MyGeneLog vs. 23andMe vs. AncestryDNA: What's Actually Different

These get compared a lot, so it's worth being precise about what each one actually does — because they solve different problems, and MyGeneLog doesn't really compete with the other two.

23andMe and AncestryDNA: the lab

23andMe and AncestryDNA are testing services. You send them a saliva sample, they run it through a genotyping chip in a lab, and they send back a report plus a downloadable raw data file. That lab step — turning spit into a genome file — is the part MyGeneLog does not do at all.

MyGeneLog: the offline interpreter

MyGeneLog starts from the raw data file you already have — whether that came from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, or a VCF from anywhere else — and re-analyzes it entirely on your own computer, with nothing uploaded anywhere. It focuses on a narrower, growing set of well-studied variants and explains each one in more depth than a consumer report typically does, with the original published source cited.

The actual difference: where your data goes

The most concrete difference isn't features, it's data flow. 23andMe and AncestryDNA process your sample and your results on their servers — that's inherent to being a lab. MyGeneLog processes an already-exported file locally and never transmits it. If keeping your raw genome data off any server matters to you, that's the actual distinction worth knowing about.

So which do you need?

If you don't yet have a raw genome file, you need an actual testing service first — MyGeneLog has nothing to analyze without one. If you already have a raw export sitting in a folder somewhere, MyGeneLog is free to point at it and see a different, offline take on the same data.