One QuestionCompared
Looking for a Storyworth alternative?
Storyworth and Remento help a family record someone’s memories, usually a parent’s, and bind them into a book. One Question is a journal you keep yourself, one question a day. They do different jobs. Here’s what each one does and what it costs, so you can pick the right one, even when that isn’t One Question.
At a glance
| What | Storyworth and Remento | One Question |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Recording a parent’s or grandparent’s memories, usually as a gift | Keeping your own days, as you live them |
| The questions | About their past, one a week, for a year | About your day, one a day, for as long as you like |
| Answering | Storyworth: typing, by email or on the web, or by phone. Remento: speaking into a phone | Typing, or speaking with the keyboard’s microphone. On Apple Watch, speaking |
| Who reads it | The family members you invite | Only you, unless you send it to someone |
| What you keep | A printed hardcover book, with more copies to order | The chapters of your life in the app, and a plain text export. No printed book |
| Editing | Stories can be edited before the book is printed | Entries are sealed once saved: you can delete one, not rewrite it |
| Price in the US | Storyworth $69 to $199 for a year, Remento $99, each with a book | Free. Pro, which opens what’s inside each chapter, is $14.99 a year or $1.99 a month |
Choose Storyworth or Remento if…
- the stories you want are a parent’s or grandparent’s, in their own words, before they’re forgotten;
- they’d rather answer an email or talk than use an app;
- you want a printed book to hold, give and pass down;
- you’d like the family to read along as the stories come in.
Choose One Question if…
- the life story you want to keep is your own, written as it happens rather than remembered decades later;
- you want it private: on your iPhone and in your own iCloud, read by nobody else;
- a few minutes a day suits you better than a long answer once a week;
- you’d like your days read back to you as the chapters of your life;
- you’d rather start free, and pay $14.99 a year for Pro only if you want it.
Or both
They don’t compete for the same hours. Give a parent a year of questions about their past, and keep your own days in One Question. One day, someone will be glad you did both.
The services, one by one
Storyworth
Sends a question a week for a year. The storyteller answers by email, on the web or by phone, and the stories are bound into a hardcover book. Basic is $69 with a black-and-white book, Color is $99 with a full-color book, and Unlimited is $199 with two books, renewing at $99 a year. Extra copies cost $39 to $99. Storyworth’s prices
Remento
Sends prompts for a year. The storyteller answers by speaking into their phone, with no app or login, and the recordings are turned into written stories for an 8 × 10 full-color hardcover, with QR codes that play their voice. $99 covers a year and one book; it renews at $99 a year or $12 a month, and extra copies are $69. Remento
StoryCorps
A free app that guides you through recording a conversation with someone you love, which you can upload to the StoryCorps Archive at the Library of Congress. No book, and no subscription. The StoryCorps App
One Question
A journal for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro that asks one question a day and seals each answer. In time, it finds the chapters of your life in your entries: the towns, the people, the seasons. Writing is free. One Question Pro opens what’s inside each chapter, for $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year in the US. Your life story in One Question
Keep your own story.
Free on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro.
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