The family command centre, minus the $699 screen
Hearth makes a beautiful 27-inch wall display. Nido makes the software that runs on it — except it runs on the screen you already have.
Last checked September 2026.
What Hearth gets right
Hearth is the most considered object in this category. A 27-inch touchscreen in a matte frame, a proper wall mount, routines and chore lists designed by people who clearly have children. If you want the family calendar to look like a piece of furniture rather than a gadget, nothing else comes close.
That design costs what design costs. As of September 2026 the display is $699, and the Family Membership that turns on the full feature set is $9 a month or $86.40 a year. Over three years that is comfortably past the thousand-dollar mark for a wall calendar.
Side by side
| Hearth Display | Nido | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | A 27-inch touchscreen, $699, wall mount included. | None. Any screen with a browser. |
| Subscription | Family Membership, $9 a month or $86.40 a year. | Free to start; $4.99 / month for Premium. |
| Screen size | One size: 27 inches. | Whatever you already own, from a phone to a television. |
| Chores | Routines, chores and to-dos per family member. | Repeating chores, carry-over, eggs, streaks and a rewards shelf. |
| Calendars | Shared family calendar, syncing from the usual services. | Its own family calendar, plus Google Calendar merged in read-only and colour-coded. Google is optional. |
| Meals | Meal planning included in the membership. | Recipes, weekly meal plan, shopping list and a cooking mode you can read from the stove. |
| Kid devices | The wall display, plus the companion app. | A kid-locked view on any phone or tablet, with a PIN to get back out. |
| Time to first use | Order, wait for delivery, mount it. | Tonight. |
Hearth pricing checked September 2026 from their store listings and coverage; they discount the display regularly, so check their site for the current figure.
The honest trade
An old iPad propped on the counter is not as handsome as a 27-inch framed display, and pretending otherwise would be silly. If the object matters to you — and in a kitchen, it reasonably might — Hearth is the nicer thing to look at.
What you get instead is the ability to find out whether your family will actually use a wall calendar before spending anything. Most families who buy a display are guessing. Run Nido on a spare tablet for a month; if the board becomes part of the routine, you will know, and you can always buy the pretty screen afterwards and point it at Nido.
Questions people ask
- Is Nido an alternative to the Hearth Display?
- Yes. Hearth is a 27-inch touchscreen that runs a family calendar, routines and chores. Nido runs that same board in a browser, so it works on a screen you already have instead of one you buy.
- How much does the Hearth Display cost?
- Checked in September 2026, the display itself lists at $699 and the Family Membership that unlocks the full feature set is $9 a month, or $86.40 billed yearly. Check their site for current pricing.
- Can Nido run on a big screen like Hearth does?
- Yes. The kiosk is a web page, so it will fill any screen that has a browser — an old tablet, a spare laptop, a monitor on a mini PC, or a smart TV.
- Does Nido do morning routines?
- Nido handles it as chores: daily and weekly chores repeat on their own, roll over when they are missed, and pay out eggs the kids spend on privileges you stock.
Try it on the tablet in your drawer.
Free for 2 kids and 10 chores, no credit card, nothing to deliver.
Build your nest — free