I've purchased three DNA Test Kits (one from 23andme, one from ancestry.com, purchased here on Amazon, see my review, and most recently the DNA test kit through National Geographic...)

I did my test with 23andme in 2014 and the results came after about 9 weeks. It was incredible and fascinating to see the information provided in this test and my parents and grandparents always to me I was an equal mixture of English, Scottish and Irish. (Our family names for generations pretty much also reflect the links to Great Britain.) 23andme confirmed what my grandparents on both side of our family had been telling me when I was very young.This was so interesting, that I bought another 23andMe test kit for my wife.

23andme nearly overwhelmed me with information not only in regard to where I came from, but with information about possible health issues I could probably have. I'm about to turn 66 as I write my review, and I'll say looking back at my medical ailments over the years, the health info was about 98% accurate, despite missing multiple sclerosis (which I was diagnosed with at age 60) and 23andme suggested I am prone to psoriasis (which I nor any member of my family has ever had.

My major disappointment with 23andme came earlier this year (2017) when they sent out info stating they were going to be selling my (and everyone else's data) to third party entities. Like Hell, I want my personal information to be sold to a corporation! I sent 23andme an email telling them to drop me as a customer, and that I did NOT want them releasing my personal information to anyone.

About 10 days later I received an email from them staying my account was closed and all I have now are some vague memories of the maps on 23andme showing migration patterns of my ancestors, some recollections of other info and questions as to why long-after I paid my $200, 23andme decided to "prostitute" me (and everyone else using their DNA test kit) AFTER I agreed to their original terms back in 2014.

I'd love to meet Anne Wojcicki (CEO and co-founder of 23andme) so I could say to her in my bad impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, "Hasta la vista baby, I WON'T be back." And neither will my wife!

I'm a sperm donor baby. I followed the instructions, spit in the vial, and found my genetic father. Life is weird but good. Thanks 23andme.

I am happy I purchased this kit. I included some of my results in the pictures.
Pros;
- Received it within two days and avoided shipping costs (that their website charges)
- Easy to use and instructions are simple
- I liked the updates and the timeline
- The results are easy to read
- A plethora of information
- If you family participates they will conjoin your ancestry reports to give you a better more accurate outlook into where you came from.

Cons;
- Unfortunately due to FDA regulations 23andme had to remove a lot of content regarding the health portion. I will discuss alternate options below.
- Not completely accurate. It says I had a 6% chance of being a redhead, well I am very much a redhead and so are 6 members of my family, so the gene must be pretty strong.
- None of the health portions contained anything I was concerned about. Nice to know what it did provide.
- I wish the Ancestry portion was more details. I am 97% European, but of that 34% is Broadly Northwestern European wish I knew what that was. And if you change the confidence level from 50% to 90% you get different results (refer to pictures)

Now if you are not satisfied with the data 23andme provide you have other options. Since this data is yours you can upload the raw data from 23andme onto other sites. I did this with numerous other sites. I am not a geneticists so I can not say how accurate these websites are or even how accurate 23andme is. I wish we could upload this data into Ancestry.com, but of course they want you to buy their kit.
- DNA.land still need to read my results. I know it provides ancestry
- Promethease- costs $5, but offers a lot of data on health. Still can't seem to figure it out though, so much information...
- GEDmatch this is for ancestry, but database is still limited.
- Geneticgenie- This is for health and requires you do a lot of researching to figure out results.

[see Nov 2017 Update under Promethease Results]

I had DNA analysis from 23andme. My wife had DNA analysis from both Ancestry and 23andme. This review is my comparison of the two. I highly recommend secondary analysis of your results by Promethease, see further discussion at end of this review. Basically I like 23andme. If 23andme offers a lower cost ancestry only test, this is OK. For developing an ancestry tree, Ancestry.com is MUCH better IF you signup separately for Ancestry's subscription search service.

TAKING TEST and SIGNUP "“ Very similar test taking. 23's signup was more secure. Anc's was easier, but they automatically put my wife's test on my previously existing Ancestry account.

