How to choose which family history subscription websites you need

Which are the main family history subscription websites?

The main family history subscription sites that are used by family historians on a regular basis to trace their family trees and find historic records to provide them with clues and evidence are:

Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and TheGenealogist.

Of course these are just the start. As you spend time doing your family history you will realise that there is no way you can do your family history solely using one website.

You may decide to subscribe to more than one of the family history subscription sites mentioned above. You may decide to join a family history society (or several), visit archives, purchase family history software, take out specialist subscriptions depending on your specific research areas, and subscribe to a family history magazine such as Family Tree or become a member of Family Tree Plus.

For now, however, we are going to concentrate on the four websites mentioned above, as they represent the major providers of digitised family history record collections, and it is important - so that your research can progress as well as possible, and you don't waste time or money - that you subscribe to the website that is the best fit for your family history needs.

What are the similarities?

Each of these four websites (Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and TheGenealogist) provide an online family tree builder and a comprehensive range of records for tracing ancestors, particularly in the UK, as well as other locations overseas. These core records, across all the above websites, include census returns and BMD records. There will also be a means of contacting fellow site users - which can be useful and enjoyable to reach out to family and distant kin.

You will also come across the FamilySearch website too, when doing your family history online, but that is a free website so we are not covering it here in the context of subscription websites. Note that sometimes, when using FamilySearch, you would need a subscription to a FamilySearch partner website in order to view a digitised record. 

• To learn about the foundation family history records, see: 'How to start my family history'.
• To explore records for the various countries within the British Isles, see: 'How to trace your UK ancestors'.

How much do the family history websites cost to subscribe to?

To follow are an overview of the various membership levels. Usually the different payment level required reflects the range of record collections available to you - ie pay more, gain access to a wider range of records.

Family history website comparison — UK pricing (Oct 2025)

Concise comparison of free features, membership levels and prices for Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and TheGenealogist.

Family History Website Comparison (UK pricing, Oct 2025)
Website	Free Account	Membership Levels	Prices
Ancestry	Build tree free	• UK	UK: £10.99/mo or £54.99/6mo
		• UK & Ireland	UK & Ireland: £13.99/mo or £69.99/6mo
		• World	World: £19.99/mo or £99.99/6mo
		Add-ons	Pro Tools: £7.99/mo
			Club 1890: US$5,000/yr
Findmypast	Build tree free	• Family Tree	Family Tree: £9.99/mo
		• Everything	Everything: £24.49/mo
			£59.99/3mo
			£169.99/yr
			or £16.99/mo (12-month plan)
MyHeritage	Tree up to 250 people	• Premium	Premium: £89/yr (£59 first yr)
		• PremiumPlus	PremiumPlus: £169/yr (£109 first yr)
		• Data	Data: £129/yr (£79 first yr)
		• Complete	Complete: £229/yr (£139 first yr)
		• Omni	Omni: £309/yr (£169 first yr)
TheGenealogist	Free tree via TreeView	• Starter	Starter: £59.95/yr
		• Standard	Standard: £129.95/yr
		• Diamond	Diamond: £139.95/yr

What does an Ancestry membership cost?

With a free Ancestry account you can build a family tree, with no size restrictions on your tree. To access records you will need to pay.

Monthly and six-monthly memberships are available for Ancestry.co.uk, at three different membership levels:

• UK records only: £10.99 monthly, £54.99 six-monthly
• All UK & Ireland records on Ancestry: £13.99 monthly, £69.99 six-monthly
• All records on Ancestry: £19.99 monthly, £99.99 six-monthly

Note that Ancestry also provides the Ancestry Pro Tools membership (which is in addition to the other Ancestry memberships mentioned above). Find out about Pro Tools here. Pro Tools costs £7.99, billed monthly (no minimum monthly Pro Tools membership period; you may cancel/renew at any time you wish).

Club 1890 is an additional application-only membership from Ancestry, with an annual subscription cost of US$5,000: find out more here.

Find a full list of Ancestry membership levels and costs (not including Pro Tools and Club 1890) here.

What does a Findmypast membership cost?

You can build a family tree free on Findmypast. Findmypast do also do a Family Tree membership, priced £9.99 per month. In addition to the online tree builder, the Family Tree level of membership does allow you to access records that have been provided via Findmypast hints. To access records of your choice you will need to upgrade to an Everything membership.

Monthly, three-monthly, six-monthly and annual memberships are available for Findmypast.co.uk. If you wish to access the records, as well as build your tree, there is just one level of membership to Findmypast.co.uk - the Everything subscription.

• Everything membership £24.49 monthly
• Everything membership £59.99 three-monthly
• Everything membership £169.99 annual
• Everything membership £16.99 billed monthly as part of a 12 month agreement.

Find a full listing of Findmypast membership subscription levels and costs here.

What does a MyHeritage membership cost?

You can build a family tree of up to 250 people for free on the MyHeritage website. MyHeritage provides a records-only membership (ie with a limited tree option) - the Data membership - which may be useful if you are building your tree elsewhere and just wish to use the records that MyHeritage provides.

