23andMe and Ancestry DNA tests slashed for Prime Day
Our two favourite DNA tests have been cut for Prime Day
If you’re trying to learn something about yourself this Prime Day, other than the fact that you may be genetically predisposed to the thrill of online shopping, then Amazon has slashed the price of our two favourite home DNA testing kits: 23andMe and Ancestry.
Ancestry’s DNA test is going for £53 (40% off), while 23andMe can be had for £72.79 (51% off). To get this price, you’ll need to be a Prime subscriber, of course. You can get a free 30-day trial here.
I used both of these DNA tests, along with a bunch of others for our roundup, so have first-hand experience with both. So which is best? Well, afraid it’s not a one-word answer, but it is a fairly simple one, so bear with me.
The question is: what are you interested in finding out? If you’re interested in finding about your heritage and tracking down long-lost relatives, then Ancestry is the way to go.
That’s for two reasons: firstly, while 23andMe does cover heritage, it’s not as thorough as Ancestry’s, which has built-in family tree building tools and is laser-focused on its sole purpose.
The second reason is that it has several million more subscribers. This obviously increases the chances of you finding DNA matches in the database, and while it’s not exactly scientific I can tell you that while 23andMe reckons it’s found 1,135 matches, Ancestry tops it with a massive 37,846.
So a clear win for Ancestry, then? Not so fast. What Ancestry doesn’t give you is any kind of health insights and the version of 23andMe on sale is the one which has both ancestry and insights on your health. That means it’ll tell you about an increased risk of diseases, and whether you’re a carrier for certain illnesses, as well as more frivolous insights about propensity to freckling, attraction to mosquitoes and so on.
There are very good reasons to not know about health risks, of course, just as there are reasons to be fully appraised. The question is: which DNA test is right for you?
Buy Ancestry from Amazon Buy 23andMe from Amazon