Ancestry.com Logo

Ancestry.com

Is This Your Business?
star star star star star_border
574 User Reviews

Author: Kalicia Bateman

LAST UPDATED: February 10th, 2022

Top Ranked Companies

FamilySearch.org Logo
FamilySearch.org chevron_right
4.8
star star star star star
(815)
View Profile
Find a Grave Logo
Find a Grave chevron_right
4.6
star star star star star_half
(103)
View Profile
BillionGraves Logo
BillionGraves chevron_right
4.3
star star star star star_half
(39)
View Profile
thumb_up

The Good

  • Records
  • Mobile app
  • Publishing options
Ancestry.com is perhaps the biggest name in genealogy work and for good reason. Some highlights include:
    • Billions of records available to search from
    • Ability to upload images, documents and attach them to family trees
    • Mobile app works on all platforms
    • Relevant blog articles giving up-to-date information
    • Social Media presence with helpful tips and useful research information: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr
    • Instructional YouTube videos for beginners as well as more advanced research tips to more seasoned genealogists
    • Community message boards and opportunities to collaborate with others sharing common ancestors
    • Comprehensive learning center
    • Differing levels of membership based upon your individual needs
    • Customer service representatives available 7 days per week from 9AM-11PM Eastern Time
    • Publishing options for your findings
    • Software and books available
    • Industry-leading software which is easy to use
    • Ancestry.com DNA tests are cutting edge and link members to their ethnic backgrounds, but to relatives also taking the tests. Adopted individuals have flocked to take these tests and many have found their birth families through Ancestry.com DNA matching.
thumb_down

The Bad

  • Pricing
  • Load time
Ancestry.com is expensive and their pricing may be out of reach for some. The most comprehensive membership option has a hefty price tag of $199/annually. Pages can be slow to load, depending on the traffic on the site. Additionally, there are regular late-night upgrades to the service which make the site inaccessible at those times. (The times and dates for updates are published on the site as a bar across the top of pages.)
gavel

The Bottom Line

For those able to afford an Ancestry.com membership, the quantity and quality of what is available surpasses the records by the for-profit competition in the field. Ancestry.com is a solid company with the resources to back up their claims and is constantly looking for new ways to innovate and stay on top of the competition. We recommend Ancestry.com and are confident they will help with your genealogy needs. When purchasing a membership and setting up an account, setting privacy options can be tricky. One should explore the privacy policies very carefully and determine which settings are appropriate for their needs. Maintaining more private settings make collaboration more challenging (even impossible in some cases), so this information should be carefully considered.
Was this content helpful?
thumb_up Yes thumb_down No
border_color Write a Review

User Reviews

Star Rating

info

4.2

star star star star star_border

574 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

55%

4 grade

25%

3 grade

6%

2 grade

5%

1 grade

9%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

star star star star star_border

Quality

star star star star star_half

Service

star star star star star_half

Trustworthiness

star star star star star_half
cancel
info
star star star star_border star_border

Connie Barnwell Williamston, SC

I have been a member off and on for about 10 years. It is very expensive. I think they are making a big amt of $ from the info members put in there tree. If it were not for members information I am not sure they would so great. One has to really watch the hints with the little green leaf. The hints are what others have posted and not always correct. Old documents , such as deeds, marriage licenses etc, have names miss spelled. The person filling out the document in early periods spelled by sound. They are so popular now I think they could lower the price considerably. It would draw more customers to provide more information. I have found people using my pictures and getting credit for sharing. Some have been cropped but still the original poster should get credit .