• Premium membership costs £89 per year (£59 for your first year), and allows you a tree of up to 2,500 people (plus other features)
• PremiumPlus costs (£169 per year (£109 for your first year) and allows an unlimited size of family tree (plus other features such as Advanced DNA features)
• Data costs £129 per year (£79 for your first year) and allows access to 'all historical records' - 36.6 billion (as of October 2025), and a tree of up to 250 people.
• Complete costs £229 per year (£139 for your first year) allows access to 'all historical records' - 36.6 billion (as of October 2025), and an unlimited tree, and photo enhancement features.
• Omni costs £309 per year (£169 for your first year) is the ultimate package, providing access to everything that Complete provides, and in addition access to OldNews.com, Geni.com Pro and more than 2,000 webinars, and unlimited photo scanning.

Find a full listing of MyHeritage membership levels and costs here.

What does TheGenealogist membership cost?

You can build a tree, free on TreeView - the online tree builder of TheGenealogist. To access records, you will need to subscribe.

• Starter £59.95 per year - includes birth, marriage and death records, census records, online tree builder.
• Standard £129.95 per year - includes birth, marriage and death records, census records, online tree builder, 1939 Register, Non-Conformist records, wills, probates, testaments, education registers, trade and phone directories.
• Diamond £139.95 per year -  includes birth, marriage and death records, census records, online tree builder, 1939 Register, Non-Conformist records, wills, probates, testaments, education registers, trade and phone directories. Lloyd George Survey, Air Force Records, National Tithe Collection, parish records, military records and international records.

Find a full listing of TheGenealogist membership levels and costs here.

What alternatives do I have to taking out a family history subscription?

Some of the main family history subscription websites also provide pay-as-you-go options, allowing you to view a limited number of records. You may also like to think about accessing the records on family history websites via your local library, and you may like to consider using a family tree program - to build your tree on your own laptop/desktop.

Image by Greg Reese, Pixabay

Access subscription sites at your local library

Ancestry and Findmypast are very often available to library members whilst at the library premises.  While this option does not provide the convenience of your own personal subscription, you may find it a useful way to save money, for instance, enabling you to subscribe to one website, and then view another at the library. If this sounds as though it will suit you, check what your local library provides before subscribing.

Use a family history program

As explained above, some of the subscriptions include online tree builders. If it is not essential for you to have an online tree you may decide that a desktop/laptop based tree, created using a family history program (such as Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Family Historian, etc) is more suitable for you.

Some of the family tree builder software options - such as Legacy family tree - are completely free to use one an on-going basis. Others provide a cutdown version you may use free. Other such programs do involve an initial outlay, but the cost is a standalone payment not requiring any additional on-going payments.

Building your family tree on your own computer can enable you to be adaptable, choosing which family history subscription website(s) is/are most suitable for you at any one time. For instance, you may choose to subscribe to a family history website for just 6 months, then change to another - but by virtue of having your tree on your own computer you will be able to change subscriptions without impacting your family tree research.

• Read our guide to choosing a family history program here. 

Family history website pay-as-you-go options

Ancestry pay-as-you-go allows you to access 12 records over 14 days and costs £9.99. Pay-as-you-go will allow you to access the record collections. 'Pay-as-you-go will not give you access to content contributed by other users (including trees, photos and records) or enable you to contact other users through Member Connect.'

Findmypast micropayments: You can access any of the records on Findmypast using micropayments. The micropayment cost to view a record varies, depending on the type of record. For instance £2.50 for a 1921 Census transcription and £3.50 for a 1921 Census image.

MyHeritage pay-as-you go - MyHeritage doesn't appear to provide a pay-as-you-go payment option.

TheGenealogist pay-as -you-go: TheGenealogist operates pay-as-you-go for its tithe records only, via its Tithe Apportionment Subscription, which costs £20, includes 250 credits and is valid for 90 days. It costs 25 credits to view each of the tithe map image, the appointment image and the appointment transcript- ie a total of 75 credits in total. 

What are the unique/exclusive factors?

The exclusive records or tools, available just on one website, can be a deciding factor as to which website is best for you.

Remember too, that the records available need to suit your personal research interests. It can be hard to work out exactly what each website contains, but explore the website catalogues and listings of records, and experiment with filtering your searches by your counties/countries of interest to see what fits your requirements. Repeat this exercise filtering by datespan and topics of interest to you too. This will give you a good idea as to whether your places and time periods are covered by records in that website.

Remember too, to check precisely which record collections are included within a subject area, and check the coverage for that record collection. For instance, a collection may contain records spanning 1800-1900, but if 1850-1870 have been destroyed/lost/not yet digitised etc - you need to be aware.

Below we have listed a few of the record collections or factors that are exclusive to these family history websites.

Search the Ancestry Card Catalogue at www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/catalog  to find out which record collections cover your places and time periods of interest.

Ancestry exclusives: Currently the first tranche of Ministry of Defence collections being digitised in partnership with Ancestry provide, perhaps, the headline act for this website. It is well worth exploring the Ancestry Card Catalogue (filtering by place and date, as mentioned above) to see what the website holds that is of particular interest to you. Note too that if DNA is important to your family history research, then having access to records on the same site as your DNA matches will be very valuable indeed; you may in addition decide, in addition to your regular Ancestry subscription, to take out an Ancestry Pro Tools subscription (at least intermittently - as Pro Tools can be subscribed to simply month by month) to obtain access to the full range of Ancestry DNA tools.

