Hatch Restore 3 vs Loftie Clock (2nd Gen)

The Hatch is a sunrise alarm. Hatch describes its light moving from red to orange to white before your chosen alarm sound, so the room brightens before anything plays. Its product page gives no brightness figure.

The Loftie Clock is not, and Loftie says so plainly: its nightlight can be set to come on with your alarm, but it is not a sunrise simulation, and Loftie sells the separate Loftie Lamp for light-based waking. The Loftie's waking is done by sound, through its two-phase alarm. If you sleep in a dark room and want light to start the job, the Hatch is the one of these two that does it.

Loftie includes 100+ tracks with the clock: nature sounds, white and brown noise, sound baths, meditations and breathwork, all played on the clock itself, with no paywall. It also works as a Bluetooth speaker.

The Hatch's sleep sounds are free and pre-loaded, per Hatch's help centre, and Hatch+ adds a larger library of music, meditations, bedtime podcasts and stories. If you will not pay for a membership, the Loftie gives you more audio out of the box. If you will, the Hatch library is the bigger one to draw from.

Routines are the Hatch's core. In its app you chain a wind-down light, sleep sounds and the morning sunrise, then start the routine each night with the big button on top and step through it from the device.

The Loftie has the parts of a routine: bedtime reminders, a sleep timer, a red mode and a blackout mode for the display. It does not program them into one evening sequence the way the Hatch does. If the wind-down is what you want to fix, the Hatch does more of that work for you.

Both need their app for setup. After that the Loftie is the more independent device: Loftie says Wi-Fi is only for setup and updates, offers a No Wi-Fi Mode once the clock is updated, runs alarms on the clock itself, and lists a 5-7 hour backup battery.

Hatch lists a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection as required and uses the app to customise routines, though once registered the Restore 3 runs nightly from its own buttons. If you want the bedroom device to keep working with the router off, the Loftie is built for it.

Loftie's position is simple: everything the clock does is included when you buy it, with nothing to subscribe to. The Hatch works without Hatch+, and Hatch lists its sleep sounds, light options, sunrise alarm, rest reminder and three sunset options as free. The membership adds music, meditations, podcasts and stories, and after the 30-day free trial it renews monthly or yearly unless you cancel.

The cost chart counts three years of the yearly Hatch+ plan. With the membership, the Loftie's one-time price comes out lower over three years; without it, the Hatch is the cheaper device.

At our latest check the Hatch cost less than the Loftie, and its Amazon price has dipped further at times. Hatch also sells direct, so Amazon stock comes and goes. On device price alone, the Hatch is the lower-priced way into this category; the Loftie's higher price includes every sound with no membership to add later.