Cloud-based digital signage is signage software you use in a browser while the vendor runs the servers. The dashboard where you build playlists, the library that holds your images and videos, and the service that sends changes to each screen all live with the vendor. The only part on site is the player: a small app on a box, a TV or a computer that downloads the content and plays it.
That split matters more than the word "cloud". Managing screens from the cloud saves you a server and lets you change a screen from anywhere. But the screen itself should not depend on the cloud from one minute to the next: a good player keeps a copy of everything it needs on the device and carries on when the connection drops. We make cloud-based signage software, so at the end you will also find what ours does and does not do.
What cloud-based digital signage actually is
Every digital signage system has three parts, wherever they run:
- The dashboard, where people upload media, build playlists and decide which screen plays what, and when.
- The back end, which stores the content, keeps track of the screens and sends each one its changes.
- The player, the software next to the display that downloads the content and plays it full-screen.
In cloud-based signage the first two are hosted by the vendor. You sign in from any browser and the screen in the branch picks up the change. In on-premise signage the back end runs on a server you own or rent, and someone on your side installs it, patches it and backs it up. Either way the player sits on site, because that is where the screen is. What to look for in a digital signage player covers that part.
"Cloud" also gets used loosely. A slideshow published to the web and opened in a browser is in the cloud too, but it goes blank when the line drops. Cloud-managed signage with a local player does not.
Cloud vs on-premise digital signage
| Cloud-based | On-premise |
|---|---|---|
The server | Run by the vendor | Run by you, on your hardware or a server you rent |
Software updates | Arrive without you doing anything | Installed by your IT, on your schedule |
Managing screens from outside the building | Built in | Needs a VPN, or the server opened to the internet |
Upfront cost | Hardware only, then a fee per screen | Server, setup time, often a licence |
Where the data sits | With the vendor's providers, named in its privacy policy | Wherever you put it |
If the vendor disappears | Its servers go with it | The software keeps running, without updates |
Cloud is usually the right call when screens are spread across several locations, when nobody on staff wants to look after a server, and when the people changing content are not in IT. On-premise makes sense when the network is cut off from the internet by policy, as it is in some factories, hospitals and public bodies; when a rule says the data must not leave your building; or when an IT team already runs servers and wants control over every update.
The real trade-off is not where the files are stored but who does the work. On-premise puts the server, its security patches and its backups on your side. Cloud moves them to the vendor, and in exchange you depend on the vendor staying in business and keeping its price reasonable. What free digital signage software really costs looks at self-hosted open-source options in more detail.
What happens when the internet goes down
Every screen loses its connection sooner or later, and the vendor's servers have outages too. Ask what the screen does in both cases. For a well-built player they are the same case, and it keeps working from its local copy:
- The playlist keeps playing, from media already stored on the device.
- The schedule holds, if the device works it out itself. If the cloud decides when the screen goes dark, an offline screen misses the switch.
- Playback is still logged, and the log goes up when the line comes back, so proof-of-play reports have no hole in them.
- A restart does not blank it, if the last playlist is stored on the device rather than fetched at every boot.
Some content cannot work offline by its nature: a live web page, a YouTube video, a video stream, anything embedded from another site. Apps that show live data, such as the weather or exchange rates, can usually keep showing their last value. Ask which category each piece of your content falls into.
Then ask what happens to changes. An edit made in the dashboard while a screen is offline waits on the server. When the screen reconnects, it should receive the current state of its playlist and download any new media before it switches, so it never plays half a video.
Finally, ask how long the local copy lasts. A cache is not an archive: players clear old files to make room, and cached files expire. Cloud signage is built for outages of hours or days. A screen that must run for weeks with no connection at all needs something closer to a USB stick.
How to check: during a trial, pull the network cable at the screen for an hour. Make a change in the dashboard while it is unplugged, plug it back in, and time how long the change takes to appear. Then do the same with the power at the wall.
Seeing every screen from somewhere else
The other half of cloud signage is a dashboard that tells you what each screen is doing. Ask:
- How often does each screen check in, and what does it send? A status, the item on screen, the player version?
- How soon does the dashboard show a screen as offline, and who gets told?
- Can you see what the display actually shows, not only what it should show?
- Is there a history, so you can answer "was the window screen on all weekend?"
- Can a frozen player be restarted without a visit?
On alerts: an email for every dropout teaches people to ignore them, while a report of which screens went offline and whether they are back gets read. Check whether people outside the company, such as a franchisee or an installer, can be on the list.
Then ask about updates. The dashboard updates on the vendor's side; the player does not unless it updates itself. On Android and Windows the operating system decides whether an app can install a new build without someone pressing a button, so ask how it works on your hardware, whether updates are signed, and what happens if a new version fails to start.
