COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT FAMILY ALBUMS
Several companies offer to create a family album! But what exactly is a family album? It’s a collaborative journal that you can create together with your family members. It gathers your photos and messages, and is then printed and sent to one of your loved ones.
Three companies offer this service: Neveo, Famileo, and Tribu.
What makes them unique? What are the differences? Let’s dive in and find out!
Neveo
Neveo is an app created by three Belgian entrepreneurs. After initially offering a service to share family news via a connected television, they pivoted to a printed family journal. Each month, families can send a journal featuring their photos and messages to their loved ones.
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Using their app is quite straightforward: simply select your photos and upload them before the end of the month. You can also add short captions or messages. The layout is fully automated, which makes the process easier, but also comes with some limitations:
– Regardless of the original orientation, Neveo fits three photos per page. If you upload three portrait-oriented photos, their size is significantly reduced.
– There’s a designated space next to each photo for text. If the captions are too short, it leaves a lot of empty white space in the layout.
– The name of the person who uploaded the photo appears next to every picture, which can clutter the design.
At the end of each month, the journal is printed on magazine-style paper and mailed to the recipient.
Pricing
Neveo offers both monthly and annual subscription plans, with prices depending on the journal format. The monthly plan costs €11.99 for up to 30 photos, while the annual plan brings the cost down to €8.99 per month.
Famileo
Famileo is an app created in Saint-Malo in 2015 by two Bretons who wanted to bring joy to their grandparents. They initially partnered with nursing homes and retirement residences by developing a platform that gathered family photos. The facility itself would print the journal and deliver it to its residents. As demand grew, they decided to offer the service directly to all families and handle the printing themselves. This is how Famileo was born, with the slogan “The journal that brings happiness to grandparents.”
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The way their app works is similar to Neveo. You upload photos, optionally add a message, and the layout is automatically created by the Famileo app.
As with Neveo, automatic layout makes it easier to create the journal but also has a few drawbacks:
– Each page contains only two photos. The orientation of the photo does not affect its size.
– Photos take up a lot of space on each page. Therefore, if the original photo quality is low, the journal may include blurry images that detract from the overall result.
– Each photo can include text, and the name of the person who uploaded it appears next to each photo. Like Neveo, Famileo journals tend to have a lot of empty white space.
Once printed, the journal is mailed to you on standard 80g paper (similar to the paper commonly used in home printers).
Pricing
Regarding pricing, Famileo offers subscription plans (allowing up to 30 photos per journal). The cost depends on the frequency: €5.99 for one journal per month, €9.99 for a journal every two weeks, and €17.99 for a journal every week.
Tribu
Tribu is truly a family story. After the death of his grandfather, Arnaud feared his grandmother would be left alone and isolated. He created a journal that allowed all the members of his family to easily send her updates. Following the enthusiasm from his grandmother’s friends who wanted the same album, Arnaud founded Tribu, a liberated, human-scale company!
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Creating a journal at Tribu is a collaborative process that can be done across multiple platforms: computer, smartphone, or tablet. They are the only ones offering page customization: a major advantage as you can choose exactly what to put in it — just text, 1, 2, 3, or even up to 20 photos per page!
At the end of the month, the journal, co-created by all family members, is printed on high-quality paper (magazine-type). It is then delivered by mail to your grandparents (no matter the country), and all co-creators receive the digital version (pdf) by email.
Another exclusive feature offered by Tribu is the choice between different types of albums: Mini, Classic, and Premium.
— The Mini journal is Tribu’s A5 format journal (similar to Neveo, with customization options and the ability to choose the number of photos per page)
— The Classic journal (A4) includes 15 customizable pages of magazine-quality paper (170g) and can hold up to 280 photos.
— The Premium journal includes 20 customizable pages, allowing up to 400 photos per journal. It has an even thicker paper with a semi-rigid, coated cover (200g) that is very high-quality, plus a minimalist and elegant design.
Pricing
You can choose from 3 payment plans: monthly, bi-annual, or annual (the 12-month subscription is priced at €6.95 per month (Mini), €9.95 per month (Classic), and €14.95 (Premium)).
| Famileo | Neveo | Tribu | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personalization | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Available formats | A4 | A5 | A5 and A4 |
| Max. photos per month |
120 for €17.99 |
200 for €20.99 |
280 for €9.95 |
| Paper type | Standard 90 g | Magazine 135 g | Magazine 170 g |
| Mobile app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
