Wherever you are in your family history research journey, Ancestry.com is a resource you’ve likely encountered. By far the most popular paid genealogy membership site out there, they offer billions of records, a free family tree and specialized tools and resources to help researchers at any level. But with several levels of access it can be hard to know which Ancestry membership is best for your needs.
Ancestry is relatively expensive and some of the subscription information is a bit confusing, so it pays to do your research before diving into a paid membership. This article will discuss the options they offer and will answer many of your questions.
Before we begin though, it’s important to know that a paid Ancestry subscription is not required to research your family tree online. There are hundreds of free resources to use instead if you’re on a budget. Check out this list of free family history sites for help.
Which Ancestry Membership is Best for You? A Guide to Help You Decide Before You Spend Your Money
First, let’s take a look at the membership options on Ancestry. This guide is focused on Ancestry.com, which is targeted to those in the U.S. If you’re located elsewhere you can find a list of sites for other locations at the end of this guide.
Family History Daily partners with a number of genealogy sites, including Ancestry, to bring you helpful information about their services and may earn a commission if you follow links on our site. This helps us keep the information we provide free to all. Every review and guide we offer is done for the purpose of helping our readers make informed decisions and is based on the actual experiences and knowledge of our team.
What do you get with an Ancestry membership?
Ancestry offers access to historical records needed to research your ancestor’s online. Most, but not all, of their records require a paid subscription and the number and type of records you gain access to is determined by the membership level you choose.
They also offer a free family tree, DNA testing and tools and various other features to aid you in your research. The family tree is always free, but some of the tools attached to it require a paid membership. DNA testing is never included with a subscription but a number of features designed to aid you in understanding your genetic heritage do require one of their paid options.
Read on to see what each of the Ancestry access levels offers to its members.
What are the different Ancestry memberships in the U.S.?
Ancestry.com has three membership plans, as well as a free “guest” plan that includes some basics. They are:
- Free Guest Membership: Access to free records collections and the free family tree program
- U.S. Discovery: Access to all U.S. records, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the family tree
- World Explorer: Access to all records, U.S. and international, as well as the family tree
- All Access: Access to all records, Newspapers.com, Fold3, the family tree and 4 additional accounts to share
Ancestry does also offer a free 14-day trial of any level. You can sign up here. All free trails renew at the full rate after 2 weeks so keep that in mind before subscribing.
While the most important difference between these levels is the number and type of record access you receive, each also includes some different member benefits. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of each level.
Ancestry’s Free Membership Includes:
- Guided family tree builder with integrated search tools (records suggested with hints and found in search are not included, unless part of their free collections)
- The ability to share your family tree with other family members on a view-only or editor basis
- Access to all free records available through Ancestry.com
- Photo scanning and some editing features
- Audio recording within the Ancestry.com site, as well as the ability to upload and store audio files
- Ancestry Hints, the little leaves which can lead you to clues about your ancestors in the records collections (record access not included)
- Ability to registered a DNA kit you purchased and view ancestral origins, matches and some tools (DNA kits are extra)
With a free membership you cannot:
- View other people’s trees (unless specifically shared with you) even if they’re public
- View historical records, their indexes or transcriptions (unless part of Ancestry’s free record collections)
- Use many of the tools and filters available on the site
A free Ancestry membership is perfect if you only intend to use their popular family tree while collecting records elsewhere. You can upload and attach records found on other sites to your tree and share this tree with family members. If you’ve take a DNA test you can see your results and use some basic features as well. Their website and apps for Android and iPhone are convenient, include a number of features as well as photo scanning and editing, and sync easily with the online family tree.
However, the Ancestry site ends up being pretty limited for someone doing active research over time if you don’t have a paid membership. We suggest, if you do decide to use their site, that you maximize your time – only subscribing when you can spend the hours doing research to make the membership worth it.
On months when you do not subscribe you can continue to host your tree for free until you are ready to pay again (although you won’t have access to any records you attached to facts in your tree until you resubscribe). See this article about what happens to your attached records on Ancestry when your subscription lapses for help with that.
Ancestry’s U.S. Discovery Membership
Ancestry’s U.S. Discovery membership is their most affordable paid option and gives you much of what you need if you are only hoping to access records in the U.S. However, you will not be able to view records for locations outside of the United States and won’t have the ability to view the newspaper collections on Newspapers.com or the military records on Fold3.
The U.S. Discovery membership includes everything available in the free membership plus:
- Access to all U.S. records hosted on Ancestry.com. This includes records from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Access to specialized record collections, including records related to African American, Native American, and Jewish heritage
- All photo scanning, editing, organizing and tagging features
- More robust DNA tools than with the free plan
Ancestry’s World Explorer Membership
This subscription option is more expensive than U.S. Discovery and is nearly identical, including the same features, except that it includes access to international records in addition to the U.S. collections.
If you would like to research your ancestors in locations outside of the United States this step up is well worth it. Given that most of us have recent, or relatively recent immigrant ancestors, you may find a U.S. Discovery membership to be very limited very quickly.
