Home Screens vs MagicMirror vs Dakboard
Three ways to run a smart display on a Raspberry Pi. One is free and DIY. One is polished but lives in the cloud. One tries to give you both. Here is an honest look at where each one wins.
The classic
MagicMirror
Open source and free, with the biggest community module ecosystem on the planet. You will edit a config.js file and probably touch npm. Landscape-first.
The polished one
Dakboard
Beautiful drag-and-drop editor, sign up and point any screen at a URL. Your photos, calendars, and settings live in their cloud. Subscription, starts at $5/mo.
The middle path
This siteHome Screens
Open source + visual editor. Runs entirely on your Pi — no account, no cloud. 45 built-in modules, a plugin SDK, and remote control from your phone.
Feature by feature
Every claim here maps to something you can see in the docs or in the source. Corrections welcome — open an issue on GitHub.
Price
License
Open source
No account required
Visual drag-and-drop editor
Live preview while editing
Edit without SSH / terminal
Portrait layouts native
Designed for 1080×1920, not a rotated desktop
Self-hosted
Runs offline
No cloud round-trip to render the display
Data storage
No PII telemetry
Home Screens collects anonymous usage metrics only — no personally identifiable information, and you can disable it entirely in settings
Built-in modules
Modules that ship with a default install, before adding anything
Community modules
MagicMirror has by far the largest ecosystem of any option here
Weather providers
Providers supported by the built-in weather module
Phone remote control
Remote wake / sleep
Multi-display from one hub
Home Screens: unlimited displays from one Pi install, no per-display fee
Profiles + time-based auto-switch
Custom modules without forking
Plugin sandbox / proxy
Plugins can fetch APIs without leaking keys
One-click OTA updates
Auto-backup before upgrade
Last reviewed September 2026. Competitor pricing and features change — check their sites for the current state.
When each one wins
Home Screens is not always the right pick. Here is where MagicMirror or Dakboard are genuinely the better choice.
Pick MagicMirror if…
- You want the largest community module catalog of any smart-mirror project.
- You are comfortable editing a Node config file.
- Your display is landscape and DIY is half the fun.
Pick Dakboard if…
- You do not want to maintain a Pi or self-host anything.
- You want a hosted dashboard you manage from any browser, anywhere.
- A monthly subscription is a fair trade for zero-touch setup.
Pick Home Screens if…
- You want Dakboard-style editing without the cloud.
- You want 45 built-in modules out of the box.
- You want dedicated fullscreen calendar, chore, meal, and photo-frame modes — not just shrunk-down widgets.
- Portrait or landscape, you want something the family will use daily.
- You want a plugin SDK and multi-display from one hub.
See it running on your own Pi
No account. No cloud. About 10 minutes of hands-on work, and around 30 from unboxing to a display the whole family will use. You need a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 and any HDMI screen, about $90 from scratch. See what to buy.