At a glance
Who each one suits
Creately suits you when
You work in a clinical team that needs role-based access, an audit log, a HIPAA business associate agreement and court-ready reports, or your organisation already keeps its org charts and process maps in Creately. Its Enterprise tier adds a health view with hereditary-pattern detection, field packs for medical, therapy, social work, legal and research use, and eight report types, and its symbols guide is one of the more complete references to the notation on the web.
Genogram Builder suits you when
You want to draw in the standard notation, a free plan with two genograms and five drafts a month covers your caseload or your course, and you want to see every person and every line that the assistant proposes beside the sentence that supports it before anything is added. It also reads GEDCOM, GenoPro, Gramps, Mermaid and spreadsheet files, and every account has a JSON backup.
Creately now draws genograms in the standard notation
The Creately plans page lists Clinical Maps as a product with Basic features on every plan, including Free, and the first of those features is to draw genograms in standard clinical notation, which it attributes to McGoldrick and Gerson. The Clinical Maps page describes forty or more person shape variants, 71 relationship subtypes, emotional relationship lines and multi-generational layouts, and the company publishes a long guide to genogram symbols that follows the McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry format and includes a legend. A genogram drawn in Creately is therefore drawn in the same tradition as one drawn here.
Genogram Builder keeps to the 59 symbols and connections of McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry and prints a key on every chart, so that a reader never has to guess what a line means. The emotional lines run from close and fused to distant, hostile and cut off, and conditions are coloured and named in the key. Creately describes relationship overlays for conflict, closeness, estrangement and caregiving over the same structure, which is the same idea under another name. The counts differ because the two products cut the notation differently, and neither count is a measure of correctness.
Close
Fused
Distant
Hostile
Cutoff
Both draft a genogram from notes, and Creately flags thin evidence
Both products turn written notes into a chart. Creately says that a session note or an intake summary is enough, that standard notation is drawn from the note with every person, relationship and health condition traceable to the line it came from, and that an uncertain inference is flagged for the clinician to confirm, correct or discard. A draft can also start from an uploaded PDF, Word or text document. On the free plan this runs within what the plans page calls a starter allowance, whose size is not stated.
Genogram Builder works in the same spirit. The draft arrives as a list of people, unions, parent lines, conditions and emotional lines, each marked as stated in the notes or inferred from them and each shown with the sentence that supports it, and items that need a decision are set aside for you. Nothing reaches the chart until you add the draft. A follow-up sentence such as "Helen remarried in 2012" becomes a change with its own card and an undo, with four such changes per draft. The free plan includes five drafts a month, and the number left is shown before you begin.
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
Creately exports on paid plans, and Genogram Builder exports on the free one
The Creately free plan is free forever, with an infinite canvas, all diagram types, real-time collaboration and up to 40 shapes per diagram. Its comparison table marks PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG and document export as not included on Free, so a free genogram is drawn and shared by link rather than downloaded. Pro is $5 per editor a month billed annually, or $8 monthly, and removes the shape limit and adds the image and PDF exports, private links and email invitations. Business is $89 per organisation a month billed annually, or $149 monthly. Enterprise is priced by agreement and is where the health view, the field packs and the eight report types live.
Genogram Builder has a free plan with no card that holds two genograms of up to 50 people each, drafts five families a month and exports PNG and PDF with a small watermark. Pro is $12 a month or $99 a year and removes the watermark and the draft limit and adds SVG. Max is $29 a month or $228 a year with unlimited genograms, longer notes and sources. For a single practitioner the Creately Pro price is lower than ours, and for a student who needs to hand in a PDF this month the free plan here does what the free plan there does not.
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
Creately
Free$0
- Up to 40 shapes per diagram
- Genograms in standard notation and text to genogram within a starter allowance
- Real-time collaboration and team link sharing
- No PNG, PDF or SVG export
Pro$5 per editor a month billed annually, or $8 monthly
- Unlimited shapes and diagrams
- Export to PDF, SVG, PNG and JPEG
- Private links and email invitations
EnterpriseCustom, on an annual agreement
- Health view and hereditary-pattern detection
- Field packs and eight report types
- SAML SSO, SCIM, data residency and a HIPAA business associate agreement
A chart moves between the two as an image or as a description
Creately exports a genogram as PDF, SVG, PNG or JPEG on Pro and above, and its Clinical Maps page describes DOCX, CSV and JSON reports as well. Neither product states that it writes GEDCOM, and Genogram Builder does not state that it reads Creately files, so a chart does not pass between them as people and unions. Genogram Builder reads spreadsheets with a header row, but the columns of a Creately CSV are not stated on the pages read, so this page does not promise that one opens here.
