The month of November has some of the best sale prices on genealogy DNA tests all year long. 2018 looks to be no different.
So far, three companies have announced discounts on their DNA tests: 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage. I fully expect Family Tree DNA and Living DNA to follow suit soon. Shipping costs are not included unless specified.
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- 23andMe’s Ancestry test, November 1–23: $69 for one and
$49 when you buy 2 or more
- AncestryDNA, November 1–21: $59 per kit
Some customers are seeing buy-2-get-1-free ($39 each) or buy 3-get-1-free offers ($44 each). Not everyone will get the same offer. To get the deal, be sure to click on the sale banner. - Ancestry Gift Subscriptions
are 20% off
- MyHeritage, November 2–12: $49 per kit, plus free shipping if you buy 3 or more
- Living DNA, November 1–22: $79 per kit
- 23andMe’s Ancestry test, November 1–23: $69 for one and
I made this nifty graph to show the timelines of the sales. Multiple-kit discounts are shown after slashes (/).
Predictions
I’ve been tracking test prices for the past 12 months, and here’s what I predict will happen in the coming weeks:
- The price for 23andMe’s Ancestry test won’t get any better, but their Ancestry + Health kit will go on sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday (Nov 23–26).
- AncestryDNA’s base price won’t get any lower, although there’s a good chance they’ll offer a “buy 3, get one free” deal to everyone after Thanksgiving.
- MyHeritage’s price of $49 is the lowest it’s ever been. It won’t go any lower. I suspect the sale will either be extended through Cyber Monday, or the price will go up then drop again on Black Friday.
- Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder test (currently $79) will drop in mid-November and drop again for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. They will also have sales on their yDNA and mtDNA tests after Thanksgiving.
- Living DNA’s test is now at its lowest price. I doubt it will go lower, but they may extend the sale through Cyber Monday or do one-day flash sale.
Bear in mind that these are my expectations based on past behavior, and I could be wrong. I don’t have inside information on the pricing strategies of the companies.
OHhhhh ordered MH two days ago!
In my daily scan of numerous DNA sites, I noticed that LivingDNA is now showing $79 through November 22. It still shows as $99 on FindMyPast’s link to LivingDNA for now. On Ancestry, I saw the $59 deal plus the Buy 2, Get 1 Free deal. When I signed in, it gave me the $59 deal, but wouldn’t give me the Buy 2, Get 1 Free deal when I added 3 kits to the order. I logged out and it was still showing, but I had to click on the Buy 2, Get 1 Free button to get the third one free.
If some of these companies are making such good deals now, for them not to do better deals on Black Friday/Cyber Monday is unwise at best. Granted, I know plenty of companies that make such unwise and foolhardy decisions, but it winds up biting them in the end. Better for them to make not quite so good deals now and hold these deals until Black Friday/Cyber Monday. They should do what Wal-Mart and the other major retailers do – leak the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal details now so people can prepare.
I pretty much ignore Black Friday/Cyber Monday for DNA sales as the year-end sales from most of the DNA companies are frequently better. Although most retailers tend to have some better sales during the year or at year-end than Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
Thanks. Living DNA was still $99 last night when I wrote the post. I updated the text and graph.
You are welcome. I tend to daily or almost daily checks on several dozen DNA sites, including what’s available on Amazon, as Amazon has a few tests that change prices on daily or every couple of days. I haven’t posted my Current November 2018 DNA Sale post yet, but I am about to in a bit. I try and check every day and update it as prices go up or down. It’s not just Amazon as Dante Labs dropped the price on one of their tests yesterday by a decent amount and by today, they had raised $100, but still cheaper than what it was 2 days ago.
Thanks. How about a prediction of how these sales will impact the user count at each of these sites by March 31, 2019?
They will all go up. 😉
Does anyone have any predictions about the FamilyTree DNA more extensive mtDNA test? It’s $200 now. Any idea as to what type/how much of a sale it might be if I were to wait?
It’s on sale right now. You need a link from MyHeritage, but several people have it the link works even if it’s was somebody else’s link they used, probably because it’s a MyHeritage affiliate link. It’s $159 for full mtDNA with the link. However, FTDNA usually does a big year-end sale starting sometime in either November or December, varies from year to year, and the price for full mtDNA can vary as well.
I don’t allow undisclosed affiliate links on my blog. They’re illegal and unethical.
Thank you, Paul. I know so little about all this that I’m still not sure if I need the more extensive mtFullDNA or the or the lesser mtDNA. I’ll see if I can find someone with the link and go from there.
What are your goals for testing? mtDNA is the most specialized of all of the DNA tests, and it’s only useful for some applications.
Wow, I just missed that sale. I have been waiting for over six months for a sale on their Full mtDNA test. I have just spent way too much money with them in the last year what with BigY for me and Y-37 for my dad. I found a link but the sale is over. I have such a complete well documented lineage for my mother’s maternal side, but stops in 1650 about. Well no matter what, as a matter of principle I won’t pay more then $159.00 for it, so we will see what happens. This hobby is getting too expensive – just spent $250 for four ancestryDNA tests for cousins.
Wait until Thanksgiving.
I was poking around on the Black Friday leak sites yesterday. Looks like Target is having a Black Friday sale for their 23andMe tests (lab fees included) for $59; current sale price is $69 with regular price of $99 at Target. CVS and Walgreens are having a Black Friday sale for their kits, but you only get the kit and you have to pay the $70 or $170 for lab fees depending on if you want health reports.
23andMe is $49 if you buy 2 or more.
TheDNAGeek – I am such a novice to this all that I’ve no clue as to what I’m doing. My brother has done the paternal Y-DNA through FamilyTreeDNA and has done extensive genealogy research on our father’s side, but little on our mom’s. So, I was thinking (and I could very well be wrong here) that if I did our mother’s side it would flesh out the whole story more. I couldn’t make heads nor tails over the language of it all – HVR1 and HVR2?? Haplogroups and migration paths?? It seemed the more I googled the more stranger the terms got thrown at me. I guess I decided the more refined the results the better…but I’m really at the “who am I and what do I know” stage here, lol. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
This post might help you understand mtDNA. https://thednageek.com/dna-basics-mitochondrial-dna/
Hey dnageek don’t forget veritas genetics. They’re offering $199 for a full genome test.
I only include companies with direct genealogical applications.