At a glance
Who each one suits
Canva suits you when
The genogram is one page in a report, a poster or a presentation that you are already making in Canva, you want the chart to share the fonts and colours of that work, and relatives or colleagues will edit the whiteboard with you. Its template library and its photo, graphic and font collections are far larger than anything here, and its pricing page says the free plan is available to anyone.
Genogram Builder suits you when
You want the symbols, the unions and the emotional lines drawn correctly without choosing each line style yourself, you would rather write the family down than drag shapes into place, or you need a chart that a supervisor or an examiner will read in the standard notation. The drawing itself needs no account, and a free account holds two genograms of up to 50 people each.
Canva builds a genogram from lines and shapes on a whiteboard
Canva describes its genogram maker as part of Canva Whiteboards. You open Canva on a desktop or a mobile device, search for a genogram, choose one of its templates, and then, in its own words, browse the Elements tab, which houses lines, shapes and more, and drag and drop the elements to where they need to be. Shapes can also be sketched freehand with Draw and tidied by Shape Assist. A three-generation chart is therefore a matter of placing squares and circles, drawing lines between them, and keeping the generations level by eye.
In Genogram Builder the same chart can be drawn by hand with the Person and Connect tools, or it can be written. A few sentences of notes name the people, their dates and how they are related, and the assistant proposes a draft in which every person and every line is listed with the sentence that supports it. Each item can be kept, edited or removed before anything reaches the chart, the chart is arranged by generation as it grows, and no line crosses a name. The result is plainer than a Canva design, and it is meant to be, because the notation carries the meaning.
Your notes
Ellie Hawkins, born 2009, is the client, a sixth form student with generalised anxiety disorder. Her brother Jack, born 2006, is an apprentice plumber and is close to Ellie. Her parents, Paul Hawkins, born 1971, and Helen Hawkins, born 1974, married in 2003 and are distant from each other.
Found in the notes
- Ellie Hawkins, 2009
- Jack Hawkins, 2006
- Paul Hawkins, 1971
- Helen Hawkins, 1974
- Paul and Helen, married 2003
- Jack and Ellie, close
- Paul and Helen, distant
On the chart
Canva describes emotional and medical genograms, and leaves the lines to you
The Canva genogram page explains, in its questions at the foot, that an emotional genogram shows whether a relationship is close, distant, conflicted or abusive, and that a medical genogram traces diseases in a family. These describe kinds of genogram rather than features. The page names no emotional line styles and no medical markers, and the tools it lists are fonts, colour palettes, graphics, stickers and textured backgrounds. On a Canva whiteboard the quality of a relationship is therefore a line that you style yourself and explain in a legend that you also draw yourself.
Genogram Builder draws the emotional lines of McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, from close and fused to distant, hostile and cut off, together with conditions, life events and household groups, and prints a key on every chart so that a reader never has to guess what a line means. During a draft a sentence such as "Laura and Sophie are fused" becomes the correct double line between two adjacent symbols, and a later sentence such as "Frank died in 2021" becomes a change with its own card and an undo.
Close
Distant
Hostile
Cutoff
Focused on
Canva is priced for design work, and a genogram rides along
The Canva free plan is US$0 and, in the words of its pricing page, offers an easy drag-and-drop editor with over 1,000 design types, over 1.6 million templates, 5GB of cloud storage and up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses. Canva Pro is US$144 a year for one person and adds premium templates and content, AI tools and 100GB of cloud storage. Canva Business is US$250 a year per person with team administration and 500GB. Prices exclude tax, and the page as read showed yearly figures, so the monthly prices are not given here.
Genogram Builder has a free plan with no card that holds two genograms of up to 50 people each and drafts five families a month. Pro is $12 a month or $99 a year, and Max is $29 a month or $228 a year. Someone who already pays for Canva Pro has no reason to pay here as well unless the drafting and the notation save real time, and someone who draws genograms every week and designs nothing else is better served by the free plan here.
Genogram Builder
Free$0
- Two genograms of up to 50 people
- Five drafts a month, four follow-up changes each
- All 34 templates
- PNG and PDF with a small watermark, JSON backup
Pro$12 a month or $99 a year
- 25 genograms, unlimited people
- No monthly draft limit
- Exports without the watermark, SVG
Max$29 a month or $228 a year
- Unlimited genograms
- Notes up to 30,000 characters
- Sources and research annotations
Canva
FreeUS$0
- Over 1.6 million templates
- 5GB of cloud storage
- Up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses
- Canva Offline
ProUS$144 a year for one person
- Over 3.6 million templates, including premium
- 100GB of cloud storage
- AI tools and five Brand Kits
BusinessUS$250 a year per person
- Collaboration and team admin tools
- 500GB of cloud storage
- 100 Brand Kits and approvals
A Canva genogram comes across as a picture and goes back as one
A Canva whiteboard downloads as a PNG, JPG or PDF file, as its family tree page states. None of these is a family file, and Genogram Builder does not read Canva designs, so a genogram drawn in Canva does not open here as people and unions. The honest path is to keep the downloaded image for the record and to write the family down in a few sentences, which the assistant turns into a draft that you check against the picture.
