Transcription
Hello everybody. I am Joe Ross, the Genie Vlogger, and on today's video, we'll be reviewing the best DNA tests for 2025. The DNA testing companies chosen for this video fit the following criteria.
Number one, you can actually order a DNA test from them. It's not just a third-party website that allows you to upload your DNA results from another website. Secondly, it's autosomal DNA tests and even more specifically, it's autosomal snip DNA tests. And third, it's tests that I've had experience with, which largely equates to tests that are easily accessible to most people in the English-speaking world, which brings us to the five DNA tests that we're going to be discussing today. 23 and me, Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, Living DNA, and My Heritage.
To decide which DNA test is the best DNA test, I've created a rating guide which is made up of seven different components. Now, I actually decided on these components in a live stream that you can go back and watch, but the seven components are the following. Transfer upload availability, initial cost of the test, size of the database, uniqueness, the continuing costs, the collaborative capabilities, and the advanced DNA tools. So now we'll go through each component and discuss what the ratings are going to be.
For the first component, this is very straightforward. Are you able to transfer DNA from another website to this website? And three of these websites you can, two of them you can't. The three where you can upload are Family Tree DNA, Living DNA, and My Heritage.
Hey everybody, editing this video right now. It's actually a month later. A lot has happened since I filmed this video, but since I shot this video, My Heritage has since announced that they are no longer doing transfers. It hasn't kicked in for everybody, so some people can still upload, but that changes the the scoring of this video. Uh, so it's going to be different than what I say the actual score is uh throughout the rest of the video. But I figured this was the easiest way to put this information in there. So, when this comes out, some of you may still be able to upload to My Heritage. And if you do, upload what you want to upload while you still can. But for some of you, you're going to go on the site and it's going to say that you can no longer transfer DNA from other sites.
Now, next, the initial cost was a little difficult to figure out just because the costs are largely the same for all of the companies. And then some of the companies had a little bit higher of a base cost, but would have much better specials when it was on sale. So, it was kind of give and take in some way. So, starting out with 23 and me, they got two out of five points because their pricing wasn't the greatest at $99 for a typical test. The tests often went on sale for $69 was the cheapest I really saw, which really was far from the best prices I saw for sale prices.
For Ancestry, they got a three out of five because their regular pricing was also $99, but then the sale pricing I saw, the best one was $39. And in all honesty, Ancestry is on sale all the time. Like whenever there's a holiday, they're on sale. And it doesn't even have to be major holidays. They'll have it on sale for all sorts of random holidays that are sometimes stuff that's like, I've never even heard of that.
Family Tree DNA also got a three out of five. Their initial pricing is $79, which is a little bit better than Ancestry's initial pricing, but the best sale pricing I saw for Family Tree DNA was $49, which is a bit more than the best sale prices I saw for Ancestry.
Living DNA did the worst here with one out of five points because their regular pricing is $124, which is kind of weird. And then the sale pricing, which I guess seems to be kind of a constant sale at $90, isn't really like a sale. It seems more like it's a marketing gimmick where it's always on sale. So people who don't know that will go to the site and be like, "Oh, I got to buy it now. It's on sale." But I swear every time I go to the website, it's always on a $90 sale.
And then last, My Heritage, they got four out of five points because their regular cost is $89, which is a little bit better than Ancestry, but then they also had the same sale cost at $39, which was the same as Ancestry. So, I gave them the the little bit of an edge for that extra point just because of that.
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Now, for database size, before I get into this one, I did want to give a little aside that the way I figured this out was that I looked at the database with the largest size, which is ancestry, and basically said whatever that largest size, that equals the full 10 points. So whatever the other company's databases are divided by Ancestry's DNA database size would then equate to the percentage that would come out out of the 10 points which the first company we'll look at is 23ME which has a database size of 14 million which is about 56% the size of Ancestry's database. Thus they get 5.6 out of 10 points.
Now, one thing I want to put as an aside here, which almost makes me want to deduct points from 23ME, but I really decided not to because technically this is the case for most of the companies, but they don't specify whether or not the 14 million profiles they talk about includes all the people that have ever DNA tested with 23 and me or if it's just the people that have opted into the DNA matching because that's the part that match. matters. But we also don't know if that number includes the people that had since deleted their kits off of 23ME, which at the point that I'm making this video, everything going on with 23ME, there's a lot of people who don't really trust the company. We don't know what's going to necessarily happen because it's up for sale. And by the time this video comes out, it may have already been sold. But a lot of people have been deleting their kits off of there. And so that 14 million number might not be correct.
