Artkive makes a genuinely beautiful keepsake book, and half a million families have used it. But the sticker you see first — a $39 box — is not what a year actually costs. Here's the honest math, and what else exists.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| The box (holds 300–400 pieces) | $39 |
| Book — 25 pieces | $75 |
| Book — 50 pieces | $160 |
| Book — 100 pieces | $265 |
| Book — 200 pieces | $455 |
| Book — 350 pieces | $740 |
| Getting your original artwork back | $20 |
| A typical year: one kid, ~100 drawings | ~$324 — repeating every year |
None of that is hidden — it's their published pricing. It's just easy to miss that the box is the beginning of the bill, not the bill. And since kids keep drawing, it's a subscription in disguise: ~$300+ per kid, per year.
Same idea: mail your art in, get a book back. $49.99 deposit, books around $99–$210 base plus roughly $2.50–2.85 per piece. Comparable economics to Artkive — pick whichever book style you prefer.
Photograph each piece into a free app, or file favorites in a $25 portfolio box. Costs nothing but your discipline — and that's the catch. The pile usually outlasts the habit. (Full breakdown of every option in our guide to saving kids' artwork.)
Full disclosure: this is the one I built, after years of piles. It's a small capture tray plus a digital wall frame. Your child slides a drawing under the tray, presses one button, and it appears on the frame instantly. No photographing, no boxing, no mailing, no waiting weeks.
$249 once. Unlimited drawings, forever, at $0 each. Extra frames (grandparents' houses) are $79. First batch ships end of August 2026.
The comparison in one line: one typical Artkive year ≈ $324. Forever Art ≈ $249, once — and next year it's free.
Where Artkive still wins: you get a printed book you can hold. Some families want both — capture everything effortlessly, then print a year-end "best of."
First batch ships end of August — quantities are limited. Leave your email for $10 off and first access.
All competitor prices verified from public pricing pages, July 2026, and may change. Artkive and Plum Print are trademarks of their respective companies; this is an independent comparison by Forever Art.