Free digital menu board software

Questions people actually ask

What is the best free digital menu board software?

It depends on whether the board has to stay current after it goes up. For a one-off board you will print or show once, a design tool like Canva is fine and has more artwork. For a board on a TV that changes, you want software that owns the screen as well as the file: the price you edit should appear on the display without anyone exporting, copying to a USB stick or restarting a player. ChannelOS is free for one screen and does that; Yodeck, NoviSign and Kitcast do it on paid plans. Google Slides and Xibo are often suggested and both work, but Slides has no scheduling or screen management and Xibo expects you to run a server.

Can I use Canva or Google Slides to make a digital menu board?

Yes, and for the design itself Canva is excellent. The gap is everything after the design. Canva does not schedule or manage displays, so getting the board onto a TV means exporting an image and finding something to show it, and changing a price means exporting again and repeating that on every screen. Google Slides can autoplay in a browser, which is enough for one screen with someone to babysit it, but it has no daypart scheduling, no way to see whether a screen is actually on, and no recovery when the tab dies. Use them to design; use signage software to run the wall.

How many columns can a digital menu board have?

As many as the menu genuinely needs, and no more than the room can read. This tool starts every board at two columns, a dish and a price, because that is what most boards are. Add a column and you get the shape a real price list needs, a dish with a half and a full price, or a size ladder across the top, with an optional header row naming each column. Four columns is the practical ceiling on a half-width block: past that each cell is too narrow to read from the counter, which is the only test that matters on a board hanging six metres away.

Is this digital menu board maker really free?

Yes. You can build the board and download a 1920×1080 PNG without an account, a card, or an email address. A free ChannelOS account is only needed to do the thing a design tool can't: show the board on an actual TV and change it after it's live.

What do I need to put the menu board on a TV?

A screen that can open a web page — a smart TV's browser, a cheap streaming stick, or an old laptop plugged into the HDMI port. You open the player URL on the screen and pair it from your phone. There is no media player to buy and nothing to install.

Can I change prices after the board is on the screen?

Yes, from your phone or laptop, and the screen updates itself — you don't walk over to the TV. This is the part a PNG can't do: once a downloaded image is on a screen, changing a price means making a new image and putting it there by hand.

How is this different from making a menu in Canva?

Canva gives you a beautiful file and stops. It doesn't schedule anything and it doesn't manage displays, so getting that file onto a TV — and keeping it right — is still your problem. This maker produces the same file, and can also run it on the screen, swap it at 6pm, and push a price change to every location at once.

Can I show a different menu at breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Yes, with an account. You schedule each board to the hours it should air and the screen switches on its own. That's the most common reason people move off a static image: the board is only correct for part of the day.

Does the QR code cost anything or expire?

No. The QR code is drawn into the board itself and simply encodes whatever link you type, so it works as long as that link does. There's no redirect service in the middle, nothing to renew, and no scan limit.

Is this digital menu board software, or just a design tool?

Both, and the split is worth knowing before you start. The maker on this page is a free design tool: it produces a finished 1920×1080 board with no account. Digital menu board software is the other half, the part that puts that board on a television and changes it afterwards, and that is what a free ChannelOS account adds. There is nothing you have to download and no media player to buy, because the TV's own web browser is the player: you open the player address on the screen, pair it from your phone, and from then on a price change made on the phone appears on the TV. The first screen is free for ever, with a ChannelOS banner along the bottom of the screen that any paid plan removes.