Trove vs Chatbooks: Bound Books or a Monthly Mailer?
Short answer
Trove sends your family one curated edition a week by email — free, unlimited recipients, no app and no account — and prints the month as **the Paper Edition**, a folded self-mailer that arrives on the 1st for $4.99 a month including one mailing address. Photo books are built in too, from $29.99. Chatbooks does one job and does it cleanly: a bound book, printed from your camera roll and shipped without you opening a layout tool. It is not quite the autopilot people describe — you pick 30 to 60 photos each month, which Chatbooks budgets at five minutes, and the layout, printing and free shipping are the automatic parts. Books come monthly, every two months or quarterly at your choice: Monthly Minis are $10, Monthbooks $15 to $34 by size and cover, one-off Classic books from $26. Copies can go to other addresses and subscriptions can be duplicated or gifted, so it reaches more than one relative — each copy is another paid book. What it does not do is cover the weeks in between. If a bound book is the whole of what you want, Chatbooks is still the cleaner answer.
Comparing these two used to be simple: Chatbooks made objects and Trove made updates. That is no longer the split. Trove now mails a printed edition of your family's month as well, so both products put paper in a mailbox. What differs is the shape of the paper, how often it turns up, and what covers the gap between arrivals.
At a glance
| Trove | Chatbooks | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives, and how often | One curated edition, emailed every Sunday | A bound book — monthly, every two months or quarterly, at your choice |
| What the recipient needs | An email address | A postal address; nothing else |
| Laid out, with a written summary | Automatic layout; the photos are yours to pick | |
| Free plan | Everything, free — unlimited photos, children and recipients | The app is free; nothing prints without paying |
| Printed edition posted | Paper Edition, posted monthly, $4.99/mo | Yes — that is the whole product |
| What you get | Free app, weekly emailed edition, monthly printed mailer, photo books | Printed photo books, plus photo prints, canvases and gift cards |
| Cost | App free; mailer $4.99/mo; books $29.99-$54.99 | Minis $10; Monthbooks $15–$34; Classic books from $26; free shipping |
| Reaches relatives | Unlimited email recipients, free; mailed addresses $4/mo each | Copies to any address, each a paid book; gift subscriptions from $30 |
| Effort required | None — Trove curates and lays out | Low — pick 30–60 photos a month (Smart Select can pick) |
| Survives an app shutting down | Export the archive; anything printed is already yours | Yes, it is paper |
| Archive | Searchable, by child and date | A Bookshelf of every past book, reprintable; not searchable |
| Milestones | First steps, words, tooth, birthdays, custom | No log; Baby's First Year titles a book per month |
| Automatic face grouping | ||
| Search by child and date | By date only | |
| Video | 3 minutes per clip, 60 minutes a month | None in books; iOS auto-makes a shareable Mini Movie of each |
| Reactions and comments | Not in Chatbooks; in its separate Groupchat app |
Where Chatbooks is genuinely better
It produces a bound book without the layout step. Traditional photo books die in the layout stage — everyone means to make one and nobody finishes. Chatbooks takes that step away entirely: you choose the month's photos, it designs the book, and with Autoship it goes to print on its own. We print books too, but Chatbooks has the cheaper and more habitual version.
Print outlives software. A printed book does not care whether a company is still trading in 2040. Given that Lifecake shut down in 2020, that is not a theoretical benefit.
It is cheap for what it is. Monthly Minis are $10 a book, and Monthbooks run $15 to $34 depending on size and cover, with standard shipping free. Our books start at $29.99.
It can reach several relatives. This is a correction to what we said before: Chatbooks is not one address per book. You can order a copy of any book to a different address, duplicate a subscription so a grandparent gets their own every month, or gift a three-, six- or twelve-month subscription from $30 with free shipping. Each copy is another paid book, but the plumbing is there.
What Chatbooks does not do
The Chatbooks app has no family feed. Sharing lives in three other places — a separate free app called Groupchat, where reactions and threaded replies happen; contributors you invite to a particular book, who can order their own copies; and a short Mini Movie generated for each printed book that you can send by link. None of that is an ongoing update a grandparent receives without being asked.
It is also worth knowing that "Series" is retired. The original auto-filling subscription — the one that pulled from your iPhone Favorites with no monthly choosing — was frozen on 31 July 2024 for anyone who did not migrate. Guides that recommend Chatbooks Series are describing a product you cannot start. What you can buy today asks you for 30 to 60 photos a month.
