Comparison

Era Workshop vs Heirloom Tree

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Era Workshop

Features
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Era Workshop is a groundbreaking creative application that challenges traditional perceptions of time. Users can customize era names (e.g., "Year 7 of Tianlin") and day names (e.g., "Day 92 of Immediacy"), creating an immersive timeline experience. Designed for history enthusiasts, creative professionals, and enterprise teams, Era Workshop transforms abstract time into editable cultural symbols through its innovative "Time Layers" concept. From personal life documentation to fictional world-building and team milestone management, it redefines value expression through temporal dimensions. Core Features: - Custom Era System: Create personalized era names like "Celestial Era", "Cultural Renaissance" to mark significant life phases - Cultural Day Naming: Add meaningful day names to record special moments and personal stories - Time Layers Management: Independently manage personal, work, and creative life dimensions - Immersive Timeline: Visualize eras and day names as a personal historical scroll

About

Heirloom Tree

Features
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Dedicated to the Lin family, and to every family — with wishes of health and peace. Heirloom Tree is a completely free family record app. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. No ads. No accounts. Your family's story, written down well enough to pass on. Every family has a root system. This app is for the families who want to keep theirs. ■Why we built this The oldest storytellers in every family don't live forever. The names, the villages, the photos, the small details — if no one writes them down, they're gone. We made Heirloom Tree so every child can carry their family tree in their pocket: ancestors, origins, the generation poem, the faces of grandparents, where the family came from. This is our gift to the Lin family, and to every family. ■What it does ◆ Print your family tree as a PDF (lead feature) • One tap turns your whole tree into a print-ready PDF: genogram + generational register. • A4, A3, portrait or landscape. Pages split automatically — no one gets sliced in half. • Print it for Lunar New Year, bind it for the family altar, mail it to relatives overseas. A real family book, starting from you. ◆ Family tree (genogram) • Standard notation: square □ for male, circle ○ for female. Generations stack clearly, birth order left to right. • Parents, spouses, children — every relationship visible. The deceased belong on the tree too. • A double frame marks "me." From your own perspective, a concentric view shows how everyone relates to you. • Children who died young, pregnancies that didn't carry, relatives lost to time — they all keep a small place on the tree. Every life belongs to the family. ◆ Kinship calculator (Chinese-style cousin terms, plus English) • Type a path — "my dad's cousin's daughter" — and get the answer: second cousin. (The English cousin system is included; the full Chinese 親屬稱謂 grid is a Chinese heritage feature.) • Useful for figuring out what to call relatives at weddings, funerals, and family gatherings. ◆ Generation Poem (昭穆, Chinese heritage feature) • Enter your family's generational poem. The app tags each member with their generation and their generational character. • See a cousin's name and immediately know which generation they're from. • Overseas Chinese families who use the English interface still need this — it stays front and centre. ◆ Surname origins (first release: Lin 林) • Built-in reading content: the origin of 林 as a surname, the Xi He 西河 hall, Lin families in Fujian, Mazu (Lin Mo-niang) 媽祖, and migration from China to Taiwan. • More surnames (Chen, Huang, Zhang, Wang…) will be added in a future version. • For other locales, a short "What is a surname origin?" explainer is included alongside the Lin content. ◆ Remembrance dates (anniversaries of passing) • Local notifications for anniversaries of passing, Memorial Day-style commemorations. • Lunar calendar support for Chinese-heritage families — grandparents' dates will not be missed. ◆ Your data, fully yours • JSON backup and GEDCOM export — standard formats that work with other genealogy software. • No cloud lock-in. No account. No phone tether. ■Where it's going The current version is a quiet, complete, single-device family tree tool. A future version will add cloud sync and shared family editing. After that, relative matching to help you find long-lost branches of your family. But no matter which version ships next, free, no ads, your data is yours — these three things will never change. Dedicated to the Lin family, and to every family — with wishes of health and peace. Write down your roots. Pass the story on.

Screenshots

Era Workshop4 screens
Heirloom Tree4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Heirloom Tree at every 3 days against Era Workshop's every 4 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Era Workshop ships an update every 4 months, Heirloom Tree every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 5 level
Era Workshop versus Heirloom Tree: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEra WorkshopHeirloom Tree
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShanghai Sunrise Chime Technology Co., Ltd.PEICHEN LIN

In-app purchases

None

Era Workshop

No in-app purchases

None

Heirloom Tree

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Era Workshop free?
Era Workshop is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Heirloom Tree free?
Heirloom Tree is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Era Workshop or Heirloom Tree have ads?
Neither Era Workshop nor Heirloom Tree shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Era Workshop or Heirloom Tree?
Era Workshop ships an update every 4 months, and Heirloom Tree every 3 days. Most recently, Era Workshop was updated on November 8, 2026 and Heirloom Tree on October 31, 2026.

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