Useful from day one
A free family tree should not be a locked preview. In Kunbaa the tree, invites, events, and starter storage are all genuinely free.
Free for the whole family
Start a Free Family Tree Online
The tree is genuinely free (no limit on people), and everyone in the family joins without a card, builds the branches together, and writes the names and dates down beside the photos. The paid plans are what keeps what the family shares: longer videos, room for the whole archive, and the photos and videos from the family chat.
- The full tree is free. Not a locked preview, not a trial.
- Everyone in the family joins free, and nobody else ever needs a card.
- Invite-only on every plan, including the free one, and nobody's data is sold.
- Everyone in the family joins free
- Private by default
- Photos and stories included
What free actually includes
- 1The whole tree
Build both sides, and invite the family in, with shared space to start adding photos and stories.
- 2Events and plans
Birthdays, anniversaries, and reunions with reminders, plus a shared family to-do list.
- 3The daily layer
Family chat and one-to-one voice and video calls (group calls of up to 6 come with Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, and anyone in the family can join one) in the Kunbaa mobile app.
How to start a free family tree online
Create your private family space
Sign up free and build your first branch right away. No card, no trial clock.Add the closest relatives
Create the core structure with parents, grandparents, siblings, partner, and children first.Add meaningful memories
Even one or two photos per relative, kept with the names in the caption and the date it was shared, make the tree worth opening.Invite family and keep improving it
Relatives join free and help with missing names, dates, and stories, so the tree becomes a shared record.
What honest free looks like
Privacy on every plan
Free does not mean public. Every plan is invite-only, with no public feed, and your family's data is never sold.
Clear about what paid adds
Kunbaa Plus and Kunbaa Ultra buy the room for the whole family's archive. One person pays; everyone else stays free.
No dead-end workflow
If the archive outgrows the free space, you upgrade the space. You never redo the tree or move the family somewhere else.
What to check before choosing a free family tree site
Free is only useful when it still gives your family a healthy starting workflow.
- Can you actually build the tree without hitting a paywall?
- Can the whole family contribute free, or is free a single seat?
- Can you record who is in a photo, where and roughly when, and does that note stay with it?
- Is the privacy model clear and invite-based?
- Is it honest about what the paid plans add, and what they do not?
What the paid plans add, and what they don't
In Kunbaa, free is the product, not the teaser: the tree, invites, events, and a shared starter allowance of storage cost nothing, for everyone in the family. That is honestly enough to build the whole tree and add the first few hundred photos.
Kunbaa Plus, $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (17% less, about $8.33 a month for the payer's household), is what keeps it, with Kunbaa Ultra above it for more room: longer videos in the family archive where free keeps to short clips, room for the scanned albums and wedding videos, and the photos and videos from the family chat kept while the family is on Plus. One person pays, on kunbaa.com or in the app; their household is covered by that one subscription.
For comparison: genealogy research sites price per researcher. As of mid-2026, Ancestry's US Discovery plan is $229 a year for one seat. Different job, different model. Kunbaa's model is one keeper paying for the space that holds the family archive, with the family itself always free.
More family tree guides
Continue with the next guide that matches where your family is in the setup process.
Frequently asked questions
Clear answers for families who want to start a private family tree with less friction.
More questions? Read the full FAQ or the help centre.
Is the family tree really free?
Yes. The tree (no limit on people), invites, events and room to build the tree and start the photos are free for the whole family, plus chat, voice and video calls and Family Safety in the Kunbaa mobile app. It is not a trial and there is no card required.
Can I keep the tree private on the free plan?
Yes. Every plan, including free, is invite-only, with no data sold, and everything shared only with the family.
What do the paid plans add?
Kunbaa Plus ($9.99 a month or $99.99 a year on kunbaa.com or in the app) keeps what the family shares: longer videos in the family archive, room for the whole family's archive, and the photos and videos shared in chat kept while you are on Plus. The free plan keeps those for a year. One person pays, and their household is covered.
Will my family outgrow the free plan?
The tree itself never stops being free. The free starter allowance of shared storage is enough to begin, but a real family archive (scanned albums, videos) will outgrow it; making room for all of it is exactly what the paid plan is for.
Start a Free Family Tree Online guide
A free family tree online, with the honest version of "free"
Most "free family tree" searches end at a locked preview: build three generations, then pay to see your own family. Kunbaa's free plan is the actual product. The tree, both sides and the cousins abroad, is free for the whole family (no limit on people), and every photo or story you add is kept with the names, the place and roughly when written in the caption, not dropped in a folder nobody will open again.
The only thing the free plan limits is space: a shared starter allowance, enough to build the tree and attach the first photos, honestly not enough for a family's whole archive. When you are ready for the scanned albums and the wedding videos, a paid plan buys the room for all of it: one person pays, everyone else stays free. The details are in the plans and storage guide.
Free to begin, built to be kept
The point of starting free is starting now, while the people who remember the old photos can still tell you who is in them. Begin with the relatives you know, invite one person from each branch, and let the tree grow from there. The step-by-step guide shows the order that works. Nothing you build on the free plan is throwaway: the same tree simply gets more room when the family needs it.
Everyone belongs on the tree. Start yours today.
Start free, invite relatives to add their own side, and keep your family history in one calm private space.