Comparison

FamilySearch Tree vs PhosphorSWL

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

Head to head
About

FamilySearch Tree

Explore your family history by building and documenting your family tree. Discover ancestors through historical records, preserve memories like photos and stories, and collaborate with others to enrich your heritage.

Highlights
  • Build and document family trees
  • Discover ancestors in historical records
  • Preserve photos, stories, and audio
  • Collaborate with other users
  • Explore ancestral heritage on maps
  • Add sources to confirm information
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Curious about your family history? Add branches to your family tree with FamilySearch Tree, the world’s largest online family tree. FamilySearch Tree makes it easy and convenient to discover and document your own branches of the world’s family tree while preserving family memories, such as photos, written stories, and audio recordings. Harness the power of a worldwide, crowd-sourced pedigree to discover your family story. As you add information, FamilySearch will start searching for your family members while looking at historical records like birth and death certificates. Share information that others might not know, and add sources to confirm correct information. Update information and records easily so that everyone has accurate information. Browse your family tree branches, and see portraits of relatives you’ve never seen before. Discover facts, documents, stories, photos, and recordings about your ancestors. Easily add new life details, photos, stories, and audio recordings for your relatives. Find and share meaningful, heart-turning family stories that will make an impact on your life and the lives of your loved ones. Genealogy at Your Fingertips Family history has never been easier to track and build. Build your family tree by finding or adding family members directly through the app. Once you add a deceased relative to the family tree, FamilySearch will try to connect you to any information it has about that person in its database. Discover new family members and descendants in the community tree. Explore your heritage in maps that show where the key events of your ancestors’ lives took place. Ancestors, Relatives, and Family Find your ancestors in the billions of records on FamilySearch.org to learn more details of your family story. Discover facts, documents, stories, photos, and recordings about your ancestors. Easily add new life details, photos, stories, and audio recordings for your relatives. See which ancestors FamilySearch has already found in historical records, and get ideas for what to do next. Discovering your own family history potentially helps others in their search. Explore your heritage in maps that show where the key events of your ancestors’ lives took place. Collaborate with Others Connect with other family members, and share information that others might not know. View, add, and edit information about your ancestors. Enhance your tree by adding photos, stories, and documents. Add sources to confirm correct information. Communicate and collaborate with other FamilySearch users from within the app with in-app messaging. Connect with family near and far. You may find a relative who has visited the same graves, asked the same questions about—and even learned to love or admire—the same ancestors. Watch your family tree grow. Discover family, learn your family history, and help map the family tree for mankind with FamilySearch Tree. NOTE: Content you provide for deceased individuals will be publicly available. See our privacy policy for more details.

About

PhosphorSWL

Features
Read full description

PhosphorSWL is a shortwave broadcast schedule browser and numbers station reference, rendered through the green phosphor glow of a Cold War signals intelligence console. Your phone becomes a monitoring station — a frequency dial, a schedule grid, a station database, and a curated dossier of every numbers station still whispering into the void. BROADCAST SCHEDULES Browse over 10,000 shortwave broadcast entries from the EiBi database — the most comprehensive freely-licensed shortwave schedule resource in existence. Filter by frequency band, time, language, and target area. See what's on air right now. Search for stations by name, country, or frequency. Every broadcast entry includes transmission times, languages, target areas, transmitter sites, and signal path maps showing the great circle route from transmitter to target. Schedule data refreshes automatically from EiBi, keeping your listings current through seasonal schedule changes. NUMBERS STATIONS The centrepiece. A personally curated database of known numbers stations — active, historic, and legendary. ENIGMA designators, frequencies, schedules, operators, signal characteristics, and full station profiles assembled from publicly observable facts. From E06 "Russian Man" still counting for the GRU, to the ghost of E03 "The Lincolnshire Poacher" — the most iconic numbers station ever recorded, silenced in 2008 after decades broadcasting from RAF Akrotiri. The Buzzer on 4625 kHz. The Pip. The Squeaky Wheel. Cuban DGI digital modes. Chinese military networks. Polish intelligence. Every station for which sufficient factual data exists. This is not a decoder. It is a field manual for the darkest inhabitants of the radio spectrum. SCANNER Scroll the entire shortwave spectrum from VLF submarine communications through every broadcasting band. Band headers mark the boundaries. Tap any entry for full details and signal path mapping. HF PROPAGATION Live HF propagation conditions from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, derived from the planetary K-index. Band-aware — lower frequencies are more resilient to geomagnetic disturbance than upper HF. The status bar tells you whether the ionosphere is cooperating before you tune in. THE INTERFACE Three phosphor colour modes: green (default), amber, and red. Red mode preserves scotopic dark adaptation for night-time listening — the same principle used in military operations rooms, submarine control rooms, and observatory domes. CRT scanlines. Phosphor glow. A frequency readout rendered in segmented digits. Function key tabs. A UTC clock. No bright colours, no rounded corners, no friendly illustrations. This is a monitoring console, not a lifestyle app. FAVOURITES Bookmark any broadcast or numbers station for quick access. Your listening post, organised. DATA SOURCES Broadcast schedules: EiBi Shortwave Schedule Database (eibispace.de), freely licensed for third-party use. Numbers station data: curated from Priyom.org, ENIGMA 2000, Numbers & Oddities, and the Signal Identification Wiki. Propagation data: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (public domain). All station observations are factual records of publicly receivable radio transmissions. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. No ads. No tracking. One price. The ether is full of ghosts. This is a ghost detector.

Screenshots

FamilySearch Tree4 screens
PhosphorSWL4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: FamilySearch Tree at Free against PhosphorSWL's $0.99. FamilySearch Tree also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and chart position (#46 vs unranked). On 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

FamilySearch Tree is free to download; PhosphorSWL costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FamilySearch Tree ships an update weekly, PhosphorSWL every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
FamilySearch Tree versus PhosphorSWL: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFamilySearch TreePhosphorSWL
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.8 (506K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews75.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings506K — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#46 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.6 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size197 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFamilySearch InternationalStuart Woolley

Bugs and requests

FamilySearch Tree

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Duplicates and incorrect connections in family tree
  • Issues with merging profiles and maintaining accurate lineage
  • Compatibility problems on older devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Option to lock down personal family tree
  • Improved search and filtering capabilities
  • Better integration with external genealogy sources
  • More detailed instructions and tutorials
  • Ability to request changes to incorrect information

PhosphorSWL

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

FamilySearch Tree

No in-app purchases

None

PhosphorSWL

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is FamilySearch Tree free?
FamilySearch Tree is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PhosphorSWL free?
PhosphorSWL costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do FamilySearch Tree or PhosphorSWL have ads?
Neither FamilySearch Tree nor PhosphorSWL shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FamilySearch Tree or PhosphorSWL?
FamilySearch Tree ships an update weekly, and PhosphorSWL every 3 months. Most recently, FamilySearch Tree was updated on November 1, 2026 and PhosphorSWL on October 31, 2026.

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