Storyworth vs Remento in 2026: which one should you give?

Storyworth and Remento are the two names most people find when they look for a way to turn a parent’s or grandparent’s memories into a book. Both send a question every week for a year, and both end with a hardcover you can hold. On the surface they look almost the same, and they even cost the same at the start: $99.

They’re built around a different idea of how people tell stories, though. Storyworth expects the storyteller to write, or to talk on the phone and have their words printed as they said them. Remento expects them to talk, and uses AI to turn each recording into a written chapter. That one difference decides most of what follows: who does the work, how the book reads, and who each one is right for.

A note on where this comes from: we make Ever Journal, which is a different kind of product (more on that at the end), so we don’t sell either of these. Everything below comes from the two companies’ own pricing pages, help centers and comparison pages, checked on October 26, 2026, with links at the end. Both run frequent sales and change their plans, so check the current price before you buy.

The short answer

• Choose Storyworth if the storyteller enjoys writing, or will happily tell stories over the phone. It’s also cheaper for a long book, and it has a family plan for several storytellers at once.
• Choose Remento if they’d rather talk than type. They record a voice or video answer from a link, AI writes it up as a story, and every chapter in the book has a QR code that plays their voice.
• On price, it’s close for a typical color book. Storyworth starts lower ($69 with a black-and-white interior) and is cheaper for long books. Remento’s book is bigger and always in color.

Storyworth and Remento at a glance

Writing or talking: how the stories get told

This is the question that matters most. Before you compare prices, think about the person you’re buying for. Do they write long emails? Or do they freeze in front of a keyboard, but can talk for an hour once someone asks the right question?

Storyworth: written answers, or a phone call

Every week, Storyworth emails the storyteller a question, either from its library or one you’ve written. On the Color and Unlimited plans it can come by text instead, and the Color plan adds personalized questions written for your storyteller. They answer by replying to the email or writing on the Storyworth website, and they can add photos as they go.

If they’d rather not write, they can tell a story over the phone, any phone, including a landline, and Storyworth transcribes it into the book as they told it. Its pricing page lists this on every plan, but its help pages say not every voice feature is on every plan, so check before you choose Basic. The higher plans go further. Color adds one Family Call a month, where a relative joins the storyteller on a recorded call. Unlimited adds a weekly Magic Interview, a phone call that asks follow-up questions and turns the conversation into a story, and weekly Family Calls for each storyteller.

If you’re mainly weighing up Storyworth on its own, our look at whether Storyworth is worth it goes through what people love about it and what they complain about.

Remento: record a voice or video answer

Remento sends a weekly prompt by email or text, from a library of hundreds or from photos you upload, so you can ask about the story behind a particular picture. The storyteller taps the link and records an answer on whatever device they have, as voice or video, up to 30 minutes per story. There’s no app to install, no login and no password, which matters a lot for some older storytellers. One storyteller is included, with as many family collaborators as you like.

Remento is built for speaking. Its own pages present typed answers as Storyworth’s way of doing things, and we couldn’t find a way for the storyteller to write a story themselves.

Who writes the words

The two services also make different books, because the words on the page come from different places.

In a Storyworth book, the words are the storyteller’s own. Written answers go in as written, with a built-in proofreader on the Color plan, and phone stories are transcribed as told. That’s the charm of it: the book sounds like them, because it is them. The catch is that the book is only as full as their answers. A storyteller who doesn’t enjoy writing may send a few short replies and stop, and spoken stories printed word for word can read a little loosely.

In a Remento book, AI does the writing up. Remento calls it Speech-to-Story. Every recording is transcribed, and then you choose how it reads:

• Cleaned transcript: their exact words, with the “ums” and filler removed and punctuation added.
• First-person story: rewritten as a narrative, as if they’d written it themselves. You can set the length.
• Third-person story: written the way a biographer would tell it.

You can switch between versions, edit any sentence by hand, and the original recording is always kept. It produces a book that reads smoothly with very little effort from anyone. The trade-off is that a first-person story is the AI’s wording of what they said, not their own. Read those versions with the storyteller before you print, and choose the cleaned transcript wherever their way of saying things matters more than polish.

The printed book

Both books are hardcovers, and both companies ship free within the US. The differences are in size, color and length.

• Size. Storyworth’s book is 6×9 inches, a typical book size. Remento’s is 8×10 inches, closer to a photo album.
• Color. Remento always prints in full color. Storyworth’s Basic plan has a black-and-white interior with a color cover; the Color and Unlimited plans are full color.
• Length. Storyworth’s Basic credit covers up to 480 pages, and the Color credit up to 300. Remento’s credit covers up to 200 pages, and you can go up to 380 for $30 more.
• Photos. Both let you add photos to the stories. Storyworth sets no limit beyond the page count, and says to expect one or two per page.
• Their voice. Each chapter of a Remento book has a QR code that plays the original recording. You can switch the codes off before printing. They point to Remento’s servers, which Remento says it will keep running. Storyworth’s book has one QR code, on the last page, which opens the stories online and plays any phone recordings, for the people on your sharing list.
• Extra copies. Storyworth charges $39 for a black-and-white copy up to 480 pages, $79 for color up to 300 and $99 for color up to 480. Remento charges $69 up to 200 pages and $99 from 201 to 380. Storyworth includes an e-book and an audiobook on every plan; Remento’s e-book is $49.99.

