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Which is the most conprehensive/ helpful? I have been doing searches here, and just get more confused. So...if you had to do just one test, what would it be?
Unless we know what you want to do the test for, we can't answer which one will be best for you. Do you want to find relatives to help you confirm ancestors in your family tree? Do you want to know about you ethnic background? Do you want information about genetic markers related to health risks? Please be specific.
IMO Genetic Genealogy should be a subforum under Genealogy with a sticky about what DNA test to use for what reasons, to answer the same questions that keep getting asked over, and over, and over, and over again.
It really depends what you want or expect from the test.
All three major companies, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and Ancestry.com, will provide ethnicity reports. In my opinion, 23andMe have the best ethnicity reports, then Ancestry.com, then FTDNA.
They all also provide you with a list of other testers who you share DNA with but in my experience, people on 23andMe are least likely to have a tree or respond to messages, and 23andMe's interface doesn't make exploring your matches very easy. For DNA matching, Ancestry.com is the best in my experience - testers are more likely to have trees, but FTDNA is also a good option. Certainly, I think if you already have an account/tree with Ancestry.com, it would make the most since to test with them. Otherwise, FTDNA currently have a great sale going on, their Family Finder test is only $59 (in comparison to Ancestry's $99).
If you're looking for health reports, 23andMe are the only ones who offer this, but their health report is expensive and honestly doesn't include many useful reports on the type of health issues most people want to know about. A less expensive and more comprehensive option is to test with Ancestry.com or FTDNA and then upload your raw DNA data to Promethease.com for a very small fee ($5-10, depending on the report).
So unless the ethnicity report is extremely important to you (which it shouldn't really be because it's only an estimate and shouldn't be taken literally), I would go with Ancestry.com or FTDNA. It's hard to argue against FTDNA's current sale too, the price is so low, Ancestry.com's take has NEVER been that low (their sales only go down to $69 and even that is pretty rare, normally they do $89 or $79 sales).
I thought the 23andme test was great I got it six years ago and still to this day get new information and updates from it.
I might be getting the Ancestry.com Dna test soon because I adore dna tests.
I would only buy from these two places as they are popular and likely to have the biggest samples,dna matches etc.
Thank you Katiethegreat, just what I was looking for.
To the person complaining about people (me) not asking for specifics... please see that I asked "if you had to do just one test, what would it be?" I thought that was pretty clear.
If I had wanted something more specific, I would certainly have asked. I was not looking for a dressing down.... I asked for exactly what I was looking for.
I have been leaning towards ancestry (I do have a tree there), but would consider FTDNA just due to cost for the basics. Do you think FTDNA would have as broad a DNA base as ancestry?
Honestly, I am expecting nothing, and just want to start by doing something interesting, broad, and I will go with actual opinions. I seriously doubt I have any exciting ethnicity secrets. I've gone as far as the 1400s, with almost everyone filled in.
When I started the tree however, I found that my paternal line was heavily Dutch, and full of (nearly) all Scandinavian heritage. No one had ever mentioned that before.
My grandfathers and I just never discussed it Both my grandmothers did, as they were in DAR, and they went back to only England. I actually have traced back further, but until I can prove it I am calling it good where I have landed. I know people put crazy things in ancestry, and it was a lot of work sifting through it. Someone had added Beowulf, and my line ended up leading there. So.... I know to take it all with a grain of salt.
It was funny when I realized I never asked about the grandfathers lines. It made the search a lot more interesting.
FTDNA is the best. I have done Ancestry.Com too. But I find FTDNA more accurate.
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Both my grandmothers did, as they were in DAR, and they went back to only England. I actually have traced back further, but until I can prove it I am calling it good where I have landed. I know people put crazy things in ancestry, and it was a lot of work sifting through it. Someone had added Beowulf, and my line ended up leading there. So.... I know to take it all with a grain of salt.
