Which genetic company is the cheapest to take a test and is it worth? Or should I go for 23andme?

[Cernunnos]

I'm not a guy who has a lot of money but I'm definetely interested in taking one, but should I take the cheapest one (which I don't know which is) or should I take the most famous and I suppouse the best genetic testing company (23andme)?

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

What's your budget?

I would strongly recommend you to go for 23andMe.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

The cheapest is MyHeritage if I am not wrong but their autosomal isn't good (my humble opinion) and they don't analyse your haplogroups.

[Cernunnos]

What's your budget?

I would strongly recommend you to go for 23andMe.

Currently? From 50 to 80 euros sometimes.

[Gründig]

What's your budget?

I would strongly recommend you to go for 23andMe.

I agree.

[Token]

If you know about genetics, MyHeritage. If you don't and are not interested in learning, 23andme or FTDNA.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Currently? From 50 to 80 euros sometimes.

Dude, go for 23andMe. Currently it costs more or less 100€ with the shipping costs. If you really want to go ahead and do it but you think it is a struggle or to much over your budget just PM me and we can rearrange a transfer for the remaining you need since you are still a student.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

If you know about genetics, MyHeritage. If you don't and are not interested in learning, 23andme or FTDNA.

Care to explain? An autosomal that gives 30% Greek to Iberians is absolute crap, sorry. Plus, no haplogroups.

[Token]

Care to explain? An autosomal that gives 30% Greek to Iberians is absolute crap, sorry. Plus, no haplogroups.

Every commercial ancestry reports are crap. MyHeritage tests 700.000 SNPs of your genome, not more not less than much more expensive tests. If you know about genetics and the basics of ADMIXTURE statistical methods, everything you need is your raw data and your brain.

[Gründig]

My 23andme aligns pretty dam well with all the other calculators that use the raw data, so how is it crap?

[TheMaestro]

Don't go for myHeritage, you will just literally just throw away your money, get some more money and go for 23andMe.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Every commercial ancestry reports are crap. MyHeritage tests 700.000 SNPs, not more not less than much more expensive tests. If you know about genetics and the basics of ADMIXTURE statistical methods, everything you need is your raw data and your brain.

You do not need that many SNPs to begin with, unless your aim is health reports. Most of those SNPs are irrelevant for ancestry, plus 23andMe tests ~650,000, not a big difference. What you could say is that V5 doesn't run as smoothly on Gedmatch but you can always convert it to V3 or upload it to Genesis (plus Gedmatch runs are becoming obsolete, there are better tools nowadays).

I don't feel that MyHeritage is worth the money. No haplogroups. Poor autosomal. A very basic look at your genetic makeup.

[Token]

My 23andme aligns pretty dam well with all the other calculators that use the raw data, so how is it crap?

23andme was made for people too lazy to build a simple family tree. I wonder why people that are only interested on recent ancestry get tested, it is understandable in heavily mixed places like the Americas but in places with a lot of genetic continuity like Europe it doesn't makes any sense, a complete waste of money.

[Token]

You do not need that many SNPs to begin with, unless your aim is health reports. Most of those SNPs are irrelevant for ancestry, plus 23andMe tests ~650,000, not a big difference. What you could say is that V5 doesn't run as smoothly on Gedmatch but you can always convert it to V3 or upload it to Genesis (plus Gedmatch runs are becoming obsolete, there are better tools nowadays).

I don't feel that MyHeritage is worth the money. No haplogroups. Poor autosomal. A very basic look at your genetic makeup.
Your first sentence is completely wrong, the more SNPs the more accurate your ancestry prediction will be, i can enter in details if needed.

Your raw data will not change much from test to test, because they test similar numbers of SNPs. And 'no haplogroups' is incorrect, you can get your Y-DNA using some basic prediction tools because MyHeritage do test some haplotype snps.

[Gründig]

23andme was made for people too lazy to build a simple family tree. I wonder why people that are only interested on recent ancestry get tested, it is understandable in heavily mixed places like the Americas but in places with a lot of genetic continuity like Europe it doesn't makes any sense, a complete waste of money.

Well i do agree taking the test further and doing calculators is a good idea. I just wouldn't consider the test crap because it is giving decent breakdowns of peoples composition, its just not as detailed or specific. So really, it all depends how deep people want to go.

Also family trees on paper do not always align with actual genetic make up. So being able to compare the two is nice.