What it really costs

The $99 headline price is the same, but what you pay depends on the book you end up with. Here are two common cases at list prices, before any sale, tax or shipping outside the US.

A color book of about 150 pages, plus two copies for siblings:

• Storyworth Color: $99 + 2 × $79 = $257
• Remento: $99 + 2 × $69 = $237

A long book of about 350 pages, plus one extra copy:

• Storyworth Basic, black and white inside: $69 + $39 = $108
• Remento, in color: $99 + $30 + $99 = $228

So for a shorter color book, Remento comes out a little cheaper, and it’s a bigger book. For a long life story, Storyworth costs less than half as much, if you’re happy with a black-and-white interior.

For several storytellers, say both grandmothers and a grandfather, Storyworth’s Unlimited plan ($199, then $99 a year) gives the whole family as many memoirs as they like while it’s active, with two color books included. Remento’s $99 covers one storyteller, so each extra storyteller is another purchase.

After the first year

This is easy to overlook when buying a gift.

Storyworth’s Basic and Color plans are a one-time gift with no automatic renewal. After the year of questions, you can renew to keep writing, or print the book. Storyworth asks you to order it within three months of the year ending. You keep access to the stories, so you can still edit them and order more copies later. The Unlimited plan is different: it renews every year at $99 until you cancel.

Remento renews after the first year, at $99 a year or $12 a month, unless you turn renewal off. If you stop, you keep access to everything already recorded, and you can download the original recordings, but you can’t add new stories until you subscribe again.

Track record and guarantees

Storyworth started in 2013 and has far more reviews: it rates 4.7 on Trustpilot from more than 65,000. Remento started in 2021 and appeared on Shark Tank in 2025; it rates 4.8 from about 1,750 reviews. Both scores are excellent, so treat the difference as a tie.

Both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Storyworth’s applies as long as no book has been printed, and Remento’s covers the first purchase.

Which should you choose?

Picture the storyteller, and pick the one that fits how they already like to share.

• Your dad writes long, funny emails: Storyworth. Basic if a black-and-white interior is fine, Color if you’d like photos in color.
• Your grandmother would rather talk and has a phone or tablet: Remento. She taps a link and talks, and you get a polished book and her voice.
• They’d rather talk but don’t use a smartphone or computer: Storyworth, which takes stories over any phone, including a landline. Unlimited adds interviews with follow-up questions.
• You’re expecting a long book: Storyworth Basic, which fits up to 480 pages in the price.
• You want the recordings as much as the book: Remento. Every story is recorded, and each chapter’s QR code plays it.
• Several family members should tell their stories: Storyworth Unlimited.

If neither one fits

Both of these are built as a gift: one year of weekly questions for someone else, ending in a printed book. If you want to see more options, including StoryKeeper, My Life in a Book, Meminto and the free StoryCorps app, our Storyworth alternatives guide compares eight of them.

If the storyteller is you, and you’d like to write your own story at your own pace, that’s what we built Ever Journal for. Eve, an AI biographer, asks one question at a time about the gaps in your story and weaves each answer into chapters you approve. It doesn’t print books, though: you export a PDF to print yourself.

And if you’d rather start with no service at all, our questions to ask your grandparents and our guide to recording a parent’s life story need nothing more than a phone and an afternoon.

Questions people ask

Is Remento or Storyworth better?

Neither is better for everyone. Storyworth is better for people who like to write, for long books and for several storytellers on one plan. Remento is better for people who’d rather talk, and for families who want every story kept in the storyteller’s voice.

Can you use Storyworth without writing?

Yes. Storytellers can tell stories over the phone, and Storyworth transcribes them into the book. Check the plan first: the pricing page lists phone stories on every plan, but Family Calls come with Color and Unlimited, and Magic Interviews, phone calls with follow-up questions, only with Unlimited.

Can you type answers in Remento?

Remento is designed for voice and video answers. We couldn’t find a way for the storyteller to type a story, though you can edit any story’s text by hand after it’s transcribed.

Do they renew automatically?

Storyworth’s Basic and Color plans don’t. Its Unlimited plan renews at $99 a year. Remento renews at $99 a year or $12 a month unless you turn renewal off.

Which one prints a bigger book?

Remento’s book is larger, 8×10 inches against Storyworth’s 6×9. Storyworth fits more pages for the price: up to 480 on Basic, against Remento’s 200 included (380 for $30 more).

Sources

Checked on October 26, 2026:

• Storyworth: pricing, frequently asked questions, voice features and Storyworth vs Remento
• Remento: pricing guide, printing the book, book prices, turning spoken words into writing and Remento vs Storyworth
• Trustpilot: Storyworth and Remento