[{"_1":2,"_165":-5,"_166":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_7":8},"root",{"_5":6},"locale","en","routes/tag.$slug",{"_9":10,"_129":152,"_160":154,"_5":6,"_161":35,"_162":35,"_163":164},"posts",[11],{"_12":13,"_14":15,"_5":6,"_16":-5,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23,"_24":25,"_26":27,"_28":19,"_29":30,"_31":-5,"_32":33,"_34":35,"_36":37,"_38":-5,"_39":-5,"_40":-5,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_63":64,"_85":86,"_124":125},"id",20,"slug","tmys-vs-storyworth","translationOfId","translationOfKey","title","Tell Me Your Story vs StoryWorth (2026)","excerpt","StoryWorth costs $99/year and relies on typing. Tell Me Your Story is $49.99 once with voice recording. Compare pricing, privacy, AI features, and book quality side by side.","content","

StoryWorth costs $99 a year and emails your parent a writing prompt every week. They have to type the answers. Tell Me Your Story costs $49.99 once and lets your parent speak instead of type. If you're buying this for a 75-year-old who won't sit down at a keyboard to write essays about their childhood, voice wins.

\n\n

Quick Comparison: Tell Me Your Story vs StoryWorth

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Feature	Tell Me Your Story	StoryWorth
Price	$49.99 (Standard) / $79.99 (Premium), one-time	$99/year subscription
Payment model	One-time purchase, no renewal	Annual subscription, auto-renews
True cost over 3 years	$49.99–$79.99 total	$219–$377 (depending on book add-ons)
Input method	Voice-first (speak, don't type)	Typing via email reply (phone callback available)
AI features	3-level story polish, follow-up questions, full book assembly	No user-facing AI features
Privacy	iCloud only, no company servers	Company servers (MongoDB/Heroku, US-based)
Data ownership	User owns all data in their Apple iCloud	StoryWorth ToS grants \"worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable\" license
If company shuts down	Stories safe in your iCloud, nothing changes	Must export .zip before losing access
Languages	6 (English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Italian)	English and Spanish
Book output	Hardcover casewrap (Standard) or linen + dust jacket (Premium)	6×9 hardcover, 70# white uncoated paper
Book included in price	Yes, printing included in purchase price	Year 1 only, extra copies $39–$99
Offline support	Full offline recording and editing	Requires internet (email-based)
Platform	Native iOS app (iPhone + iPad)	Web + iOS app + email
Target user	Elderly-friendly, voice-first, no tech skills needed	Email-comfortable writers of any age

\n\n

Which costs less over three years?

\n\n

StoryWorth charges $99 for the first year, which includes one hardcover book. Renewal runs about $60 a year. But renewal doesn't include a book. Want a printed copy each year? That's $79 extra per book for full-color over 300 pages.

\n\n

Here's the 3-year breakdown:

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Scenario	Tell Me Your Story	StoryWorth
Year 1	$49.99 (Standard) or $79.99 (Premium)	$99 (includes 1 book)
Year 2	$0	~$60 renewal (no book) or ~$139 (with book)
Year 3	$0	~$60 renewal (no book) or ~$139 (with book)
3-year total (no extra books)	$49.99–$79.99	$219
3-year total (book each year)	$49.99–$79.99	$377

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story Standard saves you $139 over StoryWorth's base 3-year cost, and if you want a StoryWorth book each year, the gap hits $297. Both Tell Me Your Story tiers include the printed book in the purchase price. No separate printing fee.

\n\n

Which is easier for a 75-year-old to use?

\n\n

StoryWorth's primary input method is typing. The service emails a question each week, and the storyteller writes a reply. They've since added a phone callback option: StoryWorth calls your phone, you talk, and a raw transcription lands in your account. Their support docs say the transcription arrives \"without punctuation or cleanup.\" It reads like a voicemail transcript.

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story works differently. Open the app, tap the record button, talk. On-device speech recognition transcribes in real time. The transcript is editable, and AI polish offers three levels: Raw (your exact words), Light (filler words and false starts removed), Full (narrative prose that keeps your voice). Touch targets are 44 points minimum. The language is warm and non-technical, built for someone who's never downloaded an app (and isn't planning to).

\n\n

StoryWorth has 62,842 Trustpilot reviews and a 4.7/5 rating. Praise centers on the weekly prompt structure and the gift-giving experience. But the repeat complaint in negative reviews? It \"feels like homework.\" A weekly writing assignment that plenty of elderly parents abandon after four or five prompts. Voice recording cuts that friction. Speaking captures tone, the pauses where someone reaches for a word, the tangents that typing would never include.