8 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

CHRIS BUSCH Saint George, UT

I have used my" free two weeks" several times over the years, and just never could afford to subscribe until this year. I had to be ready to clear my calendar when i got it, because i knew i would binge, and lordy i do!! It is very expensive, and i am really curious about the price that some people here are mentioning. they must have bought in when it was much cheaper. I am hesitant to put my family tree here, because I don't know how long I can afford it, and i don't want to do all that work for nothing. I have found unknown relatives, and am in contact with three "cousins" on my dads side that were a total surprise. So it has been a fantastic resource, and it is better than anything else I have found out there. I have just about finished with my family here in the states, and then I need to save up to start working on Canadian, Irish and Scottish relatives!! One other issue, I tried the new format, and really disliked it. Thanks for giving me the option to switch back to the first one I was using. Far too much fluff on the new one.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Brittney Mac Gregor Louisville, KY

I have a neutral opinion of Ancestry. Though no fault of their own, the service was just not that useful for me. As an adopted woman, I wanted to learn more about my heritage and my history. What I learned was that there were not many documents related to me or my heritage. I was unable to find any information about my family through ancestry, however I do plan on giving it another shot now that it has been around for several years since I first tried.

5 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Nanci Hoover Edwardsville, IL

Great if you can afford it. But they are gobbling up other sites that used to be free and have reformatted rootsweb.com to the 'diggers' detriment. Cut the price drastically and i will renew. I had to go to a new operating system to continue to use it when i had a membership.I bought a DNA kit but now that i don't have a membership i can't follow up on that aspect of my search for kin.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

gracie s. hernandez apodaca Rio Rancho, NM

I found a lot of things about my family however, I need to find out more. My Mexican family immigration papers photo were very hard to see. I have some missing pieces that were from Mexico. I would love to view them. I only hope that Ancestry (since it is the only website of honorable ancestry findings) will include Mexico birth & baptisms perhaps. Plus my ancestry DNA of what specific Native tribes in my family. The price is high for someone like me. I hope they will someday give a lower price range.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Ann Dines Phoenix, AZ

Ancestry.com has been good for my family. We found and connected with lost family members, found ancestry members that we are related to, and love sharing and finding new records. As retirement approaches just not sure we can keep our membership at the hefty price Ancestry.com charges. Maybe they will think about a senior discount in a few years or a discount for longevity members.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Sav Flo

Ancestry is a great resource to do my family history, but I find myself having a difficult time moving around the website. I think there just might be too many options and it is a little overwhelming. I am so happy there is a website so that I can connect to my ancestors.

9 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

betty amirault Melrose, MA

I loved Ancestry when I had it for years. But it is getting too expensive & I can't subscribe because of financial issues. I really miss using it especially when I want to look something up. So I have stopped genealogy for now & doing photography instead.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Ana Robledo Tarpon Springs, FL

I loved Ancestry. I have discovered amazing things through their website. However, they changed the format of the trees to " improve" them and mine is now a mess. My husband appears as married to his brother and I have disappeared. I hope they can fix the mess, otherwise it is now useless to me.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

David MacRae Essex, MD

Ancestry is Ok but a customer like me can never get any real help from you unless he pays for it you never get an answer to any question that you have.and the price for most folks is 386.00 unless you have been there for 10 yrs like me I have never gotten an ANSWER to any question I have asked. Google has more ans to problems than you.

11 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Dot

The information is ok, but it is a scam. They draw you in with family information and a discounted rate. Once they get your credit card they start adding extra inflated charges.

7 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Mona-Lissa Tallahassee, FL

Ancestry has great intentions and has helped a lot of people who I know to connect with old families they never knew. As someone who is Haitian however, I struggled immensely trying to find family on the website and feel as though they should look to broadening their platform to people from other countries as well, not just Americans.

5 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Mark Troxel Provo, UT

I have used a subscription service for Ancestry, much information was available but I have found that there is some information that requires additional subscriptions fees. I like the hints and the ability to see document and links. I don't like the cost for additional services.

5 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Cindy H Gilbert, AZ

I have limited member access to this site and i have used it to search many times but i rarely find additional information that doesn't require more fees (upgraded membership) before i can see it. It is very frustrating and i prefer to use familysearch instead.

