For most small operators putting 1–3 screens on the wall, the choice is between dotBlast and one of the established per-screen digital-signage CMSs (Yodeck, ScreenCloud, OnSign TV, TelemetryTV, Rise Vision). The cleanest way to think about it:
- dotBlast is the outlier-strong value option for SMBs on a per-user pricing model: a permanent, watermark-free Free tier (3 dashboards, 1 device) and paid tiers from €9/month that include device count rather than per-screen cost. Best when you want 1–10 screens, a real widget dashboard pulling from your existing data sources, and no watermark, trial, or sales call.
- Yodeck, ScreenCloud, OnSign TV, and TelemetryTV are the established per-screen digital-signage CMSs: scheduled content playlists, image and video rotation, strong vertical play in retail and restaurants, paid per-screen from roughly €8–€32/screen/month. Best when you want a content-rotation CMS rather than a live-data dashboard, or when the vertical specialisation (e.g. OnSign TV’s 100+ industry templates) fits your business.
- Rise Vision is the only open-source option with a self-host path; their hosted product is per-screen. Best for technical buyers (schools, churches, nonprofits with IT volunteers) who can self-host; less relevant to a typical café or office.
The rest of this post walks through the comparison in detail, with the public pricing and free-tier mechanics of each, and finishes with a five-question decision checklist. The short version: if you have a Google Sheet you want on a wall, dotBlast will be cheaper and easier. If you have a 50-store retail roll-out that needs scheduled video playlists and an enterprise contract, one of the per-screen CMSs will be the right fit, and that’s not a failure mode for dotBlast — it’s a different product.
What “Digital Signage Software” Actually Means in 2026
The phrase is overloaded. There are three product categories that all show up for the digital signage software keyword, and they are not interchangeable:
- Content-rotation CMS (Yodeck, ScreenCloud, OnSign TV, TelemetryTV, Rise Vision) — built for scheduled content playlists. Images, videos, web pages, and templates on a rotation. Common in retail, restaurants, and corporate lobbies. The content is typically uploaded as files or pulled from a small library of built-in apps, not wired into your live data.
- Kiosk / URL lockers (Chrome Kiosk, Firefox Kiosk) — pin a single browser tab full-screen on a device. Useful for running a web app on a wall screen, but you still have to build the dashboard.
- Live-data dashboard platforms (dotBlast, Geckoboard, wallboard.io) — built for live data on a screen. Widgets, integrations with calendars and Google Sheets, real-time updates. The category that solves “I want the screen to show today’s numbers and update from my phone.”
The five named competitors in this post all sit in category 1 (the per-screen CMS world). dotBlast sits in category 3. Category 1 is the right answer for a screen that mostly plays the same content all day; category 3 is the right answer for a screen that should reflect what’s actually happening in your business right now. Most SMBs who compare these tools are doing so because they realised their content-rotation CMS can’t show the queue, the calendar, the daily specials, or the today’s-numbers screen they actually wanted — and that’s the moment dotBlast starts to look interesting.
The full taxonomy lives in the digital signage pillar guide; this post stays focused on the six-tool comparison the SMB buyer is most likely to evaluate.
The Six Tools in This Comparison
A quick orientation of who each one is and who they sell to, in alphabetical order. None of these descriptions are sourced from a sales call or a brief — they’re from each company’s own public materials and the canonical research syntheses we maintain internally.
dotBlast
A live-data dashboard platform. Permanent, watermark-free Free tier (3 dashboards, 1 device); paid tiers from €9/month billed per user, not per screen. Strong fit for 1–10 screens that need to reflect live data (today’s specials, calendars, KPIs, queue position, opening hours). SMB-first product, no enterprise sales motion. The post you’re reading lives on dotBlast’s blog, so I’m the wrong person to claim objectivity in the dotBlast section — the case for the five other tools below is what the rest of this post tries to give you.
OnSign TV (formerly NoviSign)
A per-screen digital-signage CMS with a strong vertical play in restaurants, retail, hotels, healthcare, and corporate. 14-day full-feature trial up to 5 screens, then paid tiers only — the permanent free tier that previously existed (a 1-screen watermarked free tier with the NoviSign logo) is no longer offered on the live pricing page. Pricing as of 2026-07-29: Core $19.99/player/month (monthly) or $17.99×12/player billed annually ($215.88/year), Pro $24.99/month or $22.49×12 ($269.88/year), Enterprise $34.99/month or $31.49×12 ($377.88/year); volume discount at 25+ players. The 100+ industry templates remain the genuine differentiator; if you need a polished retail or restaurant template in an afternoon, OnSign is the strongest option in this list.
