Remento vs StoryWorth (2026): Which One Fits Your Family, and When Neither Does

Pick Remento if your parent would rather talk than write. Pick StoryWorth if your parent likes to write, or if you want the cheapest way to get a hardcover book. Both send one prompt a week for a year and print the answers. Remento is $99 for the first year; StoryWorth is $59, $109, or $199 depending on plan. Neither gives you your parent on video, and neither puts a person in the room asking follow-up questions. If that's what you want, a third option is covered below.

Remento vs StoryWorth: the short version

Prices were read on remento.co and welcome.storyworth.com on August 30, 2026. Both companies change plans often, so check before you buy.

How each one works

Remento

You or the storyteller pick prompts from Remento's library or write your own. Once a week, a prompt arrives by text or email. There's no app, download, or login. Your parent taps the link and speaks an answer on whatever phone or computer they have. Remento's Speech-to-Story feature turns the recording into written text, and you can keep it as a plain transcript or let it become a first-person or third-person narrative, then edit it.

Family members can pick questions, upload photos, vote on the next prompt, and listen as responses come in. When you're ready, you arrange the stories, preview the book, and order it. Each story has a QR code that plays the original recording. Sources: remento.co, remento.co/how-it-works, remento.co/faq.

StoryWorth

On the Basic plan, the storyteller gets a question by email once a week and answers by replying or writing on the website. Each email has a link to swap the question for another, or write a custom one. Photos can be added to any story. StoryWorth's FAQ warns that "only 1 or 2 photos fit on each page."

The Color plan adds phone storytelling with automatic transcription, one Family Call a month where a relative joins the storyteller on a recorded call, personalized questions, and a built-in proofreader. The Unlimited plan adds weekly guided phone interviews and weekly Family Calls for each storyteller, lets you give memoirs to everyone in the family while the plan is active, and includes two book credits. Sources: welcome.storyworth.com/storyworth-pricing, welcome.storyworth.com/faq.

Remento is built around talking first, with writing as the output. StoryWorth is built around writing first, with talking as a paid upgrade.

What the storyteller actually has to do

With Remento, the weekly job is to open a text, tap the link, and talk for a few minutes. That's it. Nothing to type, nothing to install. If your mother can leave a voicemail, she can do Remento.

StoryWorth Basic asks more. Open the email, write a few paragraphs, hit send. For a parent who enjoys writing, this is a pleasure, and the results read well because they wrote them. For a parent who doesn't, it's homework. Unanswered emails pile up, and the book comes out thin.

StoryWorth's Color and Unlimited plans let the storyteller call in instead of typing, at $109 or $199 for the first year. The finished product is still text on a page.

Neither product puts someone who knows your family on the other end. StoryWorth's Unlimited plan includes "weekly guided phone interviews," and a StoryWorth blog post describes "a voice-based interviewer" that asks follow-ups (StoryWorth voice features explained). The site doesn't say whether that interviewer is a person or software. If your father gives a two-sentence answer about the war, nobody on the call knows to say "wait, go back to the part about the train."

What you get at the end

Both produce a hardcover, but the specs differ more than you'd expect.

Remento prints a full-color 8 x 10 inch hardcover, which its homepage describes as "professionally printed on double-thick paper." The $99 includes one copy of up to 200 pages; books that run over 200 pages carry a $30 surcharge, up to a maximum of 380. The QR codes are the point. A grandchild opens the book, scans a story, and hears Grandpa's voice telling it. Extra copies are $69 up to 200 pages or $99 for 201 to 380 pages, and an e-book is $49.99.

StoryWorth Basic prints a hardcover with a black and white interior and a color cover, up to 480 pages, with one copy included in the $59. The Color and Unlimited plans print a full-color interior, up to 300 pages. Extra copies run $39 for black and white, $79 for color up to 300 pages, and $99 for color up to 480 pages. Free e-book downloads are included. Books are printed in the USA with free domestic shipping. The Basic plan lists a 30-day money-back guarantee, with full refunds "as long as no books have been printed."

Book specs from remento.co, remento.co/faq, and welcome.storyworth.com/faq, read August 30, 2026.

Neither product gives you a searchable archive where you can type "the bakery" and jump to every recording where it comes up. Neither is a video library.

Pricing over two years

A year-long project rarely runs on schedule. Someone gets sick, the prompts stall in March and restart in September. So the two-year number matters, and the two companies differ in what they tell you up front.

Remento's renewal is optional: skip it and you keep the recordings. StoryWorth publishes a renewal price only for Unlimited, which auto-renews at $99 unless you cancel, so put a reminder on the calendar. For Basic and Color, the FAQ says you get three months after the year ends to order the book or renew, but no page gives the renewal price. If you expect to run long, ask StoryWorth support what year two costs before you buy.

Storii is $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, with three scheduled prompt phone calls a week, transcription, and a downloadable audiobook and eBook (storii.com/pricing). It's the one to look at if your parent has a landline and no smartphone.

Remento or StoryWorth: where each one wins

Remento wins when:

• Your parent won't type. Full stop. This is the single biggest reason to pick it.
• You want to hear the voice in the finished product. A QR code on every story is more thorough than StoryWorth's audio support.
• Your parent refuses to install apps or remember passwords. Remento has neither.
• You might stop and restart. Access to recordings doesn't lapse when you stop paying, and the renewal price is published.

