Best DNA Testing Kits Sold on Amazon
In the past years, DNA testing kits have moved from the niche curiosity to the must have mainstream necessity. These kits can reveal not just your ancestry — but also your genetic health risks, personality traits, and even dietary needs — with a quick cheek swab or saliva sample. Amazon has a lot of choice but with so many options which of the DNA kits actually does what it promises? Then, let’s explore the best DNA testing kits on Amazon so you can select the one that suits your needs best.
AncestryDNA: Uncover Your Heritage
If you’re excited to learn more about your family’s origins and ancestry breakdown, AncestryDNA is a top rated favorite. This kit maps out your ethnicity, but goes deep, pinning down specific regions and even historical migration patterns. As AncestryDNA’s database is one of the largest in the world, your results are thorough and your chance of finding extremely distant relatives is high. The perk for genealogy buffs is the ability to connect your DNA to Ancestry.com’s deep family tree resources. One downside? This kit is designed for those who are only interested in family connections and not health insights, so it’s missing those. Price: $99
23andMe: Health Insights + Ancestry
A powerhouse if you’re looking for ancestry and health information. This kit offers two options: or ancestry and health combined. For the health package you will uncover genetic health risk insights for conditions like Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. You’ll also discover sleep pattern, muscle composition and even your caffeine metabolism, and 23andMe’s ancestry analysis is top notch, telling you all you ever wanted to know about region, genetic populations, DNA relatives. While this kit doesn’t give you the entire story, it does take on the added layer of health data, making it a good bet for those curious about both sides of their genetic story, but it’ll cost you a bit more. Price: $99
MyHeritage DNA: Budget Friendly and best for beginners
MyHeritage DNA is very cheap for those who can’t afford it. That’s a cheaper option that will give you an idea of your ethnicity and what regions you descend from, but the database is smaller than AncestryDNA and 23andMe. While it does a decent job with regional data, particularly if you have European heritage, it’s not quite the best option available. One of MyHeritage DNA’s great features is its very user friendly interface that makes it perfect for beginners. The bells and whistles are cleaned out of the results. For those looking for a relatively inexpensive, no frills way to get your toes wet into DNA testing, this could be the one. Price: $89
Living DNA: Useful for Detailed Ancestry and African Heritage.
But the niche living DNA has carved for itself is with its detailed ancestral breakdown and focus on British and African ancestry. At a premium, this kit offers an attractive degree of geographical detail on British and Ireland heritage, with results broken down to the county and even smaller region level. As well as its African ancestry insights being as robust as they come, it’s an attractive choice for those with a strong focus on their heritage. However, if your main goal is to learn about health, then Living DNA is not yet offering health insights, so take notice of that. Price: $0
FamilyTreeDNA: The Choice for Genealogy Pros
If you’re passionately interested in genealogy and are committed to actually exploring how far back your family tree goes, then FamilyTreeDNA is your final DNA kit. The cool thing about this kit is that it lets you separate out maternal and paternal lineage so you can see this side and that side of your family tree with precision. FamilyTreeDNA takes you deep into the genealogy journey with tools that help you explore matches based on generation and build out your full family tree. Plus, it’s one of the few that provides Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing, both of which are important for tracing how your male or female ancestors traced their ancestry. The downside? More complex, so, more suitable for those who want to read in depth rather than simply for the sake of quick and easy to understand results. Price: $79
Nebula Genomics: As for Data Driven Health Insights
Nebula Genomics gives one of the most detailed DNA analysis on the market if health insights are your thing. With 30x whole genome sequencing, this kit reads each part of your genome 30 times to be accurate and offer comprehensive data. Nebula Genomics also reveals potential health risk, drug sensitivities and more detailed ancestry information. They also give regular updates, as scientific research continues to advance, and your health insights continue to change as well. It’s a premium kit, though, and the data can be overwhelming for those not looking for just general insights out of the box. Price: $0
Which DNA Kit Should You Buy?
At the end of the day, the best DNA testing kit for you depends on what’s most important to you. AncestryDNA is fantastic if you’re only looking to check family roots and connections. If this matters to you at all, and you want health insights, look at 23andMe or perhaps Nebula Genomics. MyHeritage DNA provides good results for a good price, which makes it a nice option for budget conscious buyers. For those wanting to go really deep, Living DNA or FamilyTreeDNA would be great. Get a DNA test either way, it’s fascinating and eye opening and adds layers to you that you didn’t know before.