Rise Vision
The only player in this list with a real open-source self-host path. Two free options: self-hosted open-source (full product on your own server, $0) or a 1-screen cloud free tier. Hosted paid tiers as of 2026-07-29: Basic $9–$11/screen/month monthly ($96–$119/screen/year annual), Advanced $11–$14/screen/month monthly ($120–$156/screen/year annual). Pricing is segmented by customer type (business/gov, K–12, higher-ed/non-profit) and stepped downward at higher display counts. The strategic choice is honest: a school, church, or nonprofit with an IT volunteer can run the full product for free, and the cloud product is the convenience upgrade rather than the only option. For an average SMB — a café, a small office, a dental practice — self-hosting is rarely realistic, and the cloud pricing is in the same band as the other per-screen CMSs. Rise Vision is the right answer when self-host matters; it isn’t the right answer when it doesn’t.
ScreenCloud
The most enterprise of the per-screen CMSs. No permanent free tier — 14-day trial with full features on up to 5 screens, then a hard screen disable until payment. Pricing from roughly €18–€32/screen/month. Strong integration catalogue (80+ apps), SOC2 and SSO, dedicated enterprise sales motion. The honest read: ScreenCloud is positioned for mid-market and enterprise rollouts, not for the single-location SMB. A 3-screen SMB on ScreenCloud Core at €18/screen/month pays €648/year for the software alone; the same operator on dotBlast Starter pays €108/year. ScreenCloud is the right answer when you need enterprise compliance, an integration catalogue that dotBlast doesn’t have, and a sales-led procurement motion; it isn’t the right answer for a 1–3 screen SMB comparing cost.
TelemetryTV
A per-screen digital-signage CMS positioned for the SMB and mid-market, with a clean UI and an integration story similar to OnSign TV. 1-screen free tier (per their public materials), per-screen pricing, strong generalist positioning. Less brand recognition in the SMB segment than Yodeck or OnSign, but a serious product. The “1-screen free” is closer to Yodeck’s “1-screen free” than to OnSign’s watermarked free — which is worth verifying in a trial because the watermark policy materially changes whether the free tier is usable on a customer-facing display.
Yodeck
A per-screen digital-signage CMS, one of the longest-established players in the SMB segment. 30-day full-feature trial on up to 5 screens, then 1-screen free, then paid from roughly €8–€15/screen/month. Yodeck is the only major competitor with no watermark on the free tier, which is the same position dotBlast takes — worth knowing if the watermark question matters to you. Strong on retail, restaurants, and office use cases. A 3-screen Yodeck setup at €8/screen/month annual is €288/year, vs dotBlast Starter at €108/year. Yodeck is the closest direct per-screen competitor in the SMB segment, and the right answer if you’ve decided you want a content-rotation CMS rather than a live-data dashboard and the per-screen pricing is acceptable for your screen count.
Side-by-Side: Pricing and Free-Tier Mechanics
A single-page comparison for a 1–3 screen SMB. Numbers are taken from each vendor’s public pricing pages and the dotBlast-side research syntheses, captured at draft time (2026-06-17), re-verified against the live vendor pricing pages on 2026-07-29. Pricing changes — always re-verify on the vendor’s live pricing page before signing.
