We’re one of them, and we’re not the cheapest. Here is the whole field, including the parts where we lose — because you’re going to find those out anyway, and I’d rather you heard them from me.
Almost every service in this category is priced within a few dollars of the others. That is not the real difference. The real difference is who has to do the work — and specifically, whether your 84-year-old father has to open an email, click a link, work a website, or record himself on a screen.
Because that is where these gifts die. Not at the checkout. In month two, when nobody has replied to the weekly prompt and you feel bad about having bought it.
Prices and mechanics below were read off each company’s own live pages on July 25, 2026. If you’re reading this much later, check them again — and if you find we’ve gone stale or got one wrong, email me and I’ll fix it.
| Service | Price | What your parent has to do | Printed book |
|---|---|---|---|
| StorySitting (us) |
$5 to ask, then $79 per call |
Answer the phone. We call them, a real conversation, someone listening and asking follow-ups. | Not included — on request, ~$89 |
| StoryWorth | $59 / $109 / $199 a year | Reply to a weekly email, or write on their website. Phone recording exists on higher tiers but they have to request the call. | Included |
| Remento | $99 | Open a link on a screen and record themselves. No phone call at all. | Included |
| Storii | $9.99/mo or $59.99/yr | Answer the phone and press 1, then talk into a recording. Their own script says: “there is no operator on the line that can hear or respond to you.” | No — PDF and audiobook you print yourself |
| Tell Mel | $149.99/yr (~25–30 calls) | Answer the phone. AI interviewer calls them weekly, 10–15 minutes. | Mentioned, but no price published |
| Memorygram | $98.80 (sale price) | Answer weekly questions by email or phone; an interviewer guides the conversation. | Included — full-color, up to 450pp |
Sources, all read July 25, 2026: StoryWorth pricing · Remento · Storii pricing · Tell Mel · Memorygram. Not affiliated with any of them. No affiliate links on this page — we earn nothing if you pick one of them.
Two things, and they’re the two things nobody else does.
Every one of these services quietly assumes you’ve already had the conversation. Storii tells you outright to call your parent first and warn them. Others just email your mother a gift notification and leave the explaining to you.
But the ask is the hard part. Sitting your father down and saying “I’d like to record your stories while there’s still time” is a conversation about his death, and most of us put it off for years. That’s why these gifts sit unopened.
So we do it. Kaylie phones them, says plainly that she’s a recorded AI and that you arranged it, and asks whether they’d like to share some stories. You never have to raise it. And if they say no, you paid five dollars to find that out instead of ninety-nine.
Storii’s call literally cannot hear him. Remento asks him to talk to his own phone screen. StoryWorth’s core product is an email newsletter.
Kaylie has a conversation — she follows what he says, asks what color the car was, waits when he goes quiet. That’s where the good material comes from. Read the sample chapter and judge whether that difference is worth the money to you. It might not be. But it’s a real difference, not a marketing one.
That’s the whole pitch. If he says no, you’re out five dollars and you finally know. If he says yes — and most people, once someone else has broken the ice, do — you get his first conversation written up for $79.
Or read the sample chapter first.