Already own a Hearth Display? The subscription is the part you can leave.
You already spent the $699 on the screen, or you're about to, and then found out a Family Membership is required just to finish setting it up. Plannie runs the same routines, chores and shared calendar on a tablet you already own, for $99 a year, and the shared calendar with two-way sync is free.
A dedicated wall screen for the family routine
Hearth Display is a purpose-built 27-inch touchscreen for the kitchen or hallway: $699, sold in three frame colours (light wood, matte black, matte white), but only the one screen size. It ships in one to two business days, comes with a 120-day home trial and full refund, and carries a one-year manufacturer's warranty, so the hardware itself is a fairly safe purchase on its own terms.
Once it's mounted, the screen is meant to hold the family's shared calendar, morning and evening routines, a meal planner, Stars & Rewards for the kids, and Hearth Helper, an AI assistant that answers questions from the screen itself. Twelve-month financing is also offered, at $63.09 a month with 0–36% APR depending on credit, so spreading the cost can mean paying more than $699.
The membership isn't optional, and it isn't small
The membership comes up during setup, before you've built a single routine. Hearth's own membership page states that a Family Membership is required to finish setting up the device at all. It costs $9 a month, $86.40 billed yearly, or $207.36 prepaid for three years, after a 30-day free trial.
Skip that membership and the screen falls back to basic calendar visibility and basic profile details only. Routines, to-do lists, meal planning, Stars & Rewards, Hearth Helper, the weather widget, and even Privacy Mode all sit behind the same paywall, per Hearth's own feature pages, so the free tier turns out to be a preview rather than a working product.
There's also no cheaper hardware tier to step down to: one screen, one price. And sync has its own limits. Events created on Hearth or its companion app sync two-way with a linked Google Calendar, but Google-native events created elsewhere only show up read-only once they reach the screen, while Outlook sync is slower and, per Hearth's own help center, can take hours to catch up.
Money already spent vs. money still coming
Most comparisons put two subscriptions side by side. This one is different, because if you already own the screen the $699 is spent whether you keep paying Hearth or not. What's left to decide is the recurring bill, and what you lose when you stop paying it. The table below separates what's already spent from what's still optional: what leaving the membership costs in lost features, and what staying costs in dollars.
| Hearth Display | Plannie | |
|---|---|---|
| Screen, if you already own it | Money already spent: $699, nothing more to pay for the hardware | Not required: kiosk mode runs on any tablet you already own |
| Required subscription | $86.40/yr Family Membership, required to finish setup and keep routines, chores and rewards working. | $99/yr for the whole household. The shared calendar works without it |
| What you get without paying more | ✗ Basic calendar visibility only Per Hearth's own membership page. | Calendar, sync, starter lists and meals Habits, rewards, wall-display mode, Family Inbox, Magic Import and Plannie Assistant require Premium. |
| What breaks if you stop paying | ✗ Routines, rewards, meals, Hearth Helper, weather Falls back to basic calendar visibility only, per Hearth's own membership page. | ● Habits, rewards, wall-display mode, the assistant The shared calendar, sync, and starter lists and meal planning keep working on the free plan. |
| Total after 3 years | ≈$958 $699 device plus 3 × $86.40 annual membership. | $297 $99/yr, whole household, no hardware. |
Hearth Display prices from hearthdisplay.com's own product and membership pages, checked 21 September 2026.
Sources: hearthdisplay.com: Hearth Display, hearthdisplay.com: Membership, hearthdisplay.com: Features, hearthdisplay.com: Stars & Rewards
What moving to Plannie covers
- Chores and routines become habits with tickets and rewards, part of the $99/year Premium plan. Hearth's Stars & Rewards needs the paid membership on top of the $699 screen.
- A weekly meal grid and recipe library, free with starter limits and unlimited in Premium.
- A shared calendar that syncs two-way with both Google and Outlook, unlike the partial, one-directional sync Hearth's own help center describes.
- Plannie Assistant, an AI that reads school flyers and PDFs into the calendar, included in Premium.
- Kiosk mode, part of Premium, turns the tablet you already own, or the Hearth screen itself if it can open a browser, into the family display.
- One $99/year price for the whole household, and the shared calendar with two-way sync is free.
What it doesn't replace
- The purpose-built 27-inch mounted touchscreen itself; a tablet in a stand or wall mount isn't quite the same single-purpose object.
- Hearth Helper by name and persona; Plannie Assistant is a different assistant with a different voice.
- The unboxing and wall-mounting experience that comes with buying dedicated hardware.
The screen usually doesn't need to go anywhere
If your Hearth Display can open a normal web browser, it can run Plannie in kiosk mode exactly like any other tablet, so the screen stays on the wall and only the software on it, and the subscription behind that, changes. If it can't browse the open web, any spare tablet does the same job just as well. What you stop paying for when you switch is the membership, and the screen is already paid for. Either way, you don't have to unmount or throw away anything, and you don't need new hardware to start using Plannie.
THE MOVE, STEP BY STEP
- Create your household at app.plannie.io and add each family member with their own colour.
- Connect both Google and Outlook under Settings → Family & access → a member → Sync & calendars → Connect a calendar. Both sync two-way.
- Recreate Hearth's routines as Plannie habits; completions earn tickets kids trade for rewards, as part of Premium.
- Open Plannie in kiosk mode, on the Hearth screen itself if it browses, or on any spare tablet if it doesn't.
- Let the Hearth Family Membership lapse once everything's moved.
Frequently asked
Can I keep using my Hearth Display screen with Plannie?+
Often, yes. If the screen can open a normal web browser, switch it to kiosk mode and it shows Plannie like any other wall-mounted tablet. If it can't browse the open web, any spare tablet you already have does the same job just as well; either way you're not buying new hardware to switch.
Do I have to cancel my Hearth Family Membership?+
Yes, if you want to stop paying for it, but wait until you've moved everything over. Keep it running while you recreate routines and reconnect calendars in Plannie, then let it lapse. Nothing about Plannie requires you to cancel Hearth first.
What happens to the routines and rewards I already set up in Hearth?+
They don't transfer automatically, so plan a short rebuild: recreate each routine as a Plannie habit and each reward as a Plannie reward. It's typically a few minutes per family member, and afterwards completions earn tickets the same way, as part of Plannie Premium at $99 a year for the whole household.
Do I need to buy anything to switch?+
No, you don't need new hardware. Plannie runs in a browser on the screen you already have, or on any tablet or phone in the house. The $699 hardware decision is already behind you; switching only changes what runs on it and which subscription you pay for after.
What does Plannie cost compared to Hearth's membership?+
Plannie Premium is $99 a year for the whole household, $297 over three years. Hearth's Family Membership is $86.40 a year once you've bought the $699 screen, roughly $958 over three years counting the hardware, or about $906 on Hearth's own cheapest prepaid path. The gap is mostly the device you've already paid for once.
Does Plannie have anything like Hearth Helper?+
Plannie Assistant, included in Premium, reads photos, PDFs and forwarded emails into calendar events through your household's own Family Inbox address. It's a different assistant from Hearth Helper, but it does the same job of turning school paperwork into dates on the calendar.