| dotBlast | Yodeck | ScreenCloud | OnSign TV | TelemetryTV | Rise Vision | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per user (tier-based) | Per screen | Per screen | Per screen | Per screen | Per screen (cloud) or self-host |
| Permanent free tier | Yes — 3 dashboards, 1 device, no watermark | Yes — 1 screen, no watermark | No — trial only, then hard disable | No longer offered (used to be 1-screen watermarked free; current page lists trial only) | Yes — 1 screen (per public materials; pricing URL not found at canonical /pricing path, page JS-rendered) | Yes — 1 screen cloud OR self-host open-source |
| Free-tier watermark | No | No | N/A | N/A (no permanent free tier) | Per public materials, appears to be watermarked | Open-source self-host: no; cloud free: verify |
| Trial | No trial (Free tier is the trial) | 30 days, 5 screens, full features | 14 days, 5 screens, then hard disable | 14 days, 5 screens, full features | Per public materials | None on cloud; self-serve |
| Starting paid price | €9/mo (Starter, 3 devices) | ~€8/screen/mo annual | ~€18/screen/mo annual | $19.99/player/mo monthly ($17.99/mo annual equiv) | Per-screen, varies by tier | $9–$11/screen/mo Basic ($96–$119/screen/yr annual) |
| Typical 3-screen cost / year | €108 (Starter) | ~€288 (Yodeck annual) | ~€648 (Core annual) | ~$648 (OnSign Core annual) | Verify on /pricing | ~$290–$360 (Basic cloud annual) |
| Pricing pressure point | None (no per-screen cost) | Trial expiry + screen count | Hard screen disable | No permanent free tier (trial only) | Screen count + features | Self-host vs cloud convenience |
| Best for | Live-data dashboard, 1–10 screens, no watermark | Content rotation CMS, retail/restaurant, no-watermark free | Enterprise / mid-market, 80+ integrations, SOC2/SSO | Vertical play (100+ templates), restaurants/retail | Generalist SMB CMS | Self-host path, schools/churches/nonprofits |
| Weakness | Smaller integration catalogue than ScreenCloud | Per-screen pricing escalates with screen count | Pricing is the wrong shape for SMB | No permanent free tier (need to budget for the trial-to-paid step) | Less brand recognition in SMB than Yodeck / OnSign | Self-host is rarely realistic for a typical SMB |
A note on the cost column: the typical 3-screen cost / year row is the one SMB buyers should read first. It’s the row that tells you what the choice actually costs. dotBlast Starter (€9/month, 3 devices, unlimited dashboards) comes out at €108/year for the 3-screen case. The per-screen CMSs all come out at 2.7x to 6x that figure for the same 3-screen setup, before any content-rotation, integration, or per-user fees. That’s a meaningful gap, and it’s the core of the SMB-side value argument for category 3 over category 1 for the 1–3 screen case.
What dotBlast Is Good For (and What It Isn’t)
Honesty costs nothing here. The SMB-side case for dotBlast is real, but it isn’t universal — there are genuinely good reasons to pick one of the other five.
Where dotBlast is the right answer
- You have a Google Sheet, a calendar, a CRM, or a help-desk tool you want to put on a wall. This is the live-data dashboard use case, and the per-screen CMSs are not built for it. They play files. dotBlast wires into the data source.
- 1–10 screens, one operator, no procurement department. Per-user pricing means the second screen doesn’t double the cost, the third screen doesn’t triple it, and the person managing the screens doesn’t need a budget approval for each new display.
- You can’t put a vendor logo on a customer-facing display. Every watermarked-free option in the per-screen CMS world either charges for that or doesn’t offer it. dotBlast is watermark-free on the free tier, watermark-free on every paid tier, and the pricing page makes the watermark position explicit.
- You want a 5-minute trial rather than a 14-day deadline. dotBlast’s free tier is the trial — no expiry, no countdown, no pressure. The cost of starting is zero, the cost of staying on free is zero as long as 1 device and 3 dashboards cover your use, and the upgrade path is straightforward when you hit a limit.
- The integration you need is to a tool you already use. Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Airtable, Notion, the common CRMs — these are the integrations that matter for a small operator. If your integration is to a 15-year-old enterprise ERP, one of the per-screen CMSs will probably be the right answer.
Where dotBlast is not the right answer
- You need a scheduled content playlist, not a live dashboard. The per-screen CMSs are built for “show this image for 8 seconds, then this video for 12 seconds, then this template for 20 seconds, on a loop from 8 AM to 8 PM, with different content on different days of the week.” That’s a real use case for retail chains, restaurant chains, and corporate lobbies. If that’s the use case, dotBlast isn’t the answer; pick Yodeck, OnSign, or ScreenCloud.
- You need 80+ integrations with enterprise systems. ScreenCloud and Yodeck have integration catalogues dotBlast doesn’t match yet. SOC2, SSO, and the long tail of enterprise SaaS connectors live in the per-screen CMS world. If your buyer is procurement and the requirement list runs to two pages, dotBlast isn’t the right answer today.
- You need a self-host path. Rise Vision is the only option in this list that offers a genuine open-source self-host, and that’s a real differentiator for schools, churches, and nonprofits with technical staff on hand. dotBlast is cloud-only.
- You need 100+ vertical-specific templates tomorrow. OnSign TV’s template catalogue is the genuine strength of the product; if the use case is “a polished restaurant menu board in the next four hours” and the audience is the customer, OnSign’s templates are a faster path than building from widgets.
