A Skylight Calendar is a touchscreen that shows the family's calendar where everyone walks past it: practice on Tuesday, the dentist on Thursday, who picks up on Friday. If you are looking for an alternative, you probably like the idea and hesitate at the price: roughly USD 170 to 600 for the screen, and a yearly subscription on top if the week's meals should be on it too.
Our answer is that the week does not need a new screen. The family's shared calendar is already on everyone's phone, and it goes on a tablet the household owns. We make EpiHem, and that is the calendar we build: an app, not a display, with the shopping list and the week's dinners in the same app, free for up to four people. Below is what EpiHem does, what a Skylight costs over the years, and the other routes to a calendar in the kitchen.
The short version
Which route fits depends on what you already own and what you want to pay:
EpiHem: the family's week on the screens you already own
A screen on the wall shows the week in one room. EpiHem puts it in every pocket: one shared calendar on iPhone, on Android and in any web browser, where a change shows on everyone's screen as it is made. Practice moves to Wednesday, and everyone knows before anyone is home. The shopping list is in the same app, and with Premium so are the week's dinners.
Free for up to four people
The shared calendar is whole in the free version:
- Recurring events and reminders, in a week, a month and an agenda view.
- A face on every event, so you see at a glance who it is for.
- The school's and the club's calendar, added with a calendar link, so nobody types the fixture list in by hand.
- Shared shopping and to-do lists in the same app, the lists everyone ticks off together.
- No ads, on any plan.
Premium puts dinner and the receipts on the calendar
A Skylight keeps meal planning in a paid subscription, on top of the price of the screen. In EpiHem it is part of Premium, and there is no screen to buy first. Plan the week's dinners and they sit on their days, under the events. The meal plan writes the shopping list, and when the shopping is done you scan the receipt: EpiHem reads the items, puts the receipt on its day and works out who owes whom.
Premium costs EUR 6.99 a month or EUR 49.99 a year, and one subscription covers the whole household, up to 8 people. Try it free for 14 days, with no card.
On the tablet in the kitchen
If you want the week on a screen everyone walks past, use a tablet you already own. Put it on a stand and open EpiHem in the tablet's browser, and the tablet's own Guided Access (iPad) or app pinning (Android) keeps it on the screen. It is the same calendar as on the phones, so what you add on your phone is in the calendar on the tablet. The two settings are described under a tablet you own.
What a Skylight Calendar really costs
What you get: A finished appliance: a touchscreen made for the family's calendar, in three sizes from 10 to 27 inches. It syncs the calendars a family already has, which Skylight lists as Google, Apple, Outlook, Yahoo and Cozi calendars and any calendar with a public link. The calendar sync, the chore chart, lists, profiles and the phone app all work without a subscription.
Where it stops: At the price. The screen costs roughly USD 170 to 600 depending on the size. Meal planning, the photo screensaver, star rewards and Magic Import, which makes events from emails, photos and PDFs, belong to Plus, a paid subscription at about USD 80 a year. Plus is optional, but it is where the dinners are.
Here is what that means for the middle size over three years:
- Without Plus: about USD 300 for the screen, paid once.
- With Plus: about USD 300 for the screen and about USD 240 for three years of Plus, so roughly USD 540.
After four years Plus has cost about as much as the screen itself. So the thing to settle before you buy is whether you want what Plus adds. If you do, the price of the screen is only the start.
What each route costs
EpiHem next to the Skylight and the other routes, with what you pay once and what you pay each year. On a phone the table scrolls sideways.
| Feature | EpiHem Our app | Skylight Calendar | Hearth Display | Mango Display | DAKboard | A new tablet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Nothing. It runs on the phones you have and in the browser of a tablet you own | A 10, 15 or 27 inch touchscreen | A 27 inch screen | Software for a screen you own | Software for a screen you own | A tablet and a stand or wall mount |
| Up front | Nothing | Roughly USD 170 to 600 depending on the size | About USD 700 | Nothing for the software | Nothing for the software | A base iPad is from about USD 450 |
| Each year | Nothing for the calendar and the lists, for up to 4 people. Premium, with the dinners and the receipts: EUR 49.99 (EUR 6.99 a month) for the whole household | Nothing without Plus. Plus, the paid subscription with meal planning in it: about USD 80 | A membership at about USD 9 a month, needed to set the screen up | The calendar is in the paid version, Pro: about USD 60 (about USD 6 a month) | Free with two calendars and one fixed layout, or a paid plan at about USD 5 to 6 a month | Nothing for the tablet |
The other products' prices are rounded from what each vendor published in US dollars in October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor's page before you buy. A stand or a wall mount for a tablet is not priced here. EpiHem's price is our own, in euros, and the app stores show it in your currency.
