UK Mum’s HONEST Review of Skylight Calendar (2025)

If you’ve been spammed by social media ads for the Skylight Calendar, you might be desperate to know whether it’s really worth the hype. The new digital family planner, proclaiming to “transform” your diary management, has exploded into both the UK and US markets.

As someone who has worked in influencer marketing for a decade now, I must admit that I was suspicious about just how good this product really was. Although I’ve seen plenty of ads telling me how amazing the Skylight Calendar is, I was struggling to find any organic or honest reviews of the product.

So, a month ago, I took one for the team and bought the Skylight Calendar with my own, hard-earned cash. Having trialled it for 4 weeks now, I want to provide an honest review of the Skylight Calendar.

Is this really the best digital calendar for families? Is it really worth the hefty price tag?

Here’s my honest review of Skylight Calendar 2025 (from a UK Mum!)

FAQs about the Skylight Calendar

Before we leap into my review of Skylight Calendar, let’s firstly go over some key FAQs about the digital family planner and what it can offer.

1. What is the Skylight Calendar and how does it work?

The Skylight Calendar is a touch-screen digital calendar. Designed with families in mind, the calendar provides an easy way to merge multiple calendars to provide a 360, visual calendar for your household.

Unlike traditional paper planners or phone apps, it acts as a “central visual hub” that displays your synced diaries from Google, Apple, Outlook, and other calendars in real-time. The calendar can also be easily shared with family, carers, friends or children, to keep everyone in the loop.

If you buy the Plus Plan, the Calendar also transforms into a digital photo frame. It also allows users to create chore lists for different household members, to-do lists, weekly food planning and even reward/chore charts for kids.

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How much does the Skylight Calendar cost in the UK?

In the UK, the Skylight Calendar comes in two different sizes (with a third product set to be released later this year):

1. Skylight Calendar 15″ is £290.00
2. Skylight Calendar Max 27″ is £525.00
3. Coming soon is the ‘Shadow Box’ (Aluminium frame) which will be a whopping £550!

I bought the 15″ calendar, which in itself seems pretty large on the kitchen worktop. I can’t imagine how big the Max must be and you’d need a serious amount of space on the wall or worktop to store it.

I think, therefore, if you’re considering to invest in the Skylight Calendar – without making it a prominent feature in your house – the 15″ is more than adequate.

What is the Plus Plan and is it really required with the Skylight Calendar?

I’m currently using the Plus Plan, as you get it free within the first month of purchase.

The Plus Plan includes:

1. Digital photo(s) screensaver
2. Meal planning: you can automatically import recipes through a website or photo into the app, where it will cleverly add all the required ingredients to your shopping list.
3. “Magic import” – this feature allows users to forward any PDF or email (i.e. from school) to the calendar. This will then automatically convert it into an event in the Skylight Calendar.
4. Sidekick – this AI feature is found within the Skylight app and allows you to do magical things, such as take a photo of dates on a paper and automatically upload them as digital events into your calendar.

I think the Plus Plan features are extremely useful and well worth the additional £60 a year. 

Can you use Skylight Calendar without Wi-Fi?

No. The Skylight Calendar cannot be used without Wi-Fi, which seems to be users biggest complaints about the digital calendar. I, however, don’t think that it’s particularly annoying. The Skylight Calendar is a large product that isn’t going to be coming with me anywhere. So, it having to be connected to the home Wi-Fi isn’t a particular issue.

What apps and calendars can sync with the Skylight Calendar?

The Skylight Calendar is compatible with Google, Outlook, Apple, Yahoo, Cozi and many more. For example, the Skylight Calendar syncs with my daughter’s school app – Class Dojo – meaning I can send PDFs, newsletters and new events straight to the calendar to be added, rather than having to do it manually. This is a complete revelation and has made it so much quicker to add (the endless) school events into our calendars.

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Do you have to plug the Skylight Calendar in?

Yes, you need to plug the Skylight Calendar into a socket. I think this is actually the most frustrating aspect of the Skylight Calendar, as you’ll need a space in the kitchen (or wherever you choose to put it in the house) that’s near a plug. If you decide to mount it on the wall, you’ll also have an ugly wire hanging down, unless you put lots of effort in to cover it.

The wire is fairly long but it would look quite ugly if you had the screen quite far away from the socket. 

What is the refund policy for the Skylight Calendar in the UK?

Skylight do have a very generous returns policy of 4 months (120 days free return). This is one of the main reasons I decided to invest in the calendar, knowing I could get a good amount of use out of it before deciding whether it was really benefiting me and my family.

What are the pros and cons of the Skylight Calendar?

I think it’s only fair, if I’m doing an honest review of skylight calendar to look at both the pros and cons of the digital calendar. Let’s start with the pros and the things I really like about the Skylight Calendar.

Pros of the Skylight Calendar

1. Best Digital Calendar for Families

If, as a busy household, you’re looking for a digital calendar then the Skylight Calendar is for you. This really is a product made for families, helping reduce the admin burden that’s often taken on by, let’s be honest, Mums.