The Ancestry All Access Membership
The All Access membership to Ancestry includes almost every record, tool and filtering option they offer. The features found in Pro Tools are the only exception.
With the All Access subscription, you’ll gain access to everything offered in the free, U.S. Discovery and World Explorer memberships as well as full access to Newspapers.com and Fold3. You will also be granted 4 additional sub memberships that you can share with friends or family at no additional cost. These additional memberships are granted directly to the other users’ accounts, so no sharing of trees or research is required. This feature alone is enough to make the All Access account worth it for many. You can read more about how the All Access Family Plan options work here.
The newspapers hosted on Newspapers.com and the military records found on Fold3 are also a nice addition, as they offer record options not hosted on Ancestry and provide a good deal of additional value.
How much does an Ancestry membership cost?
Ancestry payment plans can also be a bit confusing. For any Ancestry.com subscription, you can either pay month to month, make monthly payments for a longer membership term, or pay for a longer membership term up front. The prices decrease if you select a longer membership term, sometimes by quite a bit. All memberships renew automatically.
U.S. Discovery
- Monthly Membership: $24.99
- 3-Month Membership: $65.95
- 6-Month Membership: $119 when paid up front or $21.99/m when you commit but pay monthly
- 12-Month Membership: $229 when paid up front or $19.99/m when commit but pay monthly
World Explorer
- Monthly Membership: $39.99
- 3-Month Membership: $99.95
- 6-Month Membership: $169 when paid up front or $32.99/m when you commit but pay monthly
- 12-Month Membership: $319 when paid up front or $29.99/m when you commit but pay monthly
All Access
- Monthly Membership: $59.99
- 3-Month Membership: $149
- 6-Month Membership: $259 when paid up front or $49.99/m when paid monthly
- 12-Month Membership: $479 when paid up front or $44.99/m when paid monthly
Paying month to month allows you the opportunity to try out a membership level without committing to it long term. On the other hand, opting for the 6 or 12-month subscription options saves you a bit of money, especially if you are able to pay up front.
Ancestry’s payment structure also provides the opportunity to switch membership levels based on your research needs. For example, you may have identified an ancestor with a military background who has multiple records on Fold3.com.
Due to Ancestry’s flexible membership options, you would be able to easily switch your membership to All Access for a short period to allow you to view those Fold3 records, then switch back to a less expensive membership once your research is done. This assumes you are paying monthly. 6 and 12-month memberships also allow switching, but the switch does not happen until after you current term runs out (unless you very recently subscribed or renewed).
You can sign up for any membership here.
Does Ancestry.com off a free trial membership?
Yes, they offer a 14-day free trial of all levels, which renews at the monthly rate. If you are not satisfied, you can cancel your membership prior to the end of the free trial and not owe anything. You can find that here.
Which Ancestry subscription is the best?
After reading all of this information, you may still be confused about which Ancestry subscription will meet your needs. So which one is the best?
Well, that kind of depends on where you are in your family tree research. If you are just starting out and plan to stick to more recent ancestors, a U.S. Discovery membership may work well. If you know you will want to research ancestors overseas and don’t plan on sharing your account with others, we suggest World Explorer to start.
You can switch to All Access when you become more familiar with the site and have gathered basic information so that you can take advantage of the unique records found on Newspaper.com and Fold3 without spending as much. Or, consider going in on an All Access subscription with a couple of family members to save money money. The sharing feature is very easy and allows you to work independently. We walk you through sharing your Ancestry.com membership here.
Ancestry’s payment options also factor into answering your question of which membership is the best, so be sure to consider the long term costs of a higher level membership.
Here are some pros and cons to consider for each level:
U.S. Discovery Pros:
- Gives you access to all the great functions of Ancestry.com, like the family tree builder, photo and audio uploads, hints, and connecting with other researchers
- Provides access to over 10 billion historical records from the United States
- Easy to navigate through all those records through Ancestry’s search functions and hints
- Allows you to search manually through the Ancestry Card Catalog for locations or record types if your ancestors are not showing up in your searches
- Less expensive than the other membership levels
U.S. Discovery Cons:
- Does not give you access to any records outside of the United States
- Does not give you access to Fold3.com or Newspapers.com
- Does not give you access to a family membership with shareable accounts
- Only allows you to view immigration records from U.S. ports
World Explorer Pros:
- Gives you access to everything you get with the U.S. Discovery membership, plus access to over 3 billion international records from more than 80 countries
- Allows you to refine your searches by country, filtering your results to make locating the records you need easier
- Adds international records to the Card Catalog so you can search manually and browse records if your searches are not producing the results you need
- Allows you to view emigration records to the U.S. from other countries, as well as immigration records from U.S. ports
- Less expensive than the All Access membership
World Explorer Cons:
- More expensive than the U.S. Discovery membership
- Does not allow you access to Fold3.com or Newspapers.com
- Does not give you access to family memberships
All Access Membership Pros:
- Gives you access to all records available on Ancestry.com, including external records at Fold3.com and Newspapers.com
- Gives you access to family memberships. Here’s a link to our article about Ancestry’s family membership option, which is the same as All Access in the U.S.
