Family Tree Maker apparently isn't the best-selling product in the genealogy software category anymore.
What's the most popular genealogy application? It isn't the most pertinent question. Generally, you don't want to know which application is most popular, but which application is best. Still, it is an interesting question. Not only does almost every vendor wants you to believe that their product is best, several vendors make claims about popularity as well. Frequent reviews and the annual GeneAwards already address the question which application is the best. This article considers the question which genealogy application is most popular.
| rank | Amazon.de: genealogie software |
|---|---|
| 1 | Family Tree Maker 2010 |
| 2 | Stammbaum 5.0 Premium |
| 3 | Stammbaum 5.0 |
| 4 | Family Tree Maker 2010 Premium Edition |
| 5 | Ages! Extra Edition |
| 6 | Family Tree Maker 2008 |
| 7 | Der Stammbaum Premium 4.0 |
| 8 | Family Tree Maker 2008 Special Edition |
| 9 | Stammbaum Deluxe |
| 10 | PerfectTools - Ahnenforschung |
| 11 | Ahnenforschung |
| 12 | Der Stammbaum 3.0 |
| 13 | Der Stammbaum 2.0 - Premium-Version |
| 14 | Family Tree Maker 2008 Premium Special Edition |
| 15 | Comprendre la généalogie - Parentèle Inititation 10 [Import] |
| 16 | Encyclopédie pratique de la généalogie [Import] |
| 17 | Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien, 1 CD-ROM Deutsches Geschlechterbuch. |
| 18 | Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien, 1 CD-ROM Deutsches Geschlechterbuch. |
| 19 | Familie 2.0 |
| 20 | Der Stammbaum |
| 21 | Familienstammbaum (Family Tree Maker) 2005 |
| 22 | Quellen für Familienforscher in Ländern, Land... |
| 23 | Der Ahnenforscher 4.0 |
| 24 | CompGen-CD |
| 25 | FOKO-CD 2003/2004 |
Ancestry.com regularly refers to Family Tree Maker as the world’s No.-1
selling family history software.
. They recently did so in their
announcements Family Tree Maker 2011 and Family Tree Maker (2010) for Mac.
There are several word choices and adjectives in that claim that merit attention.
Notice that Ancestry.com does not claim to have the world's No. 1-selling genealogy software, but the world's No. 1-selling family history software. Are they playing fast and loose with these terms or their definitions? Surely most users think of Family Tree Maker as genealogy application, and although it has some family history features, isn't classifying it as family history software a bit of stretch? Are they only claiming that Family Tree Maker is the No. 1-selling family history software, because another product is the No. 1 selling genealogy software?
Perhaps Ancestry.com marketing is like many family historians. Family
historians are a religiously illogical group of people, that on the one hand
believes that all genealogists should become family historians, but on the other
hand often refuse the acknowledge that family history is more than genealogy,
even try to claim that genealogy is just another word for family history.
I think that Ancestry.com is well aware that family history is more than
genealogy. I don't think they opted to use family history
instead of genealogy
to because that is the only way for them to be number 1, but simply because they
want us to think of Family Tree Maker as more than a genealogy application.
Whether classifying Family Tree Maker should be classified as a family history
application is another topic.
Notice that Ancestry.com does not claim that Family Tree Maker is the America's No. 1 selling family history, but that it is world's No. 1 selling family history. It could be No. 1 selling in the World without being No. 1 selling in the U.S.A., but that does not seem likely. Family Tree Maker is an American product from an American company and unlike many of its competitors, is through many American stores. Ancestry.com is no trying to deceive with this adjective, they are just proud and eager to stress that their product is not merely the No. 1-selling product in the U.S.A., but even the No. 1-selling product in the world.
Notice that Ancestry.com does not claim that Family Tree Maker is the world's most popular genealogy software, only that it is the world's No. 1-selling family history software. That is not exactly the same thing, nor is it crystal clear what they mean.
First of all, claiming to have the No. 1-selling software instead of the most popular software, does not only leave open the possibility that some other, free application, is more popular, it even strongly suggests that. After all, why would a vendor merely claim that their application is the No. 1-selling application in their category when they could claim that it is the most popular one? The most obvious answer is that they aren't doing so, because their product isn't most popular. A slightly less obvious answer is that the vendor may have some disdain for free products, and thinks commercial products are the only ones that really matter.
