Free Life Timeline Makers Compared — Life in Weeks, Notion, Day One, Tiki-Toki and Preceden

By 24Houring · 2026-10-22

If you want a free life timeline, 24Houring's Life tab is worth a look. Enter your birthday and a single vertical line appears, running from birth through today into the years ahead; on it you record everything from your parents at the top to the words you want to leave behind where the line ends. It opens with no sign-up, keeps 30 moments and two lines free, and shows no ads, so it suits people who want their life so far on one page with their plans continuing on the same line.

What to look for in a life timeline tool

• One page or a stream? Some tools pile up entries day by day like a diary; others show birth to now on one screen.
• Partial dates: for childhood, you often know only the year.
• Past and future together: whether plans can sit on the same line as what has already happened.
• Free limits: number of events, number of timelines, photos.
• Backup and sharing: a record meant to last a lifetime needs exports and backups, and a way to show it to family.

At a glance (as of October 2026)

Each alternative, briefly

• Life in Weeks is the chart Tim Urban published on Wait But Why in 2014: a 90-year life drawn as 4,680 weeks, one year per row. Its strength is its simplicity; shading in the weeks that have passed makes the remaining time feel real. The article is free to read and a large poster is sold in the Wait But Why store. The boxes are too small to write what happened in them.
• Notion: add a timeline view to a database and every dated item becomes a bar. Searching the official template gallery for "life timeline" returns more than 100 results, free and paid. You can attach photos, links and tags to every event, which makes it the most flexible option, but you design the structure yourself.
• Day One is built for daily journaling. The free Basic plan has no entry limit and includes end-to-end encryption, On This Day memories, calendar, map and media views, and shared journals. Its web app's timeline view lists entries newest first. The paid Silver plan ($49.99 a year) adds unlimited devices and 30 photos per entry (as of October 2026). Because it builds up entries, it serves a different purpose from summarising birth to now on one line.
• Tiki-Toki makes interactive timelines to view on the web. A free account gets one timeline with up to 200 stories; hosting images on Tiki-Toki's servers, embedding on a blog and group editing are paid. Bronze is $9.50 a month and Silver $25 a month (official FAQ, checked October 2026). It fits timelines meant for others to see, such as school projects or public histories.
• Preceden lets you create any number of timelines, with up to 10 events each on the free plan. Exports to PDF, PNG, PowerPoint and Excel plus link sharing make it handy for presentations. Basic, with unlimited events, is $10 a month billed annually or $25 billed monthly (as of October 2026).

Where 24Houring Life is strong

• A birthday is all it needs. Birth, a label for every decade, today with your age in full years, and a dashed stretch ahead appear at once. It never asks how long you expect to live; the line simply ends at 120.
• Write only what you know. Dates take a year, a month or a full day; with only a year, the age reads "about 25". Spans such as school or a job take an end date.
• Solid past, dashed future. Anything after today is a plan shown dashed, and it turns into a record once the day has passed.
• It starts with your parents. Your mother and father sit side by side at the top, and their two lines meet to begin yours. Add a line for a child or a long-time friend and it runs against the same years, so a shared date sits at the same height (2 lines free, 10 with Pro).
• Categories and metrics. Family, education, work, relationships, health, travel, achievement and home each have a colour and an icon, with filters. Numbers such as weight, savings or distance run become life metrics drawn as lines or bars with a trend line (3 free, 20 with Pro).
• Several ways to keep it. Write an ending note where the line stops and save the whole timeline as one tall PNG, 2160 px wide, drawn on your device. A JSON backup that carries photos, and a read-only link that opens without an account, are made from the same Export menu.

Where it is honestly weaker

• Thirty moments on the free plan. A detailed life fills that quickly. Unlimited moments and photos are Pro ($0.99 a month), and reaching the limit never removes what you have written.
• It is not a journal. For long daily entries with many photos, Day One is the better fit.
• It lives in your browser by default. For a lifelong record, keep a JSON backup or turn on Pro sync. A read-only link is stored on the server, so check that you are happy to share your family's names and birthdays first.
• No shared family timeline. The life timeline is a personal record.
• Plain as a presentation timeline. For custom layouts or a PowerPoint export, Preceden or Tiki-Toki does more.

Start a life timeline in 24Houring

1. Open Life and enter your birthday.
2. Hover over the line and press the + that appears to add a moment. On a phone, tap the line or the + under today.
3. Enter the date as precisely as you know it and pick a category: just the year for starting primary school, start and end dates for a first job.
4. Add plans with dates after today; "move to a seaside town in five years" is drawn dashed.
5. Add your parents at the top and an ending note at the bottom.
6. Save a PNG from Export and keep a JSON backup.

A moment that names a city colours that country on the Place map. Countries visited live on the travel map, experiences still to come on the bucket list, and where you want to be in ten years in the vision house. Day-by-day planning is covered in building a daily routine. The feature overview is at life timeline, vision board tools are compared in free vision board makers compared, and Free versus Pro is on pricing.

FAQ

Can I make a life timeline for free without signing up?

Yes. 24Houring Life opens in the browser with no sign-up or install, and 30 moments, two lines, your parents, filters, the ending note, the PNG and the JSON backup are all free. There are no ads.

How do I add something from childhood when I do not know the exact date?

Enter just the year, or the year and month. A moment with only a year shows the age as "about N".

Can I draw my parents' or family members' lives alongside mine?

Your parents sit side by side at the top and their lines join to become yours. Lines for other family members or friends run against the same years, so the same year sits at the same height; the free plan holds two lines including yours, and Pro holds ten.

Can I show my life timeline to my family?

Save it as one tall PNG or share it straight from a phone. Export can also make a read-only link that opens without an account, and the device that made the link can delete it later.