How to choose digital signage software: 10 questions to ask

To choose digital signage software, test it against the days that go wrong rather than the demo that goes right. Ask what a screen does when the internet drops, where schedules are evaluated, which hardware has actually been tested, what the price comes to per screen over three years, and how you get your content out if you leave. Then check the things that depend on your setup: built-in content, proof of play, user roles and where your data is processed. A trial on one real screen, in the real room, answers most of these within a week.

Below are the ten questions worth asking any vendor, why each one matters, and how to check the answer yourself. We make digital signage software, so at the end you will also find how SignageStack answers each question, including where the answer is no.

Before you compare: describe your screens on one page

Most comparisons go wrong before the first demo, because nobody wrote down what the screens are for. Half a page is enough:

• How many screens, and at how many locations.
• What goes on them: a menu, promotions, a meeting-room schedule, a dashboard, announcements.
• Who changes the content, and how often. Daily price changes by a shift manager are a different job from a quarterly poster swap by marketing.
• What hardware you already own, and whether the TVs run Android.
• What the network looks like at each site: wired, Wi-Fi, or a router behind a coffee machine.

With that page in hand, most of the questions below sort themselves into "matters a lot" and "does not matter to us".

10 questions to ask any digital signage software

1. What happens when the internet goes down?

Every screen loses its connection sooner or later. The question is whether it goes blank when it does. A good player stores the playlist, the schedule and the media on the device and keeps playing. Ask:

• Which content keeps playing offline, and which does not? A web page or a live stream cannot, by nature; a menu, a clock or an uploaded video can.
• Is playback during the outage still logged?
• Does the screen catch up by itself when the line comes back?

How to check: during a trial, unplug the network cable at the screen for an hour and watch.

2. Can it schedule content, and where is the schedule evaluated?

Some products switch playlists by day of week and time of day, or take a promotion down on a set date so it does not stay up for another month; others only switch the whole screen on and off. If you need content to change by itself, ask whether it is included, and in which tier. Either way, look for control over what the screen does outside opening hours. Then ask where the schedule runs. If the cloud decides, a screen that is offline at 11:00 misses the switch. If the device decides, it switches on time anyway.

How to check: set a change to happen in five minutes, unplug the network, and see whether it happens.

3. Which hardware does it really support?

"Works on Android" and "tested on this device" are different claims. Android boxes differ in how they handle kiosk mode, starting after a power cut and installing updates. Ask:

• Which devices has the vendor actually tested?
• Is there a native app for your TV's system (Tizen, webOS, Android TV), or only a browser?
• Does the player start by itself after a power cut, and recover if it freezes?
• Does it update itself, or does someone have to visit every screen?
• Do you have to buy the vendor's own player hardware?

How to check: buy one of the devices you plan to roll out and run it through the trial before you buy twenty. What to look for in a digital signage player goes deeper, and smart TV digital signage covers the TV you may already own.

4. What does it cost per screen over three years?

Monthly prices per screen are easy to compare and misleading on their own. Watch for:

• features you need that sit in a higher tier (scheduling, reports and user roles are the usual ones);
• per-user seats on top of the per-screen fee;
• setup or onboarding fees;
• a minimum number of screens or a minimum contract term;
• a separate licence per player device;
• hardware you have to buy from the vendor.

Then add it up over the life of the screens: the software price per screen, times the number of screens, times 36 months, plus hardware, plus setup. How much digital signage costs has worked examples. If a free plan is on the table, read what free digital signage software really costs first.

5. What content can you make without a designer?

Someone will have to fill the screen every week. Built-in apps such as a clock, the weather, a menu board, a QR code, news headlines or a countdown do a lot of that work, because they update themselves. Integrations matter if your content already lives somewhere: Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Canva, PDF files.

Ask how each integration behaves, not only whether it exists. Does a spreadsheet update on screen when the sheet changes, or only when you import it again? Does a slide deck keep its animations and embedded video? Can a web page that needs a login be shown at all? Often it cannot: pages that require a login, or that forbid embedding, will not display inside another application. Check whether the screen can be split into regions, with the menu beside the weather, and whether the preview in the dashboard is really what the screen will show.

6. Can it prove what played?

If an advertiser, a franchise head office or a landlord ever asks what actually ran on a screen, you need proof of play: a history per screen, a view of coverage by hour and day, an export you can send on, and ideally a report that emails itself on a schedule. Ask to see a report from a screen that was offline for part of the day. That is where weak reporting shows.

7. Who can change what?

Shared passwords are how a screen ends up showing the Christmas offer in March. Ask:

• Can you invite colleagues with their own login and a role?
• Is there a read-only role for people who only need to look?
• Is there a charge per user?
• Can one person run one location without access to all of them?
• Which languages does the dashboard speak? Whoever changes the menu on a Tuesday morning should not have to do it in a second language.

8. Where is your data processed, and is there a DPA?

Under the GDPR, a signage vendor that processes personal data on your behalf is a processor. Article 28 GDPR requires a contract with it, the data processing agreement (DPA), and your authorisation before it brings in sub-processors. Personal data turns up on screens more often than people expect: names in a meeting-room calendar, faces in a photo, a staff rota. Ask:

• Which sub-processors does the vendor use, and in which countries?
• For transfers outside the EEA, which mechanism applies: standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision?
• Is there a DPA you can read before you sign?
• How long are playback logs and closed accounts kept?
• Where are the tokens for connected accounts (Google, Microsoft, Canva) stored, and do they ever reach the screen?

A vendor that publishes its sub-processor list saves you a round of emails.

9. What does the trial really include?

A trial is only useful if it is the product you would buy. Check whether it includes every feature or a reduced tier, how long it runs, whether it needs a card, whether it works with the hardware you have, and what happens to your content when it ends.

10. How do you leave?

Nobody likes asking this in the first meeting, but it is the question that protects you most. Ask:

• Can you export or download your media and data?
• Do the players run on standard hardware you could reuse with other software, or on proprietary boxes?
• How long is the contract, and does it renew automatically?
• What will your screens show on the day the subscription ends?

A standard Android box and an ordinary display will work with whatever you choose next. Locked vendor hardware will not.

How to run a fair trial

Run the same script with every product on your shortlist, on the same screen:

1. Pair the screen, and time how long it takes.
2. Build a playlist from your real content: your menu, your logo, your photos.
3. Schedule a change and let it happen.
4. Unplug the network for an hour.
5. Unplug the power at the wall, then plug it back in.
6. Publish a price change and time how long it takes to appear.
7. Invite a colleague with limited rights and let them make an edit.
8. Pull a proof-of-play report for the day.

Write down what happened, not what the sales page says. Two or three products run through this list will tell you more than any feature grid. How to set up digital signage walks through the setup itself step by step.

How SignageStack answers these questions

We would rather you read this here than find it out later.

The full list is on the features page, and the price on the pricing page.

Where to start

Write the half-page description of your screens first. Then pick two or three candidates and run the trial script for each on one real screen. If SignageStack is one of them, the trial runs for 21 days without a card, and the web player pairs with a laptop and the TV you already have.