A Free Alternative to MyTrueAncestry and Illustrative DNA

Yes, healthosx.com/dna is a free MyTrueAncestry alternative. It reads your raw DNA in your browser and ranks you against 133 ancient groups, compares you with six named ancients such as Ötzi, counts your Neanderthal variants, and places you on a PCA plot. MyTrueAncestry and Illustrative DNA go considerably deeper into ancient DNA, and they charge for it; which one is right depends on how far down that road you want to go.

MyTrueAncestry, in brief

MyTrueAncestry compares your upload with what it calls 168 ancient civilizations, with timelines and archaeological, regional and "deep dive" maps. At the time of writing its free tier shows 10 ancient samples and 2 outliers, and paid tiers run from $37 (20 samples, with 3-D PCA) to $844 (500+ samples). Higher tiers add 2-D PCA and the haplogroups of the ancient samples. Its site lists AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA and Dante Labs uploads.

Illustrative DNA, in brief

Illustrative DNA's DeepAncestry models you era by era, from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages, against 585 ancient populations (3,578 samples) and 632 modern ones, with PCA, clustering and the 50 best-fitting admixture combinations. Its AdmixLab subscription goes further: do-it-yourself qpAdm and Fst runs on the full ancient DNA database, 19,119 ancient and 8,635 modern samples. Neither product page shows a price. It accepts MyHeritage, 23andMe, AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, Living DNA and TellMeGen files.

Where they are the better pick

Be clear-eyed about this: for ancient DNA as a hobby, both are more capable.

• Far more ancient samples. Hundreds of ancient populations against our 133 groups. If your question is "which Bronze Age culture, exactly", more reference groups mean finer answers.
• Era-by-era modelling. Illustrative DNA fits you as a mixture of the populations of each era. We rank similarity; we don't build admixture models from ancient sources.
• qpAdm and your own models. AdmixLab lets you test the hypotheses yourself, the way papers do.
• Maps and timelines. MyTrueAncestry's maps are built to be explored. Ours is one plot and a list.
• Ancient haplogroups. MyTrueAncestry shows the lineages of your matching ancient samples.

Where the free report fits better

• It's free, and asks nothing up front. The file is read in your browser, and the ancient matches, the six named ancients and the PCA come with the free full report.
• Ties are shown as ties. When your top ancient groups can't be separated statistically, the report says they are equally close rather than ranking them. Deep ancient rankings are easy to over-read, and a podium invites it.
• Named ancients with the paper. Six individuals, each with the study their genome was published in, and a percentile against present-day people rather than a relationship.
• A Neanderthal count. Ranked against 1000 Genomes, with an honest range for a chip. How that works.
• Whole-genome VCFs. Nebula, Dante Labs and Sequencing.com files are read, including .vcf.gz.
• The Middle East in detail. The breakdown splits the Levant, Arabia, Anatolia and Iran, the Caucasus and North Africa, and the whole tool is in Arabic.
• Your health too. The same file gives you around 50 established findings on food, medication genes and traits.

healthosx.com/dna

The ancient groups you sit closest to, with ties shown as ties, and a named ancient.

healthosx.com/dna

Your Neanderthal variants, counted on your device and ranked against 1000 Genomes.

A sensible order

Start free. Run your file through healthosx.com/dna, look at your closest ancient groups and where you sit on the PCA plot. If that leaves you wanting to model yourself era by era, or to test a specific migration, that's the point where MyTrueAncestry or Illustrative DNA earns its price, and you'll know which questions to ask it.

Not sure your file will be accepted anywhere? The free file checker tells you what it is and why a tool might reject it, without uploading it.

FAQ

Is a free ancient match accurate?

As accurate as its reference groups and your markers allow, and the report shows where that runs out: tied groups are grouped, and every result is worded as similarity, not descent. More reference groups, as in the paid tools, give finer answers, not necessarily truer ones.

Do I need G25 coordinates?

Not here. Illustrative DNA and the Vahaduo community work with G25-style coordinates. This report computes its own PCA and shows your place on it; you can download your coordinates as a CSV.

Try the free version first: healthosx.com/dna