In the other direction, a chart from Genogram Builder exports as PNG, PDF or SVG, and the PNG can be placed in a Canva document or presentation like any other image. The JSON backup is for reopening the chart here and carries everything, including the emotional lines and the notes.
- Download the whiteboard
In Canva, download the genogram as PNG or PDF and keep it for the record.
- Write the family down
Name each person with a birth year, each union with its dates, and each tie that matters, in ordinary sentences.
- Review the draft
Every person and line is listed with the sentence that supports it. Keep, edit or remove each one.
- Place the chart in Canva
Export the finished genogram as PNG and add it to the Canva document or presentation as an image.
Feature by feature
Each row states what the two products offer in their own terms. Checked on 20 October 2026 on canva.com and on this site.
| Feature | Genogram Builder | Canva |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs and what it costs | ||
| Browser | Included. Any computer or tablet, nothing to install. | Included. Any desktop, web browser or mobile device, as its whiteboard page says. |
| Desktop and mobile apps | Not included. None, by design. | Included. Windows and Mac downloads, and apps for iOS and Android. |
| Free use | Included. One genogram without an account, and a free plan with five. | Included. A free plan available to anyone, with 5GB of storage. |
| Paid plans | Included. Pro at $12 a month or $99 a year, Max at $29 a month or $228 a year. | Included. Pro at US$144 a year, Business at US$250 a year per person, tax excluded. |
| Drawing the family | ||
| Drawing by hand | Included. Person, Connect, Lasso, Note and Text tools, arranged by generation. | Included. Lines and shapes from the Elements tab, or freehand with Draw and Shape Assist. |
| Drafting from notes | Included. Five drafts a month on the free plan, each reviewed before it is added. | Not stated. AI uses are counted on each plan. Drafting a genogram from notes is not stated. |
| Genogram templates | Included. 34 fictional families with case notes, open on every plan. | Included. Whiteboard genogram templates on its genogram page, and family tree templates. |
| Standard notation | Included. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, 59 symbols and connections, with a key on every chart. | Not stated. Lines and symbols are chosen from the Elements tab. A standard notation is not stated. |
| Emotional relationship lines | Included. Close, fused, distant, hostile, cut off and the rest of the standard set. | Not stated. Described as a kind of genogram, not as a feature. |
| Medical notation | Included. Conditions coloured and named in the key, with causes of death. | Not stated. Described as a kind of genogram, not as a feature. |
| Collaboration on one chart | Not stated. Not offered as shared editing. | Included. Relatives and colleagues can edit, comment and add sticky notes. |
| Files | ||
| Reads | Included. GEDCOM, GenoPro, Gramps, Mermaid and spreadsheets. | Not stated. A family file format is not stated. |
| Exports | Included. PNG and PDF on the free plan, SVG on Pro and Max, JSON for everyone. | Included. PNG, JPG or PDF from a whiteboard, as its family tree page states. |
| Watermark on free exports | In part. A small watermark on Free, none on Pro and Max. | Not stated. Not stated. |
| Where work is kept | Included. In the browser until saved, then in your account from any computer. | Included. In Canva cloud storage, 5GB on Free and 100GB on Pro, with Canva Offline for designs. |
Sources: Canva pricing, the Canva genogram page, the Canva family tree page, the Canva whiteboard page, Genogram Builder plans.
Before you decide
Drawing a genogram on the Canva free plan
The free plan is available to anyone and includes the whiteboard templates, 5GB of cloud storage and the Elements tab, so a genogram can be drawn without paying. Whether a download from the free plan carries a watermark is not stated on the pages read. Genogram Builder draws one genogram of up to 50 people with no account at all, and two of up to 50 people on a free account, with a small watermark on free exports.
Whether Canva has genogram symbols
Its genogram page says that genograms use lines and symbols and points you to the Elements tab for lines and shapes in your preferred style. It does not state that a set of McGoldrick symbols exists, so the squares, circles, union lines and emotional lines are assembled by hand. Genogram Builder draws the 59 symbols and connections of that notation and prints a key on every chart.
Putting a genogram in a Canva report
Export the chart here as PNG and add it to the Canva document or presentation as an image. The chart keeps its key, so the reader has the notation on the page, and the report keeps the fonts and colours you designed in Canva.
What this page leaves out
It reports what Canva says about itself and what Genogram Builder does. It does not rate the quality of Canva as a design tool, it gives only the yearly prices that its pricing page displayed, and it does not repeat opinions from reviews or forums.
Draw a genogram in the browser now, or describe a family and watch the draft arrive. No account is needed to begin.
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