Storii Alternatives 2026: 8 Options When a Parent Won't Use an App

The best Storii alternatives for a parent who will only answer a phone are Storyworth Color or Unlimited, Memorygram, and Meminto, which record by phone and print a book. If your parent can talk to a person, Telloom (video, from $1,750), Heirloom Family Documentaries (remote video, $2,000 to $4,000), and LifeBook Memoirs (ghostwritten book, from $18,000) send an interviewer. Telloom and Heirloom are the two that put their face on video. StoryCorps is free. This post doubles as a Storii review, so start there if you're still deciding.

What Storii is, and who it's built for

Storii is a subscription that records a life story over the phone. You register a number and a schedule, and Storii calls up to three times a week. An automated voice asks one question from Storii's prompt library (more than 1,000 prompts, per its pricing page), or one you wrote yourself. Your parent answers out loud. The call is recorded, transcribed, and saved to a profile the family can log into.

The design is the point. Storii's site puts it directly: "No internet or smartphone required" and "Storii only needs a valid phone number to record your loved one's memories" (storii.com, checked August 30, 2026). A landline works. A flip phone works. The person telling the stories never touches a screen.

Pricing from storii.com/pricing, read the same day: $9.99 a month, $59.99 a year, or a $59.99 Gift Box that includes a year of calls. Every plan includes the calls, the prompt library, transcription, an "AI Biographical Rewrite," a downloadable audiobook and eBook, and unlimited family profiles.

If your parent won't install an app or type, you're Storii's target customer. Whether its trade-offs suit your family is the real question.

Storii review: what it does well and where it falls short

It removes the biggest failure point. The usual way a family-story product fails is that the storyteller stops responding. Storii's phone rings on its own, and answering it is a habit your parent already has. At $59.99 a year, you can start this week and decide later whether it's working.

The voice survives. Storii keeps the audio, and you can download it. And there's nothing to ship or set up. Nobody has to drive over and get the iPad working.

The gaps.

There's no interviewer. The voice on the line is automated. It asks the question, records the answer, and moves on. It can't say "wait, go back to the part about the boarding house." An interviewer draws out the second, better version of a story. Storii gets the first, which is usually the short one.

Audio only, by design. If seeing your parent tell the story is what you want, no phone-based service will give you that.

The AI rewrite isn't their voice. Storii's "AI Biographical Rewrite" turns rambling transcripts into tidy prose. Some families like that. But software wrote the tidy version, and it smooths out the phrasing that made your parent sound like themselves. The raw transcript and audio are still there. Just know which version you're handing down.

Two smaller points. Scheduled calls produce separate answers spread over months, not the arc of a whole life told in one sitting. And there's no printed book in the price, only an eBook and printable Keepbooks.

If none of that bothers you, buy Storii. If one point stings, keep reading.

Comparison table: Storii and 8 alternatives

The second column answers the question that decides everything else: what does your parent have to do?

Prices come from each company's own website and change often. No Story Lost, which used to do professional phone interviews, shows up in older comparison posts; its website was offline when we checked on August 30, 2026, so we've left it out.

Phone-based alternatives: for a parent who will only answer a call

These keep Storii's central idea (the parent just picks up the phone) and change what comes out the other end.

Storyworth Color and Unlimited

Storyworth's $59 Basic plan is the familiar weekly email question and hardcover book. The two higher plans are the ones a Storii shopper should look at. Color ($109) adds the option to "tell stories over the phone with automatic transcription" and a monthly Family Call where a relative joins the storyteller on a recorded call. Unlimited ($199, then $99 a year) adds "weekly guided phone interviews for each storyteller." Source: welcome.storyworth.com/storyworth-pricing.

Storyworth's pages don't say whether a person or software asks the follow-up questions on those calls; the transcription is automatic. The clear difference from Storii is the output: a book, with the audio turned into text. More in our Storyworth alternatives guide.

Memorygram

Memorygram's pitch is close to Storii's, with a book at the end. Its site says "Voice-to-Text & Phone are free for all users, and every book prints with a QR code to hear their voice," so the voice isn't lost the way it is in a text-only book.

Pricing shifts because the site runs constant sales. On August 30, 2026 the checkout FAQ said the Legacy Book was "on sale for $98.80," with extra copies at $77 and a second storyteller at $50. The site doesn't say who conducts the phone interview. Source: checkout.memorygram.com. More in our Memorygram alternatives post.

Meminto Stories

Meminto is a one-time purchase: Essential ($99, up to 100 pages), Complete ($149, 300+ pages), and Premium ($397, up to 480 pages, three copies, digital flip book). The storyteller can use the app with speech-to-text, answer phone interviews, or submit answers through QR codes, and has up to two years to finish. Source: meminto.com/pricing. The pricing page doesn't spell out how the phone path works, so ask before you buy.

Remento gets a footnote here rather than a section. It's a good product if your parent texts: $99 for a year of prompts and a hardcover with QR codes, "No app. No login. No password." But it still needs a smartphone, tablet, or computer, the exact thing a Storii shopper's parent won't use (remento.co; see our Remento alternatives post).

Interviewer-led alternatives: the parent still does nothing but talk

This is the option that's easy to miss. "My mother won't use technology" and "my mother needs a phone-only service" aren't the same thing. Here the parent also does nothing except talk, because a person leads the conversation, in the room or on a screen someone else set up. And an interviewer hears the half-told story and asks for the rest, which is Storii's biggest gap.

