Presently vs. Screenly: An Honest Comparison for Retail Stores
Screenly is a capable Raspberry Pi-based digital signage platform with an open source heritage and a loyal developer community. Presently is built for independent retail store owners who want audience-aware signage without the DIY hardware setup. Here’s how they compare.
Pricing checked July 24, 2026 against Screenly's official pricing page. Plans change; confirm final terms with the vendor.
Choose Presently if:
- You’re a store owner, not a developer, you want it to work, not a project to manage
- You want audience-aware advertising that adapts to who’s actually in front of the screen
- You want hardware shipped pre-configured, no Raspberry Pi, no SD card, no Linux
- Your store’s internet is unreliable and you need fully offline playback
- You want hardware replacement covered if something fails
Choose Screenly if:
- You or someone on your team is comfortable with Raspberry Pi setup and Linux
- Cost is the primary driver and you need the lowest possible monthly spend
- You want an open source solution you can inspect, modify, and self-host (Screenly OSE)
- You already own a Raspberry Pi and want to repurpose it for signage
- You need a technically customizable signage platform for a non-retail use case
How they compare
The details that matter
Screenly is software that runs on a Raspberry Pi. That means buying one ($80–150 for a Pi 4 kit), flashing the OS image onto an SD card, connecting to WiFi, and registering the device in Screenly’s dashboard. For a developer or IT professional, this is a 45-minute setup. For a coffee shop owner, it’s an afternoon of YouTube tutorials and a 50/50 chance of calling someone for help.
Presently ships as a purpose-built device. You plug it into your TV via HDMI, connect to WiFi, and access the dashboard from any device on your store network. No flashing, no Linux command line, no SD cards.
What Screenly setup actually requires
- ·Purchase: Raspberry Pi 4 + case + power supply + SD card (~$100–150)
- ·Flash Screenly OS image to SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager
- ·Configure WiFi credentials, connect to display, register device
- ·When hardware fails: re-buy, re-flash, re-configure
- ·Presently: hardware ships pre-configured, covered in subscription
Screenly grew from an open source project (Screenly OSE) with a technically sophisticated user base. Their documentation assumes Linux familiarity. Their community is active on GitHub and developer forums. This is a strength for IT professionals and hobbyists who want full control at low cost.
An independent retail store owner is not this customer. The question isn’t whether Screenly is capable software, it is. The question is whether the store owner wants to become a Raspberry Pi administrator as part of running their business.
The honest answer: If you have someone on your team who enjoys this kind of setup, Screenly OSE is genuinely free and capable. If you’re the owner and you just want a screen that works, Presently exists for that.
Screenly is a content scheduling and delivery platform. It reliably plays your content on the schedule you define. It has no camera integration, no demographic detection, and no mechanism for adapting content to the person in front of the screen.
Presently adds on-device computer vision. Demographic signals are inferred in real time and discarded immediately, no image stored, no data transmitted. The result is a screen that shows your 6am regulars different content than your lunchtime crowd, automatically, without any schedule you had to write.
Both platforms operate with no camera-based data stored or transmitted, Screenly because it has no camera at all, Presently by architectural design. The difference is that Presently uses the camera for local inference without any external exposure.
Frequently asked questions
Screenly OSE (open source) requires a Raspberry Pi that you configure yourself. Screenly Pro supports other hardware but still requires a separate purchase and technical setup. Presently ships pre-configured hardware that plugs directly into your display via HDMI with no technical setup required.
Screenly, especially the open-source version, requires comfort with Raspberry Pi setup and Linux-based software. Presently is designed for retail store owners with no IT experience: hardware arrives pre-configured and the browser-based dashboard requires no technical knowledge.
No. Screenly schedules content by time, playlist, or location tags. It does not detect who is viewing the screen. Presently uses on-device computer vision to automatically select the most relevant ad based on real-time demographic signals, with no data stored or transmitted.
Screenly's hosted Starter plan is $15 per screen/month billed annually and supports up to five screens; hardware is separate. Presently is $299 for the player and activation, then $79/month for software, support, and built-in audience intelligence.
For store owners, not developers.
Screenly is a great platform for technically inclined users who want low-cost, flexible signage. If you want to skip the Raspberry Pi setup and get audience-intelligent signage running in an afternoon, Presently was built for that.
$299 setup + $79/month · Media player included · Cancel anytime
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