A second issue is that it not clear at all what Ancestry.com is claiming.
No.1-selling
is an ambiguous phrase. It has happened more than one that
companies claimed to be market leader in the same category, and both were
telling the truth; one sold more units, the other had more revenue. That
their products do not sell for the same price allows both companies to claim to
be No. 1. I personally think that both measurements are valid in their own way;
sales volume practically equates with popularity, but product price affects
sales volume. Measuring by revenue not only includes the effect that price has
on sales, but also hints at sales profits, something the vendor may need to stay
in business.
It just so happens that Family Tree Maker is one of the most expensive genealogy
applications, so it could very well be No. 1 by sales revenue, especially when
you include the money Ancestry.com makes from the annual upgrades, without being
the No. 1 in sales volume.
The question right now is not which yardstick is better, but which yardstick Ancestry.com is using. I asked them how they determine that Family Tree Maker is No. 1 weeks ago, but apparently Ancestry.com finds it a lot easier to make their claim than to underpin it with any objective data or explanation.
I am pretty sure that Ancestry.com means to claim that Family Tree Maker is No. 1 in sales volume, and therefore easily number one in sales revenue as well. However, I have reason to believe that their claim is no longer true.
| rank | Amazon.co.uk: genealogy software |
|---|---|
| 1 | Family Tree Maker 2011 Platinum |
| 2 | Who Do You Think You are? Family Tree Maker Deluxe Edition Version 4 (2010) |
| 3 | Who Do You Think You are? Family Tree Maker Version 4 (2010) |
| 4 | Family Tree Maker for Mac |
| 5 | Create your Own Family Tree Genealogy Suite |
| 6 | Family Tree Maker 2011 Deluxe |
| 7 | Family Historian 4 Deluxe |
| 8 | Family Tree Maker 2010 Platinum Edition |
| 9 | RootsMagic 4 UK Deluxe Edition |
| 10 | Who Do You Think You are? Family Tree Maker Deluxe Edition (2008) |
| 11 | Family Tree Maker 2011 World Edition |
| 12 | Who Do You Think You are? Family Tree Maker (2008) |
| 13 | MacFamilyTree 5 |
| 14 | GSP Who Do You Think You Are? Family Tree Maker (2006) |
| 15 | Family Tree Maker 2011 Upgrade |
| 16 | Family Tree Legends Starter Edition |
| 17 | Legacy Family Tree Deluxe |
| 18 | The Ancestry.co.uk Membership Gift Pack |
| 19 | GSP Who Do You Think You Are? Family Tree Maker Deluxe (2006) |
| 20 | Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum |
| 21 | Family Ancestry (2004) [Family Tree Maker 12?] |
| 22 | Family Tree Maker 2005 - Starter Edition |
| 23 | Generations 8 Family Tree Starter Kit (2000) |
| 24 | Family Tree Maker 2010 Deluxe Edition |
| 25 | Family Tree Heritage [Ancestral Quest] |
MyHeritage just introduced Family Tree Builder 5.0. Their own blog post about
this introduction includes an image that calls Family Tree Builder 5.0 the
world's most popular free genealogy software
. That is a rather big
claim. MyHeritage fairly obviously does not mean to claim that for Family Tree
Builder 5.0, which had perhaps a few thousand users when they announced version
5.0 on their blog, two days after introducing it. They obviously mean to claim
that Family Tree Builder (any version) is the world's most popular free genealogy software.
The first thing that should be noted is that Family Tree Builder is not
really free.
Family Tree Builder requires activation
, which is a roundabout way of demanding that
you sign up for a myheritage.com account, regardless of whether you intended to
do so or not. Once you have done so, MyHeritage will
continually try to get you to upload your data, and is not above using some unsavory tactics. They
misrepresent uploading data to their site as backup, label this action as recommended
it because it is
good for them, and try to trick you into uploading your data by continually
prompting you to do so every time you open your project and always re-enable the
checkmark that says you agree to do so; if you ever forget to uncheck it, Family
Tree Builder will upload your data to MyHeritage because
you agreed
to let them have it - and good luck trying to get them to
delete it from their servers.
A related issue is that the Family Tree Builder installer does many things that
you may not want it to do.
A second thing to note that is that there are two editions of Family Tree
Builder; Family Tree Builder Regular and Family Tree Builder Premium.