5 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Christy Suguturaga Orem, UT

I have not used this product but I plan too. I am hoping to wait until they get a larger Polynesian database. I think it’s a little pricey for enough Polynesians to do it. I don’t like that when I look at the results and it just shows a general region. So some day when those regions can be more specific we will give it a try.

7 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Hunter Kasprzyk Gilbert, AZ

It was pretty cool what it said about my family tree but there was a couple sections that didn't make any sense. My family is supposed to be sole from Ireland and Poland but there were outliers. This could be possible because I don't know for sure that it didn't happen but it really isn't adding up.

8 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

courtney tennant Salem, VA

Ancestry.com is a cool and easy way to learn your own backgrounds and ethnicities. One thing that I did not like about it was how long it took to get my results back.

5 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Angelina Hamilton Gulfport, MS

I really like everything this site has to offer. I was able to trace my family tree pretty far. I even paid the extra to trace it over in other countries.

6 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Judy Anstess

They are pretty good, but through no fault of their own, so many people tent to just copy what they think to be true, into their trees, without really check for accuracy..

7 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Anonymous

I am yet to find a program that can piece my extensive family together. We have tried to go back in our history and it seems to me unless your part of the mayflower family you will be limited on what you can get.

7 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Tracy Womack Cedar City, UT

I had to call and talk to them on behalf of my grandma and it was very good, but the person I spoke with wasn't very polite. She made the experience hard and more frustrating than it needed to be.

7 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Debby Willis

I did not have a good experience with this site. The price is too high for the average senior citizen to be able to afford.

7 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Gabe Burton Riverton, UT

The interface is kind of outdated, but the concept is good. I like the map feature where you can see how you're related to everyone, just wish it was easier to FIND everyone.

5 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Kurt Lucas Olney, MD

I wanted to explore deeper into my genealogy. I found Ancestry the easiest way to look at my family history. I was pleased the results came back quickly.

5 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Brent Crosbie Smithfield, UT

Ancestry.com provides an important and amazing service. It is fun to find others who share the same DNA as well as be able to understand the origins of my own.

5 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

DeeDee G. Norcross, GA

It's a little bit of a sketchy website and can be hard to use at first. Plus it is pretty darn expensive. Might want to do extra research before you try it out.

6 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Autumn Kallunki Provo, UT

I have been able to find out a lot about my genealogy through them. I typically recommenced them to friends for genealogy and I've had a good experience.

7 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Ava Camejo Douglas

There is very little information about families in the Caribbean & South America so my contacts are extremely limited.

7 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Margie Hamilton

Hard to use , unclear how to get things you want to do, and they want to charge you more for some things.

7 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Chester Hayes

very limited international data. I tried to access data from the Jamaica files and it was very limited.

7 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Earl Noland Bullhead City, AZ

Ancestry has a lot of good information but they have a lot of mistakes and they do not like to be told they are wrong.

10 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Matt Clark Provo, UT

I’m not sure what it was, but it was really hard for me to make my account. Once I got past that hurdle it was great though.

4 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

kaylee Salt Lake City, UT

They are difficult to use. It was hard to find my family tree, and it seemed like everything I wanted to do required me to pay. Not worth it.

6 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Linda Hays Pocatello, ID

I really like Ancestry but they are very expensive. But the hints you get are fun and helpful

6 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star star star_border star_border

Claudina Moreau Fort Lauderdale, FL

Hard to find your ancestors when you are black or Caribbean but others than can be a useful tool.

6 years ago

star star star star_border star_border

Marie Ries

Site is difficult to maneuver in. Quit after 6 months.

7 years ago

We're on a mission to empower consumers to make the best decisions and connect confidently with companies that deserve their business.

facebook Facebook twitter Twitter youtube YouTube instagram Instagram LinkedIn TikTok
Logo

© 2026 BestCompany.com LLC - All rights reserved Privacy Policy | Terms | Do Not Sell My Personal Information