\n\n

Which has better AI features?

\n\n

StoryWorth has no visible AI features. Their help center confirms no spell check, no grammar check, no writing assistance. Their Terms of Service mention AI tools in a general clause, but nothing is user-facing as of early 2026.

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story includes six AI features behind the Standard and Premium tiers:

\n\n

Story Polish — 3 levels (Raw, Light, Full) that clean up transcripts while preserving the speaker's authentic voice
Follow-Up Questions — 3 to 5 prompts based on what was just recorded, pulling out threads the storyteller might expand on
Memory Extraction — identifies people, places, time periods, emotional tone, and unfinished threads across stories
Book Structure Proposal — suggests parts, chapter titles, and story ordering based on the full collection
Book Assembly — generates a complete manuscript with foreword, chapter introductions, transitions between stories, and an afterword
Section Regeneration — re-generate individual chapters or introductions without redoing the entire manuscript

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story uses AI to sharpen what the speaker said. It doesn't generate stories from scratch. The speaker's words stay the foundation. AI is the editor, not the author.

\n\n

Which is safer for private family stories?

\n\n

StoryWorth stores all submitted content on company servers running MongoDB and Heroku in the United States. Section 5 of their Terms of Service grants StoryWorth a \"worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license\" to use submitted content. The same ToS states: \"We are not responsible for any loss or removal of your Content.\" They clarify they don't use customer stories to train external AI systems — but the license language is broad.

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story stores every recording, transcript, photo, and book PDF in the user's personal iCloud account. Zero story data touches Tell Me Your Story's servers. The app uses Apple's CloudKit private database, which means even Tell Me Your Story as a company can't access the content. If Tell Me Your Story vanished from the App Store tomorrow, every recording and transcript would stay right where it is. Accessible through iCloud.com or any Apple device signed into that account.

\n\n

If your family is sharing stories about health struggles, immigration, or financial hardship, the storage question matters more than any feature comparison. iCloud with end-to-end encryption means nobody reads the stories. Not the app developers. Not a bad actor who breaches a hosting provider's database.

\n\n

Which produces a better book?

\n\n

StoryWorth prints a 6×9 hardcover on 70-pound white uncoated acid-free paper, up to 480 pages. Formatting options: bold, italic, underline. No font choices. A recurring complaint in reviews is that photos print darker than they appear on screen. The first book comes with the $99 subscription. Extra copies run $39 for black-and-white, up to $99 for full-color over 300 pages.

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story offers two tiers. Standard ($49.99, book included) produces a hardcover casewrap. Premium ($79.99, book included) produces a linen hardcover with a dust jacket and full-color interior. Both come with 10 cover design templates, from traditional layouts (Heirloom, Heritage) to contemporary ones (Modern, Timeless), each with its own color palette, ornaments, and type pairing. Extra copies at tier price.

\n\n

Both produce real hardcover books you can put on a shelf. StoryWorth handles longer projects (up to 480 pages). Tell Me Your Story gives you more design control and folds the printing cost into the purchase price instead of tying it to a subscription year.

\n\n

What happens if the company goes away?

\n\n

StoryWorth stores stories on its own servers. You can export a .zip file of PDFs and images through Manage Account > \"Download all your stories.\" Their Terms of Service say backing up is your responsibility. After your subscription lapses, there's a 3-month grace period before the account goes dark.

\n\n

Tell Me Your Story doesn't keep your stories on any server you don't own. Everything lives in your personal iCloud. Delete the app and the data stays. The company could shut down entirely, and every voice recording (M4A files), transcript, photo, and generated book PDF would still sit in your iCloud storage. No export step needed. The data was never on someone else's server.

\n\n

A memoir book is an heirloom. The storage should match that permanence.

\n\n

Who should choose what?

