How it compares, including what it doesn't do.
AncestralFire sits beside you with your whole tree, goes and looks things up, and tells you what it means. It holds no records archive and sells no DNA kits, and the empty circles in our column are real.
| What it does | AncestralFire | FamilySearch | Ancestry | MyHeritage | Genealogy Genie AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you work with it | |||||
| Works inside the AI assistant you already use | yes: Claude, and any assistant that connects to our server | not checked | not checked | not checked | no: its own AI, in its own web app6 |
| A conversation, not a site to learn | yes: you ask; it goes and looks | not checked | not checked | not checked | yes: a research plan it drafts from your goal6 |
| Holds its own archive of records | no: no — it works on the tree you bring, and reaches free sources when a question needs them | yes: 16.93 billion searchable names2 | yes: 71 billion records3 | yes: 40.9 billion historical records4 | no: searches FamilySearch and the web6 |
| What it finds | |||||
| Reaches outside your tree for you | yes: Wikipedia, old newspapers, the web — each result cited | not checked | not checked | yes: historical newspapers, on OldNews.com4 | yes: four researchers across FamilySearch and web search6 |
| What was happening near them, then | yes: dated events near where they lived — nearness, never that they took part | not checked | not checked | not checked | not checked |
| Tells you what it looked for and did not find | no: not yet — a search that finds nothing leaves no trace you can see | not checked | not checked | not checked | yes: “we tell you what the researchers looked at and didn’t find”6 |
| DNA | no: no | not checked | yes: a DNA network of over 30 million people3 | yes: a DNA kit4 | no: no6 |
| Photo enhancement | no: no | not checked | not checked | yes: photo enhancement features4 | no: no6 |
| Searching handwritten records by their text | no: no | yes: Full-Text Search, across nearly 2 billion record images transcribed by AI handwriting recognition7 | not checked | partly: Scribe AI transcribes a record, letter or document you upload; it does not search11 | no: no6 |
| What it notices | |||||
| What is wrong in your tree | yes: impossible dates, and the generation each line stops being researched and starts being copied | not checked | not checked | yes: a tree consistency checker4 | yes: flags what is biologically or culturally unlikely6 |
| What is missing from it | yes: no dates, no birthplace, lines that stop | not checked | not checked | not checked | partly: flags where a record probably exists6 |
| What one life’s record says, read together | yes: a life stop by stop: the distances, the age at the end, the children left behind | not checked | not checked | not checked | not checked |
| Your data | |||||
| Your tree in a database that is yours alone | yes: one private database per subscriber | not checked | not checked | not checked | not checked |
| Export all of it, any time | yes: from Settings | no: not from the shared tree itself; it points you to compatible products in its Solutions Gallery8 | yes: a GEDCOM of any tree you own, no membership needed9 | yes: a GEDCOM from your family site12 | not checked |
| Delete all of it, any time | yes: from Settings | not checked | not checked | not checked | not checked |
| Connect your FamilySearch account | yes: connect your free account, and your family there comes into your tree | yes: it is FamilySearch | not checked | not checked | yes: searches FamilySearch6 |
| Price | |||||
| Price | yes: $20 a month | yes: free to everyone1 | yes: $24.99–$54.99 a month, as the page shows it10 | yes: free tree up to 250 people; plans $129–$399 a year ($89–$239 the first year)4 | yes: $35 a month, or $88 every three months5 |
| Try it first | yes: start free, no card | yes: free to everyone1 | yes: 14 days free, then a paid plan unless you cancel10 | partly: a free tree up to 250 people; no trial on the price list4 | yes: a free trial5 |
yes · partly · no · – means we haven't read it on their own page yet, so we don't say.
Why we built it
You shouldn't have to become an expert in a website to meet your great-grandmother. Your partner does the searching, shows you what it found, and links you to where it found it.
Where each fact came from
- FamilySearch, “Free to All”, About FamilySearch, read 18 September 2026.
- FamilySearch, Company facts (updated 8 September 2026), read 2 October 2026.
- Ancestry, Company facts, read 2 October 2026.
- MyHeritage, Price list (US dollars), read 2 October 2026.
- Genealogy Genie AI, Pricing, read 18 September 2026.
- Genealogy Genie AI, Product page and its own comparison grid, read 18 September 2026.
- FamilySearch, Full-Text Search Leaves FamilySearch Labs, read 29 September 2026.
- FamilySearch, How do I download information from the shared Family Tree?, read 29 September 2026.
- Ancestry, Uploading and Downloading Trees, read 29 September 2026.
- Ancestry, Free trial and membership prices, read 2 October 2026.
- MyHeritage, Scribe AI: Transcribe & Analyze Historical Records, read 29 September 2026.
- MyHeritage, How do I download (export) a GEDCOM file of my family tree?, read 29 September 2026.
Every other company’s cell is from its own page, read on the date shown. They change; if one is out of date, tell us at support@ancestral-fire.com and we will fix it.