Comparing Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Findmypast

A summary of what each site covers, costs, and does best



Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Findmypast are the 4 largest and most popular genealogy websites, used by many researchers around the world. Each began as a different kind of business, and that origin still shapes what each one does best today. Ancestry and MyHeritage are commercial companies built around DNA testing and paid subscriptions, FamilySearch is a nonprofit that has never charged for access, and Findmypast grew out of a British probate-research firm. None of the 4 holds everything, so most researchers end up using more than one.


Ancestry


Ancestry traces back to a Latter-day Saint publishing company founded in 1983 and a floppy-disk software venture, Infobases, that 2 Brigham Young University graduates started in 1990. The two merged and went online as Ancestry.com in 1996. The private equity firm Blackstone has owned Ancestry since 2020, after paying $4.7 billion for the company.


Ancestry holds more than 30 billion historical records, most of them U.S. census, vital, and military records, and it holds many unique U.S. collections not found on the other 3 sites, making it particularly strong for U.S. research. Its AncestryDNA database has grown past 30 million tested users, more than every other consumer DNA database combined. Buying a DNA kit does not require a subscription, but seeing full match details and record hints does. Full record access is subscription-only, with separate tiers for U.S.-only and full worldwide access. There is no ongoing free tier, though Ancestry sometimes opens specific collections, such as the 1950 census, without one.


FamilySearch


FamilySearch is a nonprofit operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tracing back to the Genealogical Society of Utah, founded in 1894 to help church members document their ancestors. The FamilySearch website launched in 1999. Access has always been free and is open to anyone, not only to members of the Church. A free account is required to view most record images, however, because of agreements FamilySearch has made with the archives that hold the original records.


FamilySearch has indexed more than 18 billion historical records. It hosts a single Family Tree that every user edits collaboratively, rather than separate private trees, so someone else may already have researched, and changed, your ancestor's entry. FamilySearch does not sell its own DNA test. FamilySearch has also digitized a large number of records that are searchable through full-text search, which searches the actual wording of a document rather than just an index, turning up records that are not searchable anywhere else. Its search tools and record hints are generally less refined than the paid sites, and coverage still depends heavily on what volunteers have indexed.


MyHeritage


Gilad Japhet founded MyHeritage in Israel in 2003 as a free family tree website; the company added historical records in 2012 and a DNA test in 2016. The private equity firm Francisco Partners has owned MyHeritage since 2021.


MyHeritage reports 38.6 billion historical records and a DNA database of 9.6 million kits, the third-largest after Ancestry and 23andMe. The 4 companies sometimes count "records" differently enough that the totals do not compare precisely. Its records and matching technology are strongest for Scandinavia, continental Europe, and Israel, with unique collections in those regions not found on the other 3 sites, and it offers free tools such as photo colorizing and repair alongside its paid plans. Building a basic tree and receiving limited matches is free; full record search and DNA-match tools require a paid plan.


Findmypast


Findmypast grew out of Title Research, a British probate-research firm founded in 1965. Title Research began digitizing the General Register Office's birth, marriage, and death indexes in 2001 and put them online as 1837online.com in 2003, renaming the site Findmypast in 2006. The Scottish publisher DC Thomson has owned Findmypast since 2007.


Findmypast's collections are strongest for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, including an exclusive online partnership with the National Archives for the 1921 England and Wales census. It also holds Catholic parish and diocesan records not found on the other 3 sites, including some U.S. Catholic records. You can search its indexes for free, but viewing full records requires a subscription. Findmypast now sells 2 tiers, a cheaper plan limited to hints matched to your tree and a full-search plan. Findmypast does not sell its own DNA test.


Choosing Between Them


  • Start with FamilySearch, since it costs nothing and its records overlap heavily with the paid sites.
  • Add Ancestry if most of your research is in the United States, if you want the largest DNA match pool, or if you want your own tree that you fully control, rather than FamilySearch's shared, collaborative tree.
  • Add MyHeritage if your ancestors were European, since its record strength and DNA matching there are sometimes hard to match elsewhere, or simply if you want a larger pool of records and DNA matches to search against; this holds for U.S. research too, not just European lines. Like Ancestry, MyHeritage also gives you your own tree that you fully control.
  • Add Findmypast if you are working on British, Irish, Australian, or New Zealand lines.



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