Best free pedigree makers 2026: 10 genuinely free tools, compared fairly

Short version. For clinical work, Progeny Cloud is the strongest free option — HIPAA compliant, backed by Ambry Genetics, and free forever. For cancer risk specifically, CanRisk from Cambridge is the authoritative free tool (BOADICEA plus CanRisk-Prostate). For research, QuickPed is the reference. FamGenix has a free Individual tier for patients and clinicians. Evagene is free during its Alpha. Below, each tool honestly evaluated with strengths, limitations, and who it actually suits.

Our bar for this list: the tool must be usable for its intended purpose without paying. "Free to try for 14 days" does not qualify. "Free to draw but pay to export" does not qualify. Tools with a generous free Individual or Research tier that is open-ended do qualify.

How we evaluated

• Actually free. Open-ended access without payment, credit card, or "free trial" time limit.
• Pedigree validity. Uses standard NSGC/ISCN notation, not a generic shape library.
• Clinical fitness. Compliance posture (HIPAA where relevant), data handling, vendor credibility.
• Export and portability. GEDCOM, PED, PNG/SVG, JSON — can you get your data out?
• Risk or kinship computation. Where applicable, which models are included in the free tier.
• Audience fit. Clinician, counsellor, patient, student, researcher.
• Trajectory. Is this a mature free tool or a beta with an unclear future?

The 10 free pedigree makers, ranked by fit

1. Progeny Cloud — best free clinical pedigree tool

Progeny Cloud is, in honesty, the free pedigree tool with the strongest clinical provenance. Launched in 2015 by Ambry Genetics as a cost-free cloud companion to Progeny Clinical, it is HIPAA compliant, secure, flexible, and includes a Family History Questionnaire (FHQ) for patient data capture. This is the closest any free tool comes to "a real clinical pedigree app you do not pay for." If you are a small clinic, an individual counsellor, or a training programme that needs a credible free option, start here.

Limitations: less feature-rich than the paid Progeny Clinical. Some advanced integration, customisation, and risk-model configurations sit in the paid tier. Vendor concentration is worth thinking about — Progeny Cloud is run by Ambry, a genetic testing laboratory, and some centres weight test-ordering neutrality in their selection criteria. But as a pedigree tool, this is free with genuine clinical credibility. Price: free forever. Who it's for: small clinics, solo counsellors, trainees, training programmes.

2. CanRisk — best free cancer risk tool

CanRisk is the Cambridge web interface to BOADICEA (breast, ovarian) and CanRisk-Prostate. Free with registration. Endorsed by NICE, NCCN, and ESMO. Available in seven languages. Backed by the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, and Genome Canada. If you need computed, clinically-endorsed hereditary cancer risk, this is the reference free tool. See our hereditary cancer risk assessment guide.

Limitations: CanRisk is a risk calculator with a pedigree interface attached, not a general pedigree manager. It will not serve as your clinic's single source of truth for non-cancer pedigrees, rare disease, or reproductive genetics. Use it alongside a general pedigree tool, not instead of one. Price: free with registration. Who it's for: familial cancer services, breast cancer clinics, hereditary prostate clinics.

3. FamGenix Individual — best free tier from a commercial clinical vendor

FamGenix's free Individual tier gives patients and clinicians access to a clinical-grade pedigree tool with a real cancer risk engine in the background (BOADICEA, Tyrer-Cuzick, Gail, Claus, QRISK3, BayesMendel in the paid Provider Portal). HIPAA and GINA compliant, regional data residency (US, Canada, UK-EU, Australia). The free tier is generous enough for individual use and family history collection.

Limitations: the most sophisticated multi-model risk screening sits in the paid Provider Portal, as do the institutional features that make FamGenix a serious enterprise tool. The free tier is a genuine entry point rather than a watered-down demo. Price: free Individual. Who it's for: patients building family history, individual clinicians, cancer counselling.

4. Evagene Alpha — best free AI-first pedigree tool

Evagene (disclosure: our product) is free during its Alpha via a waiting list. You get browser-based pedigree drawing with gesture mode, BRCAPRO/MMRpro/PancPRO and Mendelian risk models, a 200+ disease catalogue with ICD-10 and OMIM annotation, AI interpretation with bring-your-own-key LLM support (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT), Analysis Templates, a REST API, webhooks, an embeddable viewer, and an MCP server exposing 11 tools to Claude Desktop and Claude Code.