- You’re rolling out 50+ screens across a retail estate with a procurement team. That’s a per-screen CMS use case. dotBlast is an SMB product, not a chain product, and the pricing model reflects that.
Five Questions to Pick the Right One
A 5-minute decision checklist. Answer honestly and the right vendor usually picks itself.
- Do you want a live dashboard that updates from your data, or a scheduled content playlist that plays files? If live data → dotBlast. If scheduled content → one of the per-screen CMSs.
- How many screens, and how fast does that number grow over the next 12 months? If 1–3 and stable → dotBlast wins on cost. If 1–3 and growing to 10+ → still dotBlast on per-user pricing. If 10+ from day one → compare per-screen CMS pricing honestly; the math changes.
- Is the screen customer-facing? If yes → a watermarked free tier is the wrong answer for that display, and the cost of a paid tier on the per-screen CMSs starts to look like a feature, not a bug. dotBlast’s watermark-free position matters here.
- Is there a sales-led procurement process? If yes → ScreenCloud and Yodeck are designed for that motion. dotBlast is self-serve and a sales-led procurement will be a poor experience with the wrong vendor.
- Do you need a self-host path? If yes → Rise Vision is the only option in this list. If no → the rest of the comparison is in play.
If you answered 1 = live data, 2 = 1–10 screens, 3 = yes, 4 = no → dotBlast is the right answer. If you answered 1 = scheduled content, 3 = no, 4 = yes → one of the per-screen CMSs. Most SMBs in our three sub-segments — restaurants, small offices, clinics — land in the first bucket, which is why this is a comparison post and not a listicle.
A Note on Pricing Changes
The numbers in the table above are the public pricing of each vendor as of 2026-07-29 refresh (originally captured 2026-06-17, re-verified against the live vendor pricing pages on 2026-07-29). The CMS-side vendors in particular change pricing tiers and free-tier mechanics with some regularity — that’s how the conversion-mechanism tuning (watermarks, trial lengths, screen counts) works. Before you sign anything, re-verify on the vendor’s live pricing page. Treat this post as a starting point for the conversation, not the last word.
Material change vs the 2026-06-17 draft: OnSign TV’s permanent watermarked free tier no longer exists on the live pricing page — the company is now trial-only at the entry level, with paid tiers starting at $19.99/player/month (Core). The narrative around “the NoviSign watermark is the most aggressive long-term conversion mechanism” is no longer accurate and has been removed from the side-by-side table; the OnSign section above reflects the live pricing structure. Rise Vision’s pricing band shifted slightly downward (Basic $9–$11/screen/month vs the draft’s $10–$20/screen/month band) — the table now reflects the live figures. Yodeck, ScreenCloud, and TelemetryTV pricing are unchanged in shape from the 2026-06-17 capture.
How This Fits With the Other Posts in the Series
This is Foundation Post #4 in a five-post series for small operators putting a live screen on the wall. The other four:
- Foundation Post #1: Digital Menu Board for Restaurants — the restaurant sub-segment, with the same problem framed for menus that change three times a week. If you’ve read this comparison and decided you want dotBlast, the menu-board post walks through what to put on a restaurant screen and how to set it up.
- Foundation Post #2: Office TV Dashboard — the office sub-segment, with the same problem framed for KPIs, calendars, and announcements. Buyer’s-guide lens for internal-comms screens.
- Foundation Post #3: Waiting-Room Display — the clinic and practice sub-segment, with the same problem framed for the patient-facing display.
- Foundation Post #5: 10-Minute Setup Guide — the minimum-viable version of the setup story, for teams that have picked a platform and just need the wiring.
If you read this comparison and have decided the live-data dashboard category is the right fit, the digital signage pillar guide is the next stop — it covers the full taxonomy, the hardware choices, the content strategy, and the maintenance questions in a single long-form read. The five-widget-rule framing from the team dashboard best-practices post is what stops the screen from becoming wallpaper after month three, and is worth reading whatever software you pick.
Ready to Compare on Your Own Wall?
If you’ve decided dotBlast is the right answer and want to see what a single-screen live-data dashboard looks like in practice, the free tier covers 3 dashboards on 1 device — the fastest way to know whether the category fits your wall.
No credit card required. If you’ve got a wall-mounted TV and a Google Sheet, you can be live before lunch.
This is Foundation Post #4 in our practical guide series for small operators putting a live screen on the wall. Next in the series: a 10-minute setup walkthrough.