Heirstory and Ancestry, compared
Checked 28 October 2026
Ancestry is the largest commercial family history site. It holds about 71 billion records, more than 150 million family trees and the largest consumer DNA network. Its hints do a great deal of the searching for you. For searching records yourself, it is very hard to beat.
If you want a cheaper way into the same records, Heirstory is not that. It is a private record of your family and the people in it. Gene, an AI genealogist, searches the records that are openly online for your family’s people who have died, and asks the living what they remember.
The short answer
Choose Ancestry to search records yourself, to take a DNA test, or to find distant cousins.
Choose Heirstory to keep your family’s memories with its tree, to have each relative interviewed, and to keep it all private to your family.
Many families use both. Build the tree on Ancestry and save it as a family-tree file. Bring it into Heirstory, where the family adds what no record holds.
Side by side
| Ancestry | Heirstory | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Searching records and building a tree | Keeping a family’s record: tree, records and memories |
| Records | About 71 billion of its own | Gene searches public records online for those who have died, and names the documents worth ordering |
| Interviews your relatives | No | Yes, aloud in a web browser or by typing |
| AI | Reads handwritten records, suggests what photos show, narrates records as audio, suggests next steps | Gene researches, interviews each relative and writes each family’s chapter |
| Who sees it | Public or private tree; living people shown as Private to others | Private to the family; each living person decides what relatives see |
| DNA | Yes | No |
| Take it with you | GEDCOM export, without photos and media | A family-tree file, or a full copy with photographs and documents |
| If you stop paying | The tree stays and can be edited; records need a membership | Nothing to stop paying for: keeping the record is free |
| Price | US $24.99 to $59.99 a month, less on longer plans; a free account keeps a tree | Free to build; Gene’s work uses credits, 100 free, then from £5 |
Where Ancestry is better
- Records. Ancestry’s own collections are far larger than anything Heirstory can search.
- DNA. Ancestry’s DNA network is the largest of its kind. Heirstory does no DNA testing.
- Tools that do the searching. Hints suggest records as you build, and Ancestry’s AI can read old handwriting for you.
- Your tree stays if you stop paying, and you can go on editing it.
Where Heirstory is better
- The living family. Gene talks with each relative, one question at a time, and remembers what was said last time. Ancestry does not interview anyone.
- Memories kept as evidence. What a relative remembers sits beside the person it is about, marked as remembered, apart from what the records prove.
- Privacy between relatives. Nothing is public, and each living person decides what the wider family sees of them, not only strangers.
- A family’s history written up. Gene writes each family’s chapter from the records and what the family has added.
- No subscription to keep it. Your tree, records and chapters are free for as long as you use Heirstory.
Questions
Is Ancestry worth it?
If you will search records often, or want a DNA test, a membership can be worth it: no one has more records. Its free account keeps your tree when you stop paying, so you can pay only for the months you are searching.
Can I move my Ancestry tree to Heirstory?
Yes. Export it from Ancestry as a GEDCOM file and bring it into Heirstory. One file brings in up to 300 people, those closest to you first. Your Ancestry tree stays as it is. See how to move your family tree.
Does Heirstory have Ancestry’s records?
No. Gene searches records that are openly online for the people in your tree who have died. Where a record sits behind a paywall, Gene says exactly where it is, as a document to order.
Is my Ancestry tree private?
An Ancestry tree can be public, private and searchable, or private and unsearchable. Living people show as Private to everyone but you and those you allow, even in a public tree. Anything others copied while your tree was public stays in their trees. On Heirstory nothing of your family is public.
Sources
- Ancestry prices, US: ancestry.com/c/allproducts, read 28 October 2026.
- Records, trees and DNA network: Ancestry’s company facts page, read 28 October 2026.
- Ancestry AI: Ancestry blog, 5 April 2026.
- Tree privacy and living people: Ancestry support, read 28 October 2026.
- GEDCOM export without media: Ancestry help, read 28 October 2026.
- Accounts after cancellation: Ancestry help, read 28 October 2026.