Tired of always having to tell my husband what’s happening each week in terms of school pick ups, parties, after work events and our never-ending to-do list, the Skylight Calendar now gives him little excuse to feign forgetfulness.

In fact, the Skylight Calendar now holds him entirely accountable when it comes to the day-to-day running of the house. Our weeks are now clearly displayed, colour coded per household member, and staring him right in the face every time he makes a cup of tea.

2. Visual clarity for the week ahead

In my review of Skylight Calendar, I’d say the visual clarity it gives you for the week ahead is really brilliant. On a Sunday, it’s ideal for having a quick glance over with my husband, and making sure we’ve got all bases covered.

I love how each person in the household has a different colour assigned to them and how you can toggle to either see a full family view, or just look at one person’s diary.

Reading other reviews of the Skylight Calendar, it looks as though this visual element is also good for neurodiverse individuals, who find the colour system easier to absorb than just a written diary. 

3. Chore tasks (better for older kids)

The visual chore list for kids (complete with reward setting and colourful emojis) is a really innovative element of the Skylight Calendar. The chore list allows you to set regular routines with your kids, with the optional reward once they’ve gained a certain amount of stars for completing their chores.

For example:

Daily Chores

1. Make Bed (with help) → Worth 1 star
2. Put Toys Away → Worth 1 star
3. Put Dirty Clothes in Hamper → Worth 1 star
4. Help Set the Table → Worth 1 star

Weekly Chores

1. Water Plants with Parent → Worth 2 stars

2. Help Wipe the Table After Dinner → Worth 2 stars

You can then set up a reward, i.e. new barbie doll, once your child reaches their reward. This is also really visual (you can pick a picture) and is really motivating for kids.

4. Syncs multiple calendars

As mentioned earlier in the review of Skylight Calendar, the digital family calendar syncs with multiple (many) calendars. When you set up the Skylight calendar, you’re also given your own unique email address for the Skylight calendar. This means you can email PDFs/diary invites directly to the personal email and it will automatically upload onto the Skylight Calendar. 

5. Family-friendly to use

For those with older children in the household, the Skylight Calendar is definitely easy to use. I can see Olive using it a lot as she gets older, exploring her week and checking in on her chores and rewards. The screen is big and easy to navigate, with an easy touch screen functionality.

What’s also great about the Skylight Calendar is that it’s free of any browsers/additional apps, meaning you don’t need to worry about your kids using it as an iPad or accessing the internet.

6. Can become a photo frame when you’re not using it

If you opt for the Plus Plan of the Skylight Calendar, you can use your calendar as a digital photo frame when you’re not using it. Simply upload your images through the app, and they automatically upload on display within the frame. I really like this feature, although my daughter decided to upload countless random images to ours, meaning I’m often met with a frame full of random screenshots and dodgy selfies.

7. Skylight app to help manage the calendar

When I first got the Skylight Calendar, I didn’t expect to use the Skylight app as much as I do. As I mention below in the cons list, I find the touch screen on the actual calendar quite clunky and find it much easier to manage the calendar mostly through the app.

The Skylight app allows you to upload events, photos, dates and to-do lists through Sidekick, as well as check-in on your calendar on the go. For example, check for any tasks or what dinner you’ve planned to cook that night.

8. Sidekick (is AMAZING!)

My absolutely favourite element of the Skylight Calendar is the AI Sidekick functionality that’s found within the app. This is (annoyingly) part of the Plus Plan but I do think that it’s incredibly useful and adds an extra layer of efficiency to the Skylight Calendar.

Essentially, sidekick is an AI-powered family assistant that helps automate and simplify tasks in your Skylight Calendar app. For example, within Sidekick I can take a photo of a school newsletter, with a list of dates, or a party invitation, and it uploads the event immediately into the digital calendar.

Magic.

It also allows you to import recipes from websites, or off a page – adding it to your food planner for the week. I haven’t actually yet started using the meal planner/shopping list element yet but I LOVE the idea of seeing a recipe and being able to send all ingredients straight to the planner.

Finally, Sidekick allows you to type or voice message something to the Skylight Calendar to be added to your to-do list. This is so helpful. Today, for example, whilst stuck in traffic ,I quickly sent a voice note to Sidekick to remind myself to book a dentist appointment. When I got home, and had obviously completely forgotten about it in that time, there it was on the digital calendar as a further reminder.

Cons of the Skylight Calendar

As much as I love the Skylight Calendar, there are definitely some cons to it. Here’s where I think the Skylight Calendar is lacking.

1. Has to be plugged into the wall (annoying cable)

One of the biggest annoyances by users of the Skylight Calendar is that it has to be plugged into the wall. That means it does limit where you can put it around the house and although you could put it on the wall, you’d need to do a bit of work in covering up the cable. As mentioned earlier in the review, the cord is fairly long but it’s quite a chunky white cord, so not particularly discreet.

