23andMe Ancestry Service

23andme is one of the major DNA heritage companies. Their price is somewhat higher than other smaller companies and similar to their major competitor, but they provide the most value for money as your results will not tell you which population groups you're most related to but also your haplogroups. This is unique compared to other companies. Additionally, they are efficient and their presentation is pretty good though it does not include a nice video presentation like another competitor. Most importantly, the accuracy seems to be high as they managed to find my origins and trace it to specific regions which matches with my family tree. Please note however, that 23andme is an origins heritage company and NOT an ethnicity-heritage company. They will not tell you whether your DNA is similar to the DNA found specifically in certain ethnicities. Instead the results will tell you the proximity of your mix of genes to the mix of genes found in other reference populations! Therefore, the test might be unhelpful to people who live in areas where populations have historically mixed and who want to see their ethnic make-up. However, the good thing is that you can upload your 23andme raw DNA data to other DNA companies which specialize on telling you your ethnicity. You can do this for free too at the most major one (MyHeritage). As a result, 23andme provides the best value of money out there since you can get your origin, haplogroup and ethnicity. Finally, in terms of matching with other people, the website has a vast database and I found many relatives I had no idea about. Though you can expand this pool of people by uploading your raw dna data to other companies as the market is rather fragmented. So all in all, I am very happy with the results and helped be settle on my ethnicity. Highly recommended!

I got this while it was on sale (my son bought it for me as a Mothers Day gift) and it was at a great price. It was easy to use and to post. It was good quality and following the instructions my sample was very secure. The results were very surprising and accurate. I recieved more information than I expected. It was a great experience although the wait for the results took some time. Two months after sending off my sample I received the results.

Results took awhile but they do warn you about that. I'm very happy with my results and the service for the most part has been good. However the app does like to randomly stop working before starting up again a few minutes later. And if you want more info into your results you need to pay a monthly subscription. I wouldn't mind but it's a lil pricey on top of the fact we paid a fair bit for the test itself. And the info they do give you with the test (without monthly subscription) is a little on broad side.

First, it’s really easy to do the test and ship the box back: it contains step by step instructions and contains both the shipping box and printed sticking mail label so you don’t have to pay anything extra. Then you just take your saliva, close the box, apply the label and place it in a royal mail red box. The results arrived 3 weeks later but i’ve had friends who received them 2 months later. Careful not to eat or smoke before you take the test otherwise they may not be able to analyse your results as the sample would be “contaminated”. The platform to review your results is very user-friendly and intuitive, and I really like how they change your results throughout time to adapt to their advancements in technology. I did the test in 2018 and reviewed my results in 2020, and saw the accuracy had been improved: while before my dna was from 5 different ancestry regions, it now only shows 2 regions. While i see this as a bonus, it also depicts that accuracy is not total and that they are making ongoing improvements to it.

Very impressed!!! I was not sure at first what results would come up but I was very pleased to find my long lost half sister. We have searched for her for many years and as soon as I saw her name come up I connected with her online and we are getting to know each other. I am very impressed to find and learn all about the other people that are linked to my family. The reports and all the information are easy to read and understand and I am looking at upgrading. Also, I was tracking the kit all the way and during the time when there were any delays due to Covid or weather in the USA, I contacted the 23andMe team and they responded back to me within one day with the information. The only sad part of this journey is that my Dad passed away 2 weeks before I got the results and he would have loved to have met his daughter, however, we are honouring his wishes and will ensure my sister is made to feel part of our family x

Sample needed to be sent to the UK, while it was bought in the UAE