Skylight Calendar Review: Is It Worth Buying for Busy Families?

The Skylight Calendar has genuinely helped me manage family life more calmly, especially when juggling school dates, appointments and the general mental load that comes with parenting. After using it in real life for 10 months now, I think it’s a brilliant tool for busy families who want one central place for schedules, chores and planning – but it isn’t cheap, and some of the best features sit behind the paid plan. In this honest Skylight Calendar review, I’m sharing what I like, what I don’t, and whether I think it’s actually worth the money.

Here’s my honest review of Skylight Calendar: Is it Worth Buying for Busy Families?

How I tested the Skylight Calendar in Real Family Life

To fully test the Skylight Calendar, I have been using it for 10 months now, incorporating it into my busy family life. My household consists of me and my husband (both with busy jobs) and my 5-year old daughter, who has an ever-changing school schedule and play dates. We went all in with using Skylight Calendar, syncing our work calendars, social calendars and even the school Dojo app, which sends any school events or trips straight to the Skylight calendar. The Skylight Calendar is in our kitchen on the worktop, where we all can easily reach it and this positioning in the house has worked really well for us.

I bought the Skylight Calendar (initially) to try and find a way to be more organised as a family, as my daughter started her first year of school. As we’re approaching the end of her final term, I can safely say that we have used the Skylight Calendar every single day to help manage school pick ups, drop offs, play dates and our competing work schedules.

Detailed Review of the Skylight Calendar for Busy Families

What are the Pros and Cons of the Skylight Calendar?

If I’m writing an honest review of Skylight Calendar, it’s only fair to look at both the pros and cons of this 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 probably 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 ignorance.

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 this honest review of Skylight Calendar, I’d say the visual clarity it gives you for the week ahead is just brilliant.

On a Sunday evening, 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 navigate than just a written diary.

3. Chore Tasks (Better for Older Kids)

One thing I love about the Skylight Calendar is the visual chore list for kids (complete with reward setting and colourful emojis) – it’s 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.

Daily Chore Examples

• Make Bed (with help) – Worth 1 star
• Put Toys Away – Worth 1 star
• Put Dirty Clothes in Hamper – Worth 1 star
• Help Set the Table – Worth 1 star

Weekly Chores Examples

• Water Plants with Parent – Worth 2 stars
• 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 this honest review of Skylight Calendar, the digital family calendar syncs with multiple calendars.

When you set up the Skylight calendar, you’re 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.

It really is a seamless process and one reason I would recommend the Skylight Calendar to busy families.

5. Family-Friendly to Use

For those with older children in the household, the Skylight Calendar is definitely easy to use.

I can see my daughter 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 or additional apps, meaning you don’t need to worry about your kids using it as an iPad, or accessing the internet.

6. Can Be Used as a Digital Photo Frame

If you opt for the Plus Plan for the Skylight Calendar, you can also use your calendar as a digital photo frame.

Simply add your images through the app, and they automatically upload onto the display. 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 selection of random screenshots.

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 have.

As I mention below in the cons list, I find the touch screen on the actual calendar a bit clunky and find it much easier to manage it 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 absolute 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, there it was on the digital calendar as a future 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

One of the biggest annoyances amongst users of the Skylight Calendar is that it has to be plugged into the wall.

This 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 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. You Need a Subscription

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

For others, however, with the product already being 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

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 ask a new event is 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 be 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 some initial 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 ropey.

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 (something I definitely wanted to include in this honest review of the Skylight Calendar).

How much does the Skylight Calendar cost?

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 (£275.00 if you buy with Plus Plan, which also gives you one month free).
2. Skylight Calendar Max 27″ is £550.00 (£525.00 if you buy with Plus Plan, which also gives you one month free). 

The free standard features you get with the Skylight Calendar include:

• Tasks Manager
• Colour Coding for different family members
• Weather
• Event countdowns

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

The Plus Plan includes:

1. Digital photo(s) screensaver
2. Meal planning: you can automatically import recipes via 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.

Personally, I think the Plus Plan features are extremely useful and well worth the additional £60 a year. I don’t think I could actually survive without the Sidekick feature any more – I’m totally reliant on it and use it most days. There’s also a fairly recent addition within the app, of a feature that will scan your fridge and will give you- from the ingredients in there, – some ideas of recipes to cook. This is actually genius and has absolutely saved me on a number of occasions, as well as introducing me to some new recipe ideas.

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 are just a few suggestions, that are cheaper in price, subscription free or don’t require you to actually buy a new product.

Skylight Calendar vs Hearth Display

If you’re deciding between the Skylight Calendar and the Hearth Display (only available in the US!), I think Skylight is the better choice for families who want something simple, polished and easy to start using straight away, especially if your main goal is seeing everyone’s schedule clearly in one place.

Hearth Display has a similar family-organisation focus, but Skylight feels more established and, in my experience, does a great job of combining calendars, chores and planning tools in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming. Hearth is also more geared towards kids than adults.

Skylight Calendar vs a Shared Google Calendar

Old hat 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 as he made his sandwiches, so I went for the Skylight Calendar. This is a good alternative if you don’t want to have to pay for an additional subscription plan.

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 5-year old, I think this helps her understand her week far more than the Skylight Calendar would at this young age. We’ve been using this for 10 months now and it’s become a key staple of her Sunday night routine, in looking at her week ahead. I think being able to move the fuzzy pieces around interests her more than a screen would at her current age.

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.

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. The only downside is it’s not visual, and for someone like me who needs to see things written down, I would struggle using an Alexa for my diary keeping.

FAQs About the Skylight Calendar

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

What is the Skylight Calendar and how does it work?

In short, 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. Additionally, it allows users to create chore lists for different household members, to-do lists, weekly food planners and even reward or chore charts for kids.

Can you use Skylight Calendar without Wi-Fi?

Sadly, no.

The Skylight Calendar cannot be used without Wi-Fi, which seems to be users’ biggest complaint about this digital calendar. However, I don’t find it particularly annoying. The Skylight Calendar is a large product that isn’t going to be leaving the house with me – so, having it connected to the Wi-Fi isn’t a real 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.

Do you have to plug the Skylight Calendar in?

Yes, you need to plug the Skylight Calendar into a wall 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 messy if you had the screen 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.

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