Famileo vs Taletrove: An Honest UK Comparison
Written by Sam, who runs Taletrove. We sell one of the two things being compared here, so read it with that in mind. What we have tried to do is give you the real numbers and be straight about where Famileo is the better choice, because you can check all of it in about ten minutes and there is no point in us pretending otherwise.
A quick note from me
There is no dramatic origin story here. Adam and I started Taletrove in 2024 because the family news had quietly moved onto WhatsApp, and the people who would have most liked to hear it were not on WhatsApp. That was it. We printed something, posted it, and it worked, and we have been doing it every month since. He looks after the printing and production, I look after the customers, which is why you get me if you email.
We are two people and a printer in the UK. Famileo is a company of about seventy people in France with a quarter of a million subscribing families. That difference runs through everything below, sometimes in our favour and sometimes very much not.
Overview: what both of these actually are
Both services do the same core thing. The family sends in photos and messages during the month. Those get laid out into a printed newsletter. It is posted to an older relative who is not online, and they read it without needing an app, a login, wifi or any technology at all.
Where the two differ is almost entirely in how the family sends things in, how much you get, and who does the work of putting it together.
| Famileo | Taletrove | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it's from | France, since 2015 | UK, since 2024 |
| Size of company | ~260,000 families | Thousands of people, UK and abroad |
| How the family contributes | Their app (iOS, Android, web) | |
| Contributor limit | Up to 60 per account | No limit |
| Content per edition | 20 or 28 messages, depending on plan | Up to 40 photos |
| If you go over the limit | You cannot add more until the next edition | Extras roll into the next edition |
| Paper size | A4 | A5 or A4, your choice |
| Layout | Automatic, chronological | Designed for you, nothing to arrange |
| How often | Weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks | Monthly or quarterly |
| Printed and posted from | France | UK |
| Entry price | £5.99/month | £7/month, first month £3.50 |
| Trustpilot | 4.8 | 4.8 |
Comparing the price
Famileo's headline price is lower than ours. £5.99 a month against our £7. If the lowest monthly number is what decides it, that is a real answer and you can stop reading here.
But their plans are priced by how many messages you get, and the £5.99 tier is the smallest one. Their £6.99 plan is the one that sits alongside our £7, so that is the fairer comparison:
| Plan | Content per month | Price | Cost per photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Famileo Monthly | 20 messages | £5.99 | 30p |
| Famileo Monthly Plan + | 28 messages | £6.99 | 25p |
| Taletrove monthly (A5) | 40 photos | £7 | 17.5p |
| Taletrove annual (A5) | 40 photos | £70/yr, about £5.83/month | 15p |
| Famileo Bi-monthly | 56 messages | £9.99 | 17.8p |
| Famileo Weekly | about 121 messages | £17.99 | 15p |
So for a penny more than their 28-message plan, you get 40 photos. That is the comparison most families are actually making, and it is the one we win.
Where they win on price: if you want something arriving every week or fortnight, their bi-monthly and weekly plans work out cheaper per message than anything we offer, because we do not do weekly at all. Buying volume from them is good value.
One honest caveat on our side. Our £70 annual plan works out at about £5.83 a month, which is less than their entry price, but that is our A5 edition. Famileo only print A4. If you want A4 from us it is £9 a month, or £90 a year, and at that size they are cheaper than we are.
Comparing how the family sends things in
This is the biggest difference between the two of us, and it is the reason most people who switch tell us they switched.
Famileo works through their app. Everyone contributing downloads it, makes an account and posts from there. Up to 60 people per account. It is a well-built app with over a million downloads and it is rated very highly.
Taletrove works through WhatsApp. There is no Taletrove app. You set up a WhatsApp group with your family in it and add us, and everyone sends photos the way they already send photos to each other. Nothing to download, nothing to learn, no account, no password. There is no limit on how many people can be in the group.
Whether that matters depends entirely on your family. If everyone is comfortable installing an app and remembering to open it, Famileo's is good. A recurring theme in their own reviews is that one person ends up doing most of the sending, because the others never quite got round to the app. Photos in a WhatsApp group happen without anyone being asked twice.
Comparing what actually arrives
Famileo's gazette is A4 with an automatic, chronological layout, with large photos and large type. It is generated every Monday, so you add messages until Sunday midnight French time and the layout happens on its own.
