The cost, at a glance
- Free — $0: calendar sync, chore charts and shared lists. No subscription, no trial countdown.
- Skylight Plus — $79 a year: adds meal planning, chore rewards, Magic Import and the photo screensaver. One plan covers every Skylight calendar in your home.
The short answer
Buy the calendar, hang it up, and it works: it syncs your existing calendars, shows everyone's day on one screen, runs chore charts and holds the family's shared lists — all without a subscription, forever. There is no trial countdown on the core product and no feature ransom a month in.
The optional add-on is Skylight Plus, $79 a year. It unlocks a second layer of features. Whether it's worth it depends entirely on whether your family would use that layer — so here is the split, feature by feature.
Free vs Plus, feature by feature
| Feature | What it does | Needs Plus? |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar sync | Pulls in Google, iCloud, Outlook and other shared calendars automatically | No |
| Chore charts | A tap-to-complete list for each family member, on the big screen | No |
| Shared lists | Groceries and to-dos the whole household can add to from their phones | No |
| Meal planning | Plan the week's dinners on the same screen, with recipes alongside | Yes |
| Chore rewards | Chores carry star values kids collect toward rewards you set | Yes |
| Magic Import | Forward a school email, or photograph a paper schedule, and it becomes calendar events for you | Yes |
| Photo screensaver | The calendar doubles as a photo frame when it's idle | Yes |
Sold on the free tier?
That's the right way to buy it: the device on its own, Plus only later if you find yourself wanting the extras. Check the current price — it moves around a lot, especially near holidays.
Check Price on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Prices change — check Amazon for the current price.
Who Plus is actually for
Plus earns its $79 in three specific households:
- Your school sends paper. Permission slips, printed sports schedules, emailed PDFs. Magic Import is the feature owners rave about, because it deletes the weekly chore of typing all of that in by hand.
- Chores need a scoreboard. Plain chore charts tell kids what to do; chore rewards give them a reason to do it without being asked twice. If your kids respond to stars and goals, this is the one that changes behaviour.
- Dinner is a daily negotiation. Meal planning on the same screen as the calendar ends the "what's for dinner" loop and ties the plan to the shopping list.
And who should skip it: anyone whose need is simply "the family's week, on the wall, where nobody can claim they didn't see it." That job is entirely in the free tier. One Plus plan covers the Skylight calendars in your home, so a second calendar for upstairs doesn't mean a second subscription. Some bundles also include a starter period of Plus — check what came in your box before paying for it twice.
What if you stop paying?
The calendar keeps working. Sync, chore charts and lists are free-tier features, so cancelling Plus doesn't brick anything — you just lose meal planning, chore rewards, Magic Import and the screensaver until you subscribe again. That's the honest test of a subscription: what breaks when it lapses. Here, the answer is "the extras," not the calendar.
Start with the free tier
Our recommendation: buy the calendar, run it free, and add Plus in a month only if you miss one of its features. Most households won't need it on day one.
See the Skylight Calendar →As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Prices change — check Amazon for the current price.
Just want the photos on the wall?
If it's the screensaver that caught your eye, the Skylight Frame is the cheaper sibling — a dedicated photo frame rather than a calendar. Our full review covers it here.
See the Skylight Frame →As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Prices change — check Amazon for the current price.
Keep reading
Want the Whole Setup Handed to You? The Family Command-Center Kit
The complete Skylight setup from a household that runs it daily: the calendar architecture that stops events from disappearing, one color per person, chores and lists that stick — plus printable weekly schedule, meal plan, chore-rotation, and important-dates templates.
Get the Kit — $5 →One-time purchase on Etsy — a setup guide plus printable templates.