MyHeritage does not hide this fact, but does make it all too easy to overlook
it. They do not refer to the regular edition as Family Tree Builder Regular, but
merely as Family Tree Builder, and do not ask you to choose between the regular
and premium edition either.
You cannot simply buy a license for the premium edition and
then continue using Family Tree Builder complete with all premium features, you
have to choose a MyHeritage subscription. The price of that subscription depends on
the size of your database. The lowest price, which you can only take
advantage of if you still have a rather small tree (2500 individuals or less), is €
5,00 per month, which equates to € 60,00 year.
So, MyHeritage is not claiming that Family Tree Builder Premium outsells Family Tree Maker, they are claiming that Family Tree Builder Regular is more popular than either Legacy Family Tree Standard Edition or RootsMagic Essentials.
I personally find that hard to believe. If I'd had to guess, I'd say that
Millennia's Legacy Family Tree Standard Edition leads in popularity, simply
because it has been available so long, and has in all that time, often been
mentioned and even recommended as good genealogy software you can get for free.
RootsMagic Essentials has been available for just a year. Early editions of
Family Tree Builder were rather buggy, current editions mess with your system
and keep trying to take your data; none of these things makes you popular with
users, no matter how often you claim that it is the best free genealogy software
, as their download page does.
The MyHeritage Family Tree Builder (Regular) download page contains something
neither the Legacy Family Tree nor the RootsMagic download page does: a download
counter. Today it claims that Family Tree Builder has been downloaded 15.867.645
times. It seems likely that the counter will pass 16 million before the end of
the year.
That is a nice number of downloads, but is it accurate?
Earlier this year, MyStatistics called attention to the fact
that MyHeritage does not seem to be very good with numbers; there was a remarkable
unexplained jump when they changed from showing exact number to showing numbers
rounded to millions. MyHeritage never explained the jump.
Perhaps the number isn't very accurate, but the competition does not provide
such numbers at all.
Even if we had download numbers for the competitors, and even the download number for Family Tree Builder were highest, we still cannot conclude that Family Tree Builder Regular is most popular. Number of downloads does not measure popularity.
First of all, if you download every major release just once, you would have downloaded Family Tree Builder five times. If everyone who installed it keep using and downloading new versions, than he average number of downloads per user will probably be somewhere between 2 and 3. That would put the number of unique users responsible for those 16 million downloads somewhere between 5 and 8 million.
Of course, downloads does not even equal installations. People do download
without installing. People install but then decide that do not want to activate
.
Arguably, the number that MyHeritage should be showing isn't the number of
downloads, but the number of unique activations. They may not want to do so
because they do not want the competition to know, but it seems safe to say that
it is considerably less than 15 million.
The actual number of users is less than the number of activations. A single user may activate the software on both their desktop and their laptop. Users may activate the software, try it for a while, and then decide to use another product. Even users who already mad their choice and are happy with what they are using now may download, install and activate the software, just because they are curious. The number of active users is likely to be considerably less than the number of activations.
The number of unique Family Tree Builder users starting the application each month that activated in a previous month would be a reasonable approximation of the actual number of active users. MyHeritage assigns each installation a unique number and Family Tree Builder contacts the MyHeritage server every time you start, so MyHeritage knows what the number of active users is. MyHeritage has not posted that number. One reason may be that they do not want competition to know, another reason is that it is bound to be considerably less impressive than 16 million downloads.
Ancestry.com claims that Family Tree Maker is the world's No. 1 selling family history application. MyHeritage claims that Family Tree Builder Regular is the world's most popular free genealogy software. If I have to guess what the most popular genealogy software is, I'd guess it FamilySearch Personal Ancestral File.
That should not be very surprising. Personal Ancestral File is one of the oldest genealogy applications. It had time to build a user base. PAF originally was one of the cheapest genealogy applications around and later became a free application, boosting its popularity even further. It is marketed by FamilySearch, an organisation most genealogists are familiar with for many other reasons. PAF is a bit special, because it serves as closest thing we have to a GEDCOM reference implementation. PAF hasn't been updated in years, but it already has lots of users, and FamilySearch continues to promote it on their home page, which is one of the most popular home pages in genealogy.
Still, it is just a guess. Legacy Family Tree Standard Edition has become quite popular too. RootsMagic Essentials offers yet another choice. Users of Brother's Keeper seem perfectly happy to keep using Brother's Keeper.
