I finally purchased Family Tree Maker in early 2022 when I saw it was on sale at a large discount.
Like me, you may have been put off by the lack of a free trial. I have to say that I’m happy with the software features.
But this is not a review! Instead, I’ve spent some time trawling through genealogy forums and the MacKiev social media accounts.
My goal was to see when Family Tree Maker is most likely to go on sale in the future. Read on!
Does Family Tree Maker Go On Sale?
In recent times, Family Tree Maker has gone on sale during the first big genealogy conference of the year.
MacKiev discounted the price in February 2021 and March 2022 for the Rootstech Conference. The link with the sale price remained active for several months afterward.
Family Tree Maker Discount For Rootstech
It’s worth trying the most recent Rootstech conference link to see if you can still get the discount. It remained active long after the end of the conference in 2020.
Here’s the link for 2022! If it’s still active, you should see a significant discount in the price section as in the picture below.
Good luck! This is what I saw and the option I chose:
North American residents should see dollar prices. I also think they got a bigger discount than I did at United Kingdom prices!
Are There Discounts At Other Genealogy Conferences?
2020 and 2021 were dismal years for conference organizers who had to cancel in-person gatherings.
But the big genealogy conferences are back on track.
Rootstech takes place in March, but what about other big conferences? Will MacKiev (the company behind FTM) be attending?
The MacKiev website has a calendar that should show their future events. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working very well when I looked at it most recently.
However, I’ve done some searching to see which conferences MacKiev has sponsored or attended in 2021 (these would have been virtual conferences).
| Time Of Year | Conference |
| May | National Genealogical Society Conference |
| June | Jamboree |
| August | International Association Of Jewish Genealogy Conference |
| October | Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Conference |
MacKiev usually takes a booth at these conferences and a web page on their websites.
It’s worth checking if there is a discount link on their page on the conference website.
Does Family Tree Maker Go On Sale Around Major Holiday Events?
It’s not unusual for genealogy companies to run sales around holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Saint Patrick’s Day.
You can usually pick up a good discount for DNA tests or an Ancestry subscription for their record archives.
However, I haven’t seen Family Tree Maker on sale at these times.
Is There A Black Friday Or Cyber Monday Sale For Family Tree Maker?
Many software companies offer significant discounts for their applications for Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
MacKiev doesn’t tend to operate in a similar way to more modern software companies. To my knowledge, they haven’t offered a sale during Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Watch For Discounts After A Major New Release
When MacKiev rolled out the 2019 version of Family Tree Maker, they offered a significant purchase discount to owners of previous versions.
This offer went out by email to registered users. So, it’s worth registering your current copy of the software.
If you don’t receive the email, you can contact Live Chat customer support.
It’s also worth knowing that the purchase of the software doesn’t bring the benefits of free upgrades to major new releases! Although you do get free upgrades for minor fixes.
Get On The MacKiev Mailing List To Be Notified
If you don’t want to miss out on a new release and a possible upgrade discount, then you should get onto MacKiev’s mailing list for notifications about Family Tree Maker.
Go to this page and look for the “Mailing List” item in the green menu ribbon. That pops up a sign-up form.
If you only want news of discounts, uncheck all the options that aren’t about “discounted upgrades”.
Does Family Tree Maker Ever Have A Trial Version?
Family Tree Maker does not have a free trial version.
That is certainly unusual for software that is relatively expensive. And for as long as I can remember, this has always been the case.
