What it really costs to preserve your family history
“It’s only $20 a month” is how most people end up spending thousands. Family history is a decades-long project, so the right way to compare options isn’t the monthly price — it’s the cost over a lifetime. Here’s the honest math.
The short version
- Subscriptions are a forever cost — they never stop, and prices tend to rise.
- Over 10–20 years, “cheap” monthly plans total several thousand dollars.
- Owning it once has a higher sticker price but a lower lifetime cost — and you keep it.
- Factor in the real risk of a subscription: losing access entirely.
The subscription math
A typical genealogy or cloud-storage subscription runs roughly $10–$40 a month. That feels small — until you remember a family archive isn’t a one-year project.
Over time, at ~$30/mo
The hidden cost: losing access
The biggest cost of a subscription isn’t money — it’s what happens when it lapses. Miss the renewal, or pass away, and the family can lose access to the whole archive. Paying for years and then being locked out is the worst outcome of all (more on that in digital legacy).
The “own it once” math
Owning your archive flips the model: a one-time cost, plus a small bill for your own server (around $10/month from a host like Hostinger). The sticker price is higher, but it doesn’t compound — and at the end you own it instead of having rented access.
Compare the lifetime cost, not the monthly price — and remember which one you still own at the end.
Owning it, in practice
Private Family Archive is a one-time $5,000 — deployed on a server you own, with unlimited family members and no subscription. Your only ongoing cost is your own ~$10/month hosting. See the full side-by-side on the comparison page.