Waiting on RESULTS "“ Both send emails confirming sample receipt and when results were available. After logon, 23 provided step by step progress reports on the analysis process. The analysis process itself took about 10 days, including a holiday weekend. Total wait time was 3-4 weeks. Anc took 5 or so days longer than 23.

WEB SITE SECURITY "“ 23 is better. 23 requires a typical logon and password to get to the site. Anc automatically remembers your logon and password and just opens up when you go to the site. However, actually downloading your DNA file from Anc requires a full sign-on and confirmation link via your e-mail..

Ethnic Origin Analysis "“ 23 is much better (more correct). Anc included excessive Scandinavian content. 23's discussion and analysis tools are much better.

DNA RELATIVE IDENTIFICATION "“ Recognizing that allocation of relatives to 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins is somewhat imprecise. For my wife, 23 identified 4 second cousins and about 32 third cousins. Anc identified 1 first cousin, 2 second cousins and 9 third cousins. 23 also has "˜cousins' outside the USA (in my case in the UK) which are really valuable contacts for ancestry searching. The web site does not directly identify a cousin's location but you can easily guess this from supplementary info optionally provided by the cousin on 23's site.

DNA RELATIVE CONTACT and ANALYSIS "“ Anc provides the e-mail for a contact and shared ancestors for each DNA relative. You get more when you pay for their regular Ancestry services, see below. 23 provides an internal messaging application for communicating with contacts. The application works but is rudimentary and unsuitable for more than brief messages (especially with MS Edge); exchanging e-mail address's after contact is more satisfying. 23 has a couple levels of "˜sharing' (aka privacy). If you enable sharing you have reasonably useful (but somewhat clunky, but better than Anc) tools to compare the DNA analysis of relatives who also share. This helps to group relatives from particular ancestors. I had 3 relatives contact me on 23. My wife has had no contacts via either 23 or Anc.

Anc provides a powerful tree searching tool IF you subscribe to the regular Ancestry service. This is expensive, in the range of $200/year or more. Given the moderate "˜tools' in their basic DNA service, I view their DNA analysis as an (effective) teaser for their subscription service. UPDATE: I did signup for the Ancestry services and they are great. Specifically, with a subscription their DNA site shows a contacts pedigree chart if that contact already has built an Anc family tree. This is MASSIVELY better than 23's unsorted list of surnames. When you search for a particular name it searches all of the connected family trees - this is exceptionally useful.

I have problems with some browsers not opening some Anc connected data (document images). Google Chrome seems the most reliable.

MEDICAL INFO "“ Anc provides no medical info. In late 2016 23 had two test options - $100 for just the ancestry service and $200 for ancestry plus medical. The medical info provide by 23 is interesting but for most people, currently not very useful. The medical items they are allowed to report on by the FDA are limited to 40 or so rare genetic conditions-not useful for most people. UPDATE-As of April 2017, 23 now reports on your risk of 4 medical conditions, including Alzheimers. Their discussion/explanation of your risks for these conditions is specifically approved by the FDA and is reasonably understandable, informative, and useful.

If you are so inclined, you can participate (answer a lot of online questions) in 23's medical research. This is probably 20 ten minute questions sessions. I did this and feel like it was useful for medical research.

Analysis of you DNA results by Promethease, a third party service, provides excellent medical info.

CONNECTION to PROMETHEASE "“ Promethease (Prom) is a third party service that assess's your detailed DNA results from either 23 or Anc and provides a detailed medical risk report. Go to the Prom site to get started. The connection from Prom to 23 is especially easy. For Anc you have to separately download from Anc and upload to Prom which is also not too difficult. Cost is $5 per report.

PROMETHEASE RESULTS "“Prom generates 20,000 or so reports (hits) from the 700,000 or so genes that are tested by 23 and Anc. 23 and Anc test a different set of genes, although they mostly overlap. For my wife's test from both 23 and Anc the corresponding Prom reports were about 85% the same for the 40 most significant hits (Prom magnitude 2.5 and above). There were 5 or 6 unique hits in the top 40 for each report. I judge that the unique hits were about equally important, between 23 and Anc - none were critical.