\n\n

Choose Tell Me Your Story if:

Your parent or grandparent prefers speaking over typing
You want a one-time purchase with no recurring fees
Privacy matters — stories stay in personal iCloud, not on company servers
Your family speaks multiple languages (Tell Me Your Story supports 6: English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Italian)
You want AI editing that preserves the speaker's authentic voice
You need offline recording for places without Wi-Fi (cabins, care facilities, road trips)

\n\n

Choose StoryWorth if:

Your parent types comfortably and likes the rhythm of weekly email prompts
You value StoryWorth's brand recognition (62,842 Trustpilot reviews at 4.7/5 is hard to argue with)
You want the Celebrations product for group events like weddings, retirements, or milestone birthdays
You need a cross-platform experience: Android, desktop, tablet, anything with a browser
The weekly email cadence helps your parent stay motivated over a full year

\n\n

Limitations of Tell Me Your Story to consider: iOS only (no Android or web version), no video recording, requires an Apple ID and iCloud, no email-prompt model (the storyteller has to open the app). If your family uses Android, Tell Me Your Story isn't an option. StoryWorth's web-based approach works on any device with a browser.

\n\n

Want to try voice-first memoir recording? See how Tell Me Your Story works and compare tiers.

","contentPlain","StoryWorth costs $99 a year and emails your parent a writing prompt every week. They have to type the answers. Tell Me Your Story costs $49.99 once and lets your parent speak instead of type. If you're buying this for a 75-year-old who won't sit down at a keyboard to write essays about their childhood, voice wins.\n\nQuick Comparison: Tell Me Your Story vs StoryWorth\n\nPrice: Tell Me Your Story — $49.99 (Standard) / $79.99 (Premium), one-time. StoryWorth — $99/year subscription.\nPayment model: Tell Me Your Story — One-time purchase, no renewal. StoryWorth — Annual subscription, auto-renews.\nTrue cost over 3 years: Tell Me Your Story — $49.99-$79.99 total. StoryWorth — $219-$377 depending on book add-ons.\nInput method: Tell Me Your Story — Voice-first (speak, don't type). StoryWorth — Typing via email reply (phone callback available).\nAI features: Tell Me Your Story — 3-level story polish, follow-up questions, full book assembly. StoryWorth — No user-facing AI features.\nPrivacy: Tell Me Your Story — iCloud only, no company servers. StoryWorth — Company servers (MongoDB/Heroku, US-based).\nData ownership: Tell Me Your Story — User owns all data in their Apple iCloud. StoryWorth — ToS grants \"worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable\" license.\nIf company shuts down: Tell Me Your Story — Stories safe in your iCloud. StoryWorth — Must export .zip before losing access.\nLanguages: Tell Me Your Story — 6 (English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Italian). StoryWorth — English and Spanish.\nBook output: Tell Me Your Story — Hardcover casewrap (Standard) or linen + dust jacket (Premium). StoryWorth — 6x9 hardcover, 70# white uncoated paper.\nBook included in price: Tell Me Your Story — Yes, printing included. StoryWorth — Year 1 only, extra copies $39-$99.\nOffline support: Tell Me Your Story — Full offline recording and editing. StoryWorth — Requires internet (email-based).\nPlatform: Tell Me Your Story — Native iOS app (iPhone + iPad). StoryWorth — Web + iOS app + email.\nTarget user: Tell Me Your Story — Elderly-friendly, voice-first, no tech skills needed. StoryWorth — Email-comfortable writers of any age.\n\nWhich costs less over three years?\n\nStoryWorth charges $99 for the first year, which includes one hardcover book. Renewal runs about $60 a year. But renewal doesn't include a book. Want a printed copy each year? That's $79 extra per book for full-color over 300 pages.\n\n3-year breakdown:\nYear 1: Tell Me Your Story $49.99-$79.99. StoryWorth $99 (includes 1 book).\nYear 2: Tell Me Your Story $0. StoryWorth ~$60 renewal or ~$139 with book.\nYear 3: Tell Me Your Story $0. StoryWorth ~$60 renewal or ~$139 with book.\n3-year total (no extra books): Tell Me Your Story $49.99-$79.99. StoryWorth $219.\n3-year total (book each year): Tell Me Your Story $49.99-$79.99. StoryWorth $377.\n\nTell Me Your Story Standard saves you $139 over StoryWorth's base 3-year cost, and if you want a StoryWorth book each year, the gap hits $297. Both Tell Me Your Story tiers include the printed book in the purchase price. No separate printing fee.\n\nWhich is easier for a 75-year-old to use?\n\nStoryWorth's primary input method is typing. The service emails a question each week, and the storyteller writes a reply. They've since added a phone callback option: StoryWorth calls your phone, you talk, and a raw transcription lands in your account. Their support docs say the transcription arrives \"without punctuation or cleanup.