Family Tree Software and Online Platforms Compared

The tools used to build, store, and share family trees range from standalone desktop applications to massive cloud-based databases with hundreds of millions of linked profiles. Choosing between them shapes not just how research is organized but what records become accessible, how data can be exported, and what happens to a family's information over time. This page compares the major categories of genealogy software and online platforms across the dimensions that matter most to researchers at every level.

Definition and scope

Family tree software, in the broadest sense, is any application that stores individuals in a structured database of relationships — linking parents to children, spouses to each other, and sourced events (births, marriages, deaths) to those individuals. The two dominant formats for this are GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication), a plain-text exchange standard developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1984 and still used as the near-universal portability format, and proprietary cloud formats that lock data inside a specific platform.

The category splits into three broad types:

1. Desktop software — installed locally, stores data on the user's own machine or network drive (examples: RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, MacFamilyTree)
2. Web-based platforms with proprietary trees — data lives on company servers, often linked to subscription record databases (examples: Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast)
3. Collaborative open databases — trees are shared publicly and merged with other users' contributions (examples: WikiTree, FamilySearch Family Tree)

For a grounding in why the underlying research structure matters regardless of which tool is chosen, the genealogy overview at /index is a useful starting point.

How it works

Desktop applications like RootsMagic 8 store a database file — typically SQLite-based — on the local machine. The researcher enters individuals, attaches source citations, and links media files. Export at any time produces a GEDCOM file that can be imported into other programs or uploaded to a web platform. The data remains entirely under the researcher's control.

Web platforms operate differently. Ancestry.com, the largest subscription genealogy service (with more than 40 billion historical records as of their public company disclosures), maintains trees in its own format. When a researcher adds a person, Ancestry's hint engine cross-references that individual against its record databases and other users' trees, surfacing potential matches. This is enormously useful for finding records quickly — and occasionally disastrous when undocumented hints propagate errors across thousands of linked trees.

FamilySearch Family Tree, operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and free to use, takes the collaborative model the furthest: every logged-in user can edit any person in the global tree. A change one researcher makes in Auckland can overwrite work done by a researcher in Atlanta within seconds. The FamilySearch guide covers the source-citation practices that help protect entries from unsupported edits.

DNA platforms — AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage DNA — add a genetic layer to tree-building, automatically matching tested individuals against relatives and, in some cases, using tree-to-tree comparisons to suggest common ancestors. The mechanics of that process are covered separately in the DNA testing for genealogy section.

Common scenarios

The casual family historian typically starts on a web platform because the record hints appear automatically. Ancestry and MyHeritage are the two most common entry points. The risk: trees built primarily from other users' trees rather than primary records. A birth year copied from an unsourced tree is not evidence — it is a hypothesis wearing evidence's clothes.

The serious researcher often maintains a desktop application as the authoritative copy and uploads periodic syncs to web platforms for record-hint access. RootsMagic 8 has a direct sync feature with FamilySearch and Ancestry. This approach mirrors the best-practice principle at the heart of the Genealogical Proof Standard — maintaining a verifiably sourced, controlled master record.

The collaborative project — a one-name study, a lineage society application, a published family history — almost always ends up in a dedicated database. The professional genealogist credentials community largely standardizes on desktop applications with rigorous source citation, exporting deliverables as narrative reports rather than raw GEDCOM.

The adoptee or unknown-parentage researcher relies heavily on DNA-linked trees rather than paper records, a workflow described in detail at unknown-parentage research.

Decision boundaries

The platform question resolves to four practical trade-offs:

1. Data ownership vs. convenience — Desktop software gives full ownership; web platforms offer access to records but the terms of service govern what happens to tree data if the company changes ownership or pricing. Ancestry's terms of service, for instance, grant the company a broad license to use uploaded content (per the publicly available Ancestry Terms and Conditions).

2. Privacy controls — Living individuals should never appear in public-facing trees. FamilySearch automatically suppresses living people; Ancestry and MyHeritage offer private tree settings, but the default on Ancestry is that living individuals are visible to other Ancestry members.

3. Portability — Any platform that does not support GEDCOM export creates a lock-in risk. WikiTree, FamilySearch, and most desktop applications export cleanly. Some proprietary platforms export GEDCOM files that strip media attachments or source citations.

4. Collaboration needs — A single researcher working alone has no particular need for a collaborative platform. A family group of 12 cousins pooling research across 3 continents benefits from a shared-cloud solution, provided they establish editorial norms before the first conflicting edit appears.

The building a family tree online page covers practical setup steps once a platform decision has been made.