6 Alternatives To The Skylight Calendar

Calendars are a time-tested tool that society couldn't live without. But just like countless other tools in the modern age, the calendar has seen quite the evolution. While there are plenty who still prefer flipping through a physical calendar, many others have transitioned to digital calendar options that do far more than letting you know the current day, week, and month. One such item that has gained popularity in recent years for its outstanding functionality is the Skylight Calendar, which goes above and beyond what even most digital calendars are capable of doing. 

The Skylight Calendar is a smart display that offers a host of innovative functions that give users a dynamic level of control over their schedule. The Skylight's bold digital screen not only gives you the date, but lets you access unique features such as dinner planning, weather reports, chore charts, grocery lists, and more. Your Skylight can be connected to your smartphone through the accompanying mobile app and have access to it be shared with your family, making it an ideal gadget for busy parents looking to keep their families up to date on upcoming activities and events. 

As useful as Skylight is, it's understandable to want to seek another digital calendar option. With the display itself costing between $150 and $600 alongside a $39 yearly subscription fee, it may not be the best suited to your situation. Whether you're seeking an option that costs less, is simpler to use, or contains a feature that's missing from Skylight, you'll find that there's no shortage to pick from, meaning you're bound to find something that will best suit your needs. Here are six Skylight alternatives that deserve your attention. 

While Skylight gives you plenty of room to alter your schedule the way you'd like, there aren't as many ways to customize it to best work with your aesthetic. The display, no matter the size, will always come in the same default white frame and the screen offers little in the way of freedom in choosing what you want to see at any given time.

If this is an issue for you, then a Mango Display digital calendar may be up your alley. Unlike Skylight, there's no hardware involved with Mango. Rather, you can have the display put on any supported tablet or TV display, including iPads, Amazon Fire TVs, Samsung TVs, LG TVs, and more. While the $60 yearly fee for Mango Display does cost more than Skylight's $39 annual subscription, not having to purchase an extra piece of expensive hardware significantly cuts down on the upfront costs. 

Perhaps the coolest thing about Mango Display is the way you can personalize it. Not only does setting it up take much less time than Skylight or similar devices that require an additional hardware component, but the program allows you to arrange your calendar, clock, background, weather, and other widgets around the screen to your liking. So if you want to have your calendar pushed more to the side to make room for the clock, or you want to use a Google photo as your background, no problem. Adding to this simplicity is the ability to access everything from one command center, as opposed to digging through various pages or apps.

Skylight Calendar users may be familiar with Cozi, as it is one of the many digital calendars that auto-syncs with the platform. But to say that Cozi has little to offer on its own would be an untrue statement, as it has become a well-trusted digital calendar and scheduling program for many families in recent years. 

While Cozi was founded in 2005, it has gained a new life in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Users can attach up to 12 family members who can then access your shared calendars, to-do lists, and grocery lists. You can further customize the calendars and lists through notifications and color coding. Along with being free to download and use, Cozi has received acclaim from less tech-savvy parents for its simple, user-friendly interface and functionality.

Like Mango Display, there's no dedicated physical display for Cozi — it's an app for PCs and Macs. It is also available as a mobile app through the iOS App Store and Google Play, where it currently holds a 4.8 out of 5-star rating average on both platforms. One downside of the free version is that it does come with ads, which may be irritating for some. A more feature-filled, paid version called Cozi Gold can be obtained for $39 for an annual plan or $29.99 for a one-time year-long subscription.

For many, the biggest draw to Skylight for many is the sizable display that comes with the program. Finding a digital calendar that comes with such a display and the same level of functionality isn't easy. However, that doesn't mean there are none, as is the case for Hearth Display, which in some ways even out does Skylight with some surprisingly advanced capabilities.

Hearth comes in the form of a 27-inch touchscreen display that can be mounted on your wall. Users can create an unlimited number of profiles and then access activities, meals, events, chores, and reminders through a simple, clean interface that's easy to view and navigate. Parents looking to build a good sense of independence and responsibility within their kids will find Hearth especially useful, as its bold display, user-friendly qualities, and engaging features such as personalized profile designs and habit streaks can prove encouraging to younger users. 

