Gather vs Hearth Display

Where each one is ahead

A clear yes on one side and not on the other, from the table below. Rows where both do it, or neither does, are left out; what the table has no row for, such as the price, is said in words.

Side by side

“Plus” and “Membership” in a cell mean that part needs the paid plan. Gather's own prices come from the same catalog as checkout, so they cannot drift. See all four side by side.

Questions parents ask

Is there a Hearth Display alternative without the $699 display?

Gather is one. Hearth’s calendar, routines and lists only run on the 27-inch display Hearth sells, and the routines, lists and phone app also need a Family Membership at $9 a month. Gather runs on any screen with a browser, the tablet on the counter included, with one plan and a free trial. You give up the big vertical board; you keep the routines, the calendar and the kids ticking things off on the shared screen.

Does Gather have routines like Hearth?

Routines are jobs on Gather’s Board. A kid taps their face on the shared screen, starts a job, finishes it, and a parent settles it. Every job has a value, in dollars or in points, so the routine pays into the kid’s jars and every dollar is a ledger line. Hearth’s routines count streaks on the display and pay in stars you trade for rewards you define; Gather’s Board counts no streaks yet and pays real allowance instead.

What does Hearth do that Gather does not?

Hearth ships a 27-inch vertical display with a 120-day home trial, and nothing in Gather is that big unless you point it at the TV. Hearth counts streaks on routines; Gather’s Board does not yet. Hearth writes events back to Google through a Hearth Calendar it adds to your account; Gather shows your Google calendar but does not write to it yet. And Hearth Helper takes a texted photo; Gather it takes a photo or pasted words in the app, not by text message.

Which is cheaper over three years, Hearth or Gather?

At list prices, Hearth’s display with a yearly Family Membership is a little under a thousand dollars for three years: $699 once, then $86.40 a year. Gather Plus on a screen you already own is a little over two hundred. Hearth’s display is often on sale for $599 to $629, which brings it down by about a hundred. The table on this page has the exact figures.

Can I use my own tablet, or my TV, as a family wall calendar?

With Gather, yes, and any other screen with a browser: the smart TV already in the living room, a spare monitor, the laptop nobody uses. Open gather.guru on it, enroll it as a household device from Settings, and prop it on the counter, mount it on the wall, or leave it on the TV. It shows the Wall view, asks "Who’s this?" when someone taps, and lets kids check off jobs without a parent unlocking anything. Skylight and Hearth only work on the display they sell. Cozi has no wall mode.

Do changes I make in Gather show up in Google Calendar?

Not yet. Gather reads your Google, Apple and Outlook calendars and shows them on the wall, refreshing every hour and whenever you open the page, but it does not write back to them. Edit an imported event where it lives and the wall follows. Events you create in Gather stay in Gather. Skylight writes back to Google and Apple; Hearth writes back only through a separate calendar it adds to your Google account.

Which one tracks real allowance?

Only Gather. Skylight and Hearth reward chores with stars you trade for rewards you define. Cozi has chores but no rewards at all. Gather’s Family Bank pays each finished job into a kid’s Give, Save and Spend jars, and keeps every dollar as a ledger line that nobody can edit after the fact. That part is in Gather Plus.

Which is cheapest over three years?

At list prices: Gather Plus on a screen you already own is a little over two hundred dollars for three years. Cozi Gold is about a hundred and twenty. Skylight’s 15-inch frame with Plus is a little over five hundred. Hearth’s display with a membership is a little under a thousand. The table above has the exact figures and what each one leaves out.

Do I need Skylight Plus or a Hearth membership?

Skylight’s calendar, chore chart and lists work without Plus; meal planning, star rewards, the photo screensaver and adding events from a photo need it. Hearth’s calendar works without a membership, but routines, lists, the phone app and future updates need one. Gather has one plan with everything in it, the calendar, the Job Board, the Kitchen, the List, Gather it, the Family Bank and the evening brief, and a free trial to start.

Can Gather add an event from a photo of an invite?

Yes. Tap Gather it, snap the birthday invite, the team schedule or the school flyer, or paste the words from an email or a text from another parent. We show you what we found, one card per event, with the day, the time and the place filled in and anything we were unsure about marked. You check it and put it on the calendar. If the invite asks for an RSVP, that lands on the counter as a to-do; if a gift is expected, a gift task and a line on the List come with it. The photo and the words are never stored. Skylight and Hearth do this too, on their paid plans. Forwarding an email straight to Gather is not here yet.

Can my kid see just their own events, without mine?

Yes. Every event in Gather has a “Who’s going”; if nobody is picked, it is the whole family’s. A kid’s calendar, their home on the shared screen and their evening brief show the events that name them plus the family’s, and leave out a parent’s dentist appointment. Skylight puts each event on one or more Profiles and Hearth gives each member a column, so both can do this on the display; Cozi tags attendees in the phone app.