Company backgrounds for Ancestry and MyHeritage

Ancestry and MyHeritage have very similar roots. However, their markets have were largely separated before the internet. Ancestry has a complicated company history of providing genealogy research resources, dating back to their first magazines and floppy discs on the subject. Based out of Utah, the company has a very large base of users in the United States and North America in general. 

MyHeritage started in 2003 by a software programmer, Gilad Japhet. The company provided software for creating family trees, much like Ancestry. However, MyHeritage is based out of Israel and the majority of their customers and databases are European. 

In 2012, Ancestry offered its first genetic testing kit. MyHeritage followed suit in 2016. Both companies now service a wide variety of regions and languages. However, since a majority of their customers were from pre-established markets, their genetic databases largely reflect this.

AncestryDNA claims over 14 million users, while MyHeritage claims to hold enough data to create a family tree of 13 million people. Both companies have an even larger database of family tree information, available through a subscription service. As of 2019, both companies have expanded into health traits, in addition to their ancestry analysis.

Ancestry vs MyHeritage Offerings

 Ancestry

AncestryDNA offers a look into your relatively recent ancestral past. For reasons they explain on their support site, Ancestry only looks at autosomal DNA. This gives a good look at your more recent ancestors. The tests compare your DNA with that of over 1000 reference populations from around the world. With this data and data from their tens of millions of family tree users, the company can estimate your relatedness to various global populations to a high degree of accuracy.  

An interesting feature of the service is the ability to track and learn more about potential migrations your family may have been a part of. Ancestry shows these potential migrations and provides some background on why these migrations took place. The platform also has a family matching service, which can predict how closely related you are to other users of their platform. This service allows willing participants to contact each other to further explore their family heritage. 

The Ancestry DNA kit is typically $99, and the company has various subscription services available for building and exploring your family tree. 

Since 2019, Ancestry also offers the AncestryHealth Core DNA kit. This test covers a variety of traits, covering two main areas: Carrier Status, and Health Risks. Carrier status reports relate to genes you carry that can cause genetic disorders, such as Tay-Sachs disease and Cystic Fibrosis. Health Risk reports cover a variety of potentially-harmful genes related to breast and ovarian cancer, as well as genes related to heart and blood health.

The Ancestry DNA kit is typically $99, and the company has various subscription services available for building and exploring your family tree.

MyHeritage

MyHeritage also offers a DNA test kit for exploring your genetic ancestry. Like Ancestry, their kit analyzes your relatedness to different global populations. With their lower number of users and smaller reference populations, the company can only assign your genes to around 42 different global regions. Ancestry definitely has the lead on geographic regions and reference populations, but in other areas MyHeritage excels. 

Their platform provides interactive maps for exploring your family’s history, in addition to a number of fun historical information. One feature even estimates how many of their users from each region are related to you, showing on a global map where these living relatives are located. The service also allows you to match to known relatives and contact them if you both consent. Unlike Ancestry, the service does not seem to analyze possible mass migrations your family was a part of.

MyHeritage also started offering DNA health testing services. The MyHeritage Health+Ancestry test provides much more thorough analysis of your health traits, compared to ancestry. Where Ancestry provides only 3 Carrier Status reports, MyHeritage provides 18 carrier status reports. They also provide analysis of 18 health-traits including breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Crohn’s disease, and many more.

Compare AncestryDNA and MyHeritage Results

When it comes to the results you receive, both companies provide an online platform detailing the results of your test. Both companies have interactive maps, allowing you to explore various regions where your ancestors originated from. Ancestry has a slight advantage here as well because their maps are supposedly easier to use and understand. Further, Ancestry provides information about how your family may be connected to mass migrations. This information, tied into their vast research library, could provide real and complete evidence about your family history.

Will your data be shared?

Both companies claim that your data will never be sold to third-party business, but will be used for research and product development. MyHeritage has a clause in their Privacy Policy which gives them the license to basically use your sample any way they choose. Ancestry did not seem to have this blanket clause present in their Privacy Statement, though the user does agree to allow them to research and use the information. 

Media coverage and user opinions

Both companies have had their fair share of media coverage, both good and bad. MyHeritage suffered some bad publicity in 2017 when the company was hacked. Nearly all 100 million users had to change their passwords, but it seems no private data was exposed. Ancestry has taken heat for providing seemingly inaccurate results to some users, but in general has mostly positive coverage. 

In terms of reviews, Ancestry fairs slightly worse than MyHeritage. On Amazon, Ancestry has over 6,800 reviews with 4.1 of 5 stars. MyHeritage has just over 1,000 reviews on Amazon, with an average of 3.9 stars. However, Trustpilot gives MyHeritage 3.5 of 5 stars with over 5,800 reviews. Users who reviewed Ancestry on Trustpilot give the service only 2.5 stars with over 4,700 total reviews.

Conclusion: Ancestry vs. MyHeritage

Anyone looking to use one of these services is interested mostly in their genealogy and family history. Both companies mainly focus on your relatively recent historical past. Both companies also offer access to a wide variety of non-DNA resources and family tree software to build and explore your history. Both companies also provide a means for finding and contacting genetic relatives. Both companies also recently started offering additional health testing services, but MyHeritage provides a much more thorough analysis.

Ancestry, while they have more users and ancestral reference populations, does not compete on the health side of things.  With the company’s massive user database, Ancestry should be able to offer even more health-related traits than its largest competitors, but they offer far fewer than most companies. People only interested in their family tree will be happy, but most people want as much information as they can get. MyHeritage can offer a great ancestry analysis, in addition to a large and useful combination of Carrier Status reports and Health Risk reports.

Winner: MyHeritage, with one caveat. MyHeritage provides a well-rounded service, great user interface, and has mostly positive reviews. The one caveat is for users only interested in genealogy and ethnicity estimates, which may be more accurate with Ancestry.com. For people interested in everything DNA analysis has to offer, MyHeritage is a great choice!