[nittionia]

(plus Gedmatch runs are becoming obsolete, there are better tools nowadays).


What are the better tools? Like the DIY calculators? Just wondering :)

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

23andme was made for people too lazy to build a simple family tree. I wonder why people that are only interested on recent ancestry get tested, it is understandable in heavily mixed places like the Americas but in places with a lot of genetic continuity like Europe it doesn't makes any sense, a complete waste of money.

If your aim is to build a family tree then I would say to go for Ancestry DNA instead. MyHeritage only has a 1.5 million database! That's nothing, at least MyHeritage has a database of 10 million samples.

You have to understand though that not everyone is interested in building a family tree, most people are in for genetic makeup.

[Token]

If your aim is to build a family tree then I would say to go for Ancestry DNA instead. MyHeritage only has a 1.5 million database! That's nothing, at least MyHeritage has a database of 10 million samples.

You have to understand though that not everyone is interested in building a family tree, most people are in for genetic makeup.

You understood me wrong. I mean, you can get to know your recent ancestry, even if you are a extremely mixed person, just by going back 3 or 4 generations in your family tree, and it will be much more accurate than any ancestry report out there.

[Kamal900]

You do not need that many SNPs to begin with, unless your aim is health reports. Most of those SNPs are irrelevant for ancestry, plus 23andMe tests ~650,000, not a big difference. What you could say is that V5 doesn't run as smoothly on Gedmatch but you can always convert it to V3 or upload it to Genesis (plus Gedmatch runs are becoming obsolete, there are better tools nowadays).

I don't feel that MyHeritage is worth the money. No haplogroups. Poor autosomal. A very basic look at your genetic makeup.

What about FamilyTreeDNA? I mean, I was satisfied with the results.

[Congolese Rice]

23andme was made for people too lazy to build a simple family tree. I wonder why people that are only interested on recent ancestry get tested, it is understandable in heavily mixed places like the Americas but in places with a lot of genetic continuity like Europe it doesn't makes any sense, a complete waste of money.

lmao, i can tell you from experience that myheritage, DNA.LAND, Gencove, and Geneplaza, and AncestryDNA are all quite shitty. it all depends on HOW you want to use them, i personally only bought a DNA kit to know my ethnic breakdown and percentages, and thus i conclude 23andMe wouldve been the best choice for me.


a close second is probably mygenomebox as honorary mention, its quite good for general breakdowns. however its super fking bad for european ancestry.

[Congolese Rice]

You understood me wrong. I mean, you can get to know your recent ancestry, even if you are a extremely mixed person, just by going back 3 or 4 generations in your family tree, and it will be much more accurate than any ancestry report out there.

Yes, while that might be true. You dont necessarily have to inherit the amount of DNA that you got from your ancestors, which is where autosomal dna tests come in quite handy. And also, if your family is from the caribbean like mine is, it tells little to nothing.

My great grandfather was born in Surinam, but he was a dutch. If i didnt know he was 100% dutch ethnically then i wouldve been thinking all types of shit, like for example that he was black (slave trade) asian, or native american.


i think it heavily depends upon the individual, but personally i dont think autosomal dna tests are working out too well for me, then again thats just my opinion.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Your first sentence is completely wrong, the more SNPs the more accurate your ancestry prediction will be, i can enter in details if needed.

Your raw data will not change much from test to test, because they test similar numbers of SNPs. And 'no haplogroups' is incorrect, you can get your Y-DNA using some basic prediction tools because MyHeritage do test some haplotype snps.

Can you name me an ancestry tool that reads more than 25%-30% of the total number of SNPs provided in your raw data? A tool that is capable of reading more SNPs can give you more accurate projections but it doesn't mean that all those 700,000 SNPs are relevant for ancestry because they are not. Your Raw data shouldn't change indeed much from company to company, they all use the Illumina chip with subtle differences.


You understood me wrong. I mean, you can get to know your recent ancestry, even if you are a extremely mixed person, just by going back 3 or 4 generations in your family tree, and it will be much more accurate than any ancestry report out there.

Yes but Bell Beaker is a native Portuguese, he can certainly go 3 to 4 generations back and its all native Portuguese as well.

[Profileid]

Do either 23andme or ancestry. Nothing else is worth spending money on.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

What about FamilyTreeDNA? I mean, I was satisfied with the results.

