Digital Signage Buyer's Checklist

Most signage platforms look similar on their homepage — a canvas builder, scheduling, remote management. The differences that matter show up once you ask specific questions. Here's the list.

Pricing

• Is the advertised price monthly, or an annual rate shown per month?
• What features are missing at the entry tier?
• Do I need to buy the vendor's own hardware, or can I bring my own?
• Is there a real trial (first screen free, no card) or a time-boxed demo that requires payment info up front?

See the full pricing guide for more on this.

Content & layout

• Can a single screen show more than one thing at once (a multi-zone layout), or is it one piece of content full-screen only?
• What content types are actually supported — images, video, live webpages, live video streams, widgets like weather or a clock?
• Can I schedule different content by day of week, time of day, or specific date?

Managing more than one screen

• Can I group screens (by location, by team) and push content to a group at once?
• Can I see whether a screen is online, and what it's currently showing, without walking up to it?
• Can I remotely reboot or refresh a screen that's stuck?
• If a screen goes offline, do I get an alert, and where — email, Slack, a webhook?

Access & accountability

• Can I give teammates limited access instead of full admin rights?
• Is there an audit log of who changed what, and when?
• Does it support single sign-on and two-factor authentication?

Player hardware

• What operating systems does the player app actually run on?
• Am I locked into hardware the vendor sells, or can I use a device I already own?

See setting up a screen for under $200 for real hardware options.

Where CastWize lands on this list

One flat rate ($5/screen/month, no tiers), multi-zone canvas with images/video/text/webpages/live streams/widgets, scheduling by day/time/date, clients and tags for organizing screens, remote screenshot/reboot/refresh, alerts via email/Slack/webhook, full audit log, API access, Google SSO and 2FA, and native players for Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Raspberry Pi. First screen free for 30 days, no credit card required. See the complete list on Pricing.