Popularity of software varies significantly by region. For example, the best known products do have users in the Netherlands, France and Germany, but many Dutch, French and Germans users prefer local applications that most Americans have never heard of.
Most applications mentioned so far are Windows applications. Windows is by far the most popular operating system, so the most popular application on Windows is easily the most popular application overall, but each platform has its favourites.
| rank | Amazon.com: genealogy software |
|---|---|
| 1 | RootsMagic 4 |
| 2 | Personal Historian Software |
| 3 | Reunion 9 |
| 4 | Family Tree Maker 2010 Deluxe |
| 5 | Family Tree Maker 20110 Essentials |
| 6 | Family Tree Heritage Deluxe 7.0 |
| 7 | Family Atlas Genealogy Mapping Software |
| 8 | Family Tree Maker 2011 Essentials |
| 9 | Family Tree Maker 2010 Platinum |
| 10 | Family Tree Maker 2008 Essentials |
| 11 | Legacy Family Tree Deluxe 5 |
| 12 | Family Tree Maker 2011 Platinum |
| 13 | Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum |
| 14 | Family Tree Maker 2009 Essentials |
| 15 | Family Tree Maker 2011 Deluxe |
| 16 | MacFamilyTree 5 |
| 17 | Family Trees Quick & Easy |
| 18 | Charting Companion for Family Tree Maker |
| 19 | Broderbund Family Tree Maker 4 |
| 20 | Family Tree Heritage 7 (download) |
| 21 | Family Tree Maker 2009 Deluxe |
| 22 | GSP Family Tree ScrapbookMaker |
| 23 | Family Tree Maker 2010 Deluxe |
| 24 | Heritage Family Tree Deluxe 4.0 from the Genealogical Research Library |
| 25 | Family Tree Maker Deluxe Edition II for Macintosh |
It is not hard to get some idea what the best-selling product is. Amazon.com
allows you to choose a product category, and then order the products within that
category by price, relevance, customers reviews (rating), release date and
bestselling
.
Amazon isn't the only web store, and many vendors sell their product directly to
customers. Still, it is interesting to check it out. I had a look at the top 25
on Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and an Amazon.com.
The search term you use really matters; searching for genealogy
in the software
category gives different results than searching for genealogy software
in the
software category. When you merely search for genealogy
, you're like to find
some genealogical databases in the results. Some database CDs outsell so much
genealogy software that they make it into Amazon.com's top 25. Each of the three
lists here has the search term used as its heading.
On the German Amazon site, Family Tree Maker leads the topselling list, immediately followed by
Stammbaum 5.0, both the Premium and regular editions, a German application. However,
it isn't Family Tree Maker 20111 that tops the list, it is Family Tree Maker
2010, released in 2009.
There are several CD-ROM databases in the list.
Familie 2.0, at number 10, is a German book with software. Remarkably, several French
products make the list, despite the fact that Amazon has a separate French store.
Amazon.co.uk lists Family Tree Maker 2011 Platinum at the top, directly followed by Who Do You Think You are? Family Tree Maker Version 4, both the Deluxe edition and the regular edition. Family Tree Maker for Mac is a high new entry at number. Number 5 is Create your Own Family Tree Genealogy Suite. The genealogy application in that suite is Pearl Street's free (!) Family Tree Legends Deluxe Edition, which appears under its own name at number 16. Family Historian 4, an English product, is listed above RootsMagic UK Deluxe Edition.
I seem to recall that Family Tree led the sales list on Amazon.com for a long time, but that time is past now. The number one spot is for RootsMagic 4. It is followed by Family Tree Maker, but it is once again Family Tree Maker 2010 instead of 2011. Somehow, old versions of Family Tree Maker are rather popular. The top 25 ends with the Broderbund's original Family Tree Maker for Macintosh. I wonder how many users bought that old software in mistake. Then again, perhaps they are just collecting genealogy software for the Mac.
