IllustrativeDNA alternatives: deep-ancestry reports and DIY qpAdm, compared

IllustrativeDNA earned its place: DeepAncestry made period-by-period coordinate reports mainstream, and AdmixLab put do-it-yourself qpAdm within reach of non-programmers. People searching for an alternative usually have one of four specific reasons — they want a person to build and defend the model rather than a wizard; they want one-time pricing rather than a subscription; they want whole-genome input without conversion homework; or they want the statistics published so results can be argued with. This guide maps those needs to the services that meet them.

Disclosure: we sell the main alternative discussed here, so read this as one seller's honest map. The cell-by-cell version — every fact read on illustrativedna.com on a stated date — is at Ancestrify vs Illustrative DNA.

The decision that matters most: who builds the model?#

qpAdm is free software; every service sells something around it. IllustrativeDNA's AdmixLab sells the environment: a guided wizard, your runs, your model choices, raw outputs downloadable. Our qpAdm analysis sells the finished work: an analyst composes, runs and stress-tests the models by hand (roughly four hundred runs behind a typical order), and only a model passing one stated bar — p above 0.05, every source's |Z| above 3, every SE below 0.10 — publishes, with the complete run record and a written explanation.

The honest steer: if you enjoy the modelling — sweeping sources, arguing on forums, learning the failure modes — a DIY environment is genuinely the better product for you. Ours includes that too, but deliberately second: the Model Lab is a €10 one-time unlock after a published report, running on your own merged dataset, EIGENSTRAT download included. If you want a defensible answer more than a hobby, hand-built is the point.

The other three decision points#

Pricing model. AdmixLab is sold as a subscription (their FAQ covers what happens when it ends); DeepAncestry is per-report. Everything at Ancestrify is one-time: qpAdm from €29.99, Global25 €29.99, add-ons flat — no renewal, no credits, and results stay in your account. Which model is "better" depends purely on how long and how often you intend to run models; heavy DIY sweepers can be better served by a subscription, occasional buyers rarely are.

Whole-genome input. Their AdmixLab page states WGS files cannot be used unless first converted to genotype format. We accept a sequencing VCF up to 1 GB directly on qpAdm and Ancient Matches (€10 add-on, converted to panel markers at upload, original not stored) — and the extra coverage genuinely tightens standard errors.

Coordinate reports. DeepAncestry's six-period coordinate report and our Global25 analysis are the same method family — coordinate fitting, with all its strengths and limits. Differences worth checking on the comparison page: whose reference panels are named and versioned, whether the full source panel of every fit is published (ours lists used and unused sources per model), the fit distance discipline, and the Personalized Calculator — an analyst hand-building a panel around your row, which has no advertised counterpart there.

The free layer, whoever you choose#

Before paying anyone: our Lab runs distance rankings, era-scoped admixture and PCA in the browser, free, no account — and AdmixTools 2 online runs real f-statistics, qpWave and qpAdm against the public reference panel, also free. Ten minutes there answers most "is this worth paying for" questions for both services, and teaches you what a rejection feels like — the experience that makes any paid report readable.

The honest matrix#

Full table with sources and dates: Ancestrify vs Illustrative DNA.

Terms used here are defined in the glossary.