Best Anthias Alternative (2026): ScreenTinker vs Anthias

Anthias (formerly Screenly OSE) is a beloved free, open-source signage project for the Raspberry Pi. But it is built around one Pi driving one screen. Here is an honest comparison with ScreenTinker for anyone who needs to manage more than a single display.

The short answer

Anthias is free, open source, and has been active since 2012 with around 3,500 GitHub stars. It runs on the Raspberry Pi 2 through 5 and positions itself as "free digital signage for everyone - no subscriptions, no cloud lock-in." It is essentially one-Pi-one-screen: single-screen oriented, with no multi-tenant or team management and a thin widget ecosystem. (Screenly is the paid-cloud parent product.)

ScreenTinker is also free, open source (MIT), and self-hostable - but it adds a modern web dashboard, multi-device fleet management, video walls with multi-screen sync, group sync, scheduling and dayparting, players well beyond the Pi, and an optional managed cloud. It is the better fit the moment you go past a single screen.

Quick comparison

* Live remote control is Android only and requires granting the on-device accessibility permission.
Comparison as of July 2026, based on each project's publicly listed documentation and repositories. Spot an error? Open an issue on GitHub and we'll fix it.

Where Anthias does well

• Dead-simple single Pi setup. If you have one Raspberry Pi and one screen showing a rotating playlist, Anthias is lightweight and gets you there fast.
• Genuinely free and open. No subscriptions, no cloud lock-in, active since 2012 with a large community (~3,500 GitHub stars).
• Low footprint. Purpose-built for the Pi, so it runs well on modest hardware.

Where ScreenTinker is the better choice

• You have more than one screen. Anthias is single-screen oriented with no multi-tenant or team management. ScreenTinker is built around multi-device fleet management from the start.
• You need video walls or synced screens. ScreenTinker does video walls with multi-screen sync and per-group synchronized playback. Anthias does not.
• You run mixed hardware. Beyond the Pi, ScreenTinker has native players for Android TV, Fire TV, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Amazon Vega OS, and any web browser. Anthias is Raspberry Pi only.
• You want real scheduling and widgets. Dayparting, content expiry, and native widgets (YouTube, RSS, Weather, Clock, plus a universal Webpage widget for any framable URL) go well past Anthias's basic scheduling and thin widget set.
• You want the option of managed cloud later. Self-host for free now, and move to the managed cloud without changing products if you ever want hosting handled for you.

Pricing snapshot

Both Anthias and self-hosted ScreenTinker are free and open source - Anthias on your Raspberry Pi, ScreenTinker on a $5 VPS that comfortably runs hundreds of screens. The difference is not price but reach: ScreenTinker adds fleet management, video walls, group sync, and multi-platform players at the same free-and-self-hosted price point, plus an optional managed cloud (Free, Starter $39/mo, Pro $99/mo) if you would rather not run a server.