All Access Membership Pros:
- An expensive option – unless you plan to share your additional account and make use of Newspapers.com and Fold3, World Explorer may be a better choice.
Can you use Ancestry for free?
Yes, but unless you are using a free trial that ends that 14 days, you are limited to an online family tree, hints, photo scanning and free records.
Please see the information earlier in this article about Ancestry’s free “Guest” membership as well as this article on free Ancestry records for details on what is included.
Do I need a paid Ancestry membership to use the Ancestry family tree?
No. You can create and edit your family tree with a free Ancestry account. You will be able to see hints in the tree as well (those famous shaky leaves) but you won’t be able to view the facts or records associated with them without a paid membership (unless they are in the free record collections). Which membership you choose will limit which record hints you are able to view.
Why is Ancestry so expensive? Why aren’t all genealogy records free?
This is a question that many people ask because they assume records created by governments and institutions should be free to view by all. While it is true that many records are available to view for free at the repositories they are stored at, accessing those records requires identifying what records are available, where they are stored, traveling to the places that hold them – often at a great and cost – as well as time locating them in the archive itself.
Ancestry has spent a great deal of time and money scanning and providing access to these records digitally, or creating (sometimes paid) partnerships with other intuitions who hold them. This is in addition to making them searchable through indexing and providing an advanced framework for online research. You are, in a sense, not paying for access to the records so much as you are paying for convenient, online access to them.
That being said, some records that Ancestry offers (even behind a paywall) can be found on other sites at no cost. We always suggest using free research sites when possible and there are many. See this article for 50 of the most popular genealogy sites, this section of our site for many more free resources, as well as our online courses for very detailed help locating no-cost options.
Is an Ancestry membership required to conduct genealogy research?
No, it is certainly not, but it is helpful, especially if you need to access certain record collections. While many records are in the public domain and are available for free on many websites, other records are copyrighted and held by individual libraries or other organizations.
Online genealogy websites often scan and store collections not found elsewhere or sign contracts with organizations that hold the rights to original records in order to provide access to them for their subscribers. This means that Ancestry holds many collections not found elsewhere online. While you can conduct genealogy research for free, you might not be able to access every record that you want. Still, we recommend starting with free sites and only moving to paid ones when you need to.
Can I download Ancestry records to my computer?
Yes, you can download images of original records from Ancestry by right clicking the image you want and selecting Save Image. You can also download your family tree in the form of a GEDCOM, which will include all of the source information that you have saved during your research. Your GEDCOM will not include pictures or records that you have saved to your tree, so you should also download those to your computer individually. You can discover how to back up all of your records and files from Ancestry at one time in this article.
What are Ancestry Pro Tools?
Pro Tools are extra filters and tools that can help you identify and organize details within your family tree. These tools are available through an add-on subscription once you pay for an Ancestry membership. For more information, see our article on Ancestry Pro Tools.
Does my Ancestry membership include DNA testing?
No. DNA testing is a separate function with a separate fee, however some DNA tools are included in the membership levels we’ve discussed. Please refer to our Ancestry DNA guide for help or you may purchase a DNA test here.
Does Ancestry offer discounts on their memberships?
Yes, Ancestry offers regular discounts throughout the year, sometimes up to 50% off. You can keep an eye out on those by signing up for our free genealogy checklist which also includes our free newsletter. We will send updates when deals are available. Or you may also keep an eye on their homepage.
What if I live outside of the United States?
Besides the U.S., Ancestry currently has country specific websites in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Italy, France, and Sweden. Instructions for how to link to other countries and to switch the language that appears on Ancestry can be found here.
How can I cancel an Ancestry membership?
If you decide Ancestry is not for you, it is easy to cancel your membership. Sign into your account, then go to Account Settings in the upper right (under your profile icon). Scroll down to Membership and click on the membership you want to cancel, then click Cancel Membership and follow the prompts.
What happens when an Ancestry subscription ends?
If your Ancestry subscription ends and you don’t renew it, your account will revert back to a free guest account. You will still be able to see your family tree and will be able to use the free functions of Ancestry, but you won’t have access to all the features that you had under the paid account, including any records you attached to your tree through Ancestry searches or hints. Take a look at our article about losing access to Ancestry records for more information on this topic.
Does Ancestry offer a gift membership?
Yes, Ancestry offers gift memberships. You can learn more about them here.
Is Ancestry.com worth it?
After reading all of this information, you will have to decide for yourself if a subscription to Ancestry.com is worth it. Ancestry subscriptions can be pricey, but considering all of the records and features that you gain access to the money if often well spent. You can always give their 14-day free trial a try to see if you like it before you commit.
Whether you decide to give Ancestry a go, or stick to the many free records available online, we wish you much luck in your research!
What to read next: Are Ancestry’s Hints Helping or Hurting Your Research? The Dos and Don’ts You Need to Know
Or read more article about Ancestry.com here.
By Janet Meydam. Janet is a freelance writer who has over 40 years of experience in genealogy research. Her knowledge includes researching many different records from the United States, Germany and Poland.