Notes on family calendars
Comparisons of the apps and displays out there, with the subscription math spelled out, and how-tos for getting everyone's week onto one screen. We make Callie, and we say so whenever it shows up in a list.
The best family calendars in 2026: apps, displays, and your TV Cozi, Skylight, Hearth, Google Calendar, and the option nobody talks about: the TV you already own. What each one actually costs. 6 Skylight Calendar alternatives worth a look in 2026 Hearth, Cozi, DAKboard, Mango Display, the Echo Show 15, and an app for the Apple TV, with real prices, including the subscriptions. Is the Skylight Calendar worth it? The five-year math The sticker price is only the start. What a Skylight actually costs over five years once you add the Plus subscription, and what else that money buys. Skylight vs Hearth: which family display should you buy? A straight comparison of the two big wall calendars: size, price, subscriptions, and where each one wins. Plus the case for buying neither. How to put your family calendar on your TV AirPlay, casting, Fire TV apps, Apple TV apps: every way to get the week onto the biggest screen in the house, and which ones survive daily use. The Apple TV has no calendar app. Here’s what to use instead. tvOS still doesn’t ship a built-in calendar. The options for getting iCloud and Google calendars onto an Apple TV, from screen mirroring to real apps. How to combine iCloud and Google calendars into one family view One parent on iPhone, one on Android, kids’ schedules in a school portal. How private feed links pull it all into a single calendar. A digital family command center, without the $600 screen The command-center idea is good: calendar, chores, and lists in one spot everyone passes. You don’t need dedicated hardware to build one. Cozi alternatives for 2026, now that free Cozi is 30 days deep Cozi’s free plan now cuts the calendar off at a 30-day window. If that broke your setup, here are the real options, free and paid. DIY digital wall calendar: Raspberry Pi, old tablet, or the TV? DAKboard on a Pi, a wall-mounted Fire tablet, MagicMirror, or an app on the TV you already own. What each build costs and where they wear out. One screen, two jobs: a photo frame that’s also the calendar Digital frames and calendar displays are converging into the same product. How to get both on a screen you already own, with photos straight from iCloud. How to color-code a family calendar so it stays readable One color per person beats one color per category, and a few other rules that keep a five-person week legible from across the room. Aura frame vs Callie: we own an Aura, here’s where each one fits Aura makes our favorite photo frame, and we have one at home. When an Aura is the right buy, when the TV should be the frame, and why we use both. Aura vs Skylight Frame vs Nixplay: digital photo frames compared Prices, subscriptions, and who each frame is for, plus the biggest photo frame in your house, which you already own.