A My Forever Books alternative — for WhatsApp chats specifically
My Forever Books is broad: nine messaging platforms, from iMessage to KakaoTalk, posted to 221 countries, at $59 paperback or $109 hardcover. If your conversation is on WhatsApp, the trade you are considering is breadth against depth — and two specific differences, the free version and what happens to your voice notes, decide it for most people.
What My Forever Books actually offers
Read from their own pages on 9 August 2026: two editions — Classic, a paperback at $59 including up to 400 pages, and Forever, a hardcover at $109 with matte, gloss or coloured linen wrap and up to 800 pages. Both include a free PDF backup and QR codes that play your voice messages. Imports come from iMessage, WhatsApp, Android SMS, Discord, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, GroupMe and KakaoTalk. They ship internationally to 221 countries. There is no free version of the book, though they publish free web viewer tools.
Side by side, for a WhatsApp chat
| My Forever Books | Kept in Print | |
|---|---|---|
| Chat apps | Nine | WhatsApp only |
| Shipping | 221 countries | See availability below |
| Paperback | $59, up to 400 pages | Page-banded — calculator |
| Hardcover | $109, up to 800 pages | Page-banded — calculator |
| Voice notes | QR codes that play the audio | Waveform + real duration, printed |
| Free version of the book | None | Whole book, every page, marked |
| Buy the file alone | PDF included with a book | Yes — it is the product |
| Page sizes | Their formats | A4, A5, A6, 21 cm square |
| Group chats | Supported | Sender colours and avatars, as in the app |
| Hand-bound edition | — | Heirloom, edition of one |
Competitor figures were read from their own published pages on 9 August 2026 and are quoted for comparison, not as a live quote — zapptales pricing and My Forever Books. Prices change; check theirs before you decide. If you find something here that is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
The two differences that actually decide it
You can read the whole thing before paying
My Forever Books has no free version of the book. Kept in Print gives you every page for nothing, faintly marked. Given how unreliable WhatsApp exports are — truncation, missing photos, media offloaded to iCloud — being able to inspect the finished object before spending is worth more than any feature on the list.
Voice notes: playable or permanent
Theirs scan and play. Ours are printed as a waveform with the real length and cannot be played at all. Playback is a genuine advantage; a QR code is also a dependency on a server outliving the book. The full argument, both ways.
Nine apps against one
If your history is spread across iMessage and WhatsApp and a Discord server, one service can make one book of all of it and the other cannot. That is a real win and it is theirs.
Where the parcel comes from
221 countries is impressive and it is still a parcel crossing an ocean. Buying the file and using a print shop near you is usually cheaper and always faster, wherever you buy the file.
So which should you pick?
Several chat apps, or one very long chat, and you want a parcel: My Forever Books. The flat 400- and 800-page allowances are hard to beat on a huge conversation, and nine platforms is nine platforms. WhatsApp only, and you want to see it before you buy it, or you want the voice notes to be ink: Kept in Print — and start with the free build, since it costs nothing to compare their sample against your own actual pages. Both are better than the thing most people do instead, which is nothing, until the phone is lost.
Questions people actually ask
How much does My Forever Books cost?
Their published pricing, checked in August 2026, is $59 for the Classic paperback including up to 400 pages, and $109 for the Forever hardcover with up to 800 pages. Both include QR codes for voice messages and a free PDF backup.
Is there a free alternative?
For the book itself, Kept in Print lets you build and read every page free, with a faint mark across each one. For no service at all, you can export your chat and print the plain transcript yourself for nothing.
Which is better for a really long chat?
Possibly My Forever Books, because $59 covers up to 400 pages and $109 up to 800 as a flat fee rather than a per-page ladder. Count your pages before deciding — the free Kept in Print studio will tell you the exact number in seconds without an account purchase.
Do both handle group chats?
Yes. Kept in Print gives each participant their WhatsApp colour and puts a profile-photo avatar beside each run of messages, which is what makes a long group readable on paper.
Can I get my WhatsApp chat printed if I live outside the US or Europe?
Yes, by either buying a book shipped to you or by buying a print-ready file and taking it to a local print shop. The second route skips international courier, usually costs less than the shipping alone, and most shops bind same-day.
Count your pages before you pick a service.
Count them — freeThis is one of the comparisons — or see everything we’ve written.