Geneanet, Free or Paid? Explanations.

Posted by Jean-Yves on Jan 13, 2019

We are still receiving feedback about the Geneanet model which combines a free website with a Premium subscription so here are some explanations.

As this new year begins, it’s an opportunity to recall the basics of the Geneanet model and to answer some frequently asked questions.

Some of the questions are:
– “I can’t see the benefits of Geneanet Premium”,
– “You should offer a discount when I renew my subscription”,
– “Your website is too difficult to use”.

These questions show that some of our members are not familiar with the originality of the Geneanet model. This note specifically addresses to them.

Geneanet, a contributive and a collaborative website

Geneanet hosts number of contributive and collaborative contents.

These are 1 million family trees and more than 1.1 billion individuals, and their associated pictures and archival documents. You can create your Geneanet family tree and view all Geneanet family trees with unrestricted access and with no advertising.

These are also multiple collaborative projects supported by Geneanet as “Save our Graves” (pictures of graves and cemeteries all around the world), “Archival Registers” (digitization of parish, notarial, military and other archives),…

As of today, there are 1.7 million pictures of graves, 12 million images of archival registers, and more than 83 million individuals in the collaborative indexes.

The principle is simple: all the contributive content is available for free, and every Geneanet member remains owner of its shared pictures and documents.

The Premium subscription

Why subscribing to Geneanet Premium?

Geneanet Premium offers many advantages as:

• the advanced search with additional criteria: spouse, parents, name variants, nearby places,
• the automatic matches on individuals in your family tree and in the family tree of other members,
• the automatic matching of your entire family tree with the Geneanet database,
• the email alerts wich allow you to receive a weekly email summary of the latest entries,
• the access to genealogy society indexes provided by Geneanet partners,
• the access to the Genealogy Library with millions of books and newspapers, and more than 3 billion indexed individuals.

The best thing to do is to discuss this with Premium members. We therefore invite you to read this blog note comments, and we encourage Premium members to talk about their experience.

The price of the Premium subscription

Some Premium members suggest that we should reward their loyalty with a discount when they renew their subscription.

Usually, discounts are offered to new subscribers.

Geneanet has made a different choice: we propose the same pricing and offers to new and long time subscribers.

For some, the price of Premium subscription is justified compared to the one of other hobbies. For others, it may represent a significant budget. There are two ways to reduce the price of your Premium subcription:

1. Sponsor a friend: If you sponsor a Geneanet member (click this link), they will get a 1-month free Premium membership, and you will get an extra month free.

2. Offer a Premium subscription: This service (click this link) allows you to offer or to be offered a 3-month, 6-month, 1-year or 2-year Premium subscription.

Do not hesitate to invite family and friends to view your private data and pictures, to view relationships between individuals, and to get advantage of the birthday reminders (click the button “Invite this person”).

In return, they may be happy to participate in your Premium subscription if you let them know about this opportunity!

If you find Geneanet difficult to use

Some members have trouble using Geneanet.

Do not remain alone!

The Geneanet forum (click this link) is a place where you can find help from Geneanet and from other members.

Geneanet, a free website with a Premium subscription

Free website and Premium subscription should not be opposed. Geneanet is a Freemium website with a number of free options and services, and a Premium access.

Sharing, mutual help and free access are the basics of Geneanet.

You don’t subscribe to Geneanet Premium only for the additional options and services but also to help the development of the free section of the website.

It is indeed a paradox: Premium members are paying so that Geneanet can be an open and free website.

Subscribing to Geneanet Premium is not only a way to access additional options and services, but also to allow the original model, as described above, to exist.

Some years ago, the Premium subscription was called “Club Privilege”. First members had little benefit and subscribed to preserve the free options and services.

We feel that it is important to recall this bascis. For more than 20 years, we are proud that we succeeded in preserving this balance, in a strong spirit of collaboration.

In conclusion, you are part of a community of mutual help and sharing. You are welcome whatever your level of experience in the use of Geneanet! If you subscribe to Geneanet Premium or if you renew your subscription, keep in mind that it’s not only purchasing a product but sharing a certain idea of genealogy.