The best digital calendars can help keep your family synced on appointments, practice schedules and meal plans—and they can organize grocery lists, chore charts and recipes. After months spent rigorously testing many options, our pick for the best digital calendar is the . It’s compatible with most major apps, such as iCalendar and Google, and includes helpful extras like Magic Import and Meal Planning to streamline your day.
Compatible With Most Calendar Software
The is compatible with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and other software, so it’s easy to enter your preferred calendar and make on-the-fly adjustments to accommodate play dates or sports practices. You can also add events from the display, the Skylight app or, with a Skylight Plus subscription, texts or emails. After testing the original Skylight Calendar against the Skylight Calendar 2, I noted the Calendar 2’s faster processor makes it more efficient; new events, scanned lists and added images populate quickly on the calendar and in the app. The top pick is currently in the 15-inch model, but you can also get it in a .
Can Import Events To Multiple Profiles
You can view a day, a few days, a week or an entire month, so it’s easy to see everyone’s color-coded profiles and schedules. This is true with most digital calendars, like the Cozyla Calendar + 2. However, the Skylight Calendar 2 can import events via email or text using the Magic Import feature, and that’s where Skylight splits from its competition. The Cozyla can import and add one event to one profile, but the Skylight can add an event to more as many profiles as necessary. Additionally, you can assign an event to multiple profiles so it’s shared across family members.
Create Grocery Lists And Incentivize Kids With A Chore System
The Skylight Calendar 2 can create grocery lists—even importing lists from photos of hand-written notes—as well as set reminders and notifications and help you plan meals. You can also create reward systems for kids’ chores. For example, after completing and logging three chores, a child might earn 30 minutes of screen time. Their progress toward chore completion is noted by how many stars they accrue for a given task completed.
One Drawback: The Subscription Fee
In order to access all of the Skylight Digital Calendar’s features, you must pay a subscription fee for what the brand calls Calendar Plus. If you plan to use Photo Screensaver, Chore Rewards or Meal Planning, Calendar Plus feels worth its price of $79 per year. While I found the Photo Screensaver to be a novelty more than an essential feature, my wife and I appreciated Meal Planning. Another paywalled feature, called Magic Import, allows you to import schedules from emails or text. My wife and I found this feature useful because it helped manage dance rehearsals, school events and more. Also, if you have the original Skylight Calendar 2, there aren’t enough hardware updates to justify an upgrade. Read the full Skylight Calendar 2 review to learn more about this family hub.
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Easy Setup, With Customizable App Permissions
The , our best value pick, is easy to set up. Our tester said he “plugged in the device, connected to Wi-Fi and synced my calendar accounts via the app, which I downloaded after scanning a QR code.” Additionally, many smart devices require you to grant full permissions to apps to sync data. Our tester appreciated the Akimart Digital Calendar did not require granting it “full Gmail permissions.”
Quickly Syncs Across Devices
Once other profiles are added, the calendar makes it easy to track each person’s work schedule, birthdays and appointments. Because our tester uses Google Calendar and Gmail, he n0ted that you can create an event in Google Calendar or on the Akimart Digital Calendar, and it quickly syncs across both ecosystems.
An Excellent Chore System
The calendar reflects completed chores with stars. Our tester shared it’s intuitive for his three-year old to use; he knows he “earns to spend on later fun things like a trip to the bookstore or an ice cream cone.” For parents, setting up chores, reminders and calendar events is easy and intuitive, and you can do it on your phone via the app or directly on the device’s screen. “You just add a chore, assign it to a family member, choose the frequency and save. It takes less than a minute and is visually intuitive using color-coding,” says our tester.
A Bit Small, With No Included Wall Mount
The 10.1-inch display here is notably smaller than with most other digital calendars we tested, and the view becomes hazy as you view the Akimart calendar from an angle. From head-on and relatively close up, details are crisp. Our tester noted this digital calendar loses Wi-Fi connection and often requires a manual restart. Also, you can’t mount this frame on the wall, which may not be optimal for your home.
