Wonderbly Alternatives in 2026: What to Pick When a Template Isn't Enough

You're looking past Wonderbly, so something didn't fit. Maybe it's the price of a single book, maybe the preset characters, maybe the story you want isn't in the catalog. We make Storywish, one of the options below, so weigh our view with that in mind. The facts about other companies come from their own websites, checked on October 30, 2026.

What Wonderbly does well

Wonderbly has made personalized books since 2013 and is now part of Penguin Random House. Its stories are written and drawn by its own team. On its best-known book, Lost My Name, each letter of your child's name brings in a different character, and you pick one of three characters for your child, then hair and skin tone. It's 22 pages from $39.99, for ages 0 to 8. If that fits, staying with Wonderbly is a good choice.

Pre-written books with more say over the details

Hooray Heroes writes its own stories and says so plainly ("No AI"). You build the hero with its Hero Palette (skin tone, hair, eyes, glasses, freckles), choose which stories go in the book and in what order, and add a dedication. Its birthday book is 26 pages at 12 x 8.5 inches, listed at $39.99 in softcover and $49.99 in hardcover when we checked. It says its stories suit ages 0 to 12.

I See Me! puts your child's name into stories written by its own team. Goodnight Little Me, for ages 0 to 6, is 20 pages, from $34.99 in softcover. Its photo board books are different: they print real photos of your child and up to eight family members, for $29.99.

Both work like Wonderbly: the story is written ahead of time, your child is drawn from a set of options, and each purchase is one book.

A new story written for your family

Storywish (storywish.ai) uses AI to write and illustrate a new story each time. Your child is drawn from a photo or a few words and looks the same on every page, and so can the grown-ups and the dog. The story comes out of a conversation: tell Storywish an idea you already have, or let it suggest ideas built from what you tell it about your family. You can change any page line before the book is made and any page after. Reading on screen starts free, and any story prints as an 8.5 x 8.5 inch softcover for $25, with free standard shipping to US addresses.

Two things to weigh. A Storywish story isn't written by a children's author, so read it through before you print (you can change any page). And any app that asks for your child's photo should tell you in writing what happens to it. Ours draws the character from the photo, then doesn't keep it or use it to train AI models (the details). Our checklist for AI kids' apps works for any company, us included.

Writing it yourself

If you'd rather write every word, tools like StoryJumper and Canva let you make the whole book yourself. We compare them in how to make a children's book from your own story idea.

Picking in a minute

• A classic book from a known publisher: Wonderbly.
• More say over which stories go in and how the hero looks: Hooray Heroes.
• A simple name book for a baby or toddler: I See Me!.
• Your child as they really look, in a story from your family's life: Storywish, free to try.