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1. Reports Capabilities.
2. Data base structure
3. Bells and whistles
4. GUI
5. Price
1. Report Capabilities Of the half-dozen or so other programs that I've seen, (which admittedly does not include The Master Genealogist) not only is FTM ahead of most, but the books feature puts it head and shoulders above the rest. FTM allows you to place various reports in a book, give it a table of contents, index all names in the reports in a single index at the back of the book, include pictures and separate text pages where you can enter what you want. You can save a book you make up and can have a whole inventory of different books for different lines or purposes.
2. Database structure. I like my closet
the way it is. Some folks actually spend money for those closet organizers
so there's a box for everything, grey socks here, blue socks there. I've
put surname variations in notes under a caption for SURNAME VARIATIONS
for years and have no desire to rekey all my surname variations (or even
copy
and paste) into boxes, especially when I see no real need to.. if
it's not broke, don't fix it. Would be a major job and I don't see where
I'd gain anything.
Some folks with programs with a box for every little detail think that is somehow superior to putting them free-form into notes. Course, having unlimited Facts Fields puts FTM within a step of those other programs. This is a personal preference type feature.
3. Bells and whistles. Some programs have some that others don't and vice versa. It's hard to beat Legacy for "bells and whistles": date/age calculator, designated home base person, relationship to a base person showing on screen for anyone in the database, gang-bank source input, etc. Family Origins has some nice features, too. Family Tree Maker is way down on the list on this point.
4. GUI (Graphical User Interface). Lots of differences. Family Origins is definitely the cleanest interface I haev seen thus far. It also presents an uncluttered display and stuff is where you expect to find it. FTM doesn't have a navigable pedigree view, which is on my "top ten" list of wishes, which most other programs have. FTM thinks that having "clickable" people in charts and trees replaces the need for a navigable pedigree view.. it doesn't, in my view. Lots of other GUI issues are personal preference. Every other program I am aware of has a pedigree view. FTM places a lot of the few features it does have in the wierdest of places. (The Possible Duplicates report is from the Auto-Merge facilities instead of in reports, you select or tag records by identifying them in reports, which is kind of clunky, etc.)
5. Price. No doubt about it. FTM is on the high end of the price scale, especially considering the number of upgrades that come out over a short period of time requiring dollars. PAF, Family Origins and Legacy are among the cheaper programs. Legacy probably gives the most "bang for the buck" in terms of what you get for the money. The Master Genealogist is initially more expensive than FTM, but since FTM's upgrades more often and requires dollars for upgrades, it is the most expensive in the long run. It's only superior feature compared to the others are its reports, and, especially its books feature, in my opinion. (Course, that's a big deal.)
6. There are other issues: probability of the company continuing (FTM should probably rank high on this scale), speed (PAF is probably the fastest, as you would expect from any DOS program, FTM ranks high here, Legacy is a bit slower, TMG is the slowest from what I hear), accessibility to FTM CD's, etc.
Conclusion. For the time being, the books feature of FTM is what keeps me using FTM as my primary program. I have a separate surname data base in Legacy. I would switch to Legacy because of its bells and whistles if they had the reporting capabilities, especially the books feature of FTM. I think PAF, being DOS based, is no longer a serious player in the market. Most folks are just plain spoiled with the reports that Windows based programs can give.
Try the Demos! Most programs (except The Master Genealogist) offer some form of free preview program. See the list of programs below for links to their web sites. Check them out. Download them and enter a family or too and play around with them. See what works for you. The Master Genealogist doesn't offer a working demo, but does offer a free "slide-show" demo, which doubles as an introduction to the program and a tutorial.
A Program by Program Commentary
Family Tree Maker has a primary advantage with its books feature. It's reports that are offered are probably the most varied and with more options than most others, save The Master Genealogist. It's database is less than stellar, very few options compared to the others, like: finding top of line ancestors, unconnected individuals, global changes to names of places or people, etc. It also has the advanatage of the tie-ins with its CD's, genealogy page hosting, and other "fringe benefits. A primary disadvantage is that it is one of the few programs without a pedigree view. No focus list or "tagging' available that can be saved, other than creating a group of tagged individuals in a report and saving that report in a book, an inefficient work-around. Doesn't offer a separate text field for notes to events (what FTM calls Facts). Problem in 5.0 in exporting the Burial field. Clumsy reporting of possible duplicate individuals. In comparison to the other programs, when you consider the original price of the program and at least semi-annual upgrades that require money, it is among the most expensive of programs. The program seems to have an inordinate number of bugs compared to other programs (gives date of 12 Mar, 1967 instead of 12 Mar 1967). Although the program gives the user an extraordinary amount of choices to make in reports, it is remarkably inflexible in giving users choices in database operations, e.g. no choice of who to include in a Possible Duplicates report, no choice on turning autosourcing off in an incoming FTM transfer, or turning it on in an incoming gedcom transfer. Criteria for presenting people to merge is not customizable. It will automatically merge folks whose records are exactly the same, which is an invitation to disaster.
Family Origins is definitely the cleanest graphical interface of any genealogy program I have seen. Things are where you expect to find them, it's intuitive, and uncluttered. The main disadvantage I've run across so far is its ability to handle step-children. I can't believe they missed that, so am assuming that I am missing something, but from what I have seen it is not differentiating between natural and step-children from a file imported from FTM. This affects most reports. Also, though it's reports don't have a lot of the options that FTM does, it does have a list of pre-formatted reports that you would have to "think" your way through to do in FTM, and some that can't be done in FTM, like a report of unconnected individuals in your file. All in all a nice program, but until I find the answer to what is happening with step-kids in my file, I can't recommend it.
Legacy is a bit
more cluttered than Family Origins, but the graphical interface "resembles"
Family Origins. It's database features are a step ahead of Family Origins
and a mile ahead of Family Tree Maker. For starters, the database operations
include: global changes to names, top of line ancestors, capability of
saving tagged groups of individuals, a home base person, identification
of who is related to a "home" person, and a whole lot more. It doesn't
offer the variety of reports that FTM does, however, and no book feature.
(It offers register reports with an index that it calls a book, but this
is not the same as the book feature in FTM where multiple reports and text
items can be placed in a book.). It's capabilities on merging people are
second to none. You can keep any information from either record to be merged,
discard it, or move it another section of the record (ie second birth date
to alternative date or notes), and can "jump" back to either record to
edit it and "jump" back to the merge screen. Criteria for presenting people
for merging is customizable. Legacy is continually upgrading its program
with updates available from its website. Found bugs are immediately fixed,
no waiting for the "next" release. A very strong choice.