\" It reads like a voicemail transcript.\n\nTell Me Your Story works differently. Open the app, tap the record button, talk. On-device speech recognition transcribes in real time. AI polish offers three levels: Raw, Light (filler removed), Full (narrative prose). Touch targets are 44 points minimum. The language is warm and non-technical, built for someone who's never downloaded an app.\n\nStoryWorth has 62,842 Trustpilot reviews and a 4.7/5 rating. The repeat complaint in negative reviews? It \"feels like homework.\" A weekly writing assignment that plenty of elderly parents abandon after four or five prompts. Voice recording cuts that friction.\n\nWhich has better AI features?\n\nStoryWorth has no visible AI features. Their help center confirms no spell check or grammar check. Tell Me Your Story includes six AI features: Story Polish (3 levels), Follow-Up Questions (3-5 per story), Memory Extraction, Book Structure Proposal, Book Assembly (foreword, transitions, afterword), and Section Regeneration. AI sharpens what the speaker said rather than generating content from scratch.\n\nWhich is safer for private family stories?\n\nStoryWorth stores content on company servers (MongoDB/Heroku, US). Their ToS grants a \"worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license.\" They also state: \"We are not responsible for any loss or removal of your Content.\"\n\nTell Me Your Story stores everything in the user's personal iCloud account. Zero story data touches Tell Me Your Story's servers. The app uses Apple's CloudKit private database. If Tell Me Your Story vanished, every recording and transcript would stay in iCloud storage.\n\nIf your family is sharing stories about health struggles, immigration, or financial hardship, iCloud with end-to-end encryption means nobody reads the stories. Not the app developers. Not a bad actor who breaches a hosting provider's database.\n\nWhich produces a better book?\n\nStoryWorth: 6x9 hardcover, 70# white uncoated acid-free paper, up to 480 pages, limited formatting. First book included in $99 subscription. Extra copies $39-$99.\n\nTell Me Your Story Standard ($49.99, book included): hardcover casewrap. Premium ($79.99, book included): linen hardcover with dust jacket, full-color interior. 10 cover design templates. Extra copies at tier price.\n\nBoth produce real hardcover books. StoryWorth handles longer projects (up to 480 pages). Tell Me Your Story gives more design control and folds the printing cost into the purchase price.\n\nWhat happens if the company goes away?\n\nStoryWorth: stories on company servers. Export a .zip of PDFs and images. 3-month grace period after subscription ends. Tell Me Your Story: everything in your iCloud. Delete the app and the data stays. The company could shut down and your recordings, transcripts, photos, and book PDFs stay in your iCloud storage. No export needed.\n\nA memoir book is an heirloom. The storage should match that permanence.\n\nWho should choose what?\n\nChoose Tell Me Your Story if: voice-first recording, one-time purchase, privacy-first iCloud storage, multilingual families (6 languages), AI editing, or offline recording.\n\nChoose StoryWorth if: you prefer weekly email prompts, your parent types comfortably, you want the Celebrations product for group events, or you need cross-platform access (Android, desktop).\n\nTell Me Your Story limitations: iOS only, no Android, no web version, no video recording, requires Apple ID/iCloud, no email-prompt model.","citations",[],"metaTitle","metaDescription","StoryWorth costs $99/year and relies on typing. Tell Me Your Story is $49.99 once with voice recording. Compare pricing, privacy, and book quality.","ogImageUrl","authorId",2,"categoryId",1,"status","published","publishedAt","updatedAt","createdAt","readingTimeMinutes",10,"isFeatured",true,"author",{"_14":47,"_48":49,"_50":51,"_52":53,"_54":55,"_56":57,"_58":-5,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_40":-5,"_39":-5,"_12":33},"eleanor-mitchell","name","Eleanor Mitchell","bio","Eleanor Mitchell is a memoirist and oral history consultant who has spent over two decades helping families preserve their stories. She holds a Master's in Creative Writing from Columbia University and has guided more than 500 families through the memoir-writing process.","avatarUrl","https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1544005313-94ddf0286df2?w=200&h=200&fit=crop","jobTitle","Memoirist & Oral History Consultant","company","Tell Me Your Story","twitterHandle","linkedinUrl","https://linkedin.com/in/eleanormitchell","websiteUrl","https://tellmeyourstory.app","category",{"_14":65,"_48":66,"_67":68,"_79":80,"_28":81,"_29":82,"_83":-5,"_40":-5,"_12":35,"_84":-5},"comparisons","Comparisons","nameTranslations",{"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":76,"_77":78},"de","Vergleiche","fr","Comparaisons","pl","Porównania","es","Comparaciones","it","Confronti","description","Side-by-side