Kunbaa is for families who want a private tree of the people alive today — with everyone's birthday on it, the photos and stories beside it, and the relatives building it together — rather than a documented tree of ancestors with sources attached.
Ancestry is a genealogy research library: billions of historical records, AncestryDNA, hints and documented trees that reach back centuries, bought per researcher. Kunbaa is a private, invite-only app for the living family: a tree everyone builds together with no size cap, a wall where photos keep their names and dates, events with birthday reminders, and chat and calls in the app. Everyone joins Kunbaa free; Kunbaa has no records and no DNA, and imports a GEDCOM file on the web rather than fetching a tree from Ancestry.
At a glance, as of September 2026. Kunbaa facts describe the current release; Ancestry facts are quoted from its own site.
| Compared | Kunbaa | Ancestry |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | The living family: one private place for the tree, photos, stories, birthdays and events | Genealogy research: historical records, DNA and documented ancestor trees |
| Living relatives | The whole point. Everyone gets their own place on the tree with their birthday on it, visible to the family, and adds their own branch | Living people are usually kept private on a tree; the focus is documenting the deceased |
| Historical records and DNA | None. No records, no DNA, no research hints | Billions of historical records, AncestryDNA testing and hints |
| Photos and stories | A wall for photos, videos, stories and voice notes, captioned with who, where and roughly when, with an audience per post; Memory Lane runs it as a timeline | Media attached to research profiles as sources and documentation |
| Everyday family life | Events with birthday reminders and to-dos on the web today; chat, calls and opt-in Family Safety in the Kunbaa app, coming soon | Not the focus; research tools rather than a family calendar or feed |
| Children | On the tree and in the photos, added by adults; every account is held by an adult (18+) | Built for adult researchers |
| Who joins | Everyone in the family joins free; one person pays for Kunbaa Plus when the family wants room for the whole archive | Each researcher needs a membership; the All Access plan includes 4 seats |
| Tree files (GEDCOM) | GEDCOM import on kunbaa.com, matched to the people already in your tree and confirmed before anything is written; GEDCOM export and tree merging are not switched on yet | GEDCOM import and export are long-established |
| Price | Free to start, with no cap on the tree. Kunbaa Plus is $15.99/mo or $159.99/yr for the whole family (yearly is about $13 a month for the whole family) | US Discovery $229/yr · World Explorer $319/yr · All Access $479/yr (includes 4 seats), as of mid-2026 |
You have four hundred sourced ancestors on Ancestry, and your cousins have never opened it. Kunbaa is where the living family sees the result: a tree they can add to, the scanned albums beside it, and your grandmother's voice telling the story of the crossing.
Dad knows every name back four generations and has never written one down. Put them on the tree with him, record the stories as voice notes, and give the grandchildren a place to see where they come from — in a space only the family can enter.
The family left in three directions two generations ago. On Kunbaa each branch adds itself, the birthdays come off the tree so nobody is forgotten, and the reunion photos land beside the people in them.
Ancestry is good at its job. This is the plain list of what changes if your family moves this part of its life to Kunbaa.
Everyone you invite gets their own place on the tree, their photo and their birthday, and adds the relatives only they know. Both sides, all the branches, no cap on the free tree. Relatives who have passed stay where they belong; children are added by adults without an account.
The Kunbaa family tree →
Ancestry attaches a photo to a profile as a source. Kunbaa puts it on the family wall with who, where and roughly when in the caption, beside the person on the tree — and lets you choose who sees it: everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household. Memory Lane runs the archive as a timeline.
The wall and Memory Lane →
Every birthday on the tree becomes a reminder. Plan the reunion as an event with a to-do list, keep it to the relatives it concerns, and attach the photos afterwards so the day is kept as a day.
Events and reminders →
Group and one-to-one chat, and calls that start from a relative's page on the tree: voice and video one-to-one, and group calls of up to 4 people including you free (up to 6 on Kunbaa Plus). Only relatives in your family space can ring you. Chat and calls arrive with the Kunbaa app, coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
Chat and calls in Kunbaa →An admin decides, per relative, whether they can add people to the tree, post to the wall, or message members, and a relative can request more access from inside the app. Every account is held by an adult, so the tree stays in the hands of the people you invited.
How private is Kunbaa? →For keeping your living family — a real tree with everyone's birthday on it, and a wall that keeps the photos and stories with the names written down — yes. For researching ancestors it is not: Kunbaa has no historical records, no DNA and no research hints, so if that is the job, Ancestry is the right tool. Many families use both.
Yes, as a file. Export your Ancestry tree as a GEDCOM (Tree settings → Export tree) and import it on kunbaa.com in a browser: Kunbaa matches it against the people already in your tree and writes nothing until you confirm. Kunbaa reads nothing from Ancestry itself, and merging two Kunbaa trees is not switched on in this release.
No. Kunbaa has no DNA features, no record collections and no hints. It is a tree of the family you know, with the photos and stories beside it. For records and DNA, Ancestry is built for exactly that.
Only the relatives you invite. A Kunbaa family space is invite-only and cannot be searched, there are no ads, nobody's data is sold, and there are no public member trees. An admin sets per-member permissions for adding to the tree, posting and messaging.
No. Everyone in the family joins Kunbaa free and can build the tree, share on the wall and join events. When the family wants room for the whole archive, one person takes Kunbaa Plus at $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, about $13 a month for the whole family, and it covers every relative. Ancestry memberships are per researcher, with All Access including 4 seats.
No. The tree is free for the whole family with no cap on people — both sides, all the branches, as many generations as you know.
Yes. Children are added to the tree by an adult and appear in the photos; they do not hold an account, because every Kunbaa account is for adults aged 18 and over. Adults keep it; kids are in it.
Everyone in the family joins Kunbaa free, and the tree has no cap. Kunbaa Plus is $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, paid by one person, and keeps the family's archive: longer videos, room for the whole family's photos, and chat photos kept while the family is on Plus. Ancestry's US memberships run from $229 to $479 a year per researcher, as of mid-2026.
More questions? Read the full FAQ or what private means in Kunbaa.
Put your parents, your siblings and the cousins on a private tree, invite them to add their side, and let the photos and stories gather beside the people they belong to.
Everyone in the family joins free. When you want room for the whole archive, one person takes Kunbaa Plus at $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year — about $13 a month for the whole family.