At a glance
Who each one suits
Lucidchart suits you when
Your other diagrams already live there, your colleagues comment and edit in the same documents, and a genogram is an occasional chart beside process maps and org charts. Its template library is far larger than ours, its paid plans import and export Visio, and its genogram page says a chart can be made on a computer, a smartphone or a tablet.
Genogram Builder suits you when
You want the symbols, the unions and the emotional lines drawn in the standard notation without copying them from a legend, you would rather write the family down than place every shape, or you need a draft that you can review before it reaches the chart. The drawing itself needs no account, and a free account holds two genograms of up to 50 people each.
Lucidchart draws a genogram from a legend of copied symbols
Lucidchart offers a kinship diagram as its genogram template. Its template page describes the method in plain terms. You give the diagram a name, start with the person at the centre of the study, choose the matching symbol from the legend and copy it to the canvas, then keep copying symbols from the legend and placing them on the board, moving things around as needed and adding labels. The symbols are the basic ones of a kinship diagram, and the connecting lines are ordinary Lucidchart connectors drawn between shapes. A three-generation chart is therefore twenty or so shapes placed by hand and joined, which is workable for a family you know well.
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 then arranged by generation as it grows, children hang from the union of their parents, and no line crosses a name.
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
Emotional lines are a notation here and a line style in Lucidchart
Lucidchart says that its genograms let you illustrate family members, their family relationship and their medical history, and that is the extent of what its pages state. It does not name the emotional line styles of the standard notation, and it does not describe a medical notation, so in Lucidchart the quality of a relationship is shown with a line style that you choose and explain in a legend of your own. A careful author can make a clear chart this way, but every reader depends on the legend.
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. During a draft a sentence such as "Carol and Neil are in conflict" becomes the correct line between two adjacent symbols, and a later sentence such as "Walter died in 2021" becomes a change with its own card and an undo. In Lucidchart each of these is a manual edit of a shape or a connector.
Close
Fused
Distant
Hostile
Cutoff
Lucidchart counts shapes and documents, and Genogram Builder counts genograms and people
The Lucidchart free plan allows three editable documents of 75 shapes each, with 100 templates, presentation mode and commenting, and it asks for no card. Whether a connector or a label counts towards the 75 is not stated, so the safe reading is that one small family fits in a free document and a large one does not. The Individual plan at $9 a month, billed annually, removes both limits and adds 1 GB of storage, Visio import and export, premium shape libraries and premium templates. The Team plan at $10 per user a month, billed annually, adds revision history, password protected publishing and integrations with Microsoft 365, Confluence and Jira. A seven-day trial of the paid plans needs payment information, and monthly prices without an annual commitment were not shown on the page as read.
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. For someone who draws one or two genograms a year beside other diagrams, the Lucidchart free plan may well be enough. For someone who draws a family most weeks, the notation and drafting here can matter more than the number of free documents.
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
Lucidchart
Free$0
- Three editable documents
- 75 shapes per document
- 100 templates
- PDF, PNG, JPEG and SVG export
Individual$9 a month billed annually
- Unlimited documents and objects
- 1 GB of storage
- Visio import and export, premium shape libraries and templates
Team$10 per user a month billed annually
- Revision history with versioning
- Password protected publishing
- Microsoft 365, Confluence and Jira integrations
A chart moves between the two as an image, not as a family file
Lucidchart exports a document as PDF, PNG, JPEG or SVG on every plan, as a CSV of shape data, and as a Visio file on paid plans. None of these is a family file, and Genogram Builder does not read Lucidchart documents, so a genogram drawn in Lucidchart does not open here as people and unions. The honest path is to keep the exported 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, which can be filed beside your other Lucidchart work or placed in a report. The JSON backup is for reopening the chart here, and it carries everything, including the emotional lines and the notes.
- Export an image
In Lucidchart, export the document 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 lucid.app, lucid.co, help.lucid.co and on this site.
| Feature | Genogram Builder | Lucidchart |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs and what it costs | ||
| Browser | Included. Any computer or tablet, nothing to install. | Included. Its genogram page says a computer, a smartphone or a tablet. |
| Free use | Included. One genogram without an account, and a free plan with five. | Included. Three editable documents of 75 shapes, 100 templates, no card. |
| Paid plans | Included. Pro at $12 a month or $99 a year, Max at $29 a month or $228 a year. | Included. Individual at $9 and Team at $10 per user a month, billed annually. |
| Storage stated | Included. Two genograms on Free, 25 on Pro, unlimited on Max. | In part. 1 GB on Individual. Nothing is stated for Free. |
| Drawing the family | ||
| Drawing by hand | Included. Person, Connect, Lasso, Note and Text tools, arranged by generation. | Included. A drag-and-drop interface, with symbols copied from the template legend. |
| Drafting from notes | Included. Five drafts a month on the free plan, each reviewed before it is added. | Not stated. Lucid AI generates diagrams from a description. Genogram notation is not stated. |
| Genogram templates | Included. 34 fictional families with case notes, open on every plan. | Included. A kinship diagram template, a sample genogram and an ecomap template. |
| Standard notation | Included. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, 59 symbols and connections, with a key on every chart. | In part. Basic kinship symbols in a legend. The standard notation is not stated. |
| Emotional relationship lines | Included. Close, fused, distant, hostile, cut off and the rest of the standard set. | Not stated. Not described on the pages read. |
| Medical notation | Included. Conditions coloured and named in the key, with causes of death. | Not stated. Its genogram page mentions medical history without describing a notation. |
| Files | ||
| Reads | Included. GEDCOM, GenoPro, Gramps, Mermaid and spreadsheets. | In part. Visio, draw.io, Gliffy and OmniGraffle diagrams, and CSV or spreadsheets for data linking. No family file format. |
| Exports | Included. PNG and PDF on the free plan, SVG on Pro and Max, JSON for everyone. | Included. PDF, PNG, JPEG and SVG on every plan, Visio on paid plans. |
| 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 Lucid documents in your account. |
Sources: Lucidchart pricing, the Lucidchart genogram page, the kinship diagram template, the Lucid export article, Genogram Builder plans.
Before you decide
Drawing a genogram on the Lucidchart free plan
The free plan allows three editable documents of up to 75 shapes each, which is enough for one small family if you keep the chart modest. A family of three generations with emotional lines and labels may pass that limit, and the Individual plan removes it. 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.
Whether Lucidchart has genogram symbols
Its genogram page offers a kinship diagram template, a sample genogram and an ecomap template, and the kinship template carries a legend of basic symbols to copy from. The Lucid help centre returned no article for the word genogram on the day this page was checked, and the pages read do not state that a McGoldrick shape library exists. Genogram Builder draws the 59 symbols and connections of that notation and prints a key on every chart.
Keeping both
Many people will. A genogram drawn here exports as PNG, PDF or SVG and can sit beside the process maps and other diagrams in Lucidchart, and a family first sketched in Lucidchart can be described in a few sentences and drafted here when the chart needs the full notation.
What this page leaves out
It reports what Lucidchart says about itself and what Genogram Builder does. It does not rate the quality of Lucidchart as a diagramming tool, 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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