Carousel alternative. $6 a screen.
Same broadcast scheduling, same approval workflows, same MFA (TOTP and passkeys) — without the 30-player minimum and the BYO BrightSign tax. Live in about 10 minutes, month to month at $8 or $6 billed annually, no minimums.
7-day free trial. No credit card.
Carousel is sized for districts. Brix is sized for everyone.
$6 vs $22 — without the player minimum
Carousel Pro is $22/screen/month with a 30-player minimum — that's a $660/month floor before you've installed a single screen. Brix is $6/screen/month billed annually with no minimum. Run one screen, run one hundred — the per-screen rate doesn't change.
No 'contact sales' for storage
Carousel caps cloud storage at 50 GB on Core, 100 GB on Pro, 500 GB on Enterprise. Add another 100 channels of HD video and you're talking to procurement again. Brix is unlimited storage on every plan.
Month-to-month, not annual contracts
Carousel runs annual contracts as standard. Brix runs month to month at $8/screen (or $6 billed annually) — flex up, flex down, no penalty. If signage doesn't pull its weight, you can stop paying next month, not next renewal.
Carousel pricing, tier by tier.
Carousel tier ladder
- Carousel Core $25 (10-player min)
- Carousel Pro — most popular $22 (30-player min)
- 10 screens / 1 yearSave $1,920
- 10 screens / 3 yearsSave $5,760
- vs Carousel Pro73% cheaper
$99 stick. Tomorrow.
Carousel runs on BrightSign or Apple TV — both are great hardware, but you bring it. Brix does not run on BrightSign or Apple TV; it runs on a $99 Signage Stick that turns up tomorrow, Android TV, Windows or ChromeOS.
Brix vs Carousel, feature by feature.
68 features. A badge shows the Carousel plan that a feature needs.
| Feature | Brix · $6 billed annually | Carousel Core $25 | Carousel Pro $22 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content & media | |||
| Image upload & playback | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video upload & playback | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document upload & display (PDF, Word, PowerPoint) | PDF + PowerPoint (no Word) | MS Office bulletins | ✓ |
| Web pages / HTML / web URL | ✓ | Web Bulletins | ✓ |
| YouTube / live streaming | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authenticated / secured web pages | Public + basic auth | Partial | Partial |
| Layout & design | |||
| Multi-zone / split-screen layouts | ✓ | Unlimited Zones | ✓ |
| Drag-and-drop layout editor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre-built templates (count) | Curated set | Templated bulletins | ✓ |
| Auto-size text / responsive templates | ✓ | Auto Size Text | ✓ |
| Lockable layouts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ticker / scrolling text overlay | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling & playlists | |||
| Build playlists | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Day-parting / time-of-day scheduling | ✓ | Discrete Daily Start/End | ✓ |
| Working hours / screen schedules | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tag-based playlists / sub-playlists | ✓ | Media/Player/Zone Tags | ✓ |
| Advanced media scheduling rules | ✓ | Dynamic Playlists | ✓ |
| Per-asset expiry | ✓ | Auto Content Expiration | ✓ |
| Apps & integrations | |||
| App count | 40+ | Bulletins library | ✓ |
| Custom-built apps on request | ✓ | — | — |
| RSS / news / weather feeds | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams / Viva integration | Teams alerts; Viva Engage feed (beta) | — | — |
| Slack integration | Generic webhooks | — | — |
| AI credits / generative content | Auto-captions + translation | — | — |
| Interactive & kiosk | |||
| Interactive kiosk app | Touch on Windows/Android TV | Interactive Bulletins | Partial |
| Storage & limits | |||
| Cloud storage | Unlimited | 50 GB | 100 GB |
| Screen count limit | Unlimited | 10-player min | 30-player min |
| Per-file upload size limit | 2 GB video / 250 MB image / 100 MB document | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vendor logo on screen (free of) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users, roles & workflow | |||
| Multi-user accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Team workspaces / channels | ✓ | Unlimited Channels | ✓ |
| Role-based access control | ✓ | Custom Roles | ✓ |
| Approval workflow / collaboration | ✓ | Content Approval | ✓ |
| Folders for presentations / schedules / displays | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-language UI | Screen content in any language; console in English | ✓ | ✓ |
| Analytics & reporting | |||
| Proof-of-play / impression reporting | ✓ | Impression Tracking | ✓ |
| Time-segment / date-range reports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email notifications on display online/offline | ✓ | Last Check-In Alerting | ✓ |
| Live snapshot / channel preview | ✓ | Channel Preview | ✓ |
| Remote management (RDM) | |||
| Manage screens from web / mobile | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Remote reboot | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Power schedule (auto on/off) | ✓ | Power Save | ✓ |
| Remote troubleshooting / diagnostics | ✓ | Player Dashboard | ✓ |
| Remote software updates / MDM-driven | ✓ | Remote Software Updates + MDM | ✓ |
