Family Tree vs MyHeritage
A private alternative to MyHeritage
An honest, dimension-by-dimension look at where MyHeritage fits, where Family Tree fits, and how to pick the right tool for the family record you actually want to keep.
The short version
MyHeritage is a discovery engine. It is built around finding people you did not know about, by matching billions of historical records and DNA samples across millions of trees. It is good at that. If you want to be handed leads, MyHeritage will hand you leads.
Family Tree is the other shape. It is a private canvas for people who already know who their family is, and want a calm place to record them by hand. No ads. No DNA upsell. No AI guessing your relatives. Your tree lives on our servers in Australia, only you can see it, and you can export the whole thing as GEDCOM at any time.
This page goes through the comparison dimension by dimension. We will not pretend MyHeritage is bad at the things it is good at. We will not pretend Family Tree does things it does not.
Historical records
MyHeritage
Indexes billions of birth, marriage, death, census, immigration, and military records. Add a person and the product surfaces documents that name them. This is the headline feature and the reason most people pay.
Family Tree
Does not index records. We are not a records database and we are not trying to become one. If you need a research backbone, keep a MyHeritage subscription and use Family Tree alongside it for the curated, private tree.
DNA testing
MyHeritage
Sells a saliva kit, returns an ethnicity estimate, runs a chromosome browser, and matches you against other people who took the same test. The data, once given, is irreversible.
Family Tree
Does not sell DNA tests. Does not run a DNA marketplace. Does not handle, store, or process DNA data of any kind. This is a posture, not a missing feature, and it is not on the road map.
AI and Smart Matches
MyHeritage
Smart Matches nudge you toward merges with other accounts whose trees overlap with yours. Record Matches push documents at people in your tree. AI tools can extrapolate relationships.
Family Tree
No cross-account suggestions. No auto-filled people. No model trained on your tree. Everything in your tree is there because you put it there. The closest thing to a hint is your own keyboard.
Privacy posture
MyHeritage
Tree data is used to power matches across accounts. People you add can surface in other users' search results. The product's value depends on cross-pollination, which is the opposite of privacy.
Family Tree
Trees are visible only to the account that owns them. No public profile, no cross-account matching, no leak surface. Data lives in a database in Sydney and is not replicated overseas.
Pricing model
MyHeritage
Free tier with a hard cap on people, plus several paid tiers that gate records, DNA tools, and exports. Renewal pricing is reliably higher than first-year pricing.
Family Tree
Free, with no caps and no feature gates. No subscription, no upsell inside the editor. Funded by a voluntary one-time membership for the people who want to support the project.
Data export
MyHeritage
GEDCOM export is supported, but some adjacent assets (matched records, enhanced photos) live behind the paywall or stay with the account.
Family Tree
PDF, JSON, and GEDCOM from the same dialog, free, on day one. The data is yours and the export is the proof. If you ever want to leave, you take everything with you.
Sharing model
MyHeritage
Shared trees with multiple contributors and granular permissions. Good for an extended family that wants to crowdsource the same record.
Family Tree
Single-author by design. One owner per tree, no co-editors. A read-only encrypted share link is on the road map so you can show a relative the tree without giving them an account.
Mobile
MyHeritage
Native iOS and Android apps with offline editing, push notifications for matches, and camera-roll integration for photos.
Family Tree
Mobile web only. The canvas pans and zooms on a phone, and the editor works, but there is no app to install and nothing offline.
Quick comparison
| MyHeritage | Family Tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Photo hosting | Hosts photos, offers AI enhancement and colourisation. | Does not host photos at all. |
| Multi-editor trees | Shared trees with multiple contributors. | Single-author by design. One owner per tree. |
| Languages | Localised into dozens of languages. | English only. |
| Public profiles | People in your tree can surface in other accounts. | No public surface. Only the owner can see the tree. |
| GEDCOM import | Supported. | Supported. Drop a GEDCOM (or JSON) file into the New tree modal on day one. |
Who MyHeritage is for
Pick MyHeritage if any of these is the work you are actually doing.
- You want to find relatives you do not know about, and you want the product to do the searching for you.
- You want a DNA test, an ethnicity estimate, or a way to be matched with biological relatives.
- You are deep in historical records work and want a single tool that holds your tree alongside the documents that prove it.
- You want native mobile apps, in a language other than English, with photo enhancement built in.
These are real reasons. They are not the reasons Family Tree exists. If they are your reasons, MyHeritage is the right place to start.
Who Family Tree is for
Pick Family Tree if any of these sounds like you.
- You already know who your family is. You want a calm place to record what you know, by hand, without being prompted to upgrade or to upload your saliva.
- You read the MyHeritage privacy policy and closed the tab.
- You want one private surface that holds every generation, with keyboard shortcuts and no advertising chrome.
- You want a GEDCOM export that works on the day you sign up, in case you ever want to leave.
- You are happy that the product is small, hand-built, and deliberately narrow.
What we deliberately do not do
We try to be clear up front so nobody arrives expecting a feature that is never coming.
Never coming: DNA testing, ethnicity estimates, cross-account relative suggestions, AI auto-fill of people or relationships, photo hosting, multi-editor collaboration where two people edit the same tree at once.
Keep reading
Family Tree vs Ancestry
The same honest comparison, applied to the largest records database in the genealogy market.
Every feature, on one page
The canvas, keyboard shortcuts, focus mode, export, and everything else Family Tree actually does today.
Read the FAQ
Common questions about privacy, hosting, pricing, and what is on the road map.
Privacy policy
What we collect, where it lives, and what we will never do with your tree.
Try Family Tree
The product is free, with no caps and no feature gates. Make an account, add yourself and a parent, and you are on the canvas inside a minute. If a sample tree helps you get a feel for the shape first, six fictional families ship with the app.