Online Genogram Maker
The editor is loaded with a fictional blended family — 6 people and 8 connections, including twins and a remarriage. Edit it into the family you are mapping, or clear it and start from a blank canvas.
Drag people to arrange. Click a person to edit their details.
Editable preview — your changes aren't saved here.
- Add people with the ▢ ◯ ◇ buttons, then click the canvas.
- Use Connect… for marriages, children, and emotional lines.
- Click a person to edit name, years, deceased, notes.
- Drag to arrange, or hit Auto-arrange.
- Export as PNG or PDF — the legend builds itself.
Includes a title block and an auto-generated legend of the symbols you used.
Your genogram autosaves in your browser. Get our symbol cheat sheet + templates by email so you can pick it up anywhere:
Online, but the diagram never leaves your machine
Most tools that call themselves online genogram makers work the way web apps usually do: you sign up, your diagram is saved to their database, and you get it back by logging in. That is a reasonable design for a spreadsheet and a poor one for a document that names a family and describes who is estranged from whom.
This editor inverts it. The page is served to you; the diagram is not sent back. Work is autosaved to your browser's local storage, which means two practical things. You can close the tab and return to the same machine and browser and your genogram is still there. And there is no account to recover, so clearing site data or moving to another computer loses it — export a PNG or PDF as soon as the diagram is worth keeping. For anything heading into a case file or an assignment, the exported file is the artefact, not the tab.
The notation it draws in the browser
A genogram is not a family tree with different shapes; the meaning lives in the lines. All 13 connector styles render as vector graphics in the browser, with no plugin and no image library:
- 4 couple lines — marriage, separation, divorce and cohabitation, each with its own marking on the horizontal.
- 3 drop lines — biological, adopted and foster, solid, dashed and dotted respectively, so a placement reads at a glance.
- 6 emotional-process lines — close, fused, distant, conflict, fused-and-conflicted, and cutoff. This layer is what separates a clinical genogram from a genealogy chart, and it is the layer general diagram apps leave out.
Each one is catalogued with a picture on the genogram symbols page, and condensed to one printable sheet on the genogram key.
Where an online tool beats installed software
- Managed machines. Student laptops, hospital desktops and agency computers routinely refuse installers. A web page needs no admin rights.
- Any operating system. The same code runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. Platform-specific notes are on genogram software for Mac.
- Nothing to update. The version you load is the current one, which matters for a notation set that has been standard for decades but whose tooling has not.
- Shared computers. Nothing is left behind but a local-storage entry you can clear, and no credentials are stored at all because there are none.
The trade-off is the one above: no cloud sync, no account, no cross-device history. That is a deliberate exchange of convenience for keeping family data off a server.
Related pages
The full editor with autosave and undo is the genogram maker home page. See the free genogram maker page for exactly what is free, and the genogram generator page for what gets built for you once a structure is loaded. Ready-made starting points are on genogram templates, an empty grid on the blank genogram template page, and worked diagrams on genogram examples. For the build itself, read how to make a genogram.
Online genogram maker FAQ
›How do I make a genogram online for free?
Open the editor on this page, load a family structure, and replace the placeholder names with the family you are mapping. Draw the couple lines, attach the children, add the emotional layer, then export a PNG or PDF. There is no signup, no download and no trial period; free exports carry a small footer watermark.
›Is an online genogram maker safe for client or patient information?
It depends entirely on where the tool stores the diagram. This one keeps your work in your own browser's local storage and never posts it to a server, so the diagram does not leave the machine you drew it on. That is a technical fact, not a compliance opinion: follow your employer's information governance rules, and where those rules are strict, build with initials only.
›Do I need to create an account?
No. The editor loads and works immediately. The trade-off is that there is nothing to log back into — the diagram lives in that browser on that machine, so export a PNG or PDF before you finish, and treat clearing site data as deleting your work.
›Does it work on a school or work computer?
It runs as a web page, so it needs no admin rights, no installer and no App Store account — the usual blockers on a managed laptop or a Chromebook. If your network filters unknown sites you may still need it allowed, but nothing has to be installed on the machine itself.
›Can I make a genogram online on a phone?
You can open it and read it, but drawing on a phone screen is cramped: a genogram is a wide diagram with small symbols and precise connections. A laptop or tablet is the right tool. If you are on a phone now, email yourself the link from the box on this page and pick it up later.