Next, for Ancestry, they have the largest database. So thus, they get the full 10 points. And their database is 25 million, which is really the thing that sets them apart from all of the companies more than anything. And often it's the thing that people will quote as the biggest reason that you should get into Ancestry.
Now, for Family Tree DNA, they don't even get a full point. they only get 6 out of 10 points because they only have 1.68 million. And then for Living DNA, they're even worse at only 300,000 people in their database. So they only have .1 out of 10 points for this category. And then lastly, we have My Heritage with 3.6 out of 10 points because they have a 9 million person database.
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So this next category, uniqueness. This is probably the most subjective of all the categories, even though technically a lot of it is really subjective. This is a category that I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of people will have comments of things that I might not have even thought about.
So up first, 23 and me, I only gave them three out of 10 points. I don't feel like they have a whole lot that's really unique to them. And then not even considering all of the issues they have going on that kind of detracts from the website as a whole, one of the most useful things they have is the haplo groups that they give for mitochondrial DNA and YDNA, but they don't do any of the matching for that. But in reality, this is something that is available with some of the other databases, just not necessarily in the same way. So, it isn't necessarily the most unique thing. And the only real thing that truly sets 23ME apart from all of the other databases that none of them have is the auto family tree feature. But unfortunately, it's not really that reliable. So the autof family tree feature is basically an AI tool on 23me which looks at your DNA matches, how you match them and how they all match each other and then it tries to create a family tree on how you are related to these people. So, it doesn't necessarily name the ancestors, but it does place people like this person seems to be about your first cousin on this side, and if they're your first cousin on this side, then these people must be second cousins on that same side, related through the same ancestors as that guy. And so, it can be helpful. But in my experience, when I've utilized that to try to figure out relations, it seems to be very wrong sometimes. like not just like, "Oh, I see where it kind of got thrown off," but thinking, "Where did he even come up with this? It's so wrong." So, three out of 10 points is honestly pretty generous in my opinion.
For Ancestry, I gave them a 6 out of 10. And once again, it's something that technically isn't unique only to them, but it does set them apart greatly, and that is the records database that they have. And even though it's technically not unique to them, there are a lot of records that are only on Ancestry, thus those are unique to them. So, I thought this kind of does fit, but that's really the biggest thing. And having that where you can tie it into the DNA results, especially with their family tree stuff, which we'll talk about later with the advanced DNA stuff, it makes it extremely useful for the genealogy side of things because genetic genealogy can't be done without going through other people's family trees and going through the paper trail.
Next, for Family Tree DNA, I gave them a 7 out of 10. And their unique thing is the YDNA testing and the mitochondrial DNA testing, which I did already mention for 23ME. But for Family Tree DNA, they're the only company where you can do that testing specifically and actually get DNA matching. Now, the thing I need to mention here is that that's a whole separate cost than to the autosomal DNA test, which like I said in the beginning, the autosomal DNA test is the focus of this video. But there's a lot of things I am discussing in this video with each database where there's an extra cost to it which is another thing that we'll talk about in a bit the continuing costs. But that is something that you can utilize with your autosomal DNA if you do it. They have an advanced searching database where you can search for people that are matching autosomal DNA and your YDNA or the autosomal and mitochondrial or all three or just mitochondrial Y but it is a component of that autosomal test because of that. And then the other thing that really makes them unique which I'm surprised is not available on any of these other websites is that they have it where you can look at your X chromosome DNA. Basically looking at do matches match you on your X chromosome. And this is really useful genealogically because X chromosomes are inherited in a very specific pattern. So when you share X chromosome DNA with somebody, you know the likely routes that it's going to be related through because that X chromosome isn't going to be inherited through your father's father's line because men don't inherit an X chromosome from their father. They inherit a Y chromosome. So you'll never see a paternal paternal connection with X chromosome DNA.
Now, Living DNA did the worst in this category with one out of 10 because the only unique thing really to Living DNA from what I can tell is that they have some of the most advanced admixture percentages or really the most granular would be another way to say it. So, they get really specific, very regionally and subregionally. And even though that's really cool in a sense, it's not very genealogically useful. And this video's focus is DNA tests for genealogy. So that's not going to be anything that really is like that amazing. So it's a 1 out of 10 for me because that's it.