Hearth Display
What you get: A 27 inch screen with a shared calendar, routines for children, meal planning and a family dashboard. It syncs Google, Outlook, Apple and Cozi calendars.
Where it stops: At about USD 700 for the screen, more than the largest Skylight, with a membership at about USD 9 a month on top. Hearth says the membership is needed to set the screen up, and that without one the calendar can still be viewed while routines and tasks cannot. So the membership is part of the price: with three years of it, a Hearth comes to close to USD 1,000.
Software for a screen you already own
What you get: A way to put a calendar on a spare TV, monitor or tablet. Mango Display runs on a TV, an iPad, an Android or Fire tablet, an Echo Show, a PC or any browser, and shows Google, Microsoft and Apple calendars. DAKboard has a free plan with two calendars and one fixed layout.
Where it stops: The software shows calendars. It is not the calendar: Mango Display shows the ones you keep with Google, Microsoft or Apple, so the events are still added somewhere else. It is also one more subscription. Mango Display's calendar is part of Pro, a paid subscription at about USD 6 a month or USD 60 a year, and DAKboard beyond the free plan is about USD 5 to 6 a month. Three years of either, paid by the year, is about USD 180, which is about what the smallest Skylight costs to buy. And you supply the screen and the mount yourself.
A tablet you own, with the family calendar on it
The cheapest screen is the one already in the house. A tablet that mostly sits in a drawer becomes the kitchen screen with a stand or a wall mount, and the tablet has no yearly cost.
Open EpiHem in the tablet's browser, at app.epihem.com, and sign in. The family's week is on the screen, and it is the same calendar as on the phones. Two settings in the tablet itself keep it there:
- On an iPad: Guided Access, under Settings, Accessibility, Guided Access. It has its own Display Auto-Lock setting.
- On an Android tablet: app pinning, under Settings, Security, App pinning.
If you have to buy the tablet, the sum is another one: a base iPad is from about USD 450, more than the middle-size Skylight. This route pays off with the tablet you already have.
Other calendars go on a tablet too. Apple Calendar is on every iPad, and Google Calendar opens in any browser. Both are free, and both stop at the schedule: no shopping list and no dinners. Our comparison of family calendar apps goes through six of them, with what each free version holds.
Do you need a screen at all?
A screen on the wall is there so that everyone sees the same week. The same calendar on everyone's phone does that, and it is with you at work and at the school gate, where the wall is not. A reminder comes to the phone in your pocket, wherever you are. For children who have no phone yet, there is the tablet in the kitchen.
Google Calendar does the schedule for free, and so does a shared calendar in Apple Calendar when everyone has an iPhone. Apple Calendar has no Android app, and both stop at the schedule. EpiHem is free for up to 4 people too, on iPhone, on Android and on the web, and the shopping list is in the same app. With Premium the week's dinners are on the calendar, under the events.
Which one should you choose?
- You want everyone to know the week: EpiHem on the phones, and no screen. Start free with the calendar and the lists, and add Premium when the dinners and the receipts should be in it too.
- You want the week on a screen and have a tablet in a drawer: a stand or a wall mount, EpiHem in the tablet's browser, and Guided Access or app pinning.
- You have a spare screen and do not mind a project: Mango Display or DAKboard, and count on a subscription and on keeping the calendar in another app. DAKboard's free plan is the place to start if two calendars are enough.
- You want routines for the children on a large screen: the Hearth Display, at about USD 700 plus the membership.
- You want the finished appliance: the Skylight Calendar. Pick the size, and count on Plus, at about USD 80 a year, if you want meal planning on it.
If the calendar is only one of several things the household wants in one place, our comparison of family organizer apps covers lists, meals and shared costs as well.
