website thubmnail of RootsMagic
How would you rate RootsMagic?
grey star
grey star
grey star
grey star
grey star
Washington
16 reviews
17 helpful votes
Follow Mike B.
Unfollow Mike B.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Must pay for hints
August 27, 2024

I used to like RootsMagic. Now...

Try to get hints, get hints from findmypast. Need subscription to view their hints! Hints from My Heritage. Need subscription for My Heritage hints. Why even bother to give hints I don't have access to? If I had the money to pay for EVERY genealogy website out there I would just hire a professional genealogist and be done with it. HINTS ARE USELESS IF I CANNOT ACCESS THEM! I cannot find a way to turn off their useless hints when I try to get hints, so if I try to get hints, they expect me to PAY FOR THEM!

Date of experience: August 27, 2024
Colorado
3 reviews
26 helpful votes
Follow Nancy J.
Unfollow Nancy J.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Have had RootsMagic 7 Mac for about 6 weeks. Just when I think I've resolved one issue... another comes along. I've spent hours just having to figure out why it's not doing this, or not doing that. Called their customer service and was told "oh, it's a Mac issue... don't know much about that, the person who usually takes care of Macs is gone. You might trying calling when it's not 5 minutes before we leave for the day". Other customer service calls were equally frustrating, so most times I'm left to my own devices. Big disappointment.

Date of experience: August 22, 2016
Pennsylvania
1 review
6 helpful votes
Follow Jill W.
Unfollow Jill W.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Too many glitches
July 16, 2022

I really wanted to love this program but the amount of glitches is unacceptable. Half my ancestory sync people match to "unknown." I can't transfer more than one category of sourced at a time without getting an error message and it is not user friendly. I will be switching to a different program when I can afford it. RM 8 has the ability to be great but it's now been over nine months since it was released which is plenty of time to work out the bugs, especially with the number of errors reported but they don't seem to care. Save your money and find a different program.

Date of experience: July 16, 2022
Washington
1 review
23 helpful votes
Follow Miles G.
Unfollow Miles G.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

A Total Letdown!
November 7, 2021

Version 8 is, in my humble opinion, a HUGE letdown. It's clunky at best and very difficult at its worst. Version 7, as it's been pointed out, was a smoother, more user friendly. I was able to memorize keystrokes to achieve what I needed to do. With Version 8, it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to generate a Family Group report. Hey, RootsMagic, make Version 8 more like Version 7 in looks and abilities. I've chosen not to use Version 8... I'll just write the amount I wasted on my upcoming taxes. Or, better yet, find a better genealogy program... now that's a good idea.

Date of experience: November 7, 2021
Georgia
1 review
21 helpful votes
Follow Larry W.
Unfollow Larry W.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Terrible program
October 16, 2021

Terrible program, what a let down, version 7 was better looking and more user friendly. Total waste of my money. Won't be using version 8 and thank God I still have v7. I'm a retired IT tech and this program is NOT an improvement.

Date of experience: October 16, 2021
Connecticut
3 reviews
7 helpful votes
Follow S A.
Unfollow S A.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

This is similar to the old LDS PAF program for Windows that I used in the past so the learning curve was easy. I like the 'Rootsweb to GO" feature that let's "bring" your file with you portable devices. I even bought copies of the program for family members without any genealogy software to share "our tree."

Date of experience: December 17, 2018
Australia
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
Follow Tania T.
Unfollow Tania T.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

I wanted to list all those on my tree who had lived in a particular place and my husband said it would be a nice feature but that it couldn't be done on My Heritage. I quickly called the Helpline, was on hold for no more than 20 secs and then spoke to the charming and helpful Talia who handheld me as she walked me through the minimum of steps to reach my goal. Brilliant solution and even better support from Talia.

Date of experience: January 30, 2018
Germany
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Kurt B.
Unfollow Kurt B.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

This is a good idea letting the elder generation talk to young members of family. It can be very helpful transporting little stories and historical motovation.
How nice would it be to include speach of grands?

Date of experience: September 3, 2018
Texas
1 review
15 helpful votes
Follow WJ M.
Unfollow WJ M.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

A major mis-step
December 22, 2021

RootsMagic 8 is kludgy and counterintuitive. For some unknown reason, the developers have eliminated all of the single key commands that made entering genealogical data quick and painless on previous versions. They've completely sacrificed ease of use and the needs of the genealogist for a cartoonish UX that forces the user to hunt for buttons to accomplish what used to be done with a couple of keystrokes. I ditched it after an hour and have gone back to RM7.

