Written by Generation Archives. We are one of the products in this comparison. Read it as the vendor's account of the difference, not as an independent review. Ancestry's prices and plan names change, so check Ancestry for what they charge today.

Generation Archives vs Ancestry

Published by Generation Archives. Last updated November 5, 2026.

Ancestry and Generation Archives both let you build a family tree. They are for different jobs. Ancestry is a research service: historical records, hints that connect your tree to those records, and DNA matching. Generation Archives is a free private archive for the people, photos, and stories you already have. You can link media you already store and pay nothing. Hosting files with us is optional prepaid credit, not a subscription.

If you are choosing one product to do both jobs, neither one does. A lot of families research on a records site and keep the private photo archive somewhere else.

Question	Generation Archives	Ancestry
Best suited to	Keeping a private tree of people, photos, and stories	Searching historical records and DNA matches
Historical records	No	Yes. Record access is what the subscription is for
DNA matching	No	Yes, through AncestryDNA
Price of the tree itself	Free. The tree, stories, and collaboration cost nothing. Link photos you already store and pay nothing. Hosting files with us is optional prepaid credit at $1 per GB per year, not a subscription	You can build a tree without buying records. Record collections require a paid plan. Confirm current plans on Ancestry's site
Privacy	Private by default. You invite people, or turn on a public link	Trees can be public or private. The site is built around a large public research graph
Photos and stories	Tag people in photos and attach memories. Link a public URL for files you already store, or upload them to us	Trees can hold photos and stories. The product emphasis is records and matches
Moving your data	Import GEDCOM 5.5.1, GEDCOM 7.0, GEDZIP, and Family Echo HTML. Export GEDCOM 5.5.1, GEDCOM 7.0, GEDZIP, and a PDF, PNG, or JPEG image of the tree. GEDZIP carries picture links, not the image files	GEDCOM import and export are available. Media and site-specific fields do not always survive a transfer
Working with relatives	Invite collaborators by email with view or edit access	You can invite people to a tree. Roles and sharing options are Ancestry's

Choose Ancestry when

You want to search census, vital, and other historical records.
You want DNA matches and the hints that tie a test to a tree.
You are comfortable with a research subscription, or you only need the free tree tools and will skip the records.

Generation Archives will not grow your tree from a record collection. If that is the main goal, Ancestry (or another records site) is the better product. We'd rather say that here than imply a photo archive is a research library.

Choose Generation Archives when

You want the tree private unless you decide to share it.
You want photos tagged to the right people, and stories saved on their profiles.
You want it free. The tree costs nothing, and photos can stay where you already keep them. Hosting files with us is optional.
You want a copy you can take with you as GEDCOM 5.5.1, GEDCOM 7.0, or GEDZIP. GEDZIP carries picture links, not the image files. You can also save a PDF, PNG, or JPEG image of the tree.

Using both

Research where the records are. When you want a private copy for the family, export a GEDCOM and import it here. The import creates a new tree. Photos you add afterward, tags, and memories live on Generation Archives. A GEDCOM moves people and relationships; it is not a full copy of another site's media library, on our side or theirs.

A practical migration path

On Ancestry, export a GEDCOM of the tree you want to keep privately. Confirm current export steps in Ancestry’s own help, because menus change.
Create a free Generation Archives account and import the file. Read how to import a GEDCOM for what usually breaks (photos, some notes, site-specific fields).
Invite only the relatives who should see living people. Leave the public link off unless you intend a wide audience.
Add photos afterward by upload or by linking URLs you already host. Tag people so faces stay attached to profiles.
Keep Ancestry for record hints and DNA if you still need them. Use Generation Archives as the family-facing archive.

If you are choosing a free tool rather than a research subscription, see free family tree websites compared.

Ancestry-specific migration notes

Moving a tree out of Ancestry is mostly a matter of knowing what a GEDCOM can carry and what it cannot. The notes below describe what people usually run into. Ancestry controls its own export, menus, and options, so treat this as a checklist of things to verify in the file you receive, not as a description of how Ancestry works internally.

What usually comes across

People, with names, birth, death, and marriage facts that have standard GEDCOM fields.
Parent, child, and spouse relationships.
Notes, although long notes and formatting may arrive flattened.
Source citations in some form, often as plain text and not as structured records.

What usually does not come across

Photos and scanned documents. Expect to add these again afterward.
Record images and the hints that attach a person to a historical record. A hint is a feature of the research site and not a field in a GEDCOM file.
DNA results and match lists, covered in more detail below.
Custom facts or fields that only make sense inside Ancestry. These may land in a note, or be dropped.

Check the file before you import

Open the exported file in a plain text editor. Search for a few people you know well and confirm their dates and parents are present. Count the individuals and compare with the number on the tree you exported. If something is wrong at this stage, fixing it in the original tree and exporting again is easier than correcting it after import. Importing creates a new tree, so a trial import never overwrites existing work, and you can delete an attempt and try again.

Plan for duplicates and merged people

Trees that grew from record hints often contain the same ancestor twice, or contain people attached from another member's tree. Decide which of these belong in your private archive. A migration is a good moment to tidy: remove branches you never verified, and keep the ones you can support with a document or a family memory.

Keep your Ancestry tree until you are sure

You do not need to delete anything at Ancestry to try this. Export, import, compare, and then decide what to keep where. Many families keep both for a while, with records and DNA on the research site and the family-facing archive on Generation Archives. See how to import a GEDCOM for the import steps and what usually breaks.

