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HomeHQ vs Hearth

HomeHQ vs Hearth Display.

Hearth is the best-looking family display you can hang on a wall, and the most expensive thing in this category. HomeHQ costs $12/month billed annually and runs on the iPad you already own. This is the comparison for households deciding whether the object is worth $699.

Coming soon
iPad · iPhone · Built on Google Calendar · 30-day free trial
Our verdict

Choose Hearth if you have younger kids, want a routines-and-rewards system designed with child-development specialists, and the $699 does not stop you.

Choose HomeHQ if an iPad you already own gets you to the same place for $12/month, with no hardware to buy and nothing to replace in four years.

T
Tej Tandon · Founder, HomeHQ
Building HomeHQ from Vancouver — bootstrapped, no investors. I write these guides from running my own family on the same tools.
Verified September 2026
Side by side

HomeHQ vs Hearth Display: the rows that decide it.

The honest comparison — including where Hearth wins. Prices and features verified September 2026.

FeatureHomeHQHearth Display
Up-front cost$0$699 list, often discounted
Ongoing cost$14.99/mo, or $12/mo annual$9/mo, or $86.40/yr
3-year total$432$958.20
Works without a subscriptionNoNo — Membership is required even to set the display up
Assistant you type or talk toCasa, includedHearth Helper, on Membership
Dedicated touchscreenUse your own iPad✓
Free trial30 days30 days
See the full comparison (13 more rows)
TypeAppHardware (touchscreen) + app
Scan a paper flyer into the calendarIn-app camera scan, includedVia Hearth Helper, on Membership
VoicePush-to-talk, hold and speakHearth Helper chat
Two-way Google Calendar✓✓
Family member limitWhole householdUnlimited
Per-member kid views✓✓
Routines for kidsChores with due times and streaksBuilt around them
Rewards you can cash inNo, points are recognition onlyCore feature
Photo mode when idleAmbient mode rotates the household's dayPrivacy Mode, on Membership
Home Screen widgetsFour, iPhone and iPadCompanion app
Works on phones too✓Companion app
Child-development-led design✓
Proven track recordNew in 2026Publicly launched 2022
The yearly math

What you actually pay over 3 years.

HomeHQ
Hardware$0
Year 1$144
Year 2$144
Year 3$144
3-year total$432
Hearth Display
Hardware (Hearth Display)$699
Year 1 Membership$86.40
Year 2 Membership$86.40
Year 3 Membership$86.40
3-year total$958.20
Decide quickly

When Hearth wins, when HomeHQ wins.

Choose Hearth if…

  • →You have young kids, roughly 4 to 10, where visual routines and icons do the heavy lifting.
  • →You want a screen that is genuinely beautiful as an object on the wall. Hearth is the nicest one made.
  • →Star rewards your kids can cash in actually motivate them. We deliberately don't do that.
  • →You would rather buy a device that arrives ready to hang than mount a tablet yourself.

Choose HomeHQ if…

  • →You have an iPad you can mount in the kitchen, and $699 for a second screen is hard to justify.
  • →You don't want a subscription that is mandatory just to turn the hardware on.
  • →You want the same information on everyone's phone and Home Screen, not only on the screen in the kitchen.
  • →Your kids are older and the gamified-routines layer would go unused.
  • →You would rather have streaks and a leaderboard than a rewards economy. Recognition, not bribes.
Keep the calendar you have

One calendar. Everyone sees it.

HomeHQ runs on the Google Calendar your family already uses. Connect it once and every change shows up everywhere — the kitchen iPad and every iPhone show the same plan. Nothing to migrate, nobody to convince.

  • ✓Change it on any phone — it's right everywhere, including Google Calendar itself.
  • ✓Color-coded per person, automatically.
  • ✓Add an event on your phone; the kitchen display picks it up within a minute.
  • ✓Or snap a paper flyer — HomeHQ reads it and proposes the events; you tick the ones to add.
  • ✓It's your real Google calendar — your data stays in your own account.
The HomeHQ app runs on iPhone and iPad, with a native Android app coming soon. The calendar itself lives in your own Google account.
One source of truth
Add "Lina — judo, Wed 3:30" once. It's on every iPhone in the house.
Synced via Google Calendar
Kitchen iPad · Mom's iPhone · Dad's iPhone — the same plan on all three
Try HomeHQ free for 30 days — without buying Hearth.
$12/month billed annually after the trial, or $14.99 monthly. Cancel anytime through Apple.
HomeHQ vs Hearth Display

What people ask before they pick.

For most of what people buy Hearth for, yes: shared family calendar, chores, per-member kid views, colour-coding, and an always-on screen in the kitchen. Hearth is better as a physical object and better at gamified routines for small kids. HomeHQ is roughly half the three-year cost and runs on the Google Calendar you already use.

It is a purpose-built touchscreen with its own OS, designed with child-development specialists, made in small batches. It is frequently discounted, so watch the price before you buy. The $9/month Membership on top is what unlocks Hearth Helper, meal planning, shared calendars and to-dos, routines, the weather widget, Privacy Mode and the companion app.

Yes. Hearth requires an active Membership even to set the display up, and without one you are left with the calendar view, a basic profile and settings. There is a 30-day free trial. After that it auto-renews and is non-refundable. Worth knowing before you spend $699 on the hardware.

In a less gamified form, yes. HomeHQ chores can be pinned to one person, rotated automatically, or left up for grabs. They have due times, they go overdue, they can be snoozed an hour, and they feed streaks and a weekly leaderboard. What we don't have is a star economy kids cash in. Hearth is better if that motivates your kids; we made a different bet, which is that recognition holds up longer than rewards.

Both sync two ways. HomeHQ is built on Google Calendar as its foundation, so connecting your family's Google accounts is essentially the whole setup, and everything you add lands in a calendar you own. HomeHQ refreshes about once a minute rather than instantly, which is worth knowing if you expect a change on a phone to hit the kitchen screen the same second.

Hearth Helper is a general organising companion on the Membership: it can digitise a photographed flyer or whiteboard and capture household to-dos. HomeHQ has Casa, which is the same shape of thing. You reach it from any tab, type to it or hold the button and talk, and it can create, edit and delete events and chores, look up who has what, search the calendar and find a free slot. It numbers what it shows you so you can say "delete number two", and it asks whether you mean one occurrence or the whole series. A couple of honest limits: Casa replies in text rather than reading answers aloud, and it can only make one-off events, not repeating ones.

Researching Hearth Display? Visit their official site →
Keep reading

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