[Nov 2017 Update] In October 2017 I resubmitted by 2016 23 test to Prom. About 15% of the hits were changed. A couple unusual hits were deleted. A very significant change was that one gene comment changed from 'increased risk of Type 1 diabetes' to '18x risk of Type 1 diabetes'!!! I read up on this. It turns out that the genetic > diabetes risk/connection is currently a very hot and complex research topic. The relevant research report was published in 2017. My suggestion is to update your Prom report every year or two if diabetes or alzheimers are a concern.

USING PROMETHEASE "“ IMPORTANT "“ Use of general DNA analysis to identify general medical conditions is an emerging (not well developed) technology/business. My guess is that the info provided by Prom is perhaps 30% or so of what will be available in 10 years or so. I regard the info provide as indicative, definitely not complete and possibly incorrect (due to either testing error or interpretation error).

Having said that, it is interesting, likely useful and potentially lifesaving. The information will be disturbing (negative), but in most cases not surprising. I think most people will be able to absorb the info without getting too stressed out. If you are a hypochondriac, this could be a problem. If you want a chance of good news, you can write down the stuff your are concerned about ahead of time, and then see if they actually show up.

My comments for using the report are:
"¢ Make sure you download a copy to your PC for future reference, don't just look at it online.
"¢ After you figure out how to use the report, move the '0' Magnitude slider up to a range of 2.5 or so. This will limit you to the top 40 or so hits. Then go down to the bottom of the report and hit the '2X' bar a few times to see all the hits.
"¢ You can then hit the "˜Table' button at the top and print a summary of the hits to help see the big picture. You can also open this table in Excel and modify/save it for a more useful table. If you do this, add a Frequency column if it's not already there.
"¢ To me, after Magnitude, the most important factor is "˜Frequency'. This is what percentage of the target population has this condition. If its around 40% or higher, I think it's already "˜dialed in' to the normal medical process "“ it is something your doctor and the medical community will look for in any case. Most of the hits fall into this category. If it's less than 10%, it's likely not on your doctors radar screen and you will want to consider if it's worth mentioning to your doctor.
"¢ The second most useful item is the relative increased risk in the item discussion. Recognize that the absolute risk is not provided "“ this could be 1 in 100,000, so a 1.1 relative risk is almost meaningless. On the other hand I looked up AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration-eye problems) on the internet; it affects 1 in 3 to 5 people by age 80, so 2x risk is really significant. Good to know this ahead of time.
"¢ After you assess the top 40, which takes a while, you can expand the Magnitude to it's full range. Then click on "˜Topics' and click on sub topics of interest and see if any common concerns emerge. Do the same for "˜Medical Conditions'. This seems like a lot of work but only takes an hour or 2 once you get started. For me the common themes seem to be heart disease, Alzheimer's and Rheumatoid arthritis "“ none of which are a surprise.
- When you find something that might be relevant you NEED to do supplemental research on the Internet. The Prom report is a brief and simple identification. Fuller understanding can significantly change (reduce?) your concern for the issue. Be aware that there are 'hypochondriac' web site for some of these issues. I like to start with Wiki, Mayo Clinic and WebMD. Search for the Prom gene name 'rs........'. Then find out what the common term(s) for the gene is e.g. MTFHR and search for that. Write stuff down, gene names can be confusing.
"¢ Again, remember this is an emerging technology, so the results will change from year to year for a while. I guess that in 10 years it will be a routine consideration in a physical.

Excellent, but I would get the $99 kit over the $199 one. Then go to Promethease.com and dna.land.com and import your results (when their available from 23andMe), For $5.00 they give you loads of medical and other misc. insights from your genetic information. Importing is quick and easy, do it right from the Promethease website (links to 23andMe directly and grabs your data. dna.land requires you to upload data yourself). Just be sure to download a copy of the final results to your computer for future reference (as Promethease will automatically delete information from their servers after 4 months). DNA.LAND is free (it's a research project) well worth the extra effort and produces some more interesting results.