RootsMagic

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to RootsMagic

A curated collection of the 3 best self hosted alternatives to RootsMagic.

Genealogy application for building and managing family trees, recording events, sources, notes and media, producing charts, reports and books, and synchronizing trees with online services (TreeShare, Ancestry, FamilySearch). Includes desktop apps and cloud sync/publishing features.

Alternatives List

#1
Gramps

Gramps

Gramps is an open source genealogy program for building and managing family trees with sources, media, and reports, including charts and web-style narrative output.

Gramps screenshot

Gramps is an open source genealogy application for recording, organizing, and exploring family history data. It provides structured tools to manage people, relationships, events, places, sources, and media, with powerful reporting and visualization options.

Key Features

  • Detailed family tree database with people, families, events, places, citations, and sources
  • Multiple views for exploring relationships and timelines
  • Report generation, including narrative-style outputs and printable charts
  • Media management with optional Exif metadata support
  • Mapping/geography features (optional) for place-based exploration
  • Extensible plugin/addon system for third-party enhancements
  • Internationalization and broad language translation support

Use Cases

  • Build and document a personal or family genealogy with source citations
  • Produce charts and narrative reports for sharing or printing
  • Maintain a long-term research archive with media and place information

Limitations and Considerations

  • Primarily a desktop GUI application; not a typical web-based multi-user service
  • Some features (maps, certain reports, advanced sorting) depend on optional external packages

Gramps is a mature, feature-rich choice for hobbyists and professional genealogists who want a structured, source-based family history workflow. Its extensibility and reporting tools make it well-suited for both ongoing research and producing shareable outputs.

2.8kstars
495forks
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#2
Genealogy

Genealogy

Open-source Laravel family tree app to record people, relationships, events and media with multi-tenancy, roles, backups and GEDCOM import/export in development.

Genealogy screenshot

Genealogy is an open-source family tree application for recording people, relationships, events and media. It is built on the TALL stack and designed for multi-tenant team use with role-based permissions.

Key Features

  • Person and couple modelling with support for biological parents, multiple partners, siblings and remarriages
  • Team-based multi-tenancy using Laravel Jetstream Teams with role and permission controls
  • Media uploads (multiple photos/documents), photo carousel and optional watermarking
  • Event management and timeline overview for people and families
  • Built-in Backup Manager with manual and cron-schedulable backups and e-mail notifications
  • Built-in Log Viewer and activity logging for persons, couples, teams and users
  • Security features including optional 2FA, API tokens and Jetstream access controls
  • Initial GEDCOM import/export support (under active development)

Use Cases

  • Building and maintaining family trees for personal or research use
  • Managing collaborative family history projects across teams with role separation
  • Archiving and organizing photos, documents and event timelines tied to individuals

Limitations and Considerations

  • GEDCOM import/export is incomplete and still under active development; full v7 support is not yet implemented
  • Requires HTTPS and modern runtime: PHP 8.4+ and a database supporting recursive CTEs (MySQL 8.0.1+ or compatible MariaDB)

Genealogy is focused on accurate family relationship modeling and team collaboration, offering a feature-rich Laravel-based foundation for self-hosted genealogy projects.

296stars
91forks
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#3
Genea

Genea

Client-side web app to visually build, edit, and export GEDCOM family trees. Runs entirely in the browser with offline storage and optional Git repository sync.

Genea screenshot

Genea is a client-side web application for visually building and editing family trees. It consumes and produces GEDCOM-format genealogy data and performs all processing in the browser so users control where files are stored.

Key Features

  • Visual family tree rendering using Graphviz compiled to WebAssembly for automatic layout of grandparents, parents, partners, siblings and children
  • Import and export of GEDCOM files for interoperability with genealogy services and tools
  • Purely client-side operation with persistent local storage and offline-first behavior
  • Built-in Git integration to load/save GEDCOM files from repositories (supports hosted and self-hosted Git providers via personal access tokens and optional CORS proxy)
  • Responsive interface built with Vue.js and Materialize CSS, with a mobile app presence for on-device use
  • Direct editing of individual person and family records, plus example/sample trees for exploration

Use Cases

  • Genealogists and hobbyists creating or editing family trees and exchanging GEDCOM files
  • Individuals who want privacy-preserving, local control of family history data with optional repository backup
  • Historical researchers compiling ancestry records into portable GEDCOM files for sharing

Limitations and Considerations

  • Relationship modeling is limited to standard GEDCOM constructs (grandparents, parents, partners, siblings, children); non-standard or gender-neutral relationship types are not fully supported
  • Collaboration is indirect: there is no built-in real-time multi-user sync beyond storing GEDCOM files in a Git repo or exchanging files manually
  • Very large trees may encounter client-side performance or layout limitations due to in-browser Graphviz and memory constraints

Genea is suited for users who need a lightweight, privacy-focused GEDCOM editor and visualizer that runs entirely in the browser. It prioritizes portable data export and simple repository-based synchronization over advanced collaborative features.

248stars
57forks
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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running