Free, self-hosted family tree software

The stories told at the kitchen table, kept for good.

One place for your family tree, the old photos and the voices of the people you love. Everyone adds what they remember. It lives on your own computer or server, so it belongs to your family, not to a company.

Install with your AI See what it does

Free and open sourceOn your computer or serverRelatives just open a link

The Folkbranch family tree. Under every name: how that person is related to you. An invented demo family.

A person’s page: biography, an old photograph and a remembered quote

“How did you meet Grandpa?”Grandma Olive · voice · 3:12

Assistant John worked at the shipyard. Add it to his facts?

Real screens. The family is invented.

Chapter one

Your family’s history is scattered across ten places. Bring it into one.

A four-minute voice note from Grandma, buried in the family chat from 2021

Old photos on an aunt’s phone and in a shoebox at Mum’s

A tree drawn in a notebook twenty years ago

Two birth dates for a great-grandfather, and nobody remembers which came from where

One archive the whole family keeps

Grandma’s story on her page
Photos from everyone, faces marked
Each person sees who is who to them
Both dates kept, each with its source

Chapter two

Ask them while you still can.

Grandparents will not be here forever, but their voice can stay. Send a question today: they answer from their phone, in their own words, and the story stays in the family.

To Grandma How did you meet Grandpa?

To Dad What was the house you grew up in like?

To an aunt Who is in this photo from 1978?

To Grandpa What did your father do for work?

You send a link
They tap and talk
You check it
It lands on their page

Chapter three

Your family is yours. Not even we can see it.

Family history outlives companies, prices and terms of service. Folkbranch keeps nothing anywhere but on a machine you choose: one database file and a folder of photos.

No subscription

The app is free. A rented server is the only bill, if you want one.

Nobody can close it

Open source. It keeps working even if we stop.

Take it all, any time

A full copy in one click. GEDCOM in and out.

You decide who sees what

Readers, editors, guest links. Living relatives stay private.

Mum’s phoneyour laptopGrandma’s tablet

Your machine

family.dbphotos/backups/

At home, on a rented server, or on Railway, Render or Fly.io. Moving house means copying one folder.

Chapter four

An assistant that knows your family, and asks before it writes anything down.

Ask in plain words. Paste a page of Grandpa’s notes and it turns them into people and dates. Or let Claude or Codex run the archive for you.

assistant · illustration

Who in the family was born in Portland?

Stephen Whitlock, in 1946. His biography says his father John worked at the shipyard there.

Then add the shipyard to John’s facts.

Waiting for your OK John Whitlock · Work: shipyard, Portland Add itNot now

Your own AI can run it

Claude, Codex and other AI tools connect with a key you hand out. Their edits wait in a review queue.

Faces and voice, on your device

Faces on old photos are found in the browser; recordings become text.

The cloud assistant is off until you add a key. When it is on, what it reads goes to the provider you picked.

Chapter five

Everything a family archive needs, and a few things the big services leave out.

A family tree maker, a photo archive with face recognition and a voice recorder for stories. One app, on any phone or computer, and genealogy software at heart: GEDCOM in and out, so nothing is locked in.

A 1978 photo with three faces tagged by name

Faces found on old photos

The model runs in your browser and suggests people you tagged before. A name goes on only when you say yes.

What a relative sees on the phone: the questions and a Start recording button

Ask by link, answer by voice

No account, no app. One button, and the story waits for your review.

The family tree, each card labelled with its relation to the viewer

Every name says who they are to you

Open the tree as yourself and each card says it: niece’s husband, first cousin once removed.

A person’s details with a second birth date from a parish register

Two dates? Keep both

Each version with its source, so nothing is overwritten.

The list of recent changes, each with a Roll back button

Undo anything

Every change is in the history, with who made it.

Settings, Users and access: invite someone by link

Invite the family, no passwords

A link for each relative; readers suggest fixes, editors write.