How living people are handled

Living relatives are the hardest part of any tree to share responsibly. Research sites often hide living people from other members by default, which is sensible when a tree is built to be matched against a large group. A private family archive has a different audience: the people you invite are relatives, and they may reasonably expect to see living cousins, nieces, and nephews.

On Ancestry

Ancestry has its own rules for displaying living people in a tree, and for what a GEDCOM export includes about them. Those rules and options change, so check current Ancestry help before you export. Look inside the exported file as well, since some tools replace living people's details with placeholders and some do not.

On Generation Archives

A tree is private by default, and only you and the people you invite can open it. That means you decide what to record about living relatives, instead of relying on a site-wide rule. Giving someone view access lets them look without changing anything, and edit access lets them add to the tree. A public link is a separate switch that is off unless you turn it on, and anyone who has the link can open the tree, so leave it off while living people are in it.

A sensible rule of thumb

Record living people with the least detail the family needs. A name and relationship is often enough, and full birth dates and addresses are often not.
Review your imported GEDCOM for living people with full dates, addresses, or phone numbers in notes, and remove what does not belong.
Invite with view access first, and upgrade only the relatives who will edit.

The guide to what to record about living people goes through this in more detail, and family tree privacy: public, private, and invite-only compares the three sharing modes.

DNA stays on Ancestry

Generation Archives does not offer DNA testing or DNA matching and does not read DNA data. A GEDCOM does not carry DNA match lists, shared-match data, or ethnicity estimates, so those results stay with the service where the test was taken. Moving your tree does not move your test.

That has some practical consequences:

If you take down or close your Ancestry subscription, check what happens to your DNA results before you do. Download any raw data or reports that Ancestry offers while you can, and follow Ancestry's own help for how.
A match you identified through DNA may be recorded in the tree as a person with a note saying how you confirmed the connection. The note is text, and the match itself stays on Ancestry.
If DNA is how you grow the tree, keep using the DNA service for that, and use Generation Archives for the part where relatives see the result: names, photos, and stories.

The two products fit together without any overlap in DNA. One finds relatives and records, and the other holds what your family knows about them.

Photo tagging: how it differs

On a records-first site, the typical photo workflow is to attach an image to a person or to a record and move on. On Generation Archives, the workflow centers on the picture itself: you tag each person who appears in it, and those faces stay connected to their profiles. A group photo from a reunion can be tagged to a dozen people at once, and each person's profile shows that photo.

Why that matters when you migrate

Photos do not travel in a GEDCOM, so tagging is something you do after import, not something you carry across.
The effort pays off in the long run, because a tagged photo identifies who is in it after the relative who remembered is gone.
You can tag media you host with us and media you link from a public URL. Linked media uses no storage credit.

A tip for large photo collections

Start with the photos that matter most: the oldest prints, group portraits, and anything with a handwritten caption on the back. Tag those first, and handle the rest as time allows. If your files are already on a public address, link them. If not, hosting them with us is prepaid credit at $1 per GB per year, with no subscription. The pricing page explains both options.

Cost scenarios

Ancestry's prices and plan names change, so no figures for it appear here. Check Ancestry's site for what a plan costs today. The Generation Archives side uses fixed numbers: the tree is free, hosting is $1 per GB per year in prepaid credit, new accounts include 100 MB-years of starter credit, and the smallest purchase is $5 for 5 GB-years.

Scenario 1: records and DNA are the job

You want historical records and matches. A research subscription is the right purchase, and Generation Archives does not replace it. You can still export a GEDCOM and keep a private family copy here for free.

Scenario 2: the tree is built, and you want a family archive

You finished the research and want to share a tree with relatives. Export, import, link the photos that already have public addresses, and pay nothing. You can decide later whether you still need a research subscription, or whether to pause it. Check the terms of whichever plan you hold before you cancel.

Scenario 3: a lot of photos

You have around 2 GB of scans that exist only on your own devices. Hosting them with us costs about $2 per year at $1 per GB per year, and a $5 purchase gives 5 GB-years, so about two and a half years at that size. Every file you instead link from a place you already store them costs nothing in credit.

Scenario 4: a small tree with a few photos

The starter credit of 100 MB-years may be enough for a long time, since a handful of small photos barely uses it. The clock starts at your first upload, not at signup.

Scenario 5: running both

You keep a research subscription for as long as you need records or DNA, and use Generation Archives for the family-facing tree. The costs add together, but the second part can stay at $0 if you link media. See family tree software with no subscription for how prepaid credit compares with recurring plans.

Frequently asked questions

Will my Ancestry photos move over with a GEDCOM?

Usually not. A GEDCOM carries people and relationships, and photos typically need to be added again, by upload or by linking public URLs.

Can I import my tree without cancelling Ancestry?

Yes. Importing creates a new tree on Generation Archives and does not change anything on Ancestry.

Does Generation Archives show DNA matches?

No. DNA matching is not part of the product, and DNA results do not move with a GEDCOM. They stay with the service where the test was taken.

Will living people be visible to everyone?

No. A tree is private by default, and only the people you invite can open it. A public link is off unless you turn it on.

What can I export if I leave later?

GEDCOM 5.5.1, GEDCOM 7.0, GEDZIP, and a PDF, PNG, or JPEG image of the tree. A GEDZIP carries picture links, not the image files.

Is there a monthly fee?

No. The tree is free. Hosting files is optional prepaid credit, not a subscription.

Which should I use if I only want to look at records?

Use a records site. Generation Archives does not search historical collections.

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