And with My Heritage, I gave them a 6 out of 10. The same score as Ancestry largely because the main thing that makes them unique, just like Ancestry, is their records database. My Heritage does also have a uniqueness in the sense that they have distribution centers all over the world and they invested in that a long time ago and that's allowed them to have large contingencies of various populations in their database that aren't available elsewhere. So, as an example, when you go into My Heritage, they have a much larger contingency of Eastern European testers and South American testers and then testers from other countries, which aren't on a lot of the other databases because it's a lot harder for people from those countries to order those DNA tests, whereas My Heritage made it much easier. But I didn't think that really was enough to give them more points than Ancestry.
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So, now we're going to talk about continuing costs. And we talked about the initial cost of the DNA test, but in terms of continuing costs, each one of these websites has a lot of things that are basically necessary if you truly want to do genetic genealogy, but they're behind either another paywall or some sort of a membership that you have to pay for. And so there's often continuing costs that a lot of people don't equate for when it comes to the DNA tests. So that means that companies that have the least amount of continuing costs are going to get more points.
Starting out with 23ME, they got a 10 out of 15. Most of the useful DNA tools on 23 andme are not behind a paywall, but they do have some things that are behind their 23 andme plus membership, which does cost some money. So that's why they are getting some points deducted. But for the most part, if you just do the DNA test, there's not really going to be any cost that you're going to need to pay for being able to actually use it for genetic genealogy.
For ancestry, I gave them a five out of 15. And this definitely got lowered very recently with the whole Pro Tools thing, which we'll get more into when we talk about advanced DNA tools for the websites. But there are a lot of continuing costs to make the ancestry DNA test useful genealogically. And if you don't pay for those things, then it really is not that useful at all. The biggest thing is that you have to have an ancestry membership, which is to be able to look at all the information about your matches and then also to be able to access some of the more advanced tools available. But then they have the cost on top of that which is the pro tools that I just mentioned which is then accessing other DNA tools as well as some tools for the genealogy family tree side of ancestry. But the shared matching comparison tool which is part of the ProTools membership is extremely important and something that a lot of the other companies have had available for many years. So when Ancestry finally rolled it out but put it behind the Pro Tools membership, that really was annoying to me. In my opinion, it was just nickel and dimming. That's overreaching.
Family Tree DNA did very well with 14 out of 15 points. Once you've done the autosomal DNA test with Family Tree DNA, there are no more costs to be able to do what you need to do with the DNA tools and everything that they have available. They didn't get the full 15 points because for the mitochondrial DNA testing and the YDNA testing, it does cost extra money to get the matching part of it. You do get the haplo groups now if you do just a regular family finder autosomal test.
And with Living DNA, this is where they did the best with 15 out of 15 points because there are no continuing costs as far as I could tell once you've paid for the DNA test that they get. Now, if I'm wrong on this and there are things that do cost extra once you've done the DNA test through Living DNA, please comment below and let me know. But as far as I could tell, that's the deal.
And with My Heritage, they got a three out of 15, the worst in the category. And a large part of that has to do with how limited things are if you don't have a membership through My Heritage. It's very similar to Ancestry and basically being unusable for genealogy at that point, but honestly in an even worse manner.
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Now, we're into a category that I think is really important when it comes to actually utilizing these tests for genetic genealogy, and that's collaborative capabilities. Basically, how easy does the website make it for you to collaborate with other genealogists? Or another way to think about it, how easy can they make it so that you can give others access to your DNA results or DNA results for DNA tests you manage?
23ME came in the worst at five out of 25 points and they have almost no collaborative capabilities. The only actual collaborative capability they give you is the ability to share an ancestry report which basically is just a bunch of stuff that is not really genealogically useful except the admixture percentages. But as we discuss on this channel all the time, admixture percentages really are not that genealogically useful. Each kit has its own login. So you can't have one account where you have multiple DNA kits under one account. So like me where I'm managing kits for my parents and my grandma and uncles and aunts and cousins and all that sort of stuff. I have to have a login for every single person that's tested there. So not only is it difficult to collaborate, it's really difficult to do any sort of DNA project because you're constantly logging in and out of all these different DNA tests.