Date of experience: December 22, 2021
Virginia
1 review
9 helpful votes
Follow Robin M.
Unfollow Robin M.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Version 8 belongs in the trash
May 18, 2022

Software upgrades should improve usability, features, and user interface. Yet Version 8 is like time traveling back to 1982. We want to do family history not relive history.

Date of experience: May 18, 2022
Indiana
3 reviews
9 helpful votes
Follow Charles M.
Unfollow Charles M.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

RootsMagic 8 Scam
May 31, 2021

How many have been taken in by the RootsMagic 8 scam/vaporware? I was looking to upgarde my genealogy software so I bought into the lie that RootsMagic 8 would be released "soon" and buying version 7 would include the upcoming release. These people have been selling their v. 7 with a free license for a non-existant v. 8 for well over a year now promising a free upgrade "when available". They certainly took me for $30, and a year and a half later the promised upgrade is still just a rumor.

Date of experience: May 31, 2021
Texas
1 review
6 helpful votes
Follow Jim B.
Unfollow Jim B.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

RM8 - Any day now?
September 5, 2020

I have been waiting - as I am sure most Mac users have - for going on a year for the release of RM8. The Mac wrapper of RM7 has started locking up my Mac running Catalina. I have neither the time nor the patience to continue with ‘any day now'. Synium's MacTree 9. 1. 2 works fine and is actually available.

Date of experience: September 5, 2020
Florida
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Corey G.
Unfollow Corey G.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Not for MAC
January 6, 2023

Don't bother if you want to load it it on a MAC. Total garbage, crashes and freezes up constantly. They're own support admitted the MAC version had known bugs but they sell it anyway. Criminal

Date of experience: January 6, 2023
Delaware
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow Henry D.
Unfollow Henry D.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

The development timeline, poor performance and recent lack of updates betray a failed business plan. In an attempt to capture a larger share of the Mac market by updating a successful product the company has bit off more than it can chew.
It appears that Rootsmagic is little more than a garage operation with only 3 identifiable employees - far too few to support an effort of this magnitude. This was evident when they failed to appear at RootsTech - a premier marquee event for all genealogical software.
Their pricing history on previous versions (too low) has failed to accumulate sufficient cash to hire the manpower necessary to support this update. This has resulted in a delayed and disastrous product introduction which was partly rescued by a rapid series of updates. Unfortunately, the updates have slowed to a crawl and customer frustration has mounted. Its not clear that they can reverse this death spiral without a cash infusion to hire the required programmers.
Don't be surprised if Rootsmagic changes hands or, worse, ceases to exist.

Date of experience: July 28, 2022
Georgia
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
Follow Selma B.
Unfollow Selma B.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

My favorite feature, beside the ease of use, is the "Tree Share." This feature gives me the control of what to accept and not accept for my research. Thank you, Roots Magic!

Date of experience: June 3, 2018
Australia
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
Follow Gus C.
Unfollow Gus C.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Membership renewal
July 5, 2018

Excellent service nothing was any trouble. Good program and easy to use, recommend it to anyone doing their Family Tree.

Date of experience: July 4, 2018
Australia
0 reviews
8 helpful votes
Follow Peter N.
Unfollow Peter N.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

RM7 was great bnut RM8 is just garbage. Freezes all the tiem on the simplest of tasks and has to be killed in task manager or by rebooting. DO NOT BUY!

Date of experience: January 18, 2022
Indiana
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Cindy K.
Unfollow Cindy K.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Thieves.
March 26, 2022

I had never even heard of Roots Magic before they charged my debit card. Nothing but thieves. Trying to get a refund.

Date of experience: March 26, 2022
Utah
2 reviews
5 helpful votes
Follow AJ S.
Unfollow AJ S.
Send Message
Share Review
Report Review

Great Program
August 27, 2018

I use this program often for housing my own family history records and it has always worked beautifully

Date of experience: August 27, 2018

Overview

RootsMagic has a rating of 2.2 stars from 20 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. RootsMagic ranks 4th among Genealogy sites.

service
6
value
8
shipping
4
returns
3
quality
7