Limitations: Alpha means some rough edges, features under active development, and a product that is not yet in general availability. If you need the certifications and track record of a decade-old product today, Progeny Cloud is a better fit; if you want the modern AI surface and are happy with Alpha status, Evagene is uniquely broad in the free category. Price: free Alpha. Who it's for: AI-curious clinicians, teams integrating pedigrees into bespoke tooling, researchers using agent-based AI.

5. QuickPed — best free research tool

QuickPed from Magnus Vigeland at Oslo is a Shiny application and the reference free tool for computing kinship, inbreeding, and identity coefficients. Published in BMC Bioinformatics in 2022 and GPL3 licensed. Built for researchers and educators.

Limitations: no disease catalogue, no clinical governance, no EHR integration, no risk models in the clinical sense. Deliberately so — it is a precise mathematical tool, not a clinical app. Price: free, open-source. Who it's for: statistical geneticists, population geneticists, teaching pedigree mathematics.

6. FastFamilyTree — best no-PHI free counsellor tool

FastFamilyTree was built by a genetic counsellor, is NSGC 2022 compliant, and stores no PHI. This is genuinely useful for specific cases: rapid sketch pedigrees, teaching, patient education, or environments where you cannot store identifiable data.

Limitations: no persistent data, so not useful for longitudinal clinical records; no risk models, no AI, no EHR integration. But as a clean, counsellor-built, no-PHI drawing tool, it is excellent. Price: free. Who it's for: counsellors wanting a quick sketch tool, teaching, patient education.

7. DrawPed — best open-source programmatic tool

DrawPed (Schönberger et al., Nucleic Acids Research 2024) is a free, open-source (CC BY-SA 4.0), Perl-based pedigree tool using the PED format. It offers programmatic access, reproducibility, and fits into computational genetics pipelines.

Limitations: Perl-based tooling, PED-format focused — geared at computational researchers rather than clinicians. No clinical features, no UI polish, no risk models. Price: free, open-source. Who it's for: computational geneticists, bioinformatics pipelines, reproducible research.

8. CeGaT Pedigree Chart Designer — best free desktop Java tool

CeGaT's Pedigree Chart Designer is a free Java desktop application that produces PNG pedigrees with embedded metadata. No cloud, no data leaves the machine. Its strength is exactly that: it runs locally.

Limitations: desktop-only, Java runtime required, no cloud backup, no collaboration, no risk models, no real integration surface. For a privacy-absolutist or offline environment, it fits; for modern cloud workflows it will feel constrained. Price: free. Who it's for: offline use, privacy-absolutist environments, teaching.

9. ConceptViz — best free AI pedigree chart maker

ConceptViz is a free AI pedigree chart maker aimed at biology classes, genetic counselling demos, and research contexts. It uses AI to generate pedigree charts from text input.

Limitations: oriented to illustrative use rather than clinical diagnostics. No claim to clinical governance. Expect limitations on notation nuance and validation compared with purpose-built clinical tools. Price: free. Who it's for: educators, students, illustrative or concept work.

10. genoDraw / PERSEUS — best free academic web tools

genoDraw (PMC 2020) is an academic web tool that supports standard human pedigree nomenclature plus biomedical vocabularies. PERSEUS from Oxford (Bioinformatics 2024) is an interactive web-based pedigree visualisation tool. Both are free academic tools targeted at research and methodology.

Limitations: academic maintenance models vary. Neither is a substitute for a clinical pedigree platform. Treat as research and methodology tools, not clinical production systems. Price: free. Who it's for: research groups, methodology development, teaching.

Comparison matrix

Which to choose if...

• You are a solo counsellor or small clinic needing a credible free clinical tool: Progeny Cloud.
• You are in a familial cancer service and need BOADICEA: CanRisk.
• You are a patient or individual building family history: FamGenix Individual, or your clinic's Progeny Cloud instance.
• You want modern AI interpretation with your own LLM keys, at no cost today: Evagene Alpha.
• You are a statistical geneticist computing kinship or identity coefficients: QuickPed.
• You need to teach pedigrees without storing PHI: FastFamilyTree.
• You are building a computational genetics pipeline: DrawPed.
• You must work entirely offline: CeGaT Pedigree Chart Designer.
• You are preparing teaching materials or concept diagrams: ConceptViz.
• You are a research group exploring new visualisation methods: genoDraw or PERSEUS.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Best pedigree software 2026
• Best pedigree software for genetic counsellors
• Best hereditary cancer risk tools
• Best pedigree software for research
• Pedigree drawing software guide
• Alternatives to major pedigree platforms