Among Hearth Display's many features, such as screen timeout, weather updates, and the accompanying Hearth Companion app available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play, its most impressive is perhaps the Hearth Helper. The Hearth Helper is an AI assistant that seamlessly transfers the events listed on a photo of a physical calendar or forwarded email to your Hearth calendar. The biggest drawback to Hearth Helper is its cost. While the $9.99 per month membership is optional (this is the only way you can access Hearth Helper), the display itself costs $699 which, while not too surprising given its size and numerous features, will surely put a dent into the budgets of some families. 

DAKboard is another versatile and innovative digital calendar that, like Skylight and Hearth, comes with a good-sized display that allows for a range of personal and professional applications. Unlike its competitors, however, buyers have a bit more room when it comes to finding a DAKboard that suits their aesthetic and financial needs.

DAKboard features a variety of 27-inch displays that come in styles from sleek and simple to rustic and wooden, as the company has licensed out its technology to be used by brands such as Smarty Mirrors, YaegerWoodWorks, Matter of Fractions, and more. They range in cost from $399.95 to $1,3999 which, while certainly pricey, does give you a range of options. This similarly applies to its membership fees, where you can pay between three yearly or monthly pay plans. There are even DIY options, as users who have an old monitor lying around can buy a much cheaper Raspberry Pi module to create their own functioning DAKboard screen. The crystal clear display allows for customizable calendar options, weather alerts, to-do lists, a digital photo frame, traffic updates, and more.

Along with the price concerns, DAKboard's biggest drawback is that it does not use a touchscreen by default, with the only way to currently enable the function being through displays powered by Raspberry Pi v3.41 and Orange Pi v103.41 or higher.

While having a nice-sized display with a ton of features certainly has its benefits, many may not mind having their calendar on a smaller screen. Thankfully, there's no shortage of calendar apps that pack a lot of quality into a more compact package. Among these is the OurCal app, which ranks among the highest-rated calendar apps for a good reason. 

Available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play for free, OurCal has garnered strong reviews on both platforms. The app is jam-packed with features made with multiple users in mind. The shared calendar allows users to invite whoever they desire and have them be synced to upcoming events and alerts. The calendar can be customized to suit a variety of social settings, from family activities to friend hangouts to romantic occasions and everything in between. Other special functions include private messaging, photo and document sharing, and the ability to sync with other online calendars from the likes of Google, Apple, Yahoo, and more. 

Among the most notable qualities of OurCal is the tight security that comes with the service. The app comes with built-in end-to-end encryption technology to ensure that your calendars and events are only seen by those you intended to view them, aiding in privacy protection and organization. It may not be as flashy as some of the competitors, but for those seeking a simpler or cheaper option that still gets the job done, you may be pleasantly surprised with what OurCal has to offer.

It's easy to forget what an integral part of our day-to-day lives that Google has become for so many of us. There's a good chance that even before reading this article, you've used one of Google's many services, whether it be Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and more. But with the myriad of digital calendar options to choose from nowadays, it's just as easy to take Google's own calendar and its robust set of functions for granted.

Google Calendar likely needs little introduction for most people. As the digital calendar that comes with your Google account, it is free to use across any laptop, tablet, or smartphone where you are signed in to Google. It allows you to map out and personalize your schedule with the ability to distinguish between your tasks and events through categories, color coding, specific notifications, and more. This gives you plenty of room to make distinctions between personal events, professional duties, and social gatherings without getting confused. Of course, you can also share your calendars and events with others, as well as sync it to other digital calendars. 

Given Google's ownership of Android, it should come as no surprise that Google Calendar offers for features and functions for Android users. There's also a surprisingly steep learning curve to figuring out Google Calendar in terms of scheduling and notifications, so this may not be the best pick for families seeking a calendar that kids can get a grasp of right away. For those willing to put in the time to figure it out, however, there's a lot more to Google Calendar than meets the eye.