Rootkin vs FamilyTreeIQ
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rootkin
Build and share your family tree while capturing spoken memories from relatives. This private space allows you to record stories, organize photos, and create shareable keepsakes. It keeps your family connected with gentle reminders and ensures your data is always exportable.
- Build interactive family trees
- Record and attach voice memories
- Share trees with family members
- Organize photos by person
- Create shareable newsletters/cards
- Export tree data as GEDCOM
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Rootkin is where your family actually shows up. Build your family tree, share it with the people in it, and capture the stories — in their own voices — before they fade. Rootkin is a private space for your family, not another social network and not a public database. RECORD THE VOICES THAT TELL YOUR STORY This is the part most family trees miss. Pick a question — "Tell me about the first house you ever lived in" — hand the phone over, and press record. Two minutes is plenty, and no account is needed to answer. Every recording gets an automatic transcript and stays tied to the people in it, so you can find it again by person or topic. ASK, AND THE ANSWER COMES BACK Send a question to your mom, your uncle, your grandmother. They record their answer from a simple link — no app, no account — and the moment they finish, their voice lands in your tree. BUILD YOUR TREE TOGETHER Add parents, children, siblings, and partners, or just describe your family in your own words — Rootkin turns what you say into people and relationships. Invite family with a simple code, and everyone sees the same tree, kept in sync in real time. SEE THE WHOLE FAMILY An interactive tree shows how everyone connects — including step and adoptive relationships. Pinch to zoom, pan to explore, and tap anyone to jump to their page. PHOTOS THAT BELONG TO PEOPLE Attach photos to the people in them, so the family album organizes itself over time. KEEPSAKES WORTH SHARING Turn memories and photos into a PDF newsletter or greeting card for the whole family — complete with codes that play the voices out loud. GENTLE REMINDERS Birthdays, anniversaries, and a daily feed of what your family has added — without notifications that nag. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your tree is only visible to the family members you invite. Nothing is public, nothing is searchable on the open web, and nothing is sold. Photos and details about children get extra protection, managed by the people you trust. YOUR DATA, YOURS Export your full tree anytime as GEDCOM — the standard format every genealogy tool understands. No lock-in. WORKS EVERYWHERE YOUR FAMILY IS iPhone, iPad, and the web. Grandma on her tablet, your cousin at a laptop, you on your phone — same tree, in sync, at the same time. A family tree, full of spoken memories. SUBSCRIPTIONS Viewing and listening are always free. Rootkin Family is an optional auto-renewable subscription, offered monthly or yearly, that covers you plus a co-editor, unlimited viewers on your tree, and voice recording for your family. Pricing is shown in the app before you subscribe. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://rootkin.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://rootkin.app/privacy
FamilyTreeIQ
Build and share your family tree privately with relatives. Organize photos, track changes, and explore your ancestry through multiple visual layouts. Capture and preserve your family's story for generations.
- Collaborative family tree building
- Private sharing with relatives
- Photo upload and face tagging
- Six tree visualization layouts
- Detailed change history
- GEDCOM import/export
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Your family story, finally in one place. FamilyTreeIQ is the private, collaborative family tree builder. Start with what you know — you, your parents, your kids — then invite aunts, uncles, and cousins to fill in the rest. Every detail counts, and every change is tracked. BUILT FOR REAL FAMILIES Divorces, remarriages, step-children, adoptions, half-siblings, unmarried co-parents — every family is different, and the tree handles all of it without a fight. SIX WAYS TO SEE YOUR TREE • Canvas — pan and zoom across every generation • Pedigree — classic ancestor chart, four or five generations back • Descendants — top-down cascade from any great-grandparent • Fan chart — you at the center, ancestors in rings; beautiful to print and share • Timeline — every life as a bar across the years; see who lived through what • List — flat, sortable, filterable; perfect for spotting gaps One tree, six layouts. Add someone once, see them everywhere. FAMILY PHOTOS & FACE TAGS Upload that shoebox of old photos and tag the faces. Link each face to a person in your tree — their name and dates come along automatically. Captions, dates taken, and notes, just like the back of a printed photo. Open any relative to see every photo they appear in. BUILD IT TOGETHER • Invite relatives by link — they add what they know • Per-tree comment thread — settle "wait, who married who?" as a family • Full change history — see who added what, and when • Trace any lineage — tap a person to highlight every ancestor and descendant PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Only you and the people you explicitly invite can see your tree. No public listings, no search-engine indexing, no ads in your tree, and your data isn't trapped — GEDCOM import and export included. IN THE APP • Push notifications when family members add people, photos, or comments • Home-screen shortcuts straight to your trees and dashboard • Auto-saved, synced, and works with your account on any device Capture the stories before they're lost. Start your tree free.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FamilyTreeIQ at none against Rootkin's 2. FamilyTreeIQ also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). Rootkin's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Rootkin sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. FamilyTreeIQ asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Rootkin against 5.0 for FamilyTreeIQ. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Rootkin ships an update every 2 weeks, FamilyTreeIQ every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Rootkin | FamilyTreeIQ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 0 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lloyd Financial Consulting LLC | MKN Web Solutions, LLC |
Customer experience
Rootkin
FamilyTreeIQ
In-app purchases
Rootkin
- Rootkin Family$4.991 Month
- Rootkin Family$39.991 Year
FamilyTreeIQ
No in-app purchases









