Shop Name Board Cost per Year of Board Life: Flex, Glow Sign and ACP in 10 Cities (2026)

Which shop name board is cheapest once you divide its price by how long it lasts? On the cards and lifespans our ten city shop name board pages publish, the glow sign wins in all ten cities. At the midpoint of each page's own figures a GSB glow sign costs Rs.50 a sq ft per year in Lucknow and Rs.100 in Mumbai, while a flex board costs Rs.69 and Rs.108, because flex is priced at a third of a glow sign but lasts 8 to 18 months against 3 to 5 years. Unlike our insert and auto rates, the board card is not national: ACP runs from Rs.350 a sq ft in Lucknow to Rs.1,050 in Mumbai, so the per-year cost changes city by city. Every per-year figure below is our arithmetic on figures read from the ten live pages on 4 October 2026.

What does each city's shop name board card publish?

The method: price divided by life, per sq ft. A flex board in Chennai at Rs.70 to Rs.120 that lasts 10 to 14 months works out to Rs.60 to Rs.144 a sq ft per year depending on which ends you pair; at the midpoints, Rs.95 over 12 months, it is Rs.95. A glow sign at Rs.220 to Rs.380 over 3 to 5 years is Rs.75 at the midpoints, Rs.300 over 4 years. ACP is published as 5 plus years with no upper figure, so we divide by 5, which makes its per-year number a ceiling rather than an estimate.

Which board type is cheapest per year of life in each city?

Hyderabad tops the gap at 36 percent because its flex is priced in the middle of the ten cards, up to Rs.130 a sq ft, but given the shortest life, 8 to 12 months, the same life as the cheaper Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Lucknow cards. Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow follow at 28 to 35 percent. Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai sit at the bottom, 5 to 7 percent, because their pages give flex 12 to 18 months, the longest life on any card. Chennai and Pune, with 10 to 14 months, fall between. Our Chennai street guide found the glow sign cheapest per year on that city's card; the same holds on all ten.

On a typical 4 by 2 ft board, the 8 sq ft size most pages price, the Chennai midpoints come to about Rs.760 a year for flex and Rs.600 for a glow sign, on our arithmetic. The absolute saving is small on a small board and grows with frontage: on Mumbai's typical 3 by 6 ft, 18 sq ft, it is about Rs.1,944 a year for flex against Rs.1,800 for GSB.

Why does a flex board last longer in some cities than others?

The life column is where the cards differ most, and each page explains its own figure. Delhi's page says flex lasts 12 to 18 months only with an anti-dust coating, against roughly 6 months without it; its 12 to 18 month figure is for the coated board. Mumbai's page gives 12 to 18 months for an anti-fungal coated flex, set against 2,400 mm of monsoon rain and coastal humidity, and calls its ACP marine-grade and its glow signs IP67 sealed. Bangalore's page also publishes 12 to 18 months but rates flex only fair in sustained rain and says it needs full replacement every 12 to 18 months.

At the short end, Hyderabad's page rates flex poor in 45 degree heat and says it warps by May, which is why it gives 8 to 12 months. Ahmedabad pairs 8 to 12 months with heat-rated housings and ACP rated for 90 degree surface temperatures, and Jaipur and Lucknow use the same 8 to 12 months with dust-sealed or monsoon-rated glow signs. Kolkata's page builds its whole card around 85 to 95 percent humidity, with anti-fungal coatings on ACP. Chennai and Pune sit in the middle at 10 to 14 months, Chennai citing salt air and UV-resistant inks, Pune the monsoon.

Two practical points follow. First, the published life assumes the coating the page describes, so a cheaper uncoated flex from elsewhere will not last as long and its per-year cost will be higher than our table shows. Second, the cities where flex comes closest to a glow sign per year, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, are exactly the ones where the page's longer flex life depends on that coating. Ask for it by name on the quote.

Does ACP ever beat a glow sign on cost per year?

