Comparison of genealogy software
This article compares several selected client based genealogy programs. Please see the entries for the individual products for further information.
General information
| Software | Example(s) | Latest release | Free to use | Free software | Software license |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahnenblatt | 
|
2009-07-12 | Yes | No | Proprietary |
| Ancestral Quest | 2009 | No (60 Day Free Trial) | No | Proprietary | |
| Brother's Keeper | 2010-04-26 | No | No | Shareware | |
| Family Historian | 2009-May | No | No | Proprietary | |
| Family Tree Builder | Family Tree Builder | 2009-August | Yes (Free ver.) | No | Proprietary |
| Family Tree Maker | 2010 | No | No | Proprietary | |
| GEDitCOM II | 2010 | No | Free GEDCOM Reader | Proprietary | |
| Genbox Family History | 
|
2007-11-17 | No | No | Proprietary |
| GenealogyJ | 
|
2010-02-19 | Yes | Yes | GNU GPL |
| GenoPro | 
|
2008-9-15 | No | No | Proprietary |
| GRAMPS | 
|
2010-04-22 | Yes | Yes | GNU GPL |
| Legacy Family Tree | 2010-01-30 | Yes (Standard Edition) | No | Proprietary | |
| LifeLines | 2007-10-06 | Yes | Yes | MIT License | |
| MacFamilyTree | 
|
2010-05-14 | No | No | Shareware |
| Personal Ancestral File | Screen shot of PAF v5.2 | 2002-07-23 | Yes | No | Proprietary |
| Reunion | 2008-03-26 | No | No | Proprietary | |
| SmartGenealogy | 2007-05-02 | Yes | No | Unknown | |
| The Master Genealogist | 2008-06-28 | No | No | Proprietary |
Operating system support
| Software | Windows | DOS | Mac OS | Linux | BSD | Unix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahnenblatt | Yes | No | No | Wine[c] | No | No |
| Ancestral Quest | Yes | No | No | Wine[c] | No | No |
| Brother's Keeper | Yes | Terminated (5.2B) | No | Wine[c] | No | No |
| Family Historian | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Family Tree Builder | Yes | No | No | Wine[c](v2) | No | No |
| Family Tree Maker | Yes | No | Terminated | Wine[c] | No | No |
| GEDitCOM II | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Genbox Family History | Yes | No | No | Wine[c] | No | No |
| GenealogyJ | Java[a] | No | Java[a] | Java[a] | No | Java[a] |
| GenoPro | Yes | No | No | Wine[c] | No | No |
| GRAMPS | Yes | No | ported[b][1] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Legacy Family Tree | Yes | No | No | Wine[c][2] | No | No |
| LifeLines | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MacFamilyTree | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Personal Ancestral File | Yes | Terminated | Terminated (2.3.1) | Wine[c] | No | No |
| Reunion | Terminated (4.0) | No | Yes | Wine[c](v4.0) | No | No |
| SmartGenealogy | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| The Master Genealogist | Yes | Terminated (2.3) | No | Wine[c] | No | No |
Features
| Name | Unicode Support | Individual view | Family view | Pedigree view | Chronology view | Ancestor charts | Ancestor narrative reports | Ancestor pedigree reports | Descendant charts | Descendant narrative reports | Fan charts | Research Manager | DNA charts | Research Guidance | Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahnenblatt | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Ancestral Quest | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Brother's Keeper | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? |
| Family Historian | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | ? |
| GEDitCOM II | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Family Tree Builder | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Family Tree Maker | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? |
| Genbox Family History | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| GenealogyJ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| GenoPro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? |
| GRAMPS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Legacy Family Tree | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LifeLines | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | ? |
| MacFamilyTree | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Personal Ancestral File | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | No | ? |
| Reunion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| SmartGenealogy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | ? |
| The Master Genealogist | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? |
Features - International versions
Available user interface languages
| Name | English | Afrikaans | Danish | Dutch | French | German | Italian | Norwegian | Polish | Spanish | Swedish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahnenblatt[a] | Yes | No[e] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No[e] | Yes | Yes | No[e] |
| Ancestral Quest[a] | Yes | No[e] | Yes | No[e] | No[e] | No[e] | No[e] | No[e] | No[e] | No[e] | No[e] |
| Brother's Keeper | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No[e] | Yes | Yes | No[e] | Yes |
| Family Historian | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Family Tree Builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Family Tree Maker | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| GEDitCOM II | Yes | No | No | No | partial | No | No | partial | No | partial | partial |
| Genbox Family History[b] | Yes[f] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | partial | Yes | partial | partial |
| GenealogyJ | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| GenoPro[h][i] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GRAMPS[c] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Legacy Family Tree[d] | Yes | public test |
Yes | Yes | public test |
Yes | public test |
Yes[f] | No | public test |
Yes |
| LifeLines | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| MacFamilyTree | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Personal Ancestral File | (v4.x/5.x) | No | No | No | (v4.x) | (v4.x/5.x) | No | No | No | (v4.x) | (v5.x) |
| Reunion | Yes | No | No | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* | No | Yes* | No | No | No |
| SmartGenealogy | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| The Master Genealogist | Yes[g] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | partial | Yes | No[h] | No[h] | Yes |
- a Ahnenblatt is also available in Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian and Turkish
- b Genbox Family History is also available in Russian, Slovak, Slovenian; partial translations are available for Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, and Vietnamese.
- c GRAMPS is also available in Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, and Slovak.
- d Legacy Family Tree is being tested in Finnish.
- e Can be created by available translation program.
- f Includes both nynorsk and bokmål
- g Includes U. K. English and U. S. English.
- h Can be created using the built-in translation tables.
- i GenoPro is also available in Arabic, Catalan, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Latvian/Lettish, Russian and Vietnamese. Partial translations are available in Portuguese (Brazil), Indonesian, Dutch, Hebrew, Swedish, Portuguese (Portugal), Lithuanian, Turkish, Chinese Traditional/Taiwan (Big5), Albanian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Icelandic, Scots Gaelic, Chinese simplified (GB2312), and 18 more languages translated less than 50%.
References
- ^ GRAMPS developers. "Installation on Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris". Retrieved 2008-07-22.
- ^ WineHQ - Legacy Family Tree - AppDB Entry
External links
- Genealogical Software Report Card - Bill Mumford's opinions on the important features of genealogy software, with charts showing features available in common products. Very dated information.
- Genealogy Software Reviews - User reviews and ratings of genealogy software.
- RootsWorks PDA2001 Genealogy Software Comparison - Deals with genealogy software running on Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs).