A self-hosted queue system that isn't $789 a month
Qminder now starts near $800 a month, Waitwhile bills per location — and there is no free self-hosted queue display. Here is the buy-once alternative for a waiting-room number board.
A waiting room needs one boring thing: issue the next number, show it on a screen, call it up. Clinics, workshops, service counters, government offices, repair shops — they all run this, and the software that does it is priced like enterprise infrastructure.
What the category actually costs
Qminder now lists two plans: Business at $9,468/year (about $789/month) and Premier at $12,588/year (about $1,049/month), billed annually (pricing).
Waitwhile has a free tier (one location, 50 visits/month), then bills $31 and $55/month tiers per location (pricing).
And unlike invoicing or note-taking, there is no strong free open-source option for a business queue-and-display system. So your realistic choices have been: pay enterprise SaaS every month, or build a spreadsheet-and-shouting workaround.
The buy-once option
Tokora is a self-hosted queue and token-display system you purchase once and run on your own machine. Issue numbered tickets, call the next one, and show a live "now serving" board on any screen — a TV, a tablet, a spare monitor — with no monthly fee and no per-location or per-user meter.
One payment, unlimited counters and screens. A second service desk does not cost more.
Runs on hardware you already have. It is a web page; point a browser at it. No proprietary kiosk, no Apple-TV-only setup.
Your data stays yours, on your server. The waiting-room board never phones home.
At roughly $789/month, Qminder's entry plan costs more in one month than most small operations should ever spend on a number board. Tokora is the same core job — issue, display, call — bought once.
When each one wins
Stay on Qminder/Waitwhile if you need deep cross-location analytics, built-in SMS notifications to customers, and appointment booking bundled in, and the monthly cost is trivial relative to your operation.
Own it with Tokora if you run one or a few counters, you want a reliable "now serving" board without an enterprise contract, and "buy once, run it on my own screen" beats a recurring bill.
The honest limits: Tokora is the queue and display — it does not send customers SMS updates or handle appointment booking (that is Slotly's job), and it is a 1.0 focused on doing the number-board reliably. If SMS or scheduling is core to you today, the SaaS tools include it. If you just need the board, you have been overpaying for it.
Every product here shows its honest limitations in plain text before you spend a cent, and the rent-vs-own math runs the numbers for any tool in the catalog — but for a queue display, the arithmetic is barely worth doing: one month of Qminder buys Tokora several times over, and then the meter simply stops.
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Can I try it locally without a web host?
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The installer fails — what now?
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Can I use it for a client project?
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Can I resell or redistribute it?
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I bought the wrong product
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