GRAMPS Genealogy Software Reviews

GRAMPS stands for “Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System”. That is to say, a family tree building programme (our guess is that the acronym preceded the name!). Those who have already done a little research into genealogy software will notice that what makes GRAMPS stand out is the fact that it’s completely free!

While other products in this category offer free versions of their software with the goal of then later selling you additional add-ons, users can be assured that GRAMPS is free of charge and will remain that way.

To good to be true? Well yes and no. For starters, GRAMPS is a community run project which means that all development is undertaken by volunteers dedicated to the GRAMPS project. This has an upside and a downside.

Whilst this does mean that the software is constantly evolving (Gramps 4.1.2 released March 2015), it also results in some aspects of the software appearing quite amateurish and unpolished. This isn’t to say the features aren’t there. GRAMPS allows you to input data, attach media, add filters and lenses to analyse your data, and produce reports.

All of this works perfectly well. It’s in the presentation, however, that users will notice the real difference between GRAMPS and one of our top rated products in this category. If this is not a big deal for you and you’re getting into genealogy just out of personal interest, then GRAMPS could well be the software for you. However, if you’re looking to create high quality glossy reports then you may want to look elsewhere. 

Our favourite aspect of the GRAMPS “community” approach was the help and support available. Those using GRAMPS are encouraged to give back to the community by supporting new users and this means that the wiki is regularly updated, users often post interesting blogs, and there is generally someone on-hand at the forums to answer any questions.

We were also really impressed with the free web hosting on offer with GRAMPS. This means that they will host your website on their system. This is especially impressive seeing as other paid products in this category don’t offer this service which can cost you at least $4.99 per month. 

Overall, we would recommend GRAMPS to those on a low budget with little demands regarding presentation. GRAMPS offer a fully functioning software package with all the essential features for free. 

Check out our #1 rated site instead! Why not check out Family Tree Builder (by My Heritage), our top rated Genealogy Software and winner of our prestigious Gold Award! You can also check out our Top 10 Genealogy Software here!

Click on the button below to check out Gramps-Project.org for yourself...