| Zero-touch player provisioning | Code-free pairing on the same network | Zero-Touch Configuration | ✓ |
| Security & compliance | |||
| Single sign-on (SAML / OIDC) | OIDC + SCIM (no SAML) | SAML 2.0 | ✓ |
| Multi-factor authentication (MFA / passkeys) | ✓ | MFA + Passkeys | ✓ |
| Audit logs | ✓ | System Health Checks | Partial |
| Custom data residency | US, EU, Australia, Asia-Pacific | Partial | Partial |
| Data encryption (at rest + in transit) | ✓ | TLS-Secured | ✓ |
| Player lockdown (kiosk mode / secure registration) | ✓ | Secure Player Registration | ✓ |
| Hardware compatibility | |||
| Amazon Signage Stick (Fire OS) | Default device | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android TV / Google TV | ✓ | Chrome Enterprise | Partial |
| Windows PC | ✓ | PWA + Screen Saver | ✓ |
| Apple TV / iPad | iPad via browser; no Apple TV | ✓ | ✓ |
| Raspberry Pi | Browser player (unmanaged) | — | — |
| Open hardware (no vendor lock-in) | ✓ | Partial | Partial |
| Support | |||
| Knowledge base / docs | ✓ | Carousel Academy | ✓ |
| Email support | ✓ | 2-day SLA | 1-day SLA |
| Phone support | ✓ | — | — |
| Video / scheduled remote support | ✓ | — | Pre-Scheduled Remote |
| Same-business-hour SLA | Sev2 within 4 business hours | 2-day | 1-day |
| US-based support team | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deployment options | |||
| Cloud / SaaS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| On-premise install | On-prem render agent only | — | — |
| Billing | |||
| Free trial duration | 7 days | — | — |
| Month-to-month billing | ✓ | — | — |
| Minimum screen count | None | 10 min | 30 min |
Moving from Carousel to Brix.
Export your Carousel bulletins and channel definitions. Carousel's web admin lets you bulk-download media; channel layouts can be screenshot or rebuilt manually.
We move your content for free. Your screens pair with a code on the hardware you already have.
Talk to us about your moveWhat Carousel gets right. And where the math breaks.
What Carousel gets right
Carousel is a real platform. SOC 2 Type II + HECVAT + CAIQ + SIG + annual pen test on every tier — that compliance posture is best-in-class for the K-12 and corporate-comms segment they're sized for. The BrightSign and Apple TV support is genuinely useful if you've already standardised on those players. Carousel Daily — their mobile companion app — is a thoughtful answer to 'how do you reach people who walk past screens without looking up.'
If you're a 200+ player district with a procurement team that has SOC 2 on the checklist and BrightSign on the loading dock — Carousel is built for that exact buyer.
Where the pricing math breaks
Carousel publishes Core at $25/screen/month with a 10-player minimum, Pro at $22/screen/month with a 30-player minimum (yes, the larger plan is cheaper per-screen because of the volume floor), and Enterprise as custom-quoted with a 200-player base. Storage tiers: 50 GB / 100 GB / 500 GB.
A 30-player Pro deployment is $7,920/year — the smallest commitment Carousel will accept at that tier. The same 30-screen deployment on Brix is $2,160/year. That's a $5,760/year gap, every year, with no minimums and no annual contract.
For a 10-screen pilot, Carousel forces you onto Core at $25/screen ($3,000/year). Brix is $720. Carousel is sized for buyers who already know they need 30+ players; it's not built for the operator running their first signage rollout.
When Carousel is the right choice
Carousel is the right call when you're a school district, government agency, or distributed corporate office that needs full vendor risk paperwork (SOC 2, HECVAT, CAIQ, SIG), Apple TV / BrightSign hardware support, and a 200+ player rollout where the procurement team writes RFPs.
For SMBs, gyms, restaurants, churches, salons, retail, manufacturing comms screens — the 30-player minimum and annual contract make Carousel a non-starter. Brix runs that same playbook for $6/screen with no minimums.
Questions about Carousel.
We have fewer than 30 screens. Can we even use Carousel?
Only on Core at $25/screen with a 10-player minimum. For under 10 screens, Carousel won't sell to you at all. Brix has no minimum — run a single screen at $6/screen/month billed annually.
Does Brix support BrightSign or Apple TV like Carousel does?
No. Brix has no BrightSign or Apple TV player. If your fleet is already 100% BrightSign and you can't change it, Carousel has the edge there. Most operators end up running Brix on the $99 Amazon Signage Stick instead — same software experience, no BYO tax.
What about SOC 2 / compliance paperwork?
Brix has security controls in place; SOC 2 attestation is on the roadmap, not in hand today. If your procurement team requires SOC 2, Carousel has it and we don't.
Can I move my Carousel bulletins to Brix?
Yes. Send us your media library and channel layouts. We rebuild your channels and schedules for free, including multi-zone layouts. We tell you how long before we start.
Carousel runs annual contracts. Can we switch mid-contract?
Many customers run Brix in parallel for the last few months and cut over at renewal. On monthly billing ($8/screen) there is no penalty for starting early or stopping later.
Try Brix before you renew Carousel.
7-day free trial, no credit card. We move your Carousel content for free.