23andMe and FTDNA have the best and most comprehensive platforms in my opinion, with recurrent updates (FTDNA even allows you to go deeper when it comes to haplogroups and to join research projects). When I pay 100$ I want more just than raw data, but that's just me. Genetics is a field that is ever growing and ever changing and I expect these platforms to improve with time and to refine their data and results.

[Token]

Can you name me an ancestry tool that reads more than 25%-30% of the total number of SNPs provided in your raw data? A tool that is capable of reading more SNPs can give you more accurate projections but it doesn't mean that all those 700,000 SNPs are relevant for ancestry because they are not. Your Raw data shouldn't change indeed much from company to company, they all use the Illumina chip with subtle differences.
Do a test: delete a random 200.000 SNPs from your raw data and upload it to DNAland, you will see how much your ancestry report will change. With less markers tested, more imputation of the 'gaps' in your genome is needed, and less accurate will be your results. I wonder where you got this '25-30%' from, almost all markers are relevant for an accurate report.


Yes but Bell Beaker is a native Portuguese, he can certainly go 3 to 4 generations back and its all native Portuguese as well.
If he is not interested on deep ancestry, then i don't see the motive for a genetic test. They will tell him what he already knows, that he is 100% Portuguese (considering that he have no foreign ancestry in the last 3-4 generations, which is always a possibility).

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Do a test: delete a random 200.000 SNPs from your raw data and upload it to DNAland, you will see how much your ancestry report will change. With less markers tested, more imputation of the 'gaps' in your genome is needed, and less accurate will be your results. I wonder from where you got this 30% from, almost all markers are relevant for an accurate report.


If he is not interested on deep ancestry, then i don't see the motive for a genetic test. They will tell him what he already knows, that he is 100% Portuguese (considering that he have no foreign ancestry in the last 3-4 generations, which is always a possibility).

Check how many SNPs most Gedmatch tool\projects read on your Raw Data, it is never even slightly close to the total number of SNPs provided on your Raw Data, no matter the chip.

Things are not so simple and linear as you say though. Take me and my girlfriend for example, our family villages are separated by only 20 km, we both are native Portuguese and so were our three to four last generations yet our genetic makeup is different.

Having foreign ancestry while being from the country side in central Portugal like me and Bell Beaker is extremely unlikely considering that the villages were so remote and most people lived all their life in a 10 miles radius and didn't knew anything else. You don't even have to go 3-4 generations backwards to understand that, my grand-grand-mother was born in 1904 and she only saw the Ocean for the first time in the 80's or something (which for Brazilian standards is just a step away, 150 km). Portugal since the Reconquista had a few invasions and wars but nothing comparable to the majority of other regions in Europe that had by far more turbulent and unstable historical periods in recent history.

[Iloko]

23andme ftw!

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Do a test: delete a random 200.000 SNPs from your raw data

Most amateur projects available to common mortals like us don't even read 200.000 SNPs to begin with, you are lucky if they reach 160.000 SNPS so obviously if you delete that many it will have a big impact. What I mean is that from 700.000 SNPs not all of them are necessarily relevant or have an impact on the comprehension of your genetic makeup.

It is a different story though if you want to go in depth on health reports or upload your data to platforms like Promethease.

[Ruderico]

I got 23andme for the gf and I, and we're pretty happy with the results. It's fun to see stuff with GEDmatch and Global25 aswell, and you get then get these cheaply. Eventhough 23andme isn't the best for GEDmatch, it still gets the job well done if you convert to v3. I got rather consistent results in pretty much all models

[Hyoga7]

Boas,

I have results from the Big 4: National Geographic; FTDNA; 23andMe; My Heritage.

Haplogroups: the best was National Geographic (it went deeper); FTDNA and 23andme started with R L-21 and a couple of months later changed to different/"smaller" subclades.

Autossomal: National Geographic seemed very ancient; 23andMe seemed very recent; FTDNA and MyHeritage were the ones that were less European.
I dont't wanna go into conspiracy theories, but I have read somewhere that MyHeritage was Israeli and thus more interested in showing results as less European to prove that Europeans aren't 100% Europeans. Truth or Lie?

I totally understand the $ factor. Try to take advantage of promotions around specific dates (Christmas, Black Friday). Do you have family or friends in the USA or UK (it's generally cheaper in these 2 countries) that can bring you the test from there?


Boa sorte!

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Boas,

I have results from the Big 4: National Geographic; FTDNA; 23andMe; My Heritage.

