Genealogy DNA Third-Party Analysis

GEDmatch, DNA Painter, AutoCluster, MyTrueAncestry — squeeze every match out of raw DNA from any provider.

The "took the test, now what" tooling. All major autosomal services let you download your raw DNA file; these third-party platforms cross-reference, visualize, and group it. For where the kits come from see Genealogy DNA Testing Services; for adoption / unknown-parent applications see Genealogy Adoption & Unknown Parentage; for ethics see Genealogy Privacy & Ethics.

Cousin-matching aggregators

★ ★ GEDmatch — free tier + paid Tier 1 (~$15/mo or $100/yr). The classic upload-your-raw-DNA aggregator. Works with all major test providers' raw files. Free tools: One-to-One, One-to-Many, Are Your Parents Related (AYPR), 3D chromosome browser. Paid Tier 1: Tag Groups, Triangulation, Lazarus (build a deceased ancestor's DNA from descendants), Q-Matrix. The reason it matters: matches across services aggregate here. Acquired by Verogen in 2019, then Qiagen in 2023; ownership churn matters because of forensic-genealogy controversy.
GEDmatch Genesis — successor matching algorithm; transitional name from 2018, mostly just "GEDmatch" now.

★ DNA Painter — paid (~$55/yr) + free tier; the standard tool for chromosome mapping in 2026. Manually paint segments to ancestral lines, "What Are The Odds?" (WATO) probability tool for unknown-parent investigations, Ancestral Trees, shared-cM-project lookup, visual phasing. Free tier covers 1 chromosome map; paid unlocks unlimited. The gold standard since ~2019.
What Are The Odds (WATO) v2 — DNA Painter's hypothesis-testing tool; free for adoption / unknown-parent search community.
The Shared cM Project — Blaine Bettinger's free reference data on cM ranges per relationship; embedded in DNA Painter and most major services.

★ Genetic Affairs AutoCluster — was free, now bundled into MyHeritage AutoClusters (Premium subscription) and Genetic Affairs (now sunset / migrated). Color-coded grids of matches sharing DNA with each other. Powerful for grouping unknown matches.
MyHeritage AutoClusters — paid Premium feature; built on Genetic Affairs methodology.
Collins Leeds Method — manual clustering technique using a spreadsheet; templates free.
DNAGedcom — paid (~$50/yr); pulls match data from Ancestry / FTDNA / 23andMe / MyHeritage into local CSVs for analysis. Companion DNAGedcom Client automates clustering.
DNA2Tree — paid; auto-builds tree fragments from match data.

MyTrueAncestry — paid (~$25/yr); matches your DNA against ancient DNA samples (Vikings, Romans, Bronze Age). Speculative but fun.
Illustrative DNA — paid; West Asian / Middle East-flavored ancient DNA matching.
GEDrosia DNA — free tools for ancient DNA matching.
K-series Eurogenes calculators — free open-source admixture calculators on GEDmatch.

YFull — paid Y-DNA analysis from BAM/FASTQ; haplogroup tree placement; SNP discovery.
mitoYDNA — free Y-DNA / mtDNA project database.
Phylogeographer — free maps of haplogroup distributions.

Promethease — health-trait reports from raw DNA. Acquired by MyHeritage; sunset for new orders 2019, fully shut down 2020. Existing reports still accessible. Successor tools: Sequencing.com (paid), Nebula's library, Genomelink.
DNA.Land — academic research project; sunset 2020.
GenePlaza — sunset 2021 after legal pressure over a controversial sexual-orientation app.
Genetic Affairs — clustering pioneer; the founder migrated tools to MyHeritage in 2020 and shut the standalone site.

WeGene — paid East Asian focus; analyzes raw uploads from Western providers with Asian-specific reference panels.
Vahaduo — free-form admixture calculator suite for hobbyists.
DNAToolkit — Polish/Eastern European-flavored upload tools.

GEDmatch Pro / Law Enforcement Matching — opt-in only since 2019. Users who don't actively opt in are excluded. Despite that, the Golden State Killer case and dozens since rely on this; the ethics debate is ongoing. See Genealogy Privacy & Ethics.
DNA Doe Project / Othram — forensic uses of consumer-style genealogy DNA; volunteer DNA Doe Project applications open periodically.
Don't upload data without consent — uploading a deceased relative's raw DNA to GEDmatch may technically violate their (now nonexistent) privacy preferences. Norms vary; document your reasoning.

DNA Painter as the visualization standard — most cousin-hunters and adoptee-searchers paint segments here regardless of which testing service they used.
Cluster tools fragmented — Genetic Affairs sunset hit hard; MyHeritage AutoClusters and DNAGedcom are the practical replacements.
GEDmatch ownership churn (Verogen → Qiagen → ?) — expect feature changes; export your data periodically.
Big Y / WGS data more available — YFull processing of consumer Big Y-700 is a near-default for paternal-line researchers.

First stop after testing: upload free to GEDmatch, run One-to-Many, paint top matches in DNA Painter free tier.
Adoption / unknown parent search: DNA Painter WATO + MyHeritage AutoClusters + GEDmatch triangulation.
Y-DNA paternal-line research: YFull (post-FTDNA Big Y).
Deep ethnicity hobbyism: MyTrueAncestry + GEDmatch K-series calculators.
Want to automate match downloads: DNAGedcom Client.
Strict privacy posture: stay on the testing service's own tools; don't upload raw DNA to aggregators.