Security questions for a cloud signage vendor
A signage screen is a computer on your network, connected to someone else's service, where the public can reach it. Most of the risk is mundane and easy to check:
- Pairing. How does a screen join your account? Typing an email and password with a TV remote leaves your credentials on a device in a public place. A short code that works once and expires is better.
- What the device holds. Which credentials are stored on the screen, and what can someone do with them if the box walks off? Can you cut it off from the dashboard?
- Connected accounts. If you link Google, Microsoft or Canva to show a calendar or a design, where are those tokens kept, are they encrypted, and do they ever reach the screen?
- Who can change what. Personal logins with roles, a read-only role for people who only need to look, and no shared password.
- The network. TLS for all traffic, and a player that needs only outbound HTTPS. An inbound port is a meeting with IT.
GDPR and where the data is processed
A cloud signage vendor that stores personal data for you is a processor under the GDPR, which means a data processing agreement and a list of sub-processors. Personal data reaches signage more often than people expect: names in a meeting-room calendar, a staff photo, a rota from a spreadsheet, and the logins of your own team.
Ask for the sub-processors and the countries they process data in; the transfer mechanism for anything outside the EEA; how long playback logs, closed accounts and backups are kept; how much notice you get before a new sub-processor is added; how quickly a breach is reported to you; and whether you can read the DPA before you sign. How to choose digital signage software has the other questions worth asking, from hardware to leaving.
How SignageStack works
SignageStack is cloud-only. There is no on-premise or self-hosted edition, so if your network may not reach an outside service at all, it is not the right product for you.
Pairing. The player shows a six-character code, which you type into the dashboard under Add screen. The code works once and expires after a short while, so a photo of a screen is not an account. Unpairing a screen in the dashboard cancels the display's credentials, and a display that is online at that moment also deletes its cached playlist and media.
Offline. The player stores the playlist, the screen's working hours and the media on the device, and works out the hours itself, so a screen goes dark and comes back on time with no connection. What plays offline is logged and uploaded later. Web pages, YouTube, live streams and Canva designs step aside until the network returns; data apps such as the weather show their last value. A screen that was offline receives its current playlist when it reconnects and fetches the media before it switches.
Status. Each player sends a heartbeat every thirty seconds with what it is playing and which version it runs, which is where "last seen" in the dashboard comes from. Each screen's Uptime tab shows when it was online, offline, running without internet or with the display off, an uptime figure for the time it was meant to be on, and every restart with its reason. The Android and Windows apps send a screenshot of the display on request, which is not stored anywhere. A screen running in a browser cannot capture itself.
Offline report. In Settings you can turn on one report for the whole organisation: up to 20 email addresses, inside or outside your company, sent anywhere from every 30 minutes to once a day, for all screens or the ones you choose. It lists which screens went offline and whether they are back. A dropout under a minute does not count, nothing is sent when no screen was offline, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe.
Restarts. Remote restarts are done by our support, not from a button in your dashboard. The Android app also checks in on its own every five minutes, so even a screen whose page has failed can be restarted without a visit.
Updates. The web player checks for a new version every hour and reloads at a moment that does not cut a video short. The Android app checks each new build against a published SHA-256 hash. It installs silently on a box set up as Device Owner, or on Android 12 and newer once "Install unknown apps" is allowed for it, which the player asks for after setup; otherwise the update waits for someone at the screen. The Windows app verifies each build's signature and goes back to the previous version if the new one does not start healthy. It installs from the Windows download page.
Platforms. The Android app needs Android 8 or newer. The web player runs in a current Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, which is also the route on a Mac. There is no app for Samsung Tizen or LG webOS TVs, and Fire TV and Raspberry Pi are not platforms we have qualified.
Roles. Colleagues get their own login as Admin, Member or Viewer, and a Viewer can look but not change anything. Roles apply to the whole organisation and cannot be limited to one location's screens.
Data. The service runs on MongoDB Atlas (database), Cloudflare R2 (media storage and delivery, and nightly backups), Railway (the API and background jobs), Vercel (the website, the dashboard and the player), Resend (email) and Sentry (error monitoring), in the EU and the US, under standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision. Tokens for connected Google, Microsoft and Canva accounts are encrypted at rest and never reach the player. Detailed playback records are deleted after 90 days, and backups after 30. The privacy policy and the DPA are published in full.
Price. €11 per screen per month or €100 per year, excluding VAT, with every feature, no setup fee, no per-user seats and no minimum. Enterprise adds volume pricing, a signed DPA and a 99.5% uptime SLA for the dashboard and the API. The SLA leaves playback out on purpose: a paired screen does not need our API to keep playing.
Where to start
Pick two or three cloud products and run the same test on each: pair a screen, pull the network cable, make a change, plug it back in, and see what the dashboard tells you about the hour you were away. The SignageStack trial runs for 21 days with every feature on one screen and needs no card. How it works follows a change from upload to screen, and the pricing page has the price in full.
