Choose Remento if you want the recorded voice to play from the printed page, your parent is happy on video, and you are in the United States. Choose Moonray if your parent would rather send voice notes on WhatsApp or Telegram, you want the book in two languages, or you live outside the US.
Remento and Moonray are closer to each other than either is to the write-it-yourself products: in both, your parent talks, an AI turns what they said into written stories, and a hardcover comes out the other end. The differences are where the talking happens, what language it happens in, and what the book is for. We are Moonray, so treat this as a checklist rather than a verdict.
Remento's figures are as shown on its own site in October 2026. Check before you buy.
Side by side
| Remento | Moonray | |
|---|---|---|
| How the prompts arrive | Weekly, by email or text, from hundreds of prompts or your own photos | In a WhatsApp or Telegram chat, one question at a time, with follow-ups based on the answer |
| How your parent answers | Records voice or video in a browser; no app or login | Voice note or text on WhatsApp or Telegram, any hour |
| What the AI does | "Speech-to-Story" turns the recording into text; you edit length and person | Moonray interviews across weeks, returns to gaps, and shapes the answers into chapters in your parent's words; you edit and approve each story |
| Languages advertised | English and Spanish | English and other languages, in the storyteller's language throughout |
| The book | Colour hardcover, 8 by 10 inches, up to 380 pages, a QR code on each page that plays the recording | A5 full-colour hardcover in the storyteller's language, up to 300 pages, stories in the order the life happened |
| Photos | Upload photos as prompts | A photo on each story, added on your own page, plus a cover photo |
| Voice recordings | Played from the QR codes | Every voice note kept in a private encrypted archive, and all of them downloadable |
| Price | $99 for a year; renews at $99 a year or $12 a month | $149 one time |
| Shipping | Free in the United States; Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand for an extra fee | Included internationally; import duty, where charged, is not |
| Extra copies | Not priced on its own pages | $59 |
| A second language | Not offered | $59 for the same memoir in the other language |
| Refund | 30-day money-back guarantee | No refunds; the first two weeks are free |
Where Remento is the better buy
The QR codes. If what the family wants is to hear the voice while reading the page, Remento's book does that and ours does not. Our recordings are kept, encrypted, and can be downloaded, but they are not printed into the book.
Video. A parent who is happy on camera gives Remento something we never ask for.
The United States. Free domestic shipping, a large existing customer base, and a product designed around US gifting occasions.
Prompts from photos. Uploading a photograph and asking your parent to tell its story is a good idea, and it is theirs.
Where Moonray is the better buy
Languages. Remento works in English and Spanish. Moonray works in English and other languages, and the questions and the book stay in the language the story was told in, typeset right to left where the script needs it.
A conversation rather than a prompt. Remento sends a prompt and takes a recording. Moonray asks a question, listens, and asks the next one because of what was said. Over weeks that produces a life in order rather than a set of answers, and it comes back for the parts that were skipped.
No camera, no browser, no appointment. WhatsApp and Telegram are already on most parents' phones, and a voice note is something they already know how to send.
Two languages, one memoir. The $59 second edition is the same book translated and printed for the relatives who cannot read the first one.
Outside the US. Posting is included wherever you are.
What both of us ask you to accept
An AI is writing down what your parent said. Remento's turns a recording into text; ours interviews and then shapes. In both cases you read and approve before anything prints, and in both cases the words are your parent's, not the machine's. If you would rather a person did the asking, neither of us is the right purchase, and a human biographer is.
The one-line version
Wants the voice playable from the page, is in the US, will use a camera: Remento. Sends voice notes, wants the book in two languages, or is not in the US: Moonray.