2. Need subscription to get the most out of it

After nearly a month of using the free-month trial of the Plus Plan, I do think you would want it to make the most of the product. For some, £60 spread over a year is a no-brainer for the extra functions it provides, such as Sidekick.

For others, however, when the product is already very expensive, the additional £60 might be a step too far. I think now we’ve been pulled into using its extra functions, we will have to fork out for the additional plan.

I guess that’s how they get you!

3. Requires Wi-Fi

As mentioned above, the Skylight Calendar does require Wi-Fi to work. I don’t find this a huge con to the Skylight Calendar because it’s only sat in my kitchen anyway. I guess for some users, however, this could be an issue if you want to set it up somewhere in the house with limited signal.

4. Not voice activated (can feel clunky)

Unlike some digital calendars, the Skylight Calendar is not voice activated. For some, the ease of being able to command things to a device while also running around like a headless chicken is a huge plus. I can definitely see the merit in being able to use voice control with it, particularly for quickly pulling up a day or an event.

Having said that, there is a voice activation element within the Skylight Calendar app, that allows you to instruct a new event to be added to the calendar. Furthermore, you could ask a device such as Alexa to add an event to your diary. That would then, in theory, auto populate  into your Skylight Calendar. It’s a little convoluted and would require you to have two devices but that would be a good workaround.

I wonder if the voice activation is something that might come at a later date, as I do think it would make using the calendar that little more streamlined and efficient.

5. Could just become an expensive photo frame

I guess with any device you bring into your household, the Skylight Calendar is only going to be of use if you spend some time exploring its capabilities and putting the effort in.

In the first week of having it, I admit it did just sit on our worktop acting as an expensive digital photo frame. Over time, however, as I explored its functionalities more, I realised I needed to get used to including it in our everyday lives.

If you get by just fine with a paper diary, and don’t want to add another electronic device to your life then this isn’t the product for you.

7. Touch screen can feel a bit clunky

Finally, I do find the touchscreen functionality of the Skylight Calendar a little clunky. For example, if I want to swipe to the following week of my diary, it does seem to take a couple of seconds. I find it much easier to enter things into the app rather than manually use the digital screen itself, which does seem a bit slow.

Alternatives to the Skylight Calendar

If you’re still on the fence about investing in the Skylight Calendar, then you may want to consider some alternatives. Here’s just a few suggestions below:

1. For young children, a tactile visual calendar might be better

For my daughter starting school, I bought this brilliant visual calendar from Craftly. It’s much more tactile than a digital calendar, and my daughter loves all the little icons.

As a 4-year old I think this helps her understand her week far more than the Skylight Calendar would at this young age.

2. Cozi Family Organizer (app)

Cozi Family is an app that provides a shared calendar, shopping lists, to-do lists and meal planning. It works on phones, tablets and computers and many users like how easy it is to use. This is ideal if you’re less concerned about a physical digital diary and happy to use a family app to keep organised.

3. Shared Google Calendar

Old school but it works, a shared Google Calendar between parents is an easy way to keep on-top of events and commitments. I did consider this initially but knew my husband would never check the diary or particularly commit. I needed something staring him in the face everyday!

4. Amazon Echo/Alexa

Finally, if you like voice control and someone to tell you what you’re up to today then an Echo/Alexa would work just as well. Obviously, it would rely on syncing with your diary but could still provide an easy way to track your weeks.

Review of Skylight Calendar 2025: Is the Skylight Calendar worth it?

I think the Skylight Calendar is worth it but not for every household or personality type. In fact, I think the calendar is only really worth it for those who are already using a digital diary on their phones and who have large families, with competing meetings, events and activities.

Don’t buy the Skylight Calendar if you can happily use a paper calendar and have limited events/commitments to manage.

If you’re getting by just fine with your paper calendar, are naturally organised and don’t have multiple diaries to manage then I would save your money for something else. My mother-in-law, for instance, has a corner of her kitchen dedicated to her paper diary. She’s used to pen and paper for making shopping lists and I can’t see her finding the Skylight Calendar useful in any way. In fact, I think it would just end up gathering dust in the corner of the kitchen after a couple of weeks.

Buy the Skylight Calendar if you’re a busy household with multiple calendars and commitments.

If, however, you’re used to managing your diary on your phone and are a busy parent or in a large household, then the Skylight Calendar could definitely support you in your diary management. Being able to have the constant reminder of different diaries in one place is incredibly useful and the colour coding makes it extra easy to see who’s doing what each day.

Personally, I think the Skylight Calendar has been worth the investment but it does take time in syncing it into your everyday life in order to really maximise its capabilities. It’s definitely taken the burden off me in terms of household management and the visual aspect of it makes my head feel clearer and calmer. I’m looking forward to using more of its features in order to really maximise all of its capabilities. It’s clearly a product created by a team who “get” family life and I’m intrigued to see what else they come up with in terms of features over time.

Pin for later: Review of Skylight Calendar