Synium's product page for MacFamilyTree still celebrates an award it calls recent. The app won Apple's Editor's Choice, it says, "on the Mac App Store this year", and then Mac App of the Year on top. Apple did name it Mac App of the Year. That was in November 2022, and the winner was MacFamilyTree 10. The version on sale today is 11.
Most of the reviews you find when you search for one are older still. Family Tree Magazine's review covers version 4.5, which its own page dates to 2008 and which Synium's history says shipped in July 2007. It liked the Mac polish and wanted more genealogy underneath. TechRadar reviewed version 5.5 in June 2009. So this is a look at the build that ships now, 11.3.3, released on 17 September 2026.
It is built for a family working on one tree, not one person working on a file.
Our Reunion review called that program a document editor for one file on one Mac. MacFamilyTree starts from the opposite end. Its headline feature is CloudTree, which Synium's main page describes this way: "Work on the same family tree with an unlimited number of MacFamilyTree and MobileFamilyTree users in real time, at no additional cost." It runs on iCloud. Each device keeps a local copy, so you can work offline, and the change history shows which relative changed what. You can also share the tree read-only, which is the setting to reach for when an enthusiastic cousin is involved.
Native editing needs Apple hardware. Every participant needs MacFamilyTree 11 on a Mac or MobileFamilyTree 11 on an iPhone or iPad. For relatives on Windows or Android, Synium offers CloudTreeWeb, a browser version of the edit screen that needs an Apple ID to sign in, according to Synium. It comes with a warning that it can be slower than an ordinary website and a promise that it "will never replace our native apps, instead it serves as a supplement for users who are not on the Apple platform." There is no Windows version and Synium does not pretend otherwise. Its main page calls the program "Exclusively Developed for Mac".
FamilySearch is built in, shared-tree mistakes included.
Reunion makes you do all the fetching yourself. MacFamilyTree has a direct line to FamilySearch. After a free FamilySearch registration you can search it from inside the app, and the Interactive Tree shows which relatives are available to download. You can also send your own work back up, though Synium notes that "you can only share data relating to deceased persons." Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also get ordinance sync.
Treat those downloads with care. A relative pulled from the FamilySearch Family Tree is a conclusion someone else reached, and it can be wrong. We wrote a whole post on judging a FamilySearch profile before you trust it. Everything else is a web search. The tech specs list "Search on about 20 websites such as Ancestry, FindAGrave, MyHeritage", run as searches from inside the app. Nothing syncs with Ancestry. If that is what you need, Family Tree Maker is the program built for it.
Nothing in the demo's published limits stops you opening your file.
On paper, this is where MacFamilyTree beats Reunion most clearly. Reunion's demo disables import, so you cannot look at your own tree before paying. MacFamilyTree's demo restrictions are a different list: no saving, no printing, no data export, no CloudTree or iCloud sync, no colorization. Import is not on it, though the app's welcome window also warns that "some other features" are unavailable, and we did not run an import ourselves. The app states the bargain plainly: "While there is no time limit in the demo of MacFamilyTree, please be aware that saving any entered data is not possible."
If import works as the list implies, you can bring in your GEDCOM, look around the charts and see how your sources and places came through. Check that first. Either way you cannot export the result, which means the round trip, out of MacFamilyTree and into something else, stays untested until you have paid. The tech specs promise "Support for GEDCOM 5.5.1 as well as GEDCOM 7", merging on import and an "Option to hide private information or information concerning living people" on export. Before you import, open your file in our GEDCOM viewer so you know what went in, and read what a GEDCOM leaves behind for what tends to fall out between programs.
The sticker says $69.99, but the price keeps moving.
Right now Synium's page shows US$ 34.99 for a new licence and US$ 24.99 to upgrade from version 10 or earlier, under the line "Only for a short time: 50% discount for new customers, 65% on upgrades". The Mac App Store charges the same $34.99. Archived copies of the page tell the longer story. In the months after version 11 launched in January 2025, up to 15 June that year, it ran 50% off for everyone. In September 2025 it was $49.99 new and $34.99 to upgrade. From November 2025 until late August 2026 it sat at full price, $69.99 new and $49.99 to upgrade. The 65% upgrade figure is calculated from $69.99, so against the usual $49.99 upgrade price the saving is about half.
Two details matter before you pay. The upgrade discount only works through the direct download: the app looks for an older version on your Mac and offers the lower price after you register a Synium ID. Buy on the App Store and you pay the new-customer price. And the major versions are paid. Synium's own history puts version 8 in spring 2016, 9 in 2019, 10 three years later and 11 in early 2025, so budget for an upgrade roughly every three years. The phone and iPad app is a separate purchase, US$ 29.99 at list and $14.99 in the current sale. At full price, Mac plus iPhone comes to $99.98, about what Reunion charges for its Mac licence alone.
The software is current. The shop window disagrees with itself.
We downloaded the build on Synium's site and checked it. MacFamilyTree 11.3.3 is a universal binary with Intel and Apple Silicon code, signed by Synium on 16 September 2026 and notarized by Apple. It needs macOS 12 Monterey or later, and Synium lists macOS 27 Golden Gate as supported. The version history shows four releases in August and September 2026 alone. This is not abandoned software.
The website is another matter. The main page says "MacFamilyTree is available exclusively on the Mac App Store." The buying page sells it directly and adds "Alternatively, MacFamilyTree 11 is also available at the Mac App Store". The App Store listing promises "Everything stays local - unless you upload data manually", while the what's new page credits its faster photo colorization and editing tools to "Significant speed improvements of our AI servers". We read that to mean a photo you colorize leaves your Mac for Synium's servers. That is your choice to make, but make it knowing where the photo goes. On the US Mac App Store, the version 11 listing does not yet have enough ratings to show an average. MobileFamilyTree 11 averages 4.7 out of 5 across 651.
Who should buy it.
Buy MacFamilyTree if your family is on Apple devices and you want more than one person working on the tree. None of the other Mac programs we have reviewed makes that as easy, and CloudTree costs nothing extra. It also suits anyone who already uses FamilySearch and wants charts, books and a family website out of it. Wait for a sale if you can, because the price history suggests another will come. Buy it on the direct download if you own an older version.
Pick Reunion instead if you work alone and want a careful document editor and big printed charts. Pick Gramps if the budget is zero. And if anyone in the family uses Windows as their main computer, test CloudTreeWeb with them before you commit. Our guide to genealogy software for Mac maps the rest of the platform, and the best genealogy software comparison puts it against the paid desktop field.