StoryWorth wins when:

• Your parent likes to write. A written memoir in their own words, edited by them, reads better than a transcript, and StoryWorth's whole design supports that.
• Budget is the main constraint. $59 is the lowest first-year price of the two, and extra black and white copies are $39.
• You want a family member on the call. The Color plan's monthly Family Call records a two-person conversation, which Remento doesn't offer.
• You want to gift several storytellers at once. Unlimited covers everyone in the family for one price while the plan is active.

The third option: an interviewer-led video service

Both products ask the storyteller to work alone, every week, for a year, and both produce a book. That's fine for many families. It's the wrong shape for two situations.

The first is when you want the person on camera. A transcript won't do it, and neither will audio behind a QR code. You want their face when they tell the story of meeting your mother. A book can't do that, and a phone recording made alone at the kitchen table rarely captures it well.

The second is when the storyteller won't carry a year-long project. A parent with early memory changes, or one who has said "I'll get to it" for three years. For that person, one scheduled afternoon with someone else asking the questions gets more done than fifty-two emails.

That's what Telloom sells, so read this part knowing where it comes from. A professional interviewer leads a guided, podcast-style video conversation with your parent, in person in the New York City metro area or remotely anywhere in the United States. Before the session, you share the stories you already know you want on record, and the interviewer builds a custom prompt list from a library of 640+ prompts across 50 categories. Every recording is transcribed with timestamps, gets an AI summary, and lives in a private, searchable family archive with unlimited viewer accounts and downloads at any time.

The price is a different order of magnitude. Professional packages run $1,750 to $8,000. Launch pricing, which is what's on the services page today, is $1,750 for a remote session of three to four hours of conversation, $2,500 for an in-person session in the New York area, and $5,500 for a two-day production. The standard prices those packages will move to later are $3,500, $4,500, and $8,000. There's also a self-serve plan at $10 a month or $99 a year if you want to record the interviews yourself and use the same archive.

What it isn't: Telloom doesn't make books. Transcripts come with every recording, but if what you want to hold is a hardcover, Remento or StoryWorth is the right purchase and Telloom isn't. It also doesn't do single in-person sessions outside the New York area, only remote ones.

A book made from a year of your parent working alone, at $59 to $199, or a few hours of them on video with someone else doing the interviewing, at $1,750 and up. Put that way, the choice usually makes itself.

A decision guide by situation

Your parent types comfortably and likes to write. StoryWorth Basic. It's the cheapest option and the one built for writers. Add the Color plan if you want photos to print in color.

Your parent talks easily but would never sit down at a keyboard. Remento. If they have a landline and no smartphone, look at Storii or StoryWorth's phone plans instead, since Remento's link needs a device with a browser.

Your parent has memory changes. Be careful with weekly-prompt products here. A year of prompts arriving alone can frustrate someone whose recall varies day to day, and there's nobody on the other end to ease into a subject or step back when it gets hard. If you go with a book product, plan to sit with them for each recording. If you can afford it, a single interviewer-led session, scheduled on a good day, with the interviewer briefed on what to avoid, is the safer path.

Your family is spread out. Both handle this well, since relatives can read and listen online as stories arrive, and Remento's family features (voting on prompts, uploading photos) are the stronger of the two. If you want everyone to see the conversation rather than read it, a remote video interview works anywhere in the United States and every relative gets viewer access afterward.

You need a gift with a deadline. Both can deliver a gift the same day by email. Remember that the book itself is a year away. If the deadline is a 90th birthday next month and you want something finished by then, no weekly-prompt product will get there. A recorded interview can, if you book it in time.

You want copies for several siblings. Compare extra-book prices, not first-year prices. Four extra StoryWorth black and white copies cost $156; four extra Remento copies at 200 pages cost $276.

For deeper lists of what else is out there, see our roundups of StoryWorth alternatives and Remento alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Is Remento or StoryWorth better for someone who doesn't like technology?

Remento, in most cases. The storyteller taps a link in a text and talks. There's no app to install and no password. StoryWorth Basic requires reading and replying to email or using the website. StoryWorth's Color and Unlimited plans add phone recording, which works for someone who's comfortable on the phone but not online.

Does StoryWorth or Remento record video?

Neither site says it does. Remento's pages describe the answer as a spoken recording ("they just speak"), and the finished product is a hardcover book with QR codes that play that recording, not a video archive. StoryWorth's site doesn't mention video. If video is what you want, neither product is built for it; that's a different category at a different price.

What happens to the stories if I stop paying?

Remento says you can still view and download all recordings with an inactive subscription, and renew later at $99 a year or $12 a month if you want to keep collecting. StoryWorth's Basic and Color plans give you three months after the year to order your book or renew, at a price the site doesn't publish. The Unlimited plan auto-renews at $99 a year unless you cancel.

Can more than one family member answer the questions?

StoryWorth's Unlimited plan ($199 first year) lets you give memoirs to everyone in your family while the plan is active, each with their own book. Remento's $99 plan is for one storyteller's book, though family members can pick prompts, upload photos, and listen to responses. For a second Remento storyteller you'd buy a second subscription.

How much does it cost to have a professional record my parent's story instead?

Telloom's professional packages start at $1,750 for a remote video interview at launch pricing and go to $8,000 for a two-day in-person production at standard pricing. For a fuller breakdown of what drives the price, including hiring a local videographer, read our guide on how much it costs to record a parent's life story on video.