Telloom

Telloom records guided, podcast-style video interviews with parents and grandparents. A professional interviewer leads the conversation, in person in the New York City metro area or remotely anywhere in the United States. You tell Telloom the stories you already know you want on record, and the interviewer builds a custom prompt list from that plus a library of 640+ prompts across 50 categories (free at questions to ask family members). Then they sit down with your parent for three to four hours.

What comes back is video, organized by person and topic in a private family archive, with timestamped transcripts, an AI summary of each recording, search across everything, unlimited viewer accounts, and downloads. The summary sits next to the video and never replaces what your parent said, in the words they said it.

Three professional packages, at launch pricing: Remote Essentials, $1,750 (standard $3,500), one remote session with two years of platform access. In-Person Signature, $2,500 (standard $4,500), up to four hours on site with a camera crew and 25 digitized photos. In-Person Legacy, $5,500 (standard $8,000), two recording days, heirlooms documented on camera, edited topic films, and five years of access; travel outside New York is available for this one. The Telloom services page has the full inclusions. A self-serve plan at $10 a month or $99 a year lets you do the interviewing yourself; the guide to recording family video interviews covers gear at every budget.

When Telloom is the wrong pick:

• You want a printed book. Telloom is video and transcripts; there's no book.
• Your parent can't be on camera, or nobody can set up a laptop on their end for a remote session. Then pick a phone-based service.
• Telloom's single in-person session is New York only. Elsewhere, remote is the option; travel is for multi-day productions.
• Under $100 means Storii, Remento, Memorygram, or Telloom's self-serve plan. Our post on what it costs to record a parent's life story on video lays out the full range.

For a parent who won't use technology but can talk with a person, a remote session works like this: a relative gets the camera pointed and the sound checked, then the interviewer takes over. From there, your parent's part is a conversation.

Heirloom Family Documentaries

Heirloom does remote video interviews with a professional interviewer over a smartphone kit shipped to your parent's home, then edits the footage into short videos by topic. Packages, from heirloomdocs.com: Silver ($2,000, 2-hour interview, 12 to 15 videos), Gold ($3,000, 3 hours, 25 to 30 videos), and Platinum ($4,000, 4 hours, 36 to 45 videos). Each includes the kit, two USB drives, and six months of online hosting.

The catch for a Storii-type parent is the kit. Someone has to receive it and have it running for the call, so if your parent lives alone, plan for a relative to be there.

LifeBook Memoirs

LifeBook is the top of the market. A ghostwriter and a project manager work with your parent through 11 to 14 face-to-face interviews and produce a hardcover memoir of up to 200 to 300 pages depending on package. Packages run $18,000, $27,000, and $42,000, each paid over six months. Source: lifebookmemoirs.com/pricing. The parent's part is the easiest of any option here: sit at home and talk to a writer. What you get is a book rather than a recording.

The free option: StoryCorps

StoryCorps offers a free mobile app to "record and archive a meaningful conversation with anyone." You prepare questions in the app, record audio, and can upload it to the StoryCorps archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Source: storycorps.org.

You hold the phone and ask the questions. It's audio only, and uploaded recordings can be made public, so read the settings first. Pull questions from our guide to questions to ask your parents; our post on how to interview your parents covers how to run it.

How to decide

The first "yes" usually settles it.

Will your parent only ever pick up a phone, with nobody nearby to help with anything else? Storii for audio. Storyworth Color or Unlimited, Memorygram, or Meminto if you want a book at the end.

Can your parent sit and talk to a person, if someone else handles the setup? Now the interviewer-led options open up. Telloom for video, from $1,750 remote or $2,500 in person in New York. Heirloom for remote video with a shipped kit, $2,000 to $4,000. LifeBook if you want a written memoir and the budget allows.

Seeing their face rules out every phone and book service; that leaves Telloom or Heirloom. A hardcover on the shelf points the other way: Storyworth, Remento, Memorygram, Meminto, or LifeBook.

Is time a factor? A diagnosis, a move to assisted living, a 90th birthday. Prompt services collect stories over a year. An interviewer-led session gets three or four hours of a whole life on record in one afternoon.

Whatever you pick, pick it this month.

Frequently asked questions

Is Storii worth it?

For the right parent, yes. If your mother or father will answer a phone but not touch a screen, Storii is the simplest way to get their voice on record, and $59.99 a year is a small bet. It's the wrong buy if you want video, a printed book, or a real interviewer.

Does Storii work on a landline?

Yes. Storii's site says it "only needs a valid phone number" and that "no internet or smartphone" is required. Calls go to whatever number you register, landline or mobile.

Storii vs Storyworth: which is better?

It depends on what you want to hold at the end. Storii records audio over automated calls and delivers recordings, transcripts, and audiobook and eBook files for $59.99 a year. Storyworth delivers a hardcover book; Basic ($59) is written by email, and Color ($109) and Unlimited ($199) add dictation and guided phone interviews. Pick Storii if the voice matters most, Storyworth if the book does.

Is there a phone-based life story service with a real interviewer?

Not that we could verify in August 2026. No Story Lost used to, and its site is offline. The services that put a live interviewer in front of your parent right now are video or in person: Telloom, Heirloom, and LifeBook Memoirs.

My parent won't use any technology at all. What are my real options?

Two paths. Phone-only services (Storii, Storyworth Color or Unlimited, Memorygram, Meminto) ask nothing of your parent beyond answering a call. Interviewer-led services (Telloom, Heirloom, LifeBook) ask nothing beyond talking to a person, but someone in the family handles the setup. If you can be there long enough to get the camera and sound working, the second path gets you far more.