Review Insights · Google Play
Ancestry: Family History & DNA
Ancestry.com · 183,595 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
183,595 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 44 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"ancestry"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The app itself works great but as of right now I cannot cancel any membership because there's a error and it says contact Ancestry but they are experiencing high volume calls. Very inconvenient and inconsistent. Also the Ai chat isnt workin…" - Wesley
2
"subscription"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Been using ancestry for months. No issues.Had to cancel subscription for one month. No issue. I went to reinstate with the same payment method and now I've lost the $24.99 if Google Play doesn't refund me as ancestry doesn't do refunds." - Robert Chambliss
3
"family"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It's a classic rent-seeking scam. They gatekeep public-domain and user-generated data behind a $720/year paywall, deliver mediocre or inaccurate results, and farm your family history + DNA like it's their property. It also takes advantage o…" - W
4
"every"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I haven't been able to log in properly for almost 3 months. Every time I click on "DNA"; "Insight"; etc, the screen is either black or says that my internet connection is down. The connection's there. It's disappointing." - Shani Lowther
5
"month"
5 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I haven't been able to log in properly for almost 3 months. Every time I click on "DNA"; "Insight"; etc, the screen is either black or says that my internet connection is down. The connection's there. It's disappointing." - Shani Lowther
📋 All 44 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
it begged for a review.
why can't it be private, why can just anyone see it , not sure I like that idea
The app itself works great but as of right now I cannot cancel any membership because there's a error and it says contact Ancestry but they are experiencing high volume calls. Very inconvenient and inconsistent. Also the Ai chat isnt working conveniently too.
I was a member for many years. As a retired person the cost is just way to high. Very sad to end my researching.
Impossible sign on / reset
I haven't been able to log in properly for almost 3 months. Every time I click on "DNA"; "Insight"; etc, the screen is either black or says that my internet connection is down. The connection's there. It's disappointing.
Been using ancestry for months. No issues.Had to cancel subscription for one month. No issue. I went to reinstate with the same payment method and now I've lost the $24.99 if Google Play doesn't refund me as ancestry doesn't do refunds.
blurry images and information hidden behind $30/mo subscription. not affordable or helpful when it suggests records nowhere near the actual dates you already entered.
glitch
It's a classic rent-seeking scam. They gatekeep public-domain and user-generated data behind a $720/year paywall, deliver mediocre or inaccurate results, and farm your family history + DNA like it's their property. It also takes advantage of people who just want to know more about their loved ones and ancestors by dangling emotional 'connect with your roots' marketing, then locking the info behind a bloated subscription for often-shoddy data. Subscription traps and data exploitation at its best
They don't do what they say they're going to
you never used to have to subscribe to see shared matches.
I use to be able see my cousin and aunt family trees now I can't.
As someone who has previously used the ancestry app for years and just downloaded it back onto my new phone, this new version is crummy. Errors everytime I try to add anyone to my tree. What a pain. Why would I pay for a subscription if y'all can't even get the basics to work? :|
Took 5 attempts to reset my password. Finally got in and it's just a page saying Gathering Historical Records 😬
Shame on this company, they stole my DNA kit! I paid full price, mailed it in their own little mailer box, and they claim they don't even know where it is, they are refusing to do anything about it! 😤 Scammers!!
I haven't checked on my tree for a couple of months. And when I did there was no tree. They're trying to say I deleted it. Which is a lie. Also, I had a DNA test done with them, no access to it .
cant log in anymore.
has my DNA but can't access anything on the app or websiteu less I fork over cash cor an astro omi alamount every month...joke....
app no longer functional. if you try to sign in, it says it can reach the ancestry servers. Even trying the website, I get some weird cryptic error message. Ancestry has massively fallen off. kinda wishing I used 23 and me instead years later.
they have taken away things that were free, and now I can't even get to the trees that I already had linked to mine. This company sucks
too much gibberish why would I be interested in other people with my name also too many features locked behind subscriptions over all a somewhat useless tool
don't go here, especially on a free trial, it's nearly impossible to cancel!!!!!!!!
I can barely login. the app looks so ghetto. I want a DNA kit. nothing works on the app. I have the newest version. what is going on? 😭 I need to find my sister, Jennifer Marcum!!!
I just seen to go around in circles using the app, I have over 500 connected relatives and not one of them has any photos and I don't find any of them in other users trees. I check every day for hints and none of them are relevant, it's making me think twice about my subscription, also, what happened to my DNA that I submitted and complained about, it's been 9mths, is anyone going to get back to me? And why so many updates? nothing seems to change with app
too pricey 😔 not real user friendly.
Entertaining. Changes often. Persistently trying to up sell.
used to be brilliant but they now want you to pay $30 PER MONTH to fund out about your own family... what a disgrace
they've changed the features to extract more money from customers. not paying for what was free. they must've lost their minds
can't get into my records for 2 years
Why do I have to pay every time to get information
One of thing that is crazy about this is that they say you one percent something. The biggest lie ever been told. Another one of biggest things is, they say you everything in the world that you name in the country, how? I know that's a huge lie. you're only one or 2 nation and nothing more, find something where people are like honest with your DNA. Ancestry is trash and lies about your heritage.
how dare you guys keep us from taking screenshots
Spent over £1000 on ancestry kits for you to take away all the tools. No shared matches? What's the point of it then? Copying chunks of other people's trees so easily was a disaster aswell. 1 star just plain greedy. My tree got mangled and you want £20 a month to fix it. Can I get all my money back?
they charge a cancelation fee to cancel.
very difficult to move around
I paid for the kit them paid for a monthly subscription for 6 months all to find out who my real dad is and his side of family and hasn't this app hasn't even gotten me close to finding him.
Ancestry has a lot of problems that they need to correct and they have started charging for everything that used to not cost extra. It has strong points but unless you buy the top dollar package, you'll get frustrated because you can't see all the information.
difficult to navigate
This app is now frequently crashing i got a message on ancestry it has a bug app update might fix it ??
As for the app itself, the layout isn't bad. It offers a lot of information without having to search for it, that being said, the amount of things they have put behind a paywall is absolutely insane. I shouldn't have to pay hundreds of dollars just to learn about my family. Also, ever since some update, everytime I look at hints it gives me an error. I'll usually have to go back and click it again multiple times just to load. It didn't used to have this problem, and yes, my app is "up to date."
disappointed that I'm unable to pull up photos and other images.
You used to be able to expand all family members to see your entire tree so you could potentially see where you left off and which part you were working on . now you can't do that you can only expand so far and work in smaller sections which makes things more difficult when you're communicating with family and researching your heritage.
they charge too much. not everybody can afford that every month should be a one-time fee. there's so much research you can do looking online yourself that's more accurate.
Sentiment summary
91%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
6%
Negative (1-2★)