MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

[romad]

I just received an invite to purchase MFT7 for $30.00 about 50% off the full price. I'm considering doing so as in reviews MFT is almost neck-and-neck with Reunion (though both trail Family Tree Maker).

Has anyone here tried MFT7? If so, how does it compare to Reunion?

[alan]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

Hi,

I have tried both Family Tree Maker (Ancestry) and the MacFamily Tree programmes ( I don't have them now) and whilst both have some good features nothing really
compares with Reunion.

Sure, there are always some things one would like to see in any programme, but to me
overall, Reunion holds first place.

If you can, go with Reunion.

Alan

[SGilbert]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

If your ratings say that they both trail FTM, then I suspect the rating was rigged! I've used FTM (PC version) at a genealogy group I belong to, and can only say that Reunion is 'leaps & bounds' above it. No comparison in my mind.

[bbousquet]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

I just received an invite to purchase MFT7 for $30.00 about 50% off the full price. I'm considering doing so as in reviews MFT is almost neck-and-neck with Reunion (though both trail Family Tree Maker).

Has anyone here tried MFT7? If so, how does it compare to Reunion?

I tried the demo version with my 70000 individual file (exported as a GEDCOM from Reunion 10). It has a polished UI and produces nice looking charts but it was COMPLETELY unusable with a database this size. It is plagued by the same performance issues as its predecessor (version 6) and I still haven't figured out why the charting module generates the chart as soon as you select it in the list (before you can even tweak the settings). End result? Just opening the charting module and picking something like the ancestor chart would essentially put the app in lollipop / spinning color wheel mode for nearly 5 minutes.

Please note that I'm running this on a quad-core i5 3.1 GHz iMac with 16 GB of RAM. This same machine runs Reunion 10 with barely any delays.

I also haven't revisited that part of MFT, but it used to be severely lacking as far as sourcing went.

My impressions are unchanged from version 6: MFT is a beautiful app that's designed for small databases (probably up to 10000 individuals). I'll stick with the less flashy Reunion for the foreseeable future.

[martha]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

I just received an invite to purchase MFT7 for $30.00 about 50% off the full price. I'm considering doing so as in reviews MFT is almost neck-and-neck with Reunion (though both trail Family Tree Maker).

Has anyone here tried MFT7? If so, how does it compare to Reunion?

I received Mac Family Tree as a prize and I thought maybe their trees might be interesting, so I tried it. It was totally useless, because it could not correctly import Reunion's gedcom. It was a total loss and I was happy that I did not have to pay any money for that useless waste of time. Moreover, when I wrote to them about it, their response was also totally unhelpful. There is nothing like the responsiveness of the Leister team at Reunion!

[suzivegemite]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

While I can't speak on MacFamily Tree 7, I do own version 6 and have used version 5. I have a very small tree less than 1000 individuals and I have experienced crashes and once I lost some data. The ONLY reason I still have it loaded is that I really like the way their charts 'look'. When I send charts to relatives, most of them not really interested in family history but want to see some basic info, I import a gedcom from Reunion, which is my preferred software, into MFT.
Visually, I prefer the 'look' of MFT to Reunion but I'll never trust the software to hold all my research.
In my opinion, Reunion wins hands down in all other areas, I can't speak highly enough about the program and it's developers. I've learned more about gedcoms and sources in the last year (since buying Reunion) than I did in the last 20 years.

[bbousquet]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

While I can't speak on MacFamily Tree 7, I do own version 6 and have used version 5. I have a very small tree less than 1000 individuals and I have experienced crashes and once I lost some data. The ONLY reason I still have it loaded is that I really like the way their charts 'look'. When I send charts to relatives, most of them not really interested in family history but want to see some basic info, I import a gedcom from Reunion, which is my preferred software, into MFT.
Visually, I prefer the 'look' of MFT to Reunion but I'll never trust the software to hold all my research.
In my opinion, Reunion wins hands down in all other areas, I can't speak highly enough about the program and it's developers. I've learned more about gedcoms and sources in the last year (since buying Reunion) than I did in the last 20 years.

Another genealogy app which is a good complement to Reunion for generating charts is Heredis (their new, "blue" version that's available for both Mac & PC). It's slower and less feature-rich than Reunion but it does produce beautiful fan charts which are great gifts for family once you get them printed poster-sized.

I do agree, however, that Reunion is the app I trust my data with. It might not have all the fancy bells & whistles but it's fast, efficient and versatile.

On a side note, I guess the folks at Synium Software (editor of MFT) were paying attention to this forum or the EOGN blog as they contacted me regarding the performance issues - I emailed them my GEDCOM so they can figure out what's wrong - if anything.

[bbousquet]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

Another genealogy app which is a good complement to Reunion for generating charts is Heredis (their new, "blue" version that's available for both Mac & PC). It's slower and less feature-rich than Reunion but it does produce beautiful fan charts which are great gifts for family once you get them printed poster-sized.

I do agree, however, that Reunion is the app I trust my data with. It might not have all the fancy bells & whistles but it's fast, efficient and versatile.

On a side note, I guess the folks at Synium Software (editor of MFT) were paying attention to this forum or the EOGN blog as they contacted me regarding the performance issues - I emailed them my GEDCOM so they can figure out what's wrong - if anything.

Update on this topic: I must commend them (Synium) for addressing the issue rapidly. I was in touch with one of their developers earlier today and he acknowledged the issues I experienced. He said they had optimizations on the way that should fix the problem. I just thought it was fair for me to update everyone on this.

[mwphelps]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

I am curious if anyone who uses MFT ever uses the 3-D tree display for anything. It is the feature most often pitched about this program, but having tried it out, I often wonder if any genealogist takes it seriously. Yeah, you can rotate the tree around and view it from different angles, but so what? There is NO labeling on the tree display itself until you hover over a person icon. Looking through the tree often makes branches in the background or foreground intermingle with the branch you want to examine. Plus, in the new version 7, I tried zooming out to see more of the tree, but it only goes so far, making some branches permanently out of view. Plus, how do you translate the display to move to sections off screen (as opposed to rotate to view from a different angle)? In short, I find it a waste of code in its current form.

[Tom Brown]

Re: MacFamilyTree 7 vs Reunion

I agree with Mike Phelps. The 3D tree is a waste of time. Importing a GEDCOM generated in Reunion into MFT is a total mess. I have tried every demo version since 6.0 and promptly deleted it each time after testing it. There used to be a forum for MFT years ago but the responses were so negative I believe the forum was taken down. I haven't checked on this recently so that may have changed. However, I still have IFamilyforLeopard on my Mac but, quite frankly, it it not really actively developed since the original author passed away. As far as I'm concerned, nothing approaches the overall usefulness and reliability of Reunion.