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If you’re looking for a Letterloop alternative, you probably like the idea already: questions go out, everyone writes back, and it all arrives together as one newsletter. SinceThen does exactly that. The difference is in the details: it’s free, the people you invite reply without a password or an app, and every newsletter is deleted from our servers two months after it goes out.
Letterloop might suit you better in a few cases. See when
Every newsletter is deleted from our servers two months after it goes out: the answers, the photos, all of it. Your copy lives on in your inbox, photos built in. Ours doesn’t live anywhere.
What we don’t keep can’t leak, can’t be sold and can’t be put to some other use later. Your family’s news belongs to your family.
Want a photo at full size? Save it from the web version before the two months are up.
The same contents list for each. A tick where it’s included, a cross where it isn’t, and a dash where it depends.
| Feature | SinceThen | Letterloop |
|---|---|---|
| Replies deleted after two months | Answers and photos are deleted from our servers two months after each newsletter. | Past issues are kept in an unlimited archive. |
| Free, with no subscription | Free. No paid plan. | $5 a month after the first two issues ($60 a year). |
| Reply without signing in | The link in each question email opens the reply form, already signed in. | Members sign in to a Letterloop account by magic link, password, Google or Apple. |
| Speak your answer | Say it out loud. It’s turned into text to check before sending. | Not offered. |
| Email addresses kept private | Every email goes to one person. Only the owner sees the list. | Depends on settings. Group delivery puts every member on cc. |
| Ask about someone’s story | Your question goes with the next round; the answer comes with the next newsletter. | Comment threads under each reply, emailed to the group. |
| Share a song | From Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or Deezer. | From Spotify, in a music section the admin adds. |
| Reminders | Up to two gentle reminders before the deadline. | Up to three, plus nudges from the admin. |
| Ready-made questions | Pick from the library or write your own. | Ready-made sets, with suggestions each cycle. |
Letterloop details are from letterloop.co, its pricing page, FAQs and help centre. Last checked: .
Letterloop gives you two free issues. After that it’s $5 a month, paid by whoever owns the group, which comes to $60 a year to keep a family newsletter going.
SinceThen is free, and there’s no paid plan. If we ever add one, circles that already exist won’t be charged. Part of what keeps it cheap to run is that we don’t keep everything forever: replies are deleted after two months, so there’s no ever-growing archive to pay for. No ads, and we don’t sell data.
Every Letterloop member has a Letterloop account and signs in to it, by magic link, password, Google or Apple.
SinceThen skips that step. Every question email has a personal link, and one tap opens the reply form, already signed in. No account to remember, no password, no waiting for a login email, no app. The first time, they confirm their name. After that, they just write.
You run the circle, so you log in with a password. Nobody else has to.
Letterloop doesn’t offer voice replies.
On SinceThen, anyone who’d rather talk can speak their answer instead. It’s turned into text for them to check before it goes, so the newsletter still reads like a letter. Good for grandparents, for long stories, and for anyone replying with a baby on one arm.
On Letterloop, it depends on how the group is set up. With group delivery, the newsletter goes out with every member on cc.
On SinceThen, every email goes to one person. Members never see each other’s addresses; only the circle’s owner sees the list. Handy when not everyone in the circle knows everyone else.
On Letterloop, people can comment on replies once an issue arrives, and by default the whole group gets an email for each comment.
SinceThen keeps it slow. Ask about any reply (whether the driving test went better the fourth time, whether any figs made it to the jam) and your question goes to that person with the next round. Their answer appears in the next newsletter under “Since last time”, where everyone can read it. No notification every time someone chimes in. Just the rest of the story, when the next letter arrives.
This is what SinceThen sends to everyone’s inbox. The notes in the margin point to what we’ve just talked about. Try asking someone about their story.
From MartaValencia5 Oct
My downstairs neighbour has been leaving lemons on my doormat for three weeks. No note. I started leaving things back. We’re up to a jar of honey and a paperback, and we still haven’t spoken.
From JonasBerlin6 Oct
I passed my driving test at 34, on the fourth attempt. The examiner just said “right then,” which I’m choosing to take as praise. Nobody let me drive in 2015 and I now see that was correct.
From PriyaMelbourne9 Oct
Running, of all things. Not the running itself, more the bit after, when I buy a cardamom bun and feel I’ve earned it. Did 10k on Sunday with this song on a loop. Spring is here, the magpies are swooping, and I’ve never moved faster.
Running Up That Hill · Kate Bush
Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or Deezer.
From JonasBerlin6 Oct
Reversing into parking spaces. Nobody asked me to. I just can now.
Sam asked Hana
“Did the bees survive the move?”
From HanaGhent
All of them. Mostly. The queen is fine, which is what matters, and the neighbours have stopped closing their windows.
Sample newsletter
From RosaPorto5 Oct
I can video call on my own now. Nobody has to hold the phone for me. Also the fig tree gave forty-one figs this year. I counted, and your grandfather ate nine before I could take a photo.
1 photo
From TomásToronto7 Oct
I lost a tooth at school. The tooth fairy here pays in Canadian dollars. Dad says that’s less, but it’s more coins. (Typed by Dad. Tomás is 8.)
From AnaLondon9 Oct
One song, because it’s the only one the baby falls asleep to. Six weeks on repeat. I know every word now. So does the neighbour.
Here Comes the Sun · The Beatles
Ana asked João
“Did you win the bowls final?”
From JoãoPorto
Second. The winner is 91 and has used the same lucky ball since 1974. Next year.
Sample newsletter
The names and replies here are an example.
We’d rather you picked the right one. Letterloop may be the better fit if:
Start a circle, invite them by email and choose the first questions. It’s free.