comparisons of memoir apps, storytelling tools, and family history platforms.","Memoir App Comparisons","Compare the leading memoir and family storytelling apps. Side-by-side analysis of pricing, features, privacy, and book quality.","parent","parentId","faqs",[87,96,100,104,109,114,119],{"_12":88,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":91,"_92":93,"_94":95},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:0","postId","question","Is StoryWorth worth it in 2026?","answer","StoryWorth has a 4.7/5 Trustpilot rating from 62,842 reviews and works well for parents who type comfortably. At $99/year it's reasonable for year one (book included). Renewal costs about $60/year without a book, plus $79+ for another print. For typing-comfortable users, yes. For voice-preferred users, Tell Me Your Story at $49.99 once is the better value.","sortOrder",0,{"_12":97,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":98,"_92":99,"_94":35},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:1","Does StoryWorth require a subscription?","Yes. StoryWorth charges $99 for the first year (includes one hardcover book) and about $60/year to renew. Renewal doesn't include a book — that costs $79+ extra. Tell Me Your Story is a one-time purchase ($49.99 Standard, $79.99 Premium) with the book included.",{"_12":101,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":102,"_92":103,"_94":33},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:2","Which memoir app has better privacy?","Tell Me Your Story stores all data in the user's personal iCloud account. No story content touches Tell Me Your Story's servers. StoryWorth stores data on company servers and their Terms of Service grant a \"worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable and transferable\" license over submitted content.",{"_12":105,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":106,"_92":107,"_94":108},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:3","StoryWorth vs Tell Me Your Story — which is better for elderly parents?","For parents who won't type, Tell Me Your Story wins. It's voice-first: open the app, tap record, talk. StoryWorth's primary model requires typing email replies, though they offer a phone callback option with raw transcription. Tell Me Your Story's on-device transcription includes AI polish to clean up filler words and structure the story.",3,{"_12":110,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":111,"_92":112,"_94":113},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:4","Can I switch from StoryWorth to Tell Me Your Story?","Yes. Download your StoryWorth stories via Manage Account > \"Download all your stories\" (you get a .zip of PDFs and images). Then start fresh in Tell Me Your Story by re-recording the stories in your parent's own voice — which adds the warmth and personality that typed text misses.",4,{"_12":115,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":116,"_92":117,"_94":118},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:5","Does StoryWorth have an Android app?","StoryWorth launched an iOS app in 2016. As of early 2026, they don't appear to offer a dedicated Android app. Their primary experience is web and email-based. Tell Me Your Story is a native iOS app for iPhone and iPad, with no Android or web version.",5,{"_12":120,"_89":13,"_40":-5,"_90":121,"_92":122,"_94":123},"en:tmys-vs-storyworth:faq:6","Does StoryWorth support languages other than English?","StoryWorth's interface and prompts are available in English and Spanish. Stories can be written in any Latin-alphabet language, but non-Latin scripts are not supported for printing. Tell Me Your Story supports 6 languages natively: English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, and Italian — including on-device transcription in all six.",6,"postTags",[126,139,150],{"_89":13,"_127":128,"_129":130},"tagId",15,"tag",{"_14":131,"_48":132,"_67":133,"_40":-5,"_12":128},"memoir-app","Memoir App",{"_69":134,"_71":135,"_73":136,"_75":137,"_77":138},"Memoiren-App","Application mémoires","Aplikacja do wspomnień","App de memorias","App per memorie",{"_89":13,"_127":140,"_129":141},25,{"_14":142,"_48":143,"_67":144,"_40":-5,"_12":140},"voice-recording","Voice Recording",{"_69":145,"_71":146,"_73":147,"_75":148,"_77":149},"Sprachaufnahme","Enregistrement vocal","Nagrywanie głosu","Grabación de voz","Registrazione vocale",{"_89":13,"_127":151,"_129":152},24,{"_14":153,"_48":154,"_67":155,"_40":-5,"_12":151},"storyworth-alternative","StoryWorth Alternative",{"_69":156,"_71":157,"_73":158,"_75":159,"_77":159},"StoryWorth-Alternative","Alternative à StoryWorth","Alternatywa dla StoryWorth","Alternativa a StoryWorth","localizedName","currentPage","totalPages","siteName","TellMeYourStory App","actionData","errors"]