Best Digital Menu Boards for Quick-Service Restaurants: WAND Digital vs OptiSigns

For quick-service restaurants (QSRs), dining halls, drive-thrus, and food service operators, digital menu boards are now table stakes in the competitive food service and restaurant industry. So, it’s important that your digital menu boards and everything it takes to run them well – like commercial-grade screens and software tailored to restaurant owners’ and operators’ needs – are optimized for scalability, growth in sales, and bottom lines. 

For franchisors and franchisees who are ready to invest in digital menus for drive-thrus and indoor service, we’ve pulled together comparisons of the best platforms on the market for QSRs and fast casual restaurants. In this article, we’ll cover what makes WAND Digital the OptiSigns alternative digital menu platform for businesses in the QSR industry

Tempting and perhaps cheaper in the short-term, TV screens are not ideal restaurant digital menu boards. When it comes to hardware longevity, durability, and capabilities, a TV is no substitute for what a restaurant needs. Consumer-grade TVs aren’t built to last and cannot withstand a restaurant environment. Additionally, most consumer TV screen warranties clearly detail that commercial use of the TV screen falls outside of the product’s warranty. Not to mention, TV screens have too many unnecessary settings. If you’re looking to upgrade your restaurant signage with digital menu technology, investing in commercial-grade screens is a smart move for your customers, end-users, and your bottom line.

Read this article on why TV screens won’t work as digital menu boards

OptiSigns software and hardware (a plug-and play device or one of many they recommend like Amazon Fire TV Stick and other similar players) are not specifically made for QSRs and fast casual restaurants but any business with digital signage needs. They run the gamut when it comes to industries served, which means their software and hardware were created for broad use, not just for QSR drive-thru digital menus or indoor digital menus. And, because OptiSigns was not created specifically for QSRs, services like POS system integration are not included in the base packages – you’d need to upgrade to their enterprise package to receive custom integrations, thereby increasing your costs.

WAND Digital can outfit your QSR or fast-casual restaurant with POS integrations, state-of-the-art hardware, and more tech to fit your needs. WAND will help you procure industrial-grade digital menu boards for your drive-thrus that withstand the weather in any region and climate that your stores are located in as well as best-in-class displays for your indoor spaces. 

Additionally, WAND Digital’s software is specifically made to help QSR and fast casual restaurant owners and operators get up and running quickly and seamlessly (then scale and grow) with digital menu boards. With our installation and onboarding services, content management resources, and award-winning menu design, you’ll be able to easily make updates to menu items, prices, descriptions, calories and sizes, as well as upload brand assets, schedule day-parting, and deploy a premium outdoor and indoor experience from one store to hundreds in minutes.

Designed for maximum performance, WAND is hosted by AWS and backed by an offline automatic playback system. WAND software integrates with POS systems like Revel, Toast, PAR Technology’s Brink (all leaders in the QSR industry) and more, so you have a single source of truth for powering, managing, and revising your digital menus.

For all these reasons, we hope you’ll see that WAND Digital is the preferred alternative to OptiSigns. Overall, OptiSigns offers a lot across the spectrum of digital signage needs. Though, perhaps their lack of focus on QSRs and recommended use (and support for) consumer-grade TVs could leave you with an untailored, short-term solution.

If you’d like to continue your research to find the best digital menu board platform for your business, see the related articles below for additional comparisons of the best digital menu technology on the market.

Disclaimer: All information was obtained from public sources on or around the date of publishing this article and may have changed since then. References to OptiSigns are for illustrative and educational purposes only. We are not affiliated with or sponsored by OptiSigns.