Genealogy Self-Host & Web Software

Gramps Web, webtrees, Geneanet Open — own your family tree on your own server, multi-user friendly, GEDCOM-honest.

The "I want my data to outlive any subscription" path. Pair with Self-Hosted Files & Cloud to store the media archive (scans, photos, audio), Self-Hosted Document Management (Paperless-ngx) for vital records, Self-Hosted Photos & Media (Immich) for family photos, and Self-Hosted Notes & Wiki for narrative biographies. For desktop-only siblings see Genealogy Desktop Software; for hosted alternatives see Genealogy Online Services.

FOSS web / multi-user

★ ★ webtrees — GPL, PHP/MySQL. The dominant FOSS web genealogy app. Multi-user with role-based ACLs (manager / moderator / editor / member / visitor), full GEDCOM 5.5.1 import/export, charts (pedigree, fan, hourglass), reports, media management, FAQ + research notes, multi-language. Runs on any LAMP host or Docker. Active maintainer, regular releases. The default if you want a family-shared tree without paying anyone.
- https://github.com/fisharebest/webtrees
★ ★ Gramps Web — AGPL; the official web frontend on top of Gramps. Python/React; uses the same .gramps database format as desktop Gramps so you can edit on the laptop and share read/write online. Modern UI, OCR + face detection on attached photos, search across notes/sources/places, chat-with-your-tree LLM integrations are appearing in 2025–2026. The pick if you already use Gramps desktop.
- https://github.com/gramps-project/gramps-web
HuMo-gen — GPL, PHP/MySQL; Dutch-flavored multi-user tree. Smaller community than webtrees but stable.
PhpGedView — historical predecessor to webtrees; effectively superseded. Don't start here.
TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding) — paid (~$40 perpetual), PHP, not FOSS but self-hostable. Mature, big template ecosystem, popular with one-name studies. Mention here for completeness — most FOSS-leaners pick webtrees.

GedSite — paid Windows app that generates a static genealogy site from GEDCOM. Good for "publish my research, no server."
Second Site — paid; companion to The Master Genealogist (sunset) — still used.
GenealogyJ — old Java app with HTML export.
gedcom-to-html / GedHTree — small open-source GEDCOM-to-static-HTML utilities; great for one-shot publishing to S3 / GitHub Pages.

Ancestral Quest Online, RootsMagic to Ancestry/FamilySearch sync, Heredis Online, MacFamilyTree CloudTree — paid; sync your desktop tree to the vendor cloud. Convenient but vendor-lock-y.

Daily GEDCOM export is the universal escape hatch. Schedule a cron job to dump GEDCOM + media tarball to your backup target (see Backup & Disaster Recovery).
Database + media as one unit — webtrees and Gramps Web both store media outside the DB; back up both.
Source citations survive GEDCOM — but nuance is often lost (see Genealogy GEDCOM Formats). Keep the canonical copy in your live app, treat GEDCOM as a portable snapshot, not a master.

Gramps Web maturing — went from "demo" to "primary deployment target" for many Gramps users; mobile UX much improved.
GEDCOM 7 import in webtrees and Gramps — slowly catching up to the 2021 spec; 5.5.1 export still the safe default.
LLM-assisted research notes — both webtrees plugins and Gramps Web extensions are experimenting with letting you ask "what's missing on this profile?" against Self-Hosted AI / LLM.
Paperless-ngx + webtrees workflows — community recipes pair the two so document scans land in DMS and link back to tree profiles.

Default FOSS web tree, multi-user family share: webtrees.
Already use Gramps desktop: Gramps Web.
Static site, no server, just publish: GedSite or gedcom-to-html.
TNG ecosystem / big template library, willing to pay once: TNG.
Maximum data ownership: webtrees or Gramps Web on your own VPS, with daily GEDCOM exports to off-site backup.