Easy To Use For All Ages
Our tester and her busy family felt the was helpful to keep “track of everyone’s sports practices, games, appointments, events and so on.” She found she needed to use the included wall mount—it’s not designed to rest on a desk or countertop. The large 27-inch display is easy for kids to use; our tester says her 5-year-old can easily and quickly review the schedule or task lists and add or alter events. “Adding a chore, to-do or calendar item is very intuitive and easy,” she added. While kids may enjoy interacting directly with this touch-screen display, our tester said it took “longer to type things out as you’re adding it via the Hearth Display keyboard versus doing it on your phone.” It’s compatible with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar and more, making it easy to keep things synced with your preferred calendars.
Routines Helped To Keep Hectic Schedules On Task
One standout feature our tester noted was the Routines feature, who found it helpful for “young kids who need visual reminders of what to do next, whether it’s a morning routine that includes things like brushing teeth or packing a backpack” and older kids who thrive on visual reminders. When your child has finished chores, the intuitive Stars & Rewards system can help kids see what rewards are available. You can also tailor these rewards to specific family motivations, too.
Subscription Is Required To Unlock All Features
In addition to the $700 price tag, our tester found she also needed to pay a $9 per month subscription, or pay an annual fee. That subscription fee includes access to Hearth’s AI companion called Hearth Helper, the calendar’s meal planning features, the companion mobile app and much more. If you don’t pay this fee, you lose a lot of what makes this digital calendar so appealing.
The feels like a Swiss army knife of digital calendars. It’s a digital calendar, but it’s also a weather station, meal planner, chore tracker, digital picture frame, list maker and plenty more. And, impressively, it can accomplish all of these tasks without a subscription.
Everything In One Place, At One Glance
Our tester found its jack-of-all-trades approach appealing. Our tester noted its highly customizable display allows for color-coding schedules, events and more, which makes it easy to see and manage household plans and tasks. It’s also easy to add, sync with or create grocery or shopping lists, appointment reminders, chore lists complete with incentives and more. “Because this Android based, you can basically customize to your heart’s content in terms of apps, as well as display—as long as you know how,” said one tester. While our testers appreciated its customizability, some users may feel overwhelmed with it suite of options.
But this digital calendar goes beyond just sharing at-a-glance data: Its customizable display can show multiple tabs in different windows, from the time to the weather to the week’s plans, on the large display. Because they’re widgets, you can also adjust their size as needed, too. If you need to display many different tabs, you can opt for the 32-inch model we tested, though it comes in smaller sizes, including and . For those that want to reduce stress when meal planning, the Cozyla Calendar+ 2 offers a meal planning function that features hundreds of preloaded recipes, complete with YouTube tutorials. “After planning your meals, the calendar will also generate a grocery list based on your plan, which I thought was super clever,” said one tester.
More Calendar Than Many Homes Need
While one of our testers found it to be a bit overkill for the home with just a few members or for single folks, our testers with busy family schedules loved it. They recommended it for families who primarily use Android phones or the Google ecosystem. Just keep in mind you can only add up to eight profiles. You can read more about our Cozyla Calendar+ 2 review.
The is a smart home device that happens to offer a digital calendar function. Unlike many of the digital calendars we tested, which felt cumbersome to mount on the wall, our tested appreciated the Echo Show 15’s simple setup. Keep in mind that the requires a separate purchase.
A Smart Assistant In Screen Form
The Amazon Echo Show 15 functions as a smart TV, a two-way video call device, a way to smart home hub and a smart assistant. It can be used as a touchscreen, or you can use the included Fire TV remote. While it can be used as a digital calendar, our tester felt Alexa was “optimized for a single user account, so out of the box I only got my own calendar.”
Offers Up To Six Profiles—With A Catch
While you can add more calendars and profiles, it “requires you to add family members with their own profiles and then configure those profiles with their own calendar accounts,” our tester says, noting that “it’s cumbersome, counter-intuitive and time consuming.” It also only offers up to six profiles, which may be problematic if you need a digital calendar the whole family can use. Don’t expect to see side-by-side entries, so planning things around one another’s schedule and responsibilities might feel frustrating.
