Last night, AncestryDNA quietly and unilaterally ended the price war that’s been driving the explosive growth of the autosomal DNA databases since November. For the past 6 months, the AncestryDNA has been $79 (occasionally less), but as of today, it returned to its long-term price of $99.
The past half year has been an exciting time for us genetic genealogists. The aggressive tack by the newcomer MyHeritage, both in marketing and in features for users, has shaken the competition, and it shows in the prices we’ve seen.
Consider this graph of the average price across AncestryDNA, 23andMe (without health reports), MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, and Living DNA.
Since October, the average price on any given day has been about $80, and if you exclude Living DNA (the most expensive of the genealogy tests), the average has been more like $74. Prices dipped most dramatically over the Black Friday weekend, and we also saw great bargains for Valentine’s Day in February and St Patrick’s Day in March. At times, 23andMe, MyHeritage, and Family Tree DNA all went as low as $49 per kit if you bought more than one.
Sadly, the party seems to be over. If you’re holding out for great deals, you’ll want to wait until DNA Day (April 25), Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day.
