Is there a free alternative to DAKboard?

Yes, depending on what you used DAKboard for. For calendars, the closest free option is MagicMirror² on a Raspberry Pi, at the cost of setting it up yourself. For the time and weather alone, Skarmly is free with no account. DAKboard's own free plan also covers one screen and two calendars.

What is the easiest way to turn an old tablet into a wall display?

Open a wall display page in the tablet's browser, add it to the home screen so it opens full screen, and set the screen never to sleep while charging. Skarmly needs no account, so that is the whole setup.

Do I need a Raspberry Pi?

Only for MagicMirror², or if you want to drive a spare monitor. DAKboard, Home Assistant dashboards and Skarmly all run in a tablet's own browser.

Skarmly · Guide

Free wall display apps for an old tablet, compared

Five things people put on a tablet that hangs on the wall. They are not really competitors — each one answers a different question, and the right one depends on what you want the screen to do more than on which is best. This page is written by the people who make one of them, Skarmly, so it says plainly where the others win.

At a glance

	Best at	Cost	Runs on
DAKboard	Calendars and photos	Free tier; paid from $5/mo	Any browser
MagicMirror²	Anything, via modules	Free, open source	A Raspberry Pi you set up
Home Assistant	Controlling a smart home	Free, open source	A home server you run
Fully Kiosk	Locking a tablet to one page	€8.90 / $10.99 once	Android only
Skarmly	Time, weather and the sky	Free	Any browser

DAKboard

The family calendar on the kitchen wall. DAKboard merges calendars, photos, weather and news into one screen, and it is the most polished of the five. The free plan gives you one predefined layout, two calendars and DAKboard branding; custom layouts, more calendars and faster refresh start at $5 a month billed yearly ($6 monthly). You sign up and configure it on their site.

Choose it if the screen's job is "who is doing what this week" and you want photos rotating underneath.

MagicMirror²

An open-source project with a large library of community modules — calendars, transit times, news, almost anything someone has wanted on a wall. It is built for a Raspberry Pi (models 2 to 5, on full Raspberry Pi OS with a desktop), usually behind a two-way mirror. A tablet can show it in server mode, but something still has to run the server. Expect a weekend of setup and some config-file editing.

Choose it if you enjoy the build as much as the result, and want to decide exactly what is on the screen.

Home Assistant

Not a wall display — a smart-home platform whose dashboards make an excellent one. If you already run it, a tablet showing a dashboard can turn on lights, show cameras and display anything your sensors measure, including a real weather station in your garden. The catch is that it needs a server running at home. Old iPads take note: from version 2026.8 the Home Assistant app needs iOS 16.4, though the dashboard still opens in a browser.

Choose it if you have smart devices to control. If you don't, it is a lot of machinery for a clock.

Fully Kiosk Browser

A different kind of tool: an Android browser that locks the tablet to a single page, keeps the screen on, and can wake it when someone walks past. It shows nothing by itself — you point it at one of the others. All features can be tried free; the PLUS licence is a one-time €8.90 (US$10.99) per device. There is no iOS version.

Choose it alongside any of the above, on an Android tablet in a shared space where people would otherwise tap their way out.

Skarmly

A single page that shows the time, the weather, and a background drawn from the sun's real position where you are — east at dawn, west at dusk, with a line showing how much daylight is left. No account and nothing to install: pick your town and the link is the whole configuration. It runs on Safari 13.4 or Chrome 80 and later, which covers iPads from 2014 and Android tablets from about the same year.

It does far less than the others. There is no calendar, no photos, no smart-home control, and one layout. That is the point — it is built to sit dark in the corner of a room for years — but if you need any of those, pick something above.

Choose it if you want a calm clock and forecast on a screen you already own, working in a minute.

Which one fits

A shared family calendar → DAKboard.
Light switches and cameras → Home Assistant, if you run it already.
A project to build → MagicMirror² on a Raspberry Pi.
The time and the weather, nothing to set up → Skarmly.
An Android tablet in a hallway or a shop → add Fully Kiosk to whichever you chose.

Whatever you pick, the tablet itself needs the same settings to stay on the wall: see the guides for an old iPad, an Android or Fire tablet, or a Raspberry Pi.

Questions

Is there a free alternative to DAKboard?: Yes, depending on what you used DAKboard for. For calendars, the closest free option is MagicMirror² on a Raspberry Pi, at the cost of setting it up yourself. For the time and weather alone, Skarmly is free with no account. DAKboard's own free plan also covers one screen and two calendars.
What is the easiest way to turn an old tablet into a wall display?: Open a wall display page in the tablet's browser, add it to the home screen so it opens full screen, and set the screen never to sleep while charging. Skarmly needs no account, so that is the whole setup.
Do I need a Raspberry Pi?: Only for MagicMirror², or if you want to drive a spare monitor. DAKboard, Home Assistant dashboards and Skarmly all run in a tablet's own browser.

Skarmly is a free wall display that runs in the browser: the time, the weather, and the sky as it actually is where you are. Set one up in a minute. Prices checked October 2026.