Still, the many features this smart device offers may offset its shortcomings. While the lack of shared or side-by-side calendars is tangible, other digital calendars we tested can’t control your home stereo, lights or any other smart devices. Our tester recommended it for single users or perhaps someone who wants Amazon Alexa in their home office. “For any multi-user scenario, like a family, there are better options without question,” says our tester.
The is, for the most part, just that: a clock with a built-in calendar. It was designed for dementia patients and makes it easy for people who are easily confused to know the time and date. What’s more, it reminds its user up to five times a day to take their medicine.
A Fast, But Awkward, Setup
I found programming reminders using physical buttons on device’s back panel to be easy. However, its setup process was by trial-and-error, and I needed to review instructions multiple times. If you’re looking for a digital calendar that can log events, appointments and birthdays, this American Lifetime clock can’t accomplish these tasks. If you want to make sure you always knows the day and time and can be reminded to take medications in the simplest language possible, then this device is a good option.
Basic But Reliable
While it’s not designed to be a catch-all solution, the American Lifetime Digital Clock can certainly help someone remember to take medications. Each reminder remains on display until it’s cleared by the press of a button or superseded by the next reminder. During unexpected power outages or accidental unplugging, the clock’s day, time and programmed reminders are saved thanks to a backup battery, so it will pick up right on schedule when power is restored.
How We Tested The Best Digital Calendars
The right digital calendar can serve as your family’s command center by noting all daily events, chores and more. We tested each digital calendar for at least a month, and often for longer than one year. Here’s how we determined the top picks.
- Features: We established and considered a baseline that a digital calendar must offer, such as chore management, appointment reminders, meal planning and more. Must-have features included reminders, day and date information at a glance and ease of setup.
- Users: We tested each contender across busy families with younger children, couples without children and more. Because digital calendars can be used by all age groups, we also considered and tested devices designed for caregivers but intended for older individuals.
- Compatibility: We also reviewed each digital calendar’s compatibility across multiple software systems, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and many more. We also reviewed each digital calendar’s companion mobile app and considered its ease of use and reliability.
What To Look For In The Best Digital Calendars
If you’re adding a digital calendar to your home, there are a few features you want to consider before you add one to your cart. Here’s what to look for.
- Ease Of Use: Look for options that make adding, editing and deleting events feel effortless. If you plan to use extras like rewards systems or notifications, confirm that the list, reward and notification features are available and straightforward to set up. Also check whether the screen layout stays clear when multiple profiles share the device. “If you like to keep separate calendars for work and home, make sure they can be consolidated into a single view,” says Radin.
- Screen Size And Clarity: For kids and parents alike, make sure to get a digital calendar with a screen that’s big, bright and crisp enough for each set of eyes that need to see it. A larger screen may be easier for those who experience low vision to see and for kids to work with, but may feel unwieldy for your space.
- Compatibility: A digital calendar should integrate seamlessly with your preferred platforms, such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and more. It should also feel easy to make changes, which should promptly reflect on the display as well as your phone.
- Multiple Profiles: With rare exceptions, you’ll want a digital calendar that can store multiple different user profiles and that differentiates them clearly with color-coding. That way “you can create multiple users for a calendar to which everyone has access,” says Haselberger, and you can use the calendar to keep track of things like babysitter coverage, kid activities, meal plans and more.
Why Trust Forbes Vetted
The tech team at Forbes Vetted consists of staff writers and editors with dozens of years of collective experience testing, researching and writing about tech hardware of all types, including all sorts of consumer electronics and home smart devices.
- The author of this article, staff writer Steven John, tested the original Skylight Calendar for over one year and the Skylight Calendar 2 for over one month. He covers consumer tech and gear for Forbes Vetted and has recently written about laptops, webcams and the Google Pixel 10A smartphone.
- Forbes Vetted consumer tech and electronics editor Rebecca Isaacs edited this story. Isaacs oversees consumer tech and electronics coverage at Forbes Vetted. She frequently attends tech product events, from CES to Made By Google to Samsung Unpacked. Recently, she served as a judge for the 2026 CES Innovation Awards.
Our Experts
- David Radin, CEO of
- Alexis Haselberger, time management, productivity and leadership coach at
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