LifePages vs Blurb: what the questions cost, once you know what the paper costs
Blurb will print your life story as a hardback for roughly $24, using free software, and will not ask you a single question about your life. That number is the most useful thing in this category, because it tells you exactly what every other service is charging you for.
LifePages wins for anyone who has not written the book; Blurb wins outright for anyone who has. Blurb's design software is free and a 200-page 6 by 9 inch hardback costs about $24 in economy mono. LifePages costs about $60 to start and supplies the thing Blurb does not: 50 guided questions, an editing pass and the layout.
The 60-second scorecard
Green cells mark the winner on that row — LifePages takes 6, Blurb takes 3, the rest are level. Pricing verified 8 September 2026; this category moves, so check before you buy.
| What you care about | LifePages | Blurb |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of the software | Included in the membership | Free |
| Cost of one 200-page hardback | Included | About $24 in economy mono |
| Prompts to write from | 50 guided questions | None |
| Editing for grammar and flow | Yes | None |
| Page layout done for you | Yes | No — you design every page |
| Photos placed for you | Up to 100, placed with the stories | You place them |
| Answer by speaking | Yes | No |
| Cheap additional copies | Not published | Yes — the same per-book price again |
| Full control of the design | No | Yes, completely |
| Works if nobody will sit and write | Yes | No |
What the paper actually costs
We will publish the sum, because nobody else in this category will. Blurb's 6 by 9 inch imagewrap hardback starts at $14.99 for 24 pages, and additional pages in economy mono are $0.04 to $0.05 each. A 200-page book is therefore $14.99 plus 176 pages at $0.05, which is $23.79. Call it $24. The design software, BookWright, is free.
So the physical object at the end of every service on this site can be manufactured for roughly $24, and the $60 to $199 that memoir services charge is overwhelmingly for the questions, the editing, the layout and the chasing. That is not a scandal. It is worth knowing before you decide which half you are buying.
Two honest caveats. Colour changes the sum sharply — standard colour pages are $0.16 to $0.17 each, which takes the same 200-page book past $40. And Blurb's own quality is high, which is why it costs more per copy than a bulk print-on-demand service would.
What $36 buys you, and whether you need it
The difference between $24 and about $60 buys four things: a sequence of 50 questions designed to get a life out of someone who does not think they have a story; the fact that somebody else asks them, on a schedule, so the project does not depend on your nagging; an editing pass for grammar and flow; and a layout you do not have to build.
For most families that is the entire value, because the obstacle was never printing. It was that nobody knew what to ask, and the document stalled at 400 words about a childhood house. If that describes you, buy the questions and let somebody else set the pages.
If, on the other hand, the manuscript exists — a memoir written over years, a folder of letters, a blog somebody wants bound — then everything a memoir service sells is a service you have already performed, and paying for it again is simply a worse deal than Blurb. In that case, this comparison ends with Blurb.
The row that pushes some people to Blurb anyway
Blurb gives you complete control of the design and LifePages gives you none. Cover colour, title and subtitle on one side; typography, margins, image placement, chapter openers and paper stock on the other.
For nearly everybody this is a burden dressed as a freedom, and the guided product is the right call. For the minority who care about how a book looks — anyone who has laid out a page before, or is putting a photographer's work into print — the guided services will feel like a straitjacket, and no amount of convenience compensates.
the printing cost of a 200-page 6 by 9 inch hardback on Blurb in economy mono, with free design software. Every memoir subscription in this category is priced above this, and the gap is what the questions cost.Blurb pricing, verified 8 September 2026: $14.99 base plus 176 pages at $0.05
Ian's take
Co-founder & CEOThis is the comparison I would give a friend before any of the other six, because it reframes the purchase. The book is not the expensive part. The book is about $24. What you are buying everywhere else is somebody to ask the questions and tidy the answers.
Once that is clear, the decision gets easy in both directions. Nothing written yet, and a relative who says they have nothing to tell? Buy the questions. Manuscript already sitting in a drawer? Buy the printing and keep the difference, because you have already done the work the subscription is charging you for.
LifePages wins the head-to-head on the strength of that first case, which is the common one. Fifty sequenced questions, somebody else doing the asking, an editing pass and a finished layout is a genuine service and about $36 above cost is a fair price for it.
What I object to is that no service in this category will print the sum I just printed. Publishing what the paper costs would cost them nothing and would tell buyers what they are actually choosing. Until one of them does, this page is the version of their pricing page I would want to read.
Who should choose which
Choose LifePages if…
- Nothing is written yet and nobody knows where to start
- You want somebody else asking the questions on a schedule
- You want the answers edited and the pages laid out for you
- The storyteller would rather speak than type
Choose Blurb if…
- The manuscript already exists in some form
- You want control of typography, layout and paper
- You want several copies at the same low per-book price
- You have laid out a book before and enjoyed it
Choose neither if…
- Nobody has agreed to tell the story — neither a printer nor a prompt fixes that
- You want the recorded voice preserved; both of these end in text
Blurb is the better pick, decisively, if the writing is already done. Paying a memoir service to print a finished manuscript is paying for prompts and editing you no longer need, at two to three times the cost of the printing itself.
Frequently asked questions
Is LifePages or Blurb better?
LifePages if nothing is written: 50 guided questions, an editing pass and a laid-out hardback from about $60. Blurb if the manuscript exists: free design software and about $24 for a 200-page hardback, with no prompts, editing or layout supplied.
How much does it cost to print a life story book on Blurb?
About $23.79 for a 200-page 6 by 9 inch imagewrap hardback in economy mono — $14.99 for the first 24 pages plus $0.05 for each of the remaining 176. Standard colour pages are $0.16 to $0.17 each, which takes the same book past $40. BookWright, the design software, is free.
Why do memoir services cost more than printing?
Because printing is the cheap part. The roughly $36 difference between Blurb's cost and a LifePages membership pays for the question sequence, somebody asking on a schedule, the editing pass and the page layout. Whether that is worth it depends on whether anything is written yet.
Can I use Blurb to print answers from another service?
Yes, if you can export your text and photographs. It is more work than it sounds — you are laying out every page yourself — but it is the cheapest route to extra copies once the writing exists.
Sources
- Blurb pricing — base prices for compact, classic and standard hardbacks and paperbacks, and per-page costs for economy mono and standard colour. Verified 8 Sep 2026
- Blurb BookWright — free design software, with payment only at printing. Verified 8 Sep 2026
- LifePages — membership terms, question count, book specification and renewal behaviour, read from its own site and terms of service. Verified 8 Sep 2026