Free digital signage software: 3 screens, no credit card

Smart-Signage offers a Free account that lets you run up to 3 screens without paying anything for the software. It is not a trial: the account has no end date, and no credit card is requested when you sign up. You create your content, schedule it and play it on your screens from the same platform that paying customers use.

In practice, the Free account gives you:

• 3 display screens, wherever they are installed;
• 500 MB of storage for your images, videos and documents;
• playlists and time-based schedules, to change content by time of day or day of the week;
• the Studio, the built-in content editor, with 3 AI poster generations each month;
• widgets (weather, clock, text ticker, room booking, scoreboard) and playback of Office and PDF files;
• the emergency alert, which takes over every screen on the account;
• remote screen preview and monitoring;
• support through the documentation, the FAQ, e-mail and chat.

The features are those of the Premium plan, with two exceptions described below: video walls and e-paper labels. The line-by-line details are in the plan comparison table.

A free plan always has boundaries. It is better to know them before plugging in the first screen than to discover them in front of a customer.

• A "Powered by Smart-Signage" badge appears on the screens, except during the 30-day trial that follows sign-up. In a waiting room or an office, nobody notices it; on a carefully designed shop window, it may bother you.
• The cap is 3 screens, and the Free account cannot be combined with paid licenses: you cannot keep three free screens and pay only for the fourth.
• 500 MB is plenty for posters and photos, much less so for high-definition video, which quickly takes up several dozen megabytes per minute.
• A single administrator manages the account. Several people publishing on their own is a paid feature.
• Video walls (several screens forming one picture) and e-paper labels are not included.
• Samsung Tizen and LG webOS screens and hierarchical accounts between a head office and its stores belong to the Enterprise plan, which also includes single sign-on (SSO) with Microsoft 365; reporting is quoted on request, and API access and webhooks are available on request.

For a shop with one, two or three screens, these limits often come down to the badge alone. For a chain of locations, the screen cap arrives quickly, and the free plan is mostly a way to validate the tool before equipping every site.

"Free" covers very different things depending on the solution. Rather than comparing brands whose terms change often, here are the main families of offers you will come across, with what they really cost in time and hardware.

A description of categories of offers, not of specific vendors: exact terms vary from one solution to another and change over time. Check them with each vendor.

Open source deserves a remark. The software costs nothing, but the server, its maintenance and the time spent keeping it running do. For a company without an IT team, it is rarely the most economical option, even if it is the most open one. Conversely, for an IT department that already has the infrastructure and the skills, it is a perfectly sound choice.

The right question is not "which free software has the most features", but "how many screens will I have a year from now, and who will look after them". A free tool limited to one screen is perfect for a test and becomes a dead end when the second screen arrives. Open-source software has no screen limit, but it needs someone to install and maintain it.

Also check three practical points, which matter more than the feature list: does the screen keep playing if the internet connection drops, can content be scheduled by time and day, and does the software work with the hardware you already own. With Smart-Signage, content is cached on the screen, schedules are included in the free plan, and the compatibility page lists the supported devices.

Finally, look at what happens on the day you outgrow the free plan. Switching software means rebuilding your content and reconfiguring every screen; staying with the same vendor only changes the invoice. The cost of leaving a free plan often weighs more than what the plan includes.

Upgrading does not require a new account: your media, playlists, schedules and paired screens stay in place. The Premium license costs €9 excl. VAT per screen per month, or €99 excl. VAT per year, with no commitment.

The most common reasons for upgrading:

• a fourth screen: beyond 3, every screen moves to a Premium license;
• the badge, on a shop window or at a client site where brand image matters;
• storage: paid accounts get 5 GB, which can be extended on request;
• several people publishing, each with their own access;
• secondary devices (a tablet outside a meeting room, a remote control, an e-paper label, the secondary screen of a video wall) on a Lite license, at €5 excl. VAT per device per month;
• more AI generations: 20 per month with the Premium license.

For a network that needs hierarchical accounts between head office and stores, SSO with Microsoft 365 or dedicated support, the Enterprise plan is quoted on request. To see every cost item of a project, from choosing the screen to mounting it, read our digital signage cost guide.

The first screen is up and running in about fifteen minutes, with a screen that is already in place.

1. Create your free account with an e-mail address.
2. Upload your visuals, or describe a poster to the AI Studio and let it lay it out for you.
3. Put your content in a playlist and, if needed, schedule it by time or day.
4. Open the player on the screen: it displays a six-digit code that you enter in the platform, and playback starts.

For inspiration, the use cases by industry show what a bakery, a pharmacy or a gym puts on screen, and which screen to plan for in each case.