And also

Relationship pathAncestor fanFilters and saved viewsPrint to PDFMerge duplicatesGEDCOM 5.5.1 and 7.0Excel, CSV, textBirthdays calendarGoogle, Telegram, VK, Yandex sign-inLiving relatives hiddenSpeech to textDaily backup

Ready? Set it up in one line

Chapter six

How it compares with other family tree software

Each has its strengths. Folkbranch is for a family keeping its own archive; the big services are where you search the world’s records.

Folkbranch, Gramps Web, webtrees, MyHeritage, Ancestry and FamilySearch, feature by feature
Feature	Folkbranch	Gramps Web	webtrees	MyHeritage	Ancestry	FamilySearch
Archive on your own server	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no
Free, no paid plan	yes	yes	yes	partly	partly	yes
Hosted for you, nothing to set up	no	no	no	yes	yes	yes
Relatives record stories in the browser	yes	no	no	yes	partly	yes
Relatives add without an account	yes	no	no	?not checked	partly	?not checked
AI suggests, you confirm	yes	partly	no	yes	yes	yes
Your own AI agent can connect	yes	partly	partly	?not checked	?not checked	?not checked
Faces matched on your device	yes	partly	partly	?not checked	?not checked	?not checked
Billions of records, DNA	no	partly	no	yes	yes	partly

yespartly, or with an add-on or a paid planno?not checked

Gramps Web 26.11.1 and webtrees 2.2.6 checked on 8 November 2026 against their code and documentation; the big services against their public help pages. Each one’s own documentation is the authority.

Chapter seven

You don’t have to type a thing. Your AI sets it up.

Copy one line, paste it into Claude Code, Codex or Cursor. It follows the open install guide in our repository: it asks whether to install on this computer or on a server, then installs, opens the archive and connects itself. It stops before anything that needs your password or money.

Your AI, in the terminal

you ›Install Folkbranch for me by following https://github.com/danarkhipov/folkbranch/blob/main/skills/folkbranch/SKILL.md
agent ›I read the install guide in the Folkbranch repository. Should it go on this computer, or on a server?
you ›This computer.
agent ›Installing… done. Folkbranch is open in your browser: name your family there, and I will connect myself.

Works with Claude CodeCodexCursor

1Open your AI
2Paste, press Enter
3Answer two questions
4Name your family

Prefer to do it yourself?

On a Mac or Linux, paste this into Terminal:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danarkhipov/folkbranch/main/install.sh | sh

Or, in Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add danarkhipov/folkbranch

Questions people ask

Is Folkbranch really free?

Yes. It is open-source family tree software under the AGPL-3.0 licence, with no paid plan. If you want relatives to reach it from anywhere, you pay only for the server you choose. The cloud assistant and speech services are optional and use your own key.

Where is my family’s data stored?

On your computer or your server, in one SQLite database and a folder of photos. Nothing is sent to us. The server makes a copy of the database every day, and you can download a full copy at any time.

Do my relatives need to install anything?

No. They open a link in the browser on a phone or a computer. To answer a question by voice they do not even need an account.

Can I bring my tree from Ancestry, MyHeritage or Gramps?

Yes. Export a GEDCOM file there and import it here; GEDCOM 5.5.1 and 7.0 are supported, as are Excel, CSV and plain text. Photos can come along with the file.

Does the AI see my family’s data?

Faces and speech are handled on your own device. The cloud assistant is off until you add a key; once on, what it reads goes to the provider you picked, or stays home with a local model. Its edits wait for your confirmation.

What happens if the project stops?

Your archive keeps working. The code is open, the data is a standard SQLite file, and GEDCOM exports open in any family tree program.

Do I need my own server or technical skills?

No. Your AI installs it on the computer you already have, and you open it in the browser. A server is only needed if relatives should reach it from anywhere; your AI can set that up too.

Does it run on Windows?

The one-line install is tested on Mac and Linux. On Windows or a server, it runs in Docker; your AI can set that up for you.

Install with your AI