Now, Ancestry is on the other end where they got a 25 out of 25 points here. And all honesty, I think Ancestry sets the bar for collaborative capabilities, not just for the DNA testing side, but also for the family tree side. Not only can you have it where you're managing a whole bunch of DNA kits under your one account, but on top of that, you can have as many people as you want where you share that DNA kit with them and you can give different people different levels of access. So, if you want someone just to be able to view those results, you can do that. If you want it where you want someone where they're in there and editing and adding comments and doing all that kind of stuff, you can do that as well. And you can even get it where people are managing your kit. So like for me as a professional genealogist, I'm constantly having my clients put me on as manager because that allows me to do all sorts of stuff for them like downloading their DNA and uploading it to other sites or connecting it to specific family trees so that it helps with different DNA tools. There's honestly very little that I could even think of that would make their collaborative capabilities better.
Next for Family Tree DNA, they came in second worst with 10 out of 25 points. And while they weren't necessarily as bad as 23 and me, they're pretty similar. So the Family Tree DNA, every single DNA kit has its own login as well. The only caveat to that is if you have a person who does the autosomal DNA test, the YDNA test, and the mitochondrial DNA test, those can all be done under one singular account. So you'd have one singular DNA kit number that all three of those different tests are tied to. But otherwise, you have to have a login for every different person. But the reason why Family Tree DNA gets more points than 23 andMe is because Family Tree DNA does have the projects. The Family TreeDNA projects are basically just groups of people that are focused on specific topics. So sometimes it's specific families, sometimes it might be a specific haplo group, sometimes it might be specific population groups, but they allow you to then connect DNA tests from all different people into a project so that the people that are running those projects can utilize your DNA in the study of their project. So, it's not as helpful genealogically for everybody, but in the long run, it can be helpful just in the sense that these DNA projects can turn out results that might help in understanding DNA further, especially in reference to whatever population group you're focused on. So, as example, for me, I've connected a lot of DNA kits to the Avatanu YDNA project and the Jewish Genetic Census. And both of those have helped figure out all sorts of stuff in learning about the Jewish population groups and ways we can study them.
Now, with Living DNA, they came out right in the middle at 15 out of 25 points. And I have to be completely honest, this one was a little bit hard for me to figure out just because I've used Living DNA the least. And I especially have done so little work on Living DNA that I haven't used any of their collaborative stuff. But the reason I gave them 15 out of 25 was because I saw that they do have it where you can allow single manager permissions. So you can have it where you have other people looking at your DNA results. They also had results sharing, but I didn't find that that was anything that special compared to like what 23ME does. But if anyone has a lot more experience with the collaborative capabilities of Living DNA and you think there's more to add, definitely comment below.
And with My Heritage, I gave them a 20 out of 25. And they honestly have a lot of capabilities to them, especially in the sense that you can manage a lot of kits under one singular account. They've also rolled out recently a similar system to what Ancestry does where you can share with others to be able to go in and kind of work with your DNA matches and all of that on a much more advanced level. but they don't have the levels of sharing that Ancestry does and it's not quite as robust of a system. So, if they keep working on it and improving it, I think that they could possibly reach a point where they're as good as or better than Ancestry.
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Now we get to the last category and honestly the most important category when it comes to which is the best DNA test especially considering we're talking about this in genealogy terms but that's the advanced DNA tools. So what tools do these websites have that allow you to do more advanced genetic genealogy? And because this category is so important we're ranking each one out of 30 points.
Now, with 23 and me, I gave them a 15 out of 30. They have some good tools, but they are missing a lot of stuff. The biggest thing they have is the shared match comparison, and this is something they've had for a long time that set them apart. But this is where you can look at a match you have and the shared matches you have with that match, as well as how much you win that match match each one of those shared matches. Another thing that's kind of unique with 23me is they have it where when you have your parents test, you can actually connect it and phase the results. So phasing just meaning that when they're looking at each base pair, they'll be able to know 100% for sure which part of that base pair came from mom and which part of that base pair came from dad. And this can be very useful for them on the back end of things. They also have that auto family tree feature I spoke about earlier. That was one of the things that made them unique. But like I mentioned earlier, lots of issues with it. And then they do have some unique search and filter functions that some of the other companies don't have. But this is some of the stuff that's behind their 23 andMe Plus membership. So it can be useful, but you do have to pay for the membership for it.
