Trove vs Tinybeans: Which Family Photo App Is Right for You?
Short answer
Trove emails your family one curated edition a week — the best photos of the week, laid out, with a short written summary — to anyone with an inbox. No app, no account, free with no cap on photos, children or recipients, and the same month can be printed and posted for $4.99 a month. Tinybeans emails too, which is the thing most comparisons get wrong: invite a follower and Tinybeans creates their account and starts sending them a recap on every day you post, plus flashbacks and weekly summaries. The difference is what lands. Theirs is a running recap of whatever you uploaded, carrying ads unless you pay; ours is one edition a week, composed. Tinybeans also has the best milestone checklist in the category — 300+ entries, and it is on the free plan, so the $74.99 a year buys upload quota and the removal of those ads rather than the checklist itself. Use Tinybeans for the checklist. Use Trove for the edition.
Tinybeans is one of the oldest and best-known private family photo apps, and for a long time it was the default recommendation. Then in May 2023 it raised its subscription 87%, from $39.99 to $74.99 a year, and a lot of parents started looking around.
We build Trove, so treat our opinion accordingly. What follows is the factual comparison, including the things Tinybeans genuinely does better than we do — and one widely repeated claim about it that is simply not true.
At a glance
| Trove | Tinybeans | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives, and how often | One curated edition, emailed every Sunday | A recap email on every day you post — or daily, or weekly |
| What the recipient needs | An email address | Nothing: an account is created for them on invite |
| Laid out, with a written summary | ||
| Free plan | Everything, free — unlimited photos, children and recipients | 20 uploads a month, 5 GB, ads in the update emails |
| Printed edition posted | Paper Edition, posted monthly, $4.99/mo | |
| Paid plan | No paid app plan; print from $4.99/mo | Tinybeans+ $74.99/yr or $7.99/mo; Legacy $39.99/yr |
| Milestone tracking | First steps, first words, first tooth, birthdays, custom | 300+ tracked milestones, on the free plan |
| Journal prompts | ||
| Photo curation | AI picks the best shots for the week | Auto-curated albums by theme or date; you pick what to post |
| Smart photo search | Faces, people and places | |
| Automatic face grouping | ||
| "This time last year" resurfacing | Flashbacks, emailed to followers | |
| Recipients | Unlimited | Invite-only; no published cap |
| Ads | On the free plan, including in relatives' emails | |
| Bulk export | Tinybeans+ only | |
| Photo books |
What each one actually sends
Almost every comparison of these two, including the one we published first, says Tinybeans is a place your family has to remember to visit. That is wrong, and it is worth correcting properly. When you invite a follower, Tinybeans creates an account for them and signs them up to update emails: one on every day you post something, or daily, or weekly, as they prefer. Flashbacks and weekly summaries go out as well. They can comment and react from the email, and the whole journal is on the website, so no smartphone is required. The owner cannot switch those emails off — only the follower can.
So both products reach the inbox. The difference is what arrives in it. Tinybeans sends a recap of whatever you uploaded — everything, in the order you posted it, no editing, and on the free plan with ads around it. Trove sends one edition a week: the best photos of the week, chosen for you, laid out, with a short written summary of what happened. One is a feed forwarded to your relatives. The other is something someone could sit down and read.
- Nothing to install for recipients, and no account created in their name either.
- Unlimited recipients on the free plan — there is no per-seat cost to adding another grandparent.
- AI picks the photos, so there is no weekly editing chore that you will eventually skip.
- One arrival a week, on a schedule, rather than one on every day you happen to post.
- No ads, on any plan, ever — nothing is sold against your family's photographs.
Where Tinybeans is genuinely better
The size of the milestone checklist. Both apps track milestones — Trove marks moments as first steps, first words, first tooth, birthdays, holidays, graduations or a custom label of your own, and those moments lead the weekly edition and come back as flashbacks a year later. Tinybeans ships a far longer pre-written checklist, 300+ entries with developmental context. If you want a clinical-style checklist to tick through, that is genuinely more thorough. Note that it is on the free plan: you do not have to pay $74.99 to get it.
Journal prompts. Tinybeans nudges you to write, and the prompts are good. Trove takes the other route: it writes the weekly summary for you from your captions, so the words get recorded without you having to sit down to a blank box. Tinybeans' weekly summary is a recap of your posts; ours is a piece of writing. Different bet on what people will actually keep doing.