Keep the exported image for the record, write the family down in a few sentences, and let the draft place it in the notation, then check the draft against the picture. In the other direction, a chart from Genogram Builder exports as PNG, PDF or SVG for a Creately workspace, and the JSON backup reopens it here with the emotional lines and the notes intact.
- Export an image
On a Creately paid plan, export the genogram as PNG or SVG 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.
- Add the draft and compare
The chart is arranged by generation. Check it against the image and add anything that was missed.
Feature by feature
Each row states what the two products offer in their own terms. Checked on 20 October 2026 on creately.com and on this site.
| Feature | Genogram Builder | Creately |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs and what it costs | ||
| Browser | Included. Any computer or tablet, nothing to install. | Not stated. A web app. Its pages name no platform, desktop app or mobile app. |
| Free use | Included. One genogram without an account, and a free plan with five, each exported as PNG or PDF. | In part. Free forever, with 40 shapes per diagram and no image or PDF export. |
| Paid plans | Included. Pro at $12 a month or $99 a year, Max at $29 a month or $228 a year. | Included. Pro at $5 per editor a month billed annually, Business at $89 per organisation, Enterprise by agreement. |
| Clinical compliance statements | Not stated. Not compared on this page. | Included. SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR and HIPAA, with a business associate agreement on Enterprise. |
| Drawing the family | ||
| Drawing by hand | Included. Person, Connect, Lasso, Note and Text tools, arranged by generation. | Included. Shapes on an infinite canvas, with keyboard shortcuts for adding relatives. |
| Drafting from notes | Included. Five drafts a month on the free plan, each reviewed before it is added. | Included. Text to genogram on every plan within a starter allowance, from pasted text or PDF, Word and text documents. |
| Follow-up changes | Included. Four per draft, each with a card and an undo. | Not stated. Not described on the pages read. |
| Standard notation | Included. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, 59 symbols and connections, with a key on every chart. | Included. McGoldrick and Gerson notation, forty or more person shape variants and 71 relationship subtypes. |
| Emotional relationship lines | Included. Close, fused, distant, hostile, cut off and the rest of the standard set. | Included. Emotional relationship lines and overlays for conflict, closeness, estrangement and caregiving. |
| Medical notation | Included. Conditions coloured and named in the key, with causes of death, on every plan. | In part. Condition tags and genetic markers are described. Health view and hereditary-pattern detection are Enterprise features. |
| Templates | Included. 34 fictional families with case notes, open on every plan. | Included. About eleven genogram templates, four of them marked Premium. |
| Files | ||
| Reads | Included. GEDCOM, GenoPro, Gramps, Mermaid and spreadsheets. | In part. Pasted text and PDF, Word and text documents for drafting. A family file format is not stated. |
| Exports | Included. PNG and PDF on the free plan, SVG on Pro and Max, JSON for everyone. | On a paid plan. PDF, SVG, PNG and JPEG from Pro. DOCX, CSV and JSON reports are described for Clinical Maps. |
| Where work is kept | Included. In the browser until saved, then in your account from any computer. | Included. In its workspace, with diagram and folder permissions. Data residency on Enterprise. |
Sources: Creately plans, Creately Clinical Maps, the Creately genogram symbols guide, the Creately genogram templates, Genogram Builder plans.
Before you decide
Whether Creately replaces a dedicated genogram tool
For many people it can. Its Clinical Maps product draws the standard notation, drafts from notes on every plan, and on Enterprise adds reports and views that Genogram Builder does not offer. The differences that remain are the free plan, which exports nothing there and exports PNG and PDF here, the stated monthly count of drafts here against a starter allowance of unstated size there, and the family files that Genogram Builder reads.
The size of the starter allowance
The Creately plans page says that text to genogram on the free plan runs within a starter allowance, and neither that page nor its AI genogram page gives a number. Genogram Builder states its count, five drafts a month with four follow-up changes each, and shows how many are left before you begin.
Exporting on the free plan
The Creately comparison table marks PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG and document export as not included on Free, so a free chart is shared by link and downloaded only after upgrading to Pro. Genogram Builder exports PNG and PDF with a small watermark on the free plan, and SVG without the watermark on Pro.
What this page leaves out
It reports what Creately says about itself and what Genogram Builder does. It does not rate the quality of either assistant, it does not say where Creately runs because its pages do not, 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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