Wonderbly vs Dinkleboo vs I See Me: Personalized Book Companies Compared

We make personalized children's books, so you should read this knowing we're not a neutral party. What follows is our honest read on the main options — including the places where the others genuinely beat us. If a different company is the right answer for what you want, we'd rather you found that out here than after you'd ordered.

There are really only two kinds of personalized children's book, and almost everything else follows from which kind you pick.

The distinction that actually matters

Template books are professionally written and illustrated in advance. You supply your child's name and sometimes their appearance, and those details are woven through a fixed story. Wonderbly, Dinkleboo and I See Me all work this way. The writing and art are polished because they were made once, carefully, and produced thousands of times.

Original-story books start from words you supply. The story is whatever you want it to be, and the illustration is generated to match. That's what we do at Adelynne.

Neither is better in the abstract. They answer different questions. If the question is "I want a lovely book with my child's name in it," a template book is very likely the right call, and probably a cheaper and safer one. If the question is "I want a book about the actual thing that happened to us," no template can do that.

At a glance

Wonderbly

Wonderbly is the established name in this category and, in our view, the one to beat on craft. The illustration is genuinely excellent, the catalogue runs to dozens of titles, and the range spans newborns through to books aimed at adults. They also have a publishing partnership with Penguin Random House, which is not something the rest of the field can claim.

Their catalogue covers most of the obvious occasions well — new babies, new siblings, bedtime, search-and-find books for slightly older children — and some titles handle more than one child, which is genuinely useful for families.

Choose Wonderbly if you want the best-looking template book available and you're buying for one of the occasions they cover. Look elsewhere if your story isn't one of the ones they sell.

Dinkleboo

Dinkleboo is the value option, and it's a serious one — over two million books sold since launching in 2014, and tens of thousands of reviews averaging around four stars. The range is broad, covering counting books, bedtime stories, Santa books and space adventures, and many titles let you add siblings, parents or grandparents as characters. Every book includes a printed dedication.

The honest caveat, and it comes up in their own reviews: production quality is more variable than Wonderbly's. Most customers are happy; a minority find the physical book slighter than expected. At the price, that's a reasonable trade — just go in knowing it.

Choose Dinkleboo if you want a personalized book without spending premium money, or you're buying several. Look elsewhere if the book needs to feel like a keepsake object in its own right.

I See Me

I See Me is the strongest of the three for the very youngest children, and it goes furthest on physical customisation — you can match hair and skin tone, and some titles incorporate the child's hometown or photographs. For a first birthday or a new baby, that specificity lands.

Their range extends up to around age eight, but the sweet spot is clearly the younger end. Stories are simpler, which is appropriate for the age but less compelling for a five- or six-year-old.

Choose I See Me if you're buying for a baby or toddler and want the child in the book to look like your child. Look elsewhere if you're buying for an older child who wants a proper story.

Adelynne

We built Adelynne for the case none of the above covers: when the story you want doesn't exist yet.

You write it, or generate one from a character and a theme and then edit every line. We build a character reference first and anchor every page to it, so the same child appears consistently in one art style throughout. The text is set as real type over the artwork rather than drawn by the illustrator, which means the printed words are exactly the words you wrote. The result is a 24-page, 8.5" square, full-colour hardcover.

Where the others beat us, plainly: if you just want a nice book with your child's name in it, a template company will get you there faster, cheaper, and with a story written by a professional author. We ask more of you — you have to bring the idea. That's a real cost and it won't suit everyone.

Choose Adelynne if the book needs to be about something specific: the move, the new baby, the grandmother's story, the dog you lost, the thing your child says every single night. Look elsewhere if you want to pick something off a shelf and be done in five minutes.

How to choose in about thirty seconds

• Buying for a baby, want them to look like your baby? I See Me.
• Want the nicest-looking book and the occasion is a common one? Wonderbly.
• Watching the budget, or buying several? Dinkleboo.
• Have a specific story that has to be that story? Adelynne.

If you can find your story in someone's catalogue, buy it there. If you can't, that's what we're for.

A note on price

Most personalized hardcovers in this category land somewhere between roughly $25 and $50, with softcovers lower. Every company here runs promotions, sometimes aggressive ones, and prices shift by title and format — so check current pricing directly rather than trusting any comparison table, including this one. Ours is $47 for the 24-page hardcover with U.S. shipping included, and writing, illustrating and previewing your book is free.

New to all this? Our step-by-step guide to making a personalized children's book covers the whole process, and we've collected occasions worth turning into a book in our gift ideas roundup.

Company details above were checked in August 2026 and reflect publicly available information at that time. We don't have any commercial relationship with Wonderbly, Dinkleboo or I See Me, and this page contains no affiliate links.