Now the Ancestry, they got 25 out of 30 points. They are one of the best companies when it comes to advanced DNA tools and they're probably one of the best in terms of rolling out new tools consistently. One of the biggest things they have that sets them apart is their through lines tool which really goes into being able to connect with others without having to do a lot of work because it does the work for you. Finding your DNA matches, looking at your tree, looking at their tree, and then figuring out, well, what do you have in common? Ancestry also now has that shared match comparison just like we discussed with 23 and me. But this is something that's behind their ProTools membership which is an extra cost on top of the DNA test and the ancestry membership. So it is a bit much for some people but very useful. Ancestry also does an autophasing where they're showing whether it's your paternal side or maternal side. And if they don't know is it paternal or maternal, they at least break it down parent one and parent two. And along with new rollouts, Ancestry has been getting better and better with the filters they provide, the groupings they provide, and then being able to filter and search using all of these different tags and keywords and groupings. And that's become really, really useful. Now, with this amazing list of advanced DNA tools, there is a glaring omission in the fact that Ancestry does not have a chromosome browser, which is the thing needed if you want to do DNA painting. One of the most advanced ways of doing genetic genealogy and also one of the most useful ways, also useful in terms of visual phasing. There's also some tools Ancestry doesn't have that are available on some of the other sites, but based on announcements that Ancestry has made recently, I know these tools are going to be coming out largely the autocluster. But until that comes out, we can't really count that towards the points. So, they only get the 25 out of 30.
Now, for Family Tree DNA, I gave them a 15 out of 30, similar to 23 and me. The two biggest things that Family Tree DNA has being the X chromosome matching tool which is very very important and like we said in the uniqueness part something none of the other companies do but then on top of that they also have the chromosome browser where you can look at a lot of different matches at once. So it becomes very helpful as well. There's also a shared match search where you have two options. Basically, you choose a match and you say what matches also match this match or what matches are not shared matches with this match, but you don't get any sort of advanced comparison between them. There's also some decent search and filter options for Family Tree DNA, but they're very far from as robust as some of these other sites.
With Living DNA, they did the absolute worst in this category with only 10 out of 30 points. They do have a multiv- view chromosome browser, so you can look at multiple different matches at once. And then they have a basic shared matching where you can click on a match and then you see a list of shared matches. But that's really it. And even those two tools feel kind of not so great. Granted, I haven't played around with their chromosome browser a lot, but from the little bit I saw, it seemed pretty basic.
And lastly, we have My Heritage, who came out on top in this category with 28 out of 30 points. Pretty much every single important DNA tool that Ancestry has, My Heritage also has, but on top of that, My Heritage also has an advanced chromosome browser. And honestly, I think one of the nicest looking ones. Even more, I think they have the best shared match comparison. Not only do you see how much are you and your match matching your shared matches, then it also gives you a little icon on the side telling you, do you also have triangulated segments? Basically, meaning you, your match, and the shared match are not only matching DNA, but you're all matching DNA on same spots. And another thing that sets My Heritage apart is that autocluster, which like I said, there's one that's going to be coming out for Ancestry, but until it's out, My Heritage is the only major company that has it. Otherwise, you have to go to the Genetic Affairs website to do an autocluster or go to Jed Match. And the last thing I want to talk about is My Heritage's theory of Family Relativity, which is kind of like a better version of Ancestry's through lines in some ways. Like I like the way that Ancestry presents their through lines where you can look by ancestor, but I like how with My Heritage's theory of family relativity, it will show you multiple paths of why they're coming up with this theory. And it gives you the option to reject theories, which Ancestry does not allow you to reject throughline theories. And that's kind of a major issue with that.
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I'm not surprised Ancestry My Heritage were so close because there really is a lot of overlap in what both websites offer. And with that being said, if you are doing DNA testing for genealogy, family history, finding your biological family, things where DNA matches matter, then what you really need to try to do is get in as many DNA databases as possible. The more databases you're in, the more matches you can compare against, the more possibilities of finding a significant match. You just never know which database is going to be the one that has that one relative that's going to help you break open the big mystery that you've had in your family tree, but they're only on that database. So, if you don't test there, you'll never find them and make that breakthrough. And if you'd like to see how to use your DNA test results to make breakthroughs in your family tree, be sure to check out this video of mine right here. Thank you to my Patreon patrons and YouTube members.