Every product below does some version of the same thing: put changing information on a wall. Here is what each of them asks for it.
| Product | Up front | Then | Screens | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanical split-flap boards | ||||
| Oat Foundry | from $15,000 | Service calls | One wall | Custom built, weeks to make, the closest thing to a real station board |
| Vestaboard Note Array | ~$6,000+ | $119 / year | One wall | Several Note units stacked into a bigger display |
| Vestaboard | $3,499+ | $119 / year | One wall | Fixed 6 by 22 characters, two people to install, hundreds of moving parts |
| Vestaboard Note | ~$1,500+ | $119 / year | One wall | Two thirds the size of the original |
| Build it yourself | Parts + weeks | Your own time | One wall | Community help only, thousands of moving parts to assemble |
| Small desk displays | ||||
| Tidbyt Gen 2 | $199 | — | One small box | Retro LED matrix, apps for weather, transit, scores |
| Divoom Times Frame | $189.99 | — | One small box | Pixel art frame |
| Divoom Pixoo‑64 II | $159.99 | — | One small box | 64 by 64 pixel colour display |
| Divoom Times Gate | $139.99 | — | One small box | Five panels, clock and widgets |
| Divoom Pixoo‑Max | $99.99 | — | One small box | The cheap end of pixel displays |
| LaMetric Time | from ~$199 | Some apps paid | One small box | Single line of text, smart home links |
| TRMNL | from ~$129 | — | One small box | Monochrome e-ink dashboard, weeks of battery |
| Software, on a screen you own | ||||
| Split-Flap TV | €0 | €19.99 / month per screen | Pay again for every TV | Split-flap on an existing screen, billed monthly and per screen |
| Yodeck | — | $8 / screen / month | Per screen | Four menu TVs is $384 a year, every year |
| OptiSigns | — | $9 / screen / month | Per screen | Four menu TVs is $432 a year, every year |
| ScreenCloud | — | $20 / screen / month | Per screen | Four menu TVs is $960 a year, every year |
| FLAPPI | $99 once $49 for the first 100 | Nothing | Every screen you own | The Mac app. Split-flap on any TV, monitor or iPad, plus menus, live data and guest messages on your own wifi |
| FLAPPI Live | — | $150 / year | Every screen you own | The app plus the online board: edit from anywhere, guests write from mobile data, and their phone makes a shareable video of the message |
Ten screens on per-screen pricing is about €200 every month, forever. Every screen on FLAPPI is one price, and there is no next-screen price either.
The small desk displays are lovely and they are not really the same thing: a box on a desk is not a board on a wall, and none of them let a room answer what is on screen. The mechanical boards are the real comparison, and the honest thing to say is that a Vestaboard is a beautiful object. It is also loud enough that reviewers stop talking while it turns over, it hangs in exactly one place, and its extra content sits behind a yearly subscription.
Prices checked August 2026 · Vestaboard · Oat Foundry · Split-Flap TV · Tidbyt · Divoom · review on noise