What Trove does
Trove is built for the week-to-week problem. Every Sunday it emails one curated edition — the best photos of the week, laid out, with a short written summary — to everyone on your list, with no app and no account needed on their end. The app is free, every feature in it is free, and there is no cap on how many relatives get the email.
The Paper Edition
For the relative who does not read email at all, Trove now prints one. The Paper Edition is a printed edition of your family's month, and it is a folded self-mailer: it arrives folded, with no envelope, already showing a photograph on the outside. Trove lays it out automatically from photos already in your Trove — a cover photo and up to five more, captions, and a short written summary of the month. It is mailed on the 1st, covering the month that has just ended.
It costs $4.99 a month, which includes one mailing address, and $4 a month for each extra address on top of that — extra addresses are only sold alongside a subscription. You pay by card in the app through Stripe, and you can cancel any time. The person receiving it needs no app, no account, no screen and no wifi, only a postal address. US only for now.
It is worth being precise about what it is not. The Paper Edition is a thin monthly mailer, closer to a folded leaflet than to a book. It is not a bound keepsake and it is not trying to be. For a year you want standing on a shelf, the right object is still a photo book.
Trove prints those as well: 8.3-inch softcover photo book at $29.99, 8.3-inch hardcover photo book at $39.99, 11.7-inch hardcover photo book at $54.99, bought one at a time with free shipping, 20 pages included and $0.50 for each extra page. Chatbooks is cheaper per book and has been doing it longer. If a bound book on a monthly rhythm is the whole job, that is still the honest recommendation.
The two printed things do different jobs
A monthly mailer keeps a relative in the loop while the year is happening. A book is how the year ends up on a shelf afterwards. Plenty of families want only the second one, and that is a printing job.
The short version
- Pick Trove ifyou want family reading the week as it happens — free and emailed, no app for them — and, for $4.99 a month, a printed edition of the month in the mail.
- Pick Chatbooks ifa bound book is the point. Five minutes of choosing a month, and it designs, prints and ships for less per book than ours.
- Do both ifyou want the ongoing contact and a proper bound archive. A weekly email, a monthly mailer and a book at Christmas are three different jobs.
How much does Chatbooks cost?+
Chatbooks is a printing service, so you pay per book. Monthly Minis are $10 for a 5×5" softcover; Monthbooks are $15 for a 5×7" or 6×6" softcover, $24 for those in hardcover or an 8×8" softcover, and $34 for an 8×8" hardcover — 30 to 60 pages, 4, 6 or 12 a year. One-off Classic books start at $26 and run to about $100 for a 10×10" hardcover, with Layflat albums above that. Standard shipping is free. There is no free tier because the product is physical, though the app itself costs nothing to use.
Does Chatbooks fill the book for you?+
It designs and ships it for you; you still choose the photos. Each month you pick 30 to 60 from your camera roll — Chatbooks says five minutes — and Smart Select can pre-pick your best ones if you subscribe. The old Series subscription that auto-pulled from iPhone Favorites was frozen in July 2024 and cannot be started.
Can Chatbooks send copies to several relatives?+
Yes. You can order an extra copy of any book to a different address, add a duplicate subscription so a relative receives their own every month, or gift a 3, 6 or 12-month subscription from $30 with free shipping. Every copy is a paid book.
Does Trove print photo books?+
Yes, and it also posts a monthly mailer. Photo book ordering is built into the app — 8.3-inch softcover photo book at $29.99, 8.3-inch hardcover photo book at $39.99, 11.7-inch hardcover photo book at $54.99, laid out from photos already in the album and bought one at a time. Separately, the Paper Edition mails a printed edition of the month on the 1st for $4.99 a month in the US. The app itself stays free; the money buys print and postage.
Is the Paper Edition a photo book?+
No. It is a folded self-mailer — a folded sheet with a photo on the outside, up to six photos in all, captions and a short summary of the month. It arrives every month rather than once a year, and it is meant to be read and pinned up rather than shelved. If you want a bound keepsake, order a photo book instead.
Which is better for grandparents?+
It depends on the grandparent. If they read email, the weekly edition keeps them current and costs nothing per recipient. If they do not use a screen at all, the Paper Edition reaches them with no app and no account for $4.99 a month, plus $4 a month for each further address. A printed book is still the better gift a few times a year — Chatbooks or ours.
The week by email. The month in the mail.
Trove is free: one curated edition of the week to your whole family every Sunday, unlimited recipients, no app for them. Add the Paper Edition for $4.99 a month and a printed edition of the month arrives in the mail. US only for now.
Try Trove — FreePricing and features were checked on September 21, 2026. Competitors change their plans — if you spot something out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