Ours is A5 or A4, whichever you pick, and the pages are designed rather than auto-arranged. Photos are grouped, captions sit with the right pictures, and you can pin a particular photo to the front. You do not do any of that yourself. Our system does it, which is the point: the family sends photos, and a finished thing arrives.
The practical difference most people notice is the limit. On Famileo, once you have hit 20 or 28 messages, their own site is clear that you will not be able to publish any more messages until the next edition. With us, if the family sends more than 40 photos, the extras roll into next month's edition instead. Nobody gets turned away for being enthusiastic, which in a big family in a busy month happens more than you would think.
Comparing how often it arrives
Famileo wins this one outright. They offer weekly, fortnightly and every-four-weeks. We offer monthly and quarterly.
If your relative is in a care home and a weekly delivery would genuinely give them something to look forward to more often, Famileo do that and we do not. It is worth saying that a weekly newsletter and a monthly one are different products doing slightly different jobs, and theirs is the right shape for the higher frequency.
Comparing printing and delivery
Famileo print in France and post from there. Their site says gazettes arrive "most of the time within 10 days". They deliver worldwide and delivery is included.
We print in the UK and post through Royal Mail, so a UK edition is a domestic delivery rather than an international one. We also post worldwide at no extra charge, so if your relative is abroad the price is the same either way.
We are not going to make a patriotic argument out of this, because it would be a silly one. The practical points are simply that our deadlines run on UK time, and if something goes astray you are dealing with a UK postal system and with us directly.
Comparing reviews and track record
Both companies are rated 4.8 on Trustpilot at the time of writing.
The difference is depth. Famileo has hundreds of reviews built over ten years; we have dozens, built over a much shorter time. If you are choosing on weight of evidence, theirs is the larger pile, and we would rather say that than pretend the two are equivalent. Read both sets and see which sounds more like what you want.
Comparing the small things
A few features worth knowing about, in both directions.
- Their family kitty is a genuinely good idea. Relatives can chip in towards the subscription and credit months in advance. We do not have anything like it, and for a big family splitting the cost that is a real advantage.
- They include an explainer letter in the first envelope so the recipient understands what has just arrived. A thoughtful touch.
- They make it easy to send to several grandparents by duplicating your messages across accounts.
- We include a "what's happening next month" page, so birthdays, visits and events can be listed for the month ahead.
- We can add a personal message page for a particular edition, which people tend to use for birthdays and anniversaries.
- Our first month is £3.50, so you can see a real edition before committing. Famileo do not offer a free or reduced trial.
When Famileo is the better choice
We would rather tell you this than have you find out after paying us.
- You want it more often than monthly. They do weekly and fortnightly. We do not.
- Your family is happy with an app and you would rather have a proper interface than a WhatsApp group.
- You want the absolute lowest monthly price and 20 messages is plenty. £5.99 is £5.99.
- You want A4 at the lowest price. They are cheaper than us at that size.
- You want the reassurance of scale, a ten-year track record and hundreds of reviews.
- The cost is being split between several relatives and their family kitty would make that painless.
When we are the better choice
- Your family will not use an app. This is the single biggest reason people come to us. Photos already flow in your WhatsApp group; we use that group.
- You want more photos in each edition. 40, against 20 or 28, for about the same money.
- You do not want to be cut off mid-month when the family gets carried away.
- You would rather have A5, which many people find easier to hold and to keep, or you want the choice of either size.
- You want to speak to a person. There are two of us. You will get one of us.
- You want to try it properly first for £3.50.
The overall summary
Famileo is a good company with a good product, and at ten years old and a quarter of a million families they have clearly got a great deal right. If you want a weekly gazette, or the cheapest possible monthly price, or your family is comfortable with an app, they are a sound choice and we would not try to talk you out of it.
We built Taletrove for the family where the app is the thing that quietly kills it. Everyone means to contribute, one person ends up doing it all, and after three months it fizzles out. Using the WhatsApp group people are already in removes that problem, and giving you 40 photos rather than 20 means an edition that feels full rather than rationed.
The fairest way to decide is to look at one of ours and one of theirs and see which you would rather receive.
Try it for £3.50
Your first month is £3.50, then £7 a month, and you can cancel whenever you like. That is deliberately low so you can see a real printed edition arrive rather than take our word for any of the above.
See a real sample newsletter or start your first month for £3.50.
All Famileo figures on this page were taken from famileo.com on 20 August 2026. Prices and plans change, so do check theirs before deciding. If you spot anything here that has gone out of date or that you think is unfair, email us and we will correct it.