Yodeck costs $8/screen/mo — and unlike a tool you buy once, that bill never stops. Over three years that's roughly $288 for software doing a job your own hardware could just as easily do.
Where the subscription actually goes
$8/screen/mo ($96/yr per screen) is the sticker price. It compounds: cancel and you typically lose access to your own history, and most plans ratchet the price up as you add usage, seats or storage — the bill rarely stays flat for long.
Signboard: the pay-once alternative
Signboard does the same core job for $49, once. Playlists, scheduling, screen health and emergency takeover — any browser is a player, no per-screen rent.
| Signboard | Yodeck | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 once, unlimited screens | $8/screen/mo ($96/yr per screen) |
| 5-screen annual cost | $0 after purchase | $480/yr |
| Cost over 3 years (5 screens) | $49 | $1,440 |
| Player | Any browser, 6-char pairing code | Dedicated player app |
| Dayparting | Server-side, per-screen timezone | Yes |
| Emergency takeover | Built in | Paid tier |
| Your data | Your SQLite file, your box | Their servers |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
On a single screen Signboard pays for itself vs Yodeck in about 6 months. On five screens, 5 weeks — then it's $0 a year, forever.
Is the subscription ever still worth it?
If you need Yodeck's specific ecosystem, integrations or managed infrastructure and that's genuinely load-bearing for you, the subscription earns its keep — that's a real trade-off, not a trick. Signboard is for everyone else: people paying every month for a job that runs fine on hardware they already own.
Try Signboard — $49, once
Playlists, scheduling, screen health and emergency takeover — any browser is a player, no per-screen rent.