This is the landing page for The Family Tree Software Alternatives series, which reviews 14 major Mac and Windows applications for recording family trees. The focus is on compliance with the GEDCOM standard, both for importing and exporting files, but other aspects, including usability and major features, are addressed as well. Some of the information is now out of date, since some of the applications have released newer versions, but most of the points still hold true.
About Keith Riggle
Keith has been interested in family history and genealogy ever since his grandmother convinced him they were descended from one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (alas, it wasn't true). He's worked on it seriously since about 1998. He's also a technophile and has always tried to make his job or life easier by using technology. So of course he's interested in the intersection of technology and genealogy. He loves to try out new software, mostly for the Mac, but will fire up Windows on his Mac, as well.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with Family Tree Maker.
I have been using it for around 20 years.
There is a lot wrong with FTM, for a start the relationship logic is incorrect, and I have emails from FTM saying so, and that they have been working on the problem since I reported the issue in 2017, and still not fixed, the logic only considers that the Home Person is only related to the one Ancestor, and is wrong in 50% of cases. The Colour coding, if used to highlight Ancestors does not change the relationship with additions to the tree, so is useless, unless used to highlight a fact that does not change, this is not a problem on small trees, but is on large trees, I spent 36 full hours manually changing the colour of 500 years of Ancestors
I just love Family Tree Maker.
I have been using it for around 22 years.
And thelast years together with Family Book Creator.
Totally amazing tools together !!
I have been using Family Tree Maker, since 2004 or 5 plus Family Book Maker for about 5 years.
Both these applications work well, but I think Family Book Maker could still use some improvement or maybe I need to be able to understand the filters better. Never the less both apps are great tools for research and documentation, don’t think I could do without them. I am hopeful that they will continue to improve with technology and user interface for years to come.
I started my Family Tree in 1995 and have worked on it ever since. Have learned a great deal and still learning using Family Tree Maker. Hope there are some more colors to choice from to mark some of the relatives. Have an external backup as well which is kept off line in case of problems with my computer or hard drive. Did some beta testing on the last release as well. Have suggested to others that they also should buy it.
I have used Family Tree Maker for since the beginning and have never found it to be a problem. I do wonder when we might get an update, 2019 being the last issue.
I think there could be some improvements, but I leave it to the experts in Family files.