Gramps is a desktop genealogy program for building and researching family trees, built with Python and GTK.
3.2K+7 this week557PythonGPL-2.0Well maintainedUpdated 11 days ago
6 alternatives
6 best open-source alternatives to Ancestry (2026)
Looking for a free, open-source alternative to Ancestry? These 6 projects can replace it. Each one passed our quality screening and is explained in plain words, so you can compare stars, license and maintenance at a glance.
How to choose
Start with where the work happens: on your own computer, or in a browser shared with relatives. gramps-project/gramps is a desktop program for building and researching trees, while fisharebest/webtrees is a self-hosted web app for recording and sharing them, with GEDCOM import and export. If you already keep a Gramps database and want to query or edit it over the web, gramps-project/gramps-web-api is a REST API for that.
- grampsBest for researchers who want a desktop program to build and study a family tree on their own machine.
- webtreesBest for people who want to self-host a web app where relatives can view the tree, with GEDCOM import and export.
- gramps-web-apiBest for developers with an existing Gramps database who need to query and edit it through a REST API.
Quick comparison
| Project | Stars | License | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|
| gramps-project/gramps | ★ 3.2K | GPL-2.0 | 11 days ago |
| DenisSergeevitch/ex-ussr-kinship-research | ★ 2.1K | MIT | 21 hours ago |
| fisharebest/webtrees | ★ 839 | GPL-3.0 | 3 days ago |
| geneweb/geneweb | ★ 408 | GPL-2.0 | 16 hours ago |
| MGeurts/genealogy | ★ 371 | MIT | 2 days ago |
| gramps-project/gramps-web-api | ★ 231 | AGPL-3.0 | 2 days ago |
An evidence-first genealogy skill for AI agents that researches family history across former USSR records, with traceable sources.
2.1K+431 this week213PythonMITUpdated 21 hours ago
Self-hosted web application for recording, viewing and sharing family trees, with GEDCOM import and export.
839+4 this week364PHPGPL-3.0Well maintainedUpdated 3 days ago
Open-source genealogy software written in OCaml that runs a family-tree database with a web interface, locally or as a server.
408119OCamlGPL-2.0Well maintainedUpdated 16 hours ago
A self-hosted family tree web app built on Laravel for recording family members, their relationships, and GEDCOM import/export.
371+4 this week116PHPMITWell maintainedUpdated 2 days ago
A Python REST API that lets you query and edit Gramps genealogy family tree databases over the web.
231+2 this week173PythonAGPL-3.0Well maintainedUpdated 2 days ago
FAQ
- Is there a free, open-source alternative to Ancestry?
- Yes. The most popular open-source alternatives to Ancestry on Repolode are gramps, ex-ussr-kinship-research, webtrees.
- Which Ancestry alternative should I choose?
- gramps has the most GitHub stars and is released under GPL-2.0. Compare the license and last commit of each option in the table above before choosing.
How this list is made: AI reads each project's documentation to match it with products it can replace, every project passes our quality screening, and the list is ranked by GitHub stars. Stars updated Nov 7, 2026. How Repolode works