Like many of the best DNA testing kits, 24Genetics requires a cheek-swab sample. The kit includes one swab, a tube for holding your swab sample and a lot of paperwork. You only use the website to create an account and enter your test number. Everything else needed to finish registering your kit is done through a lot of paperwork that comes with your test.
After sending your kit, you don’t hear a lot from 24Genetics. In fact, our testers finally got an email 16 days after sending in our sample that the kit had finally arrived. It was 50 more days before we heard from 24Genetics again via email with a PDF attachment of our test results. In some ways it’s nice to not be bombarded with ads and updates on a consistent basis. On the other, it’s frustrating to not hear anything and wonder if you’ll ever get your results.
24 Genetics: Test results
- Final report is only a few pages long
- Very little text to help explain and guide them through the reports
- 24 Genetics does look at over 500 regions
The final report is only a few pages long, mostly of maps with a continental breakdown of countries, regions, and regions specific to each continent. Our testers had an average of nine pages of maps and very little text to help explain and guide them through the reports. Most information seemed very repetitive throughout the report.
Percentages are listed that correspond to marked geographic areas. However, while there is a variety of blue-shaded dots on each map, they aren’t clearly labeled to link them to your percentage report This is especially confusing if you have multiple regional matches in the same area. While 24 Genetics does look at over 500 regions, the results aren’t specific enough to inspire more confidence in the test’s accuracy.
24 Genetics: Beyond the test results
- Doesn’t have a web interface, which makes registration more difficult
- Service also only offers autosomal DNA kits
- 24 Genetics does have other DNA kits that focus on your health
One major disadvantage of 24 Genetics is that it doesn’t have a web interface, which makes registration more difficult. It also limits how you can interact with your ancestry results, and makes it more difficult to share certain parts of your results with others. 24 Genetics doesn’t offer family matching, family trees, or anything else that encourages you to continue to explore your DNA story. Your transaction with 24 Genetics ends when you get the report unless you decide to purchase another test.
This service also only offers autosomal DNA kits that list geographical ancestry matches of both parents together. There isn’t a way to separate or break down these results. If you need mtDNA or Y-DNA results – tests for a specific parent’s line – you will need to look at FamilyTree DNA that offers these separate kits. There isn’t a way to download raw DNA data to upload to another service’s database. However, for around $50 you can add raw DNA data to 24 Genetics’ database and get a PDF report from this service.
24 Genetics does have other DNA kits that focus on your health. These kits look at diseases and medications that you are predisposed to. It also offers insights to foods, vitamins, and exercise that may benefit you based on your DNA. We didn’t test this part of the service, so we’re unsure how helpful or detailed this information is.
24 Genetics: Is it worth the cost?
The cost of 24 Genetics is almost 50 percent more than our top pick, 23andMe. 23andMe has so much more to offer at a lower price, it just doesn’t make sense to pay the higher price for 24Genetics. There is faster turnaround time, better communication, more in-depth results and ways to connect with relatives through an interactive website, we’ll just go ahead and recommend 23andMe as the better option and urge you to avoid the mistake of paying more for much less through 24Genetics.
Should you use 24Genetics?
24 Genetics is a very basic starter kit. It doesn’t offer anything more beyond basic test results and has the longest turnaround time than any other DNA testing service we reviewed. Plus, it costs a lot more than even our top pick. When it comes down to it, we feel you should avoid 24 Genetics and invest in one of our other DNA testing kits. You’ll get a lot more tools and better results, plus ways to more easily connect and share your results with family members through another service.
24 Genetics: Verdict
24 Genetics isn’t the most streamlined process, and it doesn’t disclose a lot of information about its tests including how big its database is. There aren’t any tools for connecting with relatives or creating family trees of found ancestors.
It does look at over 500 geographic locations. When compared to other tests we looked at, this places 24 Genetics right in the middle. But this is still several hundred times smaller than our top-ranked test kits. Overall, 24 Genetics is a good starter kit, but we recommend several other services before this one.
