Digital menu boards
Digital menu boards on any screen with a browser
Menu boards are the case where digital pays for itself fastest, because the thing you change most often — a price — is the thing print makes hardest.
Why a screen beats a printed board here
A printed menu makes every change expensive in the same way: reprint, or cross something out. So prices drift out of date, sold-out items stay up until close, and the specials board stops being written by Wednesday. None of that is a design problem — it is the cost of an edit being too high.
On a screen an edit is a field. Change a price once and every board in the room is correct before the next customer reaches the register. That is the entire argument, and it is worth more in a café with two screens than in a chain with two hundred.
What to put on which screen
Split the menu across screens by course rather than by price — people scan for the thing they want to eat and only then look at what it costs. Give the day's special its own slide in the rotation rather than a corner of the main board, and keep a second, shorter menu in the playlist for the afternoon so the reduced service is a schedule change and not an editing session.
Getting a screen up
A TV with a browser will do. Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung Tizen and LG webOS all run the player directly; Roku and current VIZIO sets do not have a usable browser, so those want a cheap HDMI stick rather than a workaround. Whatever the panel, turn off its sleep timer and its "no signal" auto power-off — those two settings account for most screens that mysteriously go dark overnight.
Templates that fit
Cafe Menu
Cafés, coffee shops, cafeterias, counter service
48 editable fields
Bakery Menu
Bakeries, patisseries, coffee shops with a counter display
43 editable fields
Drinks Menu
Bars, pubs, wine bars, hotel lounges
44 editable fields
Menu Board
Takeout spots, cafeterias, counter service, quick-serve
33 editable fields
Food Truck Menu
Food trucks, market stalls, pop-ups, festival booths
32 editable fields
Daily Special 2
Pubs, cafés, delis, cafeterias
13 editable fields
Simple Menu
Small menus, daily lists, coffee counters, market stalls
9 editable fields
Happy Hour
Bars, restaurants, hotel lounges
32 editable fields
What three free screens covers
The free plan runs 3 screens with no time limit and no card. For a lot of the sites on this page that is the whole installation. Past that, $29 a month covers 25 screens — flat, not per screen — so the fourth display costs the same as the twenty-fifth. Full detail on the pricing page.
One honest limitation
Menu boards are the strongest fit in this list, but they are also the case with the most demanding hardware: a kitchen-facing screen runs hot, all day, every day. Budget for a panel rated for commercial use if it is going to run twelve hours a day, whatever software is driving it.
Other use cases
Waiting room screens · Retail and storefront screens · School and campus screens · Warehouse and production floor screens · Hotel and hospitality screens · Office and lobby screens · Gym and studio screens · All use cases