| rank | download.com: genealogy software |
|---|---|
| 1 | Family Tree Maker 2011 |
| 2 | Legacy Family Tree |
| 3 | Simple Family Tree |
| 4 | GenoPro 2007 |
| 5 | Family Tree Builder |
| 6 | RootsMagic Essentials |
| 7 | Family Tree Legends |
| 8 | Genbox Family History |
| 9 | Personal Ancestral File |
| 10 | GED-GEN |
| 11 | Gaia Family Tree |
| 12 | Genealogy Finder |
| 13 | GedLink Editor |
| 14 | HuMo-Gen (PHP) |
| 15 | Pajek |
| 16 | Wintree |
| 17 | Brother's Keeper |
| 18 | TimeLine |
| 19 | Brother's Keeper |
| 20 | TreeDraw |
| 21 | PhylTools |
| 22 | Kith and Kin Pro |
| 23 | Daub Ages! |
| 24 | GenDB Cemetery Database Creator |
| 25 | GENViewer |
The German, English and American bestselling lists are quite different. The German and English lists contain items that sell very well locally, better than many top-selling American products, and are hardly known outside the country of origin.
One thing that is remarkable about this list is that older product seem to selling quite well, even better than some competing new products. Sales data from previous years probably has a limited influence on the sales ranking. Apparently many users are snapping up older releases as relative bargains, or perhaps as better suited to their older PC.
Maybe some users buy older products just to give them a try, or opt for an older version to remain within budget, but there is something else going on as well. The one product that appears in all three lists in many different versions and several ostensible editions is Family Tree Maker. The clue to understanding this is knowing that its ostensible editions aren't editions at all, but bundles that include either a 3-month or 6-month Ancestry.com subscription. Many of these bundles sell well because users are looking around for cheap limited-time Ancestry.com subscription. Older bundles are discounted, but still include that subscription, and thus offer an even better value.
The subscription bundle sales are propping up Family Tree Maker's sale volume. If people weren't looking for relatively cheap Ancestry.com subscriptions, the list would look quite different. However, even with these bundles propping up the sales numbers, Family Tree Maker does not lead Amazon.com's list anymore.
No. 1-selling
For many years, Ancestry.com has been marketing Family Tree Maker as the
No. 1-selling
genealogy software. All those years ago, some marketing manager
realised that it is a self-perpetuating slogan; tell people it is the best
selling software and they will buy it assuming it that it must be best, thus
ensuring that it remains the best selling software.
Ancestry.com has been promoting Family Tree Maker this way for so long, that it makes you
wonder whether they have an alternative ready at all. It seems that they
need that alternative now. Family Tree Maker apparently isn't the best-selling product in the
genealogy software category anymore.
The loss of this slogan cannot be much of surprise for Ancestry.com. They know that New Family Tree Maker stinks, their former product Benjamin Nettesheim even admitted it (see Family Tree Maker 2009). I predicted that they would lose this slogan back in 2008. In Ancestry.com sues Millennia for Trademark Infringement, written after the release of Family Tree Maker 2008, but before RootsMagic introduced RootsMagic 4, I still thought of Legacy Family Tree as the product most likely to take that title from Family Tree Maker. It took a bit longer than I expected and it is another, even better product that claimed the best-selling position, but that only strengthens the message I had for Ancestry.com; the smart thing to do is to invest in the quality of Family Tree Maker. Quality sells itself.
Ancestry.com has lost Family Tree Maker'sNo. 1 sellingslogan to RootsMagic.
None of this really answers the question what the most popular genealogy application is. What is clear is that vendor claim should be taken with a truckload of salt. I personally think that both Ancestry.com and MyHeritage should stop making claims until they are willing to share the data they base their claim on, so that we can scrutinise the data and the conclusions they draw from it.
MyHeritage's claim that Family Tree Builder is the most popular free
application, which implies the claim that is more popular than both Legacy and
PAF, does not strike me as very believable. Ancestry.com's claim that Family
Tree Maker is the No. 1-selling product seems to describe the past; Family Tree
Maker was the best-selling application once, but isn't anymore. The disastrous
introduction of Family Tree Maker 2008 and the slow improvement of the New
Family Tree Maker product since have had their effect on the sales figures.
Ancestry.com has lost Family Tree Maker's No. 1 selling
slogan to RootsMagic.
Added a table with popularity of genealogy application on download.com. Oddly, Family Tree Maker leads the list, while it is not available as a download. This probably reflects that the FTM 2008 Beta was briefly available as a download. It is still the most popular link, so it seems that Ancestry.com is missing out on a serious opportunity to market their product with a free or trial edition. Brother's Keeper does appear twice in the top 25.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.