Explore the Findmypast All Records Sets listings at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/historical-records?region to see what's available for your places and time periods of interest

Findmypast exclusives: Findmypast very usefully provides a summary of the records that are exclusively available on their website. In addition to the vast collection of newspapers (97 million as of October 2025, with more added every week), the website also provides access to the world's largest collection of British parish registers online. Note too the School Log Books and Admission Registers 1870-1914, the century of Electoral Registers 1832-1932, and the British In India Collection.

Study the MyHeritage online catalogue at https://www.myheritage.com/research/catalog to find record collections of interest from all over the globe

MyHeritage exclusives: The strength of MyHeritage is the access it provides to records for many countries, across Europe and the wider world, not restricted to the English-speaking world. In addition if you have DNA tested with MyHeritage it would be very useful have a MyHeritage membership. As of January 2026 Whole Genome Sequencing will be being provided to those who take a new test with MyHeritage.

Study TheGenealogist subscription coverage listing at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/ and dive into each subject area to easily see precisely which records are included

TheGenealogist exclusives: The National Tithe Map collection (1837-1850s) providing digitised tithe apportionments and maps is valuable for both family and local history research; similarly too are the Lloyd George Domesday Survey records (Valuation Office Records 1910-1915). 

How to keep up with what's new on family history subscription websites

New material and developments are made to the family history subscription websites all the time. Use the links below to keep an eye out for what's new at each of the websites.

• Ancestry's Card Catalogue
• Findmypast's What’s New? blog posts
• MyHeritage's Collection Catalog
• TheGenealogist's News blog

What specialist family history website subscriptions are there?

Above we have covered the main family history record and tree-building websites. You may also wish to consider subscriptions to the websites below, depending on your areas of family history specialism or research interest.

British Newspaper Archive: The British Newspaper Archive (BNA) is available in partnership with Findmypast (ie with a Findmypast subscription). However you may wish to solely subscribe to the newspaper collections. As mentioned above, these include 97 million (and counting) newspaper pages, spanning back to the 1700s. 

• BNA monthly: £14.99 a month billed monthly
• BNA 3 months: £11.17 billed every 3 months 
• BNA 12 months: £8.34 billed annually
• BNA pay-as-you-go £21.99 (a one-off payment) for 40 pages

DNA Painter: Find summaries of the full range of DNA family history research tools available with a DNA Painter subscription here.

• DNA Painter US$55 for 12 months

Goldie May: Tools to help you organise and analyse your family history research, aiming to help you achieve more, more efficiently. In addition to the free membership there are subscriptions.

• Goldie May Plus: £9.90 per month
• Goldie May Pro: £19.90 per month - for genealogy professionals

WeAre.xyz: Create a shareable online archive of your family history and your family memories. The pricing structure allows for greater collaboration with family members and a larger number of archives per member. Upgrade as your home archive research project expands.

• Archiver: £4.99 per month/ £49 per year
• Archiver Plus: £11.99 per month/ £119 per year
• Archiver Unlimited: £19.99 per month/ £199 per year

RootsIreland.ie: Access more than 23 million Irish records.

• 24 hour access: £13
• 1 month subscription: £26
• 6 month subscription: £110
• 12 month subscription: £198

ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk is mentioned here - as it is the go-to place for online access to family history records for Scottish ancestors, but it does not provide subscription access. Access is via credits, purchased in bundles from £7.50 for 30 credits. 

Family history societies - family history societies can provide invaluable research assistance, so are well worth becoming members of. Many have digitised records, transcriptions or indexes that are available to members-only. Membership fees tend to be billed annually and are extremely reasonable. Search the Family History Federation's directory of member societies to find one covering your areas of interest here. Note that while most societies are geographically-orientated, for instance covering a county, some specialise in a topic - such as a religious denomination, a particular country, or cultural group. For societies particularly relevant to Scotland see here and for Ireland see FamilySearch's listing here. It can be enjoyable and useful to join societies that are both close to you - so that you can attend meetings - and close the the locations your ancestors once lived.

Family Tree - Family Tree magazine has been published since 1984 and is the UK's longest-running newstrade family history magazine. Each monthly issue brings you expert advice, practical research guidance, and genealogy news and inspiration. Subscriptions from £19.99 a quarter (ie every three months). Find out more here.

Family Tree Plus - Family Tree Plus is the online membership from Family Tree. It includes online monthly meetings and webinars, a digital copy of the latest issue of Family Tree magazine, and an online searchable archive of video tutorials and magazine back issues. The aim of Family Tree Plus is to provide expert family history advice in a structured but friendly format to help you learn more about the hobby you love - improving your genealogy research skills and knowledge month by month. Family Tree Plus member costs £9.99 per month. Family Tree Plus Premium (in addition to all that Family Tree Plus offers) also includes a printed edition of the magazine every month and costs £11.99 per month. Find out more here.

Blog by Helen Tovey. Last updated 28 October 2025.