MyHeritage
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Reasonable for casual family-tree builders and DNA curiosity, especially European ancestry . but keep a close eye on auto-renewals.
Comparison
MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA both land on Depends.
Reasonable for casual family-tree builders and DNA curiosity, especially European ancestry . but keep a close eye on auto-renewals.
Buy FamilyTreeDNA only if you're a serious genealogist doing Y-DNA, mtDNA, or surname-project research.
| Compare | MyHeritage | FamilyTreeDNA |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Casual family-tree builders | Serious genealogists |
| Who it's not for | Anyone privacy-cautious about DNA data . 92M accounts leaked | Casual ethnicity-curious testers |
| Privacy | Breached: 92.3M user credentials exposed (disclosed 2018); one old client-side CVE.⁵ | Gave the FBI access to its genetic database in 2019; law-enforcement matching is now documented in an official guide.11 |
| Support quality | Billing disputes dominate complaint threads | Recurring customer-service complaints on its own forums |
| Public sentiment | Opinion is split: hobbyist genealogists find value in it, while a loud segment of users complain about billing, renewals, and pricing.⁴ | Serious genealogists value its Y-DNA depth, but casual buyers report disappointing results, a dated website, and support frustrations.13 |
| Biggest gotcha | Auto-renewal traps: users report unexpected renewal charges, including a $149 BBB complaint | Law-enforcement matching exists; review the official guide and opt-out settings before testing |