck, vs ScreenCloud, and vs OptiSigns.

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