Review by midnight122

I’ve used Family Tree Maker for many years now, as well as ancestry.com. If you find that ancestry.com is a bit cumbersome at times, you should give the software a try. Family Tree Maker isn’t a fully polished software application, but it does get the job done and when it comes genealogy it’s one of the few choices to complete the job. Deciding between the various versions of Family Tree Maker should be fairly simple as there are few noticeable differences. Every year or two I will buy the newest version simply to get the ancestry.com membership that is included with the software.

The Essentials version gives you 1 month of ancestry.com access, the Deluxe gives 3 months and the Platinum 6 months. The platinum also includes some photo software and an additional gift copy, but those are the differences worth noting in my opinion. Most users would be fine with the Essentials or Deluxe version, if that is what you choose. You likely already have photo software and the other added features do not stand out. The compelling reason to go Platinum is for the additional months of ancestry.com access.

Using ancestry.com is much more interactive and it has a cleaner interface, but the FTM software provides better importing and exporting features. I tend to find myself working much faster in FTM than I do online.

Is the 2012 version worth an upgrade from previous versions? Like I said, I often upgrade simply for the ancestry.com membership that is included. New to 2012 is the Tree Sync, but it wasn’t super impressive. They have also improved some of the guides/tutorials and editing options. Overall, the interface has gotten cleaner, but I still the only true reason for an immediate upgrade is for the membership when you need it.