Comparison

Zen Tree vs RootsLore

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

Head to head
About

Zen Tree

Features
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Zen Tree is a calm, beautiful way to build and explore your family history โ€” right on your iPhone. - VISUAL FAMILY TREE CANVAS Pinch to zoom and drag to explore your entire family tree on a smooth, interactive canvas. Each person is a node; relationships are connections. Your whole lineage, beautifully laid out at a glance. - RICH PERSON PROFILES Add names, birth and death dates, notes, and family relationships for every member. Pick a profile photo from your camera roll โ€” photos are cropped to a square and stored locally on your device. - EXPLORE BY GENERATION Browse your family across generations and see exactly how everyone fits together over time. Spot patterns, discover long-lost connections, and understand where you come from. - EVENTS & MILESTONES Never forget a birthday, anniversary, or family milestone. The Events screen keeps all important dates in one place. - SEARCH & FILTER Find any family member instantly with full-text search. Filter by relationship to trace connections across your entire tree. - DASHBOARD INSIGHTS See your tree at a glance โ€” total members, gender breakdown, generations count, and Zen-style insights like "longest lived" and "most children." - GEDCOM SUPPORT Import your existing family tree from any .ged file. Export and share your tree with other apps or relatives. Smart conflict detection handles merges gracefully. --- Zen Tree is free to download and use. Ads may appear during use. Privacy Policy: https://bingeme.in/apps/zen-tree/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://bingeme.in/apps/zen-tree/terms-of-use

About

RootsLore

Features
Read full description

RootsLore turns scattered family memory into a living, time-lapse map. Add the people you remember โ€” names, years, and the places that defined their lives. RootsLore plays it all back as an animated map, so your whole family can watch two centuries of shared history unfold across the world. โ€” RECORD WHAT MATTERS Add birthplaces, residences, marriages, and graves. Every field is optional โ€” start with just a name, fill in details as you go. City names look up coordinates automatically; pins are always hand-editable. โ€” TWO VIEWS, ONE STORY Switch between a time-lapse world map and a generational family tree. Select any person and both views sync. Watch migration arcs trace the paths your ancestors walked. โ€” BUILT FOR REAL FAMILIES A flexible relationship graph supports any family structure: unknown or non-binary parents, multiple marriages, remarriage, adoption, and unlinked branches. A person with no data shows as "Unknown" rather than blocking entry. โ€” SHARE WITH ONE LINK Drop a link in the family group chat. Anyone can open the map โ€” no account required. Invite specific family members to help build it together. โ€” A DIGITAL HEIRLOOM Manual input isn't a limitation โ€” it's the soul of RootsLore. The record you build here is one no database in the world holds. It's yours to preserve for the next generation. Where was your grandmother born? And her mother? And hers? Most of us only know two generations back. RootsLore is for the third. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://rootslore.com/en/privacy

Screenshots

Zen Tree4 screens
RootsLore4 screens

Verdict

The call

Zen Tree and RootsLore are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters โ€” price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Zen Tree ships an update daily, RootsLore every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Zen Tree versus RootsLore: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterZen TreeRootsLore
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily โ€” betterEvery 2 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 โ€” better16.6
Further details โ€” not scored
Size39 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDiptimaya PatraTaeeun Kim

In-app purchases

None

Zen Tree

No in-app purchases

None

RootsLore

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Zen Tree free?
Zen Tree is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is RootsLore free?
RootsLore is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Zen Tree or RootsLore have ads?
Neither Zen Tree nor RootsLore shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Zen Tree or RootsLore?
Zen Tree ships an update daily, and RootsLore every 2 days. Most recently, Zen Tree was updated on October 5, 2026 and RootsLore on October 1, 2026.

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