These are not mutually exclusive
Some families run both — Tinybeans on its free plan as the milestone checklist, Trove as the thing that composes the week and sends it. Trove is free, so this costs nothing extra to try.
Pricing, in detail
| Trove | Tinybeans | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | $0 | $0 — 20 uploads a month, 5 GB, ads |
| Annual cost to use the app | $0 | $0 to $74.99 (Legacy tier $39.99) |
| What paying buys | Nothing in the app; print only | Unlimited uploads, 200 GB, no ads, 5-min video, a second account, bulk export |
| Cost per extra recipient | $0 | $0; they receive the update emails, with ads on the free plan |
| Optional printed extras | Paper Edition $4.99/mo; books from $29.99 | Photo books |
Worth being precise about what free means here: there is nothing to pay to use Trove, no premium tier and no trial to run out. The weekly edition, unlimited photos, unlimited children and unlimited recipients are permanent. Video carries the only ceiling — 3 minutes per clip, served up to 1080p, 60 minutes a month — and that is fair use rather than a plan, because video costs real money per second. What we do sell is printed: photo books from $29.99, and the Paper Edition, a printed edition of your month posted on the 1st for $4.99 a month including one mailing address ($4 a month for each extra, US only). Both buy print and postage, not features.
Tinybeans' free plan is a real plan too, with the same features as the paid one — the caps are what differ. Twenty uploads a month, 5 GB, and ads, including in the emails your relatives get. An active family will hit twenty uploads inside a fortnight, which is the point at which the $74.99 stops being optional. There is also a cheaper Tinybeans+ Legacy tier at $39.99 a year that clears the ads and raises storage to 200 GB but keeps the twenty-upload cap.
The short version
- Pick Trove ifyou want one composed edition a week rather than a recap of everything you posted, you do not want ads around your children's photographs, or you want print built in.
- Pick Tinybeans ifthe 300+ developmental checklist and the journal prompts are what you came for. Start on the free plan — the checklist is on it.
- Honestly, for most familiesTrove for the delivery and Tinybeans' free plan for the checklist. The one thing not worth $74.99 a year is the feature people usually think they are buying.
Does Tinybeans email photos to relatives?+
Yes — this is the thing most comparisons get wrong. Inviting a follower creates an account for them automatically and signs them up to update emails: one on every day you post, or daily, or weekly. Flashbacks and weekly summaries are included, they can comment and react from the email, and the owner cannot turn the emails off. What arrives is a recap of everything you uploaded, with ads on the free plan. Trove's difference is not that it emails and Tinybeans does not — it is that Trove sends one curated edition a week, laid out, with a written summary, and never carries ads.
Is Tinybeans still free in 2026?+
There is a genuine free plan with every feature on it, capped at 20 uploads a month and 5 GB and carrying ads. Paid starts at $39.99 a year for the Legacy tier and runs to $74.99 for Tinybeans+, after an 87% increase in May 2023. Trove's free plan has no time limit and no upload cap, and includes unlimited photos, children and newsletter recipients.
Can I export my photos out of Tinybeans?+
Yes, but bulk export is a Tinybeans+ feature — request it from the website while your subscription is still active. On the free plan you can only save memories one at a time. As a general rule, never let a single app be the only copy of your family photos.
Do grandparents need a smartphone for either of these?+
No, for both. Trove's weekly edition is an ordinary email and there is no account behind it. Tinybeans emails too, and its journal is on the web — though an account is created in the relative's name whether they wanted one or not.
Does Trove have a milestone tracker?+
Yes. Trove marks moments as first steps, first words, first tooth, birthdays, holidays, graduations, or a custom label you write yourself, with the child's age worked out automatically. Those moments lead the weekly edition and resurface as flashbacks. What Trove does not have is a 300+ entry pre-written developmental checklist to tick through — that is Tinybeans' clearest advantage, and it is free there.
What happens to my photos if I stop paying?+
With Trove, nothing — there is nothing to pay for in order to use it. The app is free, and your photos, your weekly edition and your email recipients all keep working. If you subscribe to the printed Paper Edition and then cancel, the mailings stop and nothing in the app changes. Check the current terms of any app before you rely on this, because policies change.
One edition a week, not a recap of everything
Upload your photos. Every Sunday, Trove emails your family the week laid out with a written summary. No app for them, no ads, no cost for you.
Get 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.
