My Social Book and Chatbooks both promise effortless photo books, and both deliver on that promise. But the word "easy" means something very different with each service. One automatically turns your social media history into a printed story, complete with dates, captions, and likes. The other auto-prints batches of photos from your camera roll on a recurring subscription. Same goal, entirely different approach.

If you've been comparing the two, the choice comes down to what you actually want in a photo book: a curated archive of your digital life, or a steady stream of small printed photo collections. This guide breaks down exactly where each service shines so you can pick the one that fits.

The Key Difference: Social Media Story vs Camera Roll Prints

The fundamental difference between My Social Book and Chatbooks is the source material and what each service does with it. My Social Book connects directly to your Facebook, Instagram, or Dropbox account and builds a complete photo book in under 60 seconds. It pulls in your photos and preserves everything around them: the date you posted, the caption you wrote, the number of likes, and the location. The result is not just a photo album. It is a printed version of your social media timeline, with all the context that makes those posts meaningful.

Chatbooks takes a different path. It focuses primarily on your phone's camera roll and offers a subscription model where photos are automatically printed in small batches each month. You pay a recurring monthly fee, and Chatbooks sends you a softcover book whenever enough new photos accumulate. The emphasis is on keeping up with your camera roll without falling behind, rather than creating a single comprehensive book from a specific source.

That distinction shapes everything else: the pricing, the book format, the content you end up with, and the overall value proposition. One is a one-time purchase that captures your story. The other is an ongoing subscription that keeps your latest snapshots in print.

My Social Book vs Chatbooks: Side-by-Side Comparison

The Social Media Story Factor

Here is something most people don't think about until they see it in print: your social media posts are not just photos. They are stories. The picture of your daughter's first day of school had a caption you spent five minutes writing. Your best friend from college left a heart. The post from that vacation in Portugal has 47 likes and a caption that brings the whole trip back. All of that is part of the memory.

My Social Book is the only photo book service that preserves this context. When you flip through a My Social Book, you see the photo and everything that surrounded it on social media. The date it was posted. The words you wrote. The reactions from the people who matter to you. It transforms a simple photo book into something closer to a printed diary of your digital life.

Chatbooks, like most photo book services, treats photos as standalone images. You get the picture, but not the story around it. If your Facebook posts or Instagram feed are where your memories live, that missing context is a significant gap. The photo of the birthday cake is nice. The photo of the birthday cake with the original caption, the date, the location, and 87 likes from friends and family is something else entirely.

Choose My Social Book If...

• Your best memories live on social media. If your photos, milestones, and family moments are documented on Facebook, Instagram, or Dropbox, My Social Book was built specifically for you. It pulls everything in directly, no downloading or re-uploading required.
• You want more than just photos in your book. Likes, dates, captions, and locations are all preserved. No other service does this. Your book becomes a time capsule, not just a photo collection.
• You prefer a one-time purchase over a recurring bill. Pay once, get your book. No subscription to manage, no monthly charges adding up, no need to remember to cancel if you change your mind.
• You want a substantial book. My Social Book creates books up to 450 pages with hardcover or softcover options. If you want a single, comprehensive volume that covers a year or more of memories, the format supports it.
• You want a family yearbook without the effort. Connect your account, preview your book in 60 seconds, make any edits you want, and order. That is the entire process. Twelve years and 700,000 books later, the system is proven.

Try My Social Book and see your free preview in under a minute.

Choose Chatbooks If...

• Your photos are mostly on your camera roll. If you don't post much to social media and your phone's photo library is where everything lives, Chatbooks is designed around that workflow.
• You like receiving small books regularly. The subscription model means a new book shows up periodically without you having to think about it. If you enjoy that kind of surprise-in-the-mailbox experience, it can be a nice touch.
• You prefer smaller, lighter photo books. Chatbooks produces compact softcover books that are easy to stack on a shelf or hand to the kids. They are not trying to be a comprehensive archive. They are meant to be casual and approachable.
• You want to stay current month by month. Rather than creating one big book at the end of the year, Chatbooks keeps you caught up as you go. If the idea of building one annual volume feels overwhelming, the incremental approach might appeal to you.

The Subscription vs One-Time Question

The pricing model is one of the biggest practical differences between these two services, and it deserves a closer look. My Social Book charges a one-time price with frequent discounts of 40% or more for a complete photo book. You pay once, you receive your book, and the transaction is done. If you want another book next year, you buy another one. Simple.

Chatbooks operates on a subscription at approximately $15 per month. Over the course of a year, that adds up to around $180. Over two years, you are at $360. The books you receive are smaller and simpler than what My Social Book produces, so the per-page and per-photo cost is actually quite a bit higher with Chatbooks when you do the math.

To put it concretely: for the price of roughly two months of Chatbooks, you could get a single My Social Book that covers an entire year of memories with full social media context, in a hardcover format, with up to 450 pages. For the annual cost of a Chatbooks subscription, you could order seven My Social Book volumes.

Subscriptions are not inherently bad. They work well when you genuinely use the service every month and the ongoing value justifies the recurring cost. But if you are someone who might forget about the subscription for a few months, or if the small softcover books start piling up unread, the one-time purchase model offers more control over your spending. It is worth noting that Chatbooks has also raised its prices recently, which has shifted this calculation further in favor of one-time alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use My Social Book if my photos are on my phone, not social media?

Yes. If your phone photos are backed up to Dropbox, My Social Book can import them directly from there. You do not need to be an active social media poster. Many customers connect Dropbox and get a beautiful chronological photo book from their phone's camera library, with the added benefit of automatic layout generation. If your photos are exclusively on your camera roll with no cloud backup, Chatbooks may be the more straightforward option for those specific images.

Does Chatbooks preserve captions and likes like My Social Book?

No. Chatbooks treats all photos as standalone images regardless of their source. Only My Social Book preserves the social media context surrounding your photos, including dates, captions, likes, and locations. This is a unique feature that no other photo book service offers and is one of the primary reasons customers choose My Social Book over alternatives.

Which service is better for a family yearbook?

For a comprehensive annual family yearbook, My Social Book has significant advantages. You get a single large-format book (up to 450 pages) that covers an entire year chronologically, with all the social context preserved. It takes 60 seconds to create. With Chatbooks, your year would be spread across 12 separate small books, each covering a month, at a total cost significantly higher than a single My Social Book volume. If you want one book on the shelf per year that tells your family's story, My Social Book is the better fit.

Can I cancel Chatbooks anytime?

Yes, Chatbooks subscriptions can be cancelled. However, many customers report that the cancellation process requires a few steps, and it is easy to forget you are being charged if you are not actively checking. With My Social Book's one-time purchase model, there is nothing to cancel. You buy a book when you want one, and that is it. For more photo book comparisons, see our guides on Shutterfly alternatives and My Social Book vs Mixbook.

Ready to See Your Book?

If your memories live on social media, there is a good chance you already have a beautiful photo book waiting to be printed. It takes under 60 seconds to find out. Create your free preview with My Social Book, see how many pages your story is, and decide if it is worth printing. No subscription required. No design work needed. Just connect your account, and let the book build itself.