The ultimate guide to family tree making websites — tested, compared, and ranked with honest pros and cons. Last updated: July 2026.

What's a family tree?

Humans are social animals and family ties are one of the most important connections we are gifted. Growing up, we rely on our parents, grandparents and even siblings a lot — it truly is amazing to go through life with your relatives following you along this journey because of all the support and love that can be shared.

No wonder we go to great lengths to keep family ties strong and remembered through different means, including family tree creation where people can be seen and connections can be visualised.

Ultimately, family tree creation is an effort a person makes to feel connected both to the living people in the family as well as those who are long gone from this world, but whose existence is worth taking note of. To many people, collecting and storing family tree data in a structured way (personal information, dates, places, photos) feels like a fun game.

A family tree can be created in many different ways — the most popular ones represent the family in a visually appealing tree-like structure or graph.

TL;DR

👉 Winning Free Family Tree Maker

At a glance

Tool	Free plan	GEDCOM import	Photos	Sharing	Map view	Best for
FamilyBushes.com	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Unlimited	✅ Via link	✅ Yes	Building & visualising your tree
Family Echo	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No	⚠️ Limited	❌ No	Quick simple diagrams
FamBerry	⚠️ Limited	❌ No	✅ Yes	⚠️ Invite only	❌ No	Small private family groups
MyHeritage	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	⚠️ Account	❌ No	Historical records research
Canva	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Via link	❌ No	One-off printable designs

Top 5 Websites For Creating a Family Tree for free

In this article we share the findings we discovered when exploring family tree makers that are available for anyone to use online for free. The list includes tools that do not require a download, and it features pros and cons for each tool that we analyzed before making this guide for you.

1. FamilyBushes.com

After careful consideration of what features modern family tree makers need, we came to the conclusion that FamilyBushes.com is the best family tree making software available for anyone on the internet today. It's a gift for any genealogist.

Pros	Cons
✅ Multiple dynamic layouts (Fluid, Strict, Map, Timeline)	❌ Newer service — no built-in historical records database
✅ Share your whole tree with a single link — viewers don't need an account	❌ Free tier has limits; Pro unlocks large trees
✅ Modern design optimized for user experience
✅ Unlimited image uploads & gallery view
✅ Supports custom person attributes and custom events
✅ Supports GEDCOM import and FBFT format export
✅ Great for both extended family trees and small personal trees
✅ Connected to FamilySearch.com, Billion Graves etc
✅ Dark & Light themes
✅ Automatic Relationship Identification
✅ Little to no cultural bias enforced
✅ Multiple Languages
✅ Sign in with email — no password needed, trees stored securely in the cloud

This is how the FamilyBushes.com family tree editor looks in action on a video. You can see how easy and smooth it is to enter new people into the family tree — it takes just a couple of clicks and you are done with several generations worth of data entry.

Create Family Tree Now ➡️

2. Family Echo

We continue our review with one of the oldest services available for creating family trees online. Family Echo is a true mastodon of the industry with a lot of citations and plenty of people who use this website regularly.

Pros	Cons
✅ Available for free	❌ Cannot save without registration
✅ Comfortable layout	❌ Difficult to use for non-technical people
✅ Send data to the cloud	❌ Requires registration to save
✅ Supports GEDCOM	❌ Cannot view whole tree at once
✅ Multiple Languages	❌ Cannot upload photos / attachments
	❌ Cannot customize forms
	❌ Cannot record custom events
	❌ Dark mode is not supported
	❌ Design has barely changed in a decade

Link to family echo

3. FamBerry

Our next family tree maker on the list is a British service available online with a decent free-tier plan. It lets you create family trees of either your mom's side or dad's side, and while that's not ideal — we still believe this website is one of the best for its rather minimalistic and tidy interface.

Pros	Cons
✅ Has free plan	❌ A bit slow
✅ Beautiful design	❌ Cannot create extended family
	❌ People are not positioned efficiently on the tree
	❌ Costs ~5$ / month
	❌ Strong cultural bias

Link to famberry

4. MyHeritage

We absolutely have to mention and give credit to the MyHeritage family builder as it is one of the largest websites in the world in terms of data available for search online. What makes it stand out is that you can find other people's trees and add them to yours. Be careful with accidental family tree merges, but otherwise the MyHeritage family tree maker is a powerful tool to try out, especially since they let you try some of the tools for free.

The same advice applies to Ancestry.com — the biggest historical records database in the world. Both are excellent for research (finding census records, immigration documents and potential relatives), but both lock their most useful features behind subscriptions that start around $20–40 per month, and both are heavier than needed if what you want is simply to build and visualise your own family tree. A common combination we see: research your ancestors on Ancestry or MyHeritage, then build and share the actual tree in a dedicated free family tree maker.

Pros	Cons
✅ Easy to collaborate	❌ Paid features trap you into subscriptions
✅ Extensive database	❌ Requires Registration
✅ Clean and beautiful designs	❌ Cannot export .FBFT
	❌ Lacks flexibility for collected data
	❌ No map view

5. Canva

The last family tree making tool on our list isn't actually a family tree tool specifically, but rather a universal design tool that enables you to create all sorts of infographics online (mostly for free). With Canva you can forget about data entry and focus on the highly customizable aesthetics of your family tree. You can come up with truly unique designs or use one of the family tree templates available on Canva.

Canva is more of a drawing tool rather than dedicated family tree software — if you add a new sibling later, you'll be moving boxes around by hand.

Pros	Cons
✅ Great Visuals	❌ Lacks data-driven tools
✅ Decent free tier	❌ Free tier might not be enough
✅ Wide range of designs	❌ Layout is done manually
	❌ No family tree analysis
	❌ No custom views

Link to Canva Family Tree Templates

Summary

Overall, it has never been a better time to be looking for a family tree creator: there are plenty of software packages available and most of them will help you on your journey to create stunning family tree designs.

Our recommendation in short: if you want a records database, use MyHeritage or Ancestry. If you want a one-off printable poster, use Canva. And if you want to actually build, grow and share a living family tree online for free, start with FamilyBushes.com — import your GEDCOM if you have one, or add your first relatives in a couple of clicks.