Compared

Vellum vs Qeepsake

If you're weighing a Qeepsake alternative, start with what Qeepsake gets right. Prompts arrive by text message, and a question you can answer without opening an app is the lowest-friction version of this idea there is. You reply to a text and you're done. That's a real advantage, and a comparison that won't concede it isn't one.

In November 2025, Tinybeans acquired Qeepsake. Vellum vs Tinybeans is its own page.

The short version

Both apps are built on the same observation: a parent who is asked a question writes things down, and a parent who has to think of it themselves mostly doesn't. Past that, the two real differences are where the prompt arrives and where the archive ends up.

Qeepsake sends the question by text and points your answers at a printed book. Vellum asks in an app and points everything at a searchable iPhone archive built to be handed over — the question filed with the moment, so either of you can find it again. Neither is the wrong choice. They're different destinations.

Side by side

Every Qeepsake claim on this page was checked on August 17, 2026 and gets re-checked quarterly.

Nine rows, stated plainly. Pricing pages in this category move; the date above is when these were last true.
Dimension	Qeepsake	Vellum
What it's for	A prompted journal answered by text, designed to become printed books	A private, prompted archive built for search and handoff
How prompts arrive	By SMS text message (apps on iOS and Android too)	One card in the app, each morning
Prompt volume	Metered by subscription tier	Every prompt, free, forever
What's stored with a moment	The answer, its date, and any photo you attach — not the question that asked for it	The answer, the prompt that asked for it, the date it happened, and anything you captured
Search	Not by the prompt — the question isn't filed with the entry	Everything: answers, the questions asked, voice transcripts
Export	Limited	Full, free, always — with an offline viewer that opens in any browser
Print	Yes — core to the model	— (planned, not built)
Ads	None in Qeepsake itself; its parent company, Tinybeans, runs ads on the Tinybeans free tier	None, on any tier, ever
Price model	Subscription tiered by prompt volume; books priced separately	$59.99/yr or $5.99/mo — one price, whole household

The differences that matter

Where they differ most

Three of those rows do most of the work. Here they are in full sentences.

Prompt volume: metered there, uncapped here

Qeepsake meters how many questions you get by subscription tier — more prompts is a bigger plan. That's a coherent model: the prompts are the product, so the product is what's priced. Vellum prices storage instead. Every question and every mission is free, uncapped, forever, and all 133 prompts are published here, free to read, whether you ever install anything or not.

Print-first or archive-first

Qeepsake optimizes toward a finished book — a real object on a real shelf, which is a real thing to want. The trade is that the business runs on the books: the recurring complaints in Qeepsake's reviews are the cost of the books and friction when cancelling. That's the pattern users report, not our judgment of any case. Vellum optimizes toward the archive itself — plain files, search, and an export that opens offline in any browser with no account. No print product exists here yet; that gap is stated plainly below rather than footnoted.

What's saved with a moment

Qeepsake keeps your answer. Vellum keeps the answer and the question that caused it, with the date it happened and anything you captured, on one timeline. That's why search behaves differently here: you aren't searching filenames and dates, you're searching the questions you were asked and the answers you gave. A photo of a half-eaten sandwich is nothing. The same photo filed under the question that caused it is a story.

Choose Qeepsake if

You want a printed book as the primary output, and you'd rather never open an app.
You want prompts by text, with nothing to install at all.

Those are real cases, and Qeepsake serves them well. If they're yours, use Qeepsake.

Choose Vellum if

You want the question filed with the moment, so the archive can be searched in twenty years.
You want every prompt free, uncapped, forever — not metered by tier.
You want voice recordings, transcribed on the phone so they're searchable too.
You want to know exactly what happens to the archive if you stop paying, in writing, before you start.

Try the question before the app

One prompt a day, by email, starting tomorrow morning. No app to install and nothing to cancel later.

Get tomorrow's prompt

One a day, by email. A note when it opens and when the price goes live. Nothing else.