Not on any published life. Dividing each city's midpoint ACP price by its midpoint GSB cost per year gives the life ACP would need to match it: about 9 years in every one of the ten cities, from 9.0 in Lucknow, Chennai and Mumbai to 9.25 in Delhi. That uniformity is itself a finding, because it means every city card prices ACP at roughly 2.3 times a glow sign. No page publishes an ACP life beyond 5 plus years for the plain panel, or 7 plus for 3D steel or brass letters.

So ACP is not the economy choice and the pages do not claim it is. It is bought for what the per-year sum leaves out: heat, salt air and monsoon ratings the pages describe city by city, heritage compliance in Jaipur's Walled City and Ahmedabad's pol lanes, 3D lettering, and a fascia that does not need replacing on a lease of 5 years or more. If those matter, the per-year premium is the price of them. If they do not, a glow sign is the cheaper permanent board everywhere we publish.

When is a flex board still the right choice?

When the shop will not be there long enough for life to matter. A flex board is replaced, not repaired, so its per-year cost only counts if you need a board for longer than one flex life. Chennai's page notes 8 to 12 month average tenancy for coaching centres in Tambaram, Chrompet and Anna Nagar; for a tenancy that short, the lowest upfront price wins and flex at Rs.70 to Rs.120 a sq ft is the honest answer. The same goes for pop-ups, seasonal stalls and testing a location. Flex is also installed in 3 days against about 5 for a glow sign, which matters for an opening date.

What the per-year sum leaves out cuts mostly one way. A glow sign draws electricity every evening it is lit, and Bangalore's page lists LED replacement every 3 to 5 years as its maintenance; neither cost is on any card, and both narrow the glow sign's lead. How much depends on the hours you trade after dark and your local tariff, which no page publishes, so we have not guessed it. In the three cities where GSB leads by only 5 to 7 percent, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, a modest power bill could close the gap entirely, and there the honest comparison is closer to a tie. In Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Lucknow, where the lead is 28 to 36 percent, it is harder to erase. The same pages note that a lit board keeps working after dark and through Delhi's fog season, which an unlit flex does not, and that difference is not in the arithmetic either.

Which city pages publish figures that do not reconcile?

Rs.180 in every title: all ten pages carry Rs.180 a sq ft in their page title. On the cards themselves, Rs.180 appears only in Ahmedabad and Kolkata, as the bottom of the GSB range. In Mumbai the cheapest glow sign is Rs.300 and in Bangalore Rs.260; in Lucknow it is Rs.140. A buyer searching on the title figure should check the city card.

Hyderabad and Bangalore warranties: both pages list a 1-year warranty on non-lit boards. Bangalore gives flex 12 to 18 months, so that holds. Hyderabad gives flex 8 to 12 months, so at the low end the warranty outlasts the board's own published life. Ask which applies before relying on it.

Delhi's two ACP promises: the Delhi page lists a 5 plus year no-fade warranty against its ACP board, while its pricing table and handover step state a 2-year structural warranty on ACP and GSB. They may cover different things, colour and structure, but the page does not say so.

Jaipur's comparison table prices both its Pink City ACP and standard ACP at Rs.400 to Rs.850, while its pricing table splits plain Pink City ACP at Rs.400 to Rs.650 from ACP with 3D letters at Rs.550 to Rs.850. We used the pricing table. Kolkata lists a Puja overlay at Rs.120 to Rs.250 lasting 2 to 3 Puja seasons, which is a seasonal add-on rather than a shop board and is left out of the comparison.

What should you check before ordering a board?

Five questions settle most of this: how long you expect to trade at the address; whether you trade after dark, which decides between GSB and an unlit board; the sq ft of your frontage, priced on your city's card rather than a headline; whether the area carries heritage, coastal or heat conditions that the ACP ratings answer; and what the warranty covers in writing, given the warranty lines above. Then compare quotes per sq ft per year, not per board.