Haplogroups: the best was National Geographic (it went deeper); FTDNA and 23andme started with R L-21 and a couple of months later changed to different/"smaller" subclades.

Autossomal: National Geographic seemed very ancient; 23andMe seemed very recent; FTDNA and MyHeritage were the ones that were less European.
I dont't wanna go into conspiracy theories, but I have read somewhere that MyHeritage was Israeli and thus more interested in showing results as less European to prove that Europeans aren't 100% Europeans. Truth or Lie?

I totally understand the $ factor. Try to take advantage of promotions around specific dates (Christmas, Black Friday). Do you have family or friends in the USA or UK (it's generally cheaper in these 2 countries) that can bring you the test from there?


Boa sorte!

You are R1b-L21 as well?

[Ayetooey]

I went for 23andme but I wish I went for Ancestrydna as you can upload it more places and it has a larger database. I'm now doing an ancestrydna test as well.

[Hyoga7]

You are R1b-L21 as well?

Parece que os Celtas Atlânticos vieram para cá!
It would just be interesting to know if they came to Portugal from the British Isles or from France.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Parece que os Celtas Atlânticos vieram para cá!
It would just be interesting to know if they came to Portugal from the British Isles or from France.

Cool, I am R1b-L21 too.

I wonder if you are one of my DNA relatives on 23andMe.

From which Portuguese region were you from again? I forgot.

[nittionia]

I've tried a few different companies (Ancestry, MyHeritage, FTDNA, 23andMe). I wouldn't waste my money on any of them besides 23andMe.

[Polish phenotypes]

23andme out of the cheaper ones. There is a customised test you can take for 500 Pound Sterling from a professor of human genetics.

[Hyoga7]

Viriato, sou de Aveiro.
Fizeste o meu mapa K-36 há uns tempos atrás :thumb001:

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Viriato, sou de Aveiro.
Fizeste o meu mapa K-36 há uns tempos atrás :thumb001:

É verdade, já não me recordava :)

[Hyoga7]

Sim, 13 de Agosto!

Quanto aos Relatives no 23andMe, tenho 1037.
Porém só 2 pessoas é que têm mais de 1% de ADN em comum comigo.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Sim, 13 de Agosto!

Quanto aos Relatives no 23andMe, tenho 1037.
Porém só 2 pessoas é que têm mais de 1% de ADN em comum comigo.

Eu tenho 984 e 3 pessoas com mais de 1% de ADN em comum.

[Hyoga7]

Eu tenho 984 e 3 pessoas com mais de 1% de ADN em comum.

Tens mais gente com que dividir a herança ;)


What do you think about the Autossomals of FTDNA and MyHeritage (the ones that show less European; why)?

What about the 23andMe and: "You most likely had a third-great-grandparent, fourth-great-grandparent, fifth-great-grandparent, sixth-great-grandparent, or seventh-great- (or greater) grandparent who was 100% British & Irish. This person was likely born between 1710 and 1830."?

[Ruderico]

What about the 23andMe and: "You most likely had a third-great-grandparent, fourth-great-grandparent, fifth-great-grandparent, sixth-great-grandparent, or seventh-great- (or greater) grandparent who was 100% British & Irish. This person was likely born between 1710 and 1830."?

That's fairly normal, most Portuguese score a bit British & Irish (and Italian). Not me, but my results are not standard

[Hyoga7]

Yes, that's standard for many people. How serious would you take it?
Could it really be a 100% GB-IE ancestor or the combination of several % of ancient ancestors that came to Iberia?

[Ruderico]

Yes, that's standard for many people. How serious would you take it?
Could it really be a 100% GB-IE ancestor or the combination of several % of ancient ancestors that came to Iberia?

I don't know, that's a really good question. I'd like to know aswell since all my non-Iberian components are very low (just 2% Italian and 3.1% NW euro)

From rummaging through my relatives it seems that north Euro sources (B&I, F&G, EE and broadly NW) seem to vary a bit wildly whereas Italian seems to be more consistent (around 5-8% usually). So my uneducated guess is that the north Euro seems a bit more recent than the Italian ancestry. They could be proxies for Germanic and Roman ancestry respectively, but I'm really unsure about it. Additionally the north Euro could be a product of repopulation/colonisation of territories reconquered form the moors with foreigners - like Burgundians, etc - or more recent ones, since the Renaissance or the Elightenment periods