Thryve vs BiomeSight – the numbers

A reader asked which one to use. They can be compatible prices, especially this weekend with Black Friday specials A cost item that should also be factored in is shipping costs to and from. In the US, Thryve comes with a postage paid return package.

The Numbers

The upload page gives raw numbers. I am also going to dive a little deeper into the numbers

Elusive 1%

Adjusting for number of samples, they appear very similar.

Elusive 2%

These charts are those between 1% and 2% in occurance

Elusive 2-4%

This is the count between 2 and 4% Frequency. BiomeSight appears to have an edge.

Elusive 4-8%

As above, BiomeSight curves appears better. 100 is at the 84%ile with Thryve and at the 41% with Microbiome; in other words, Biomesight report more in this range per sample. This is important for the AI analysis, because we need a threshold count before we can detect patterns.

Elusive 8-16%

Thryves now pulls ahead. Biome Sight has 70 bacteria count at the median, while Thryve has 90

But wait! Does it report on what you are interested in?

In my last person analysis, there was two probiotic recommendations:

I would like to see those counts on my next sample…. so clicking on the above links, I see that stats:

Ouch, BiomeSight is the only one that reports either! Looking at the parent group, I see BiomeSight again reports better

Bottom Line

There is no clear better or worst — it depends on your needs.

BiomeSight offers free processing of Thryve FASTQ files which is big Kudo to Rose at BiomeSight. Thryve offered free processing once upon a time, but it does not appear to be offered any more (or it is sufficiently hidden that I cannot find it).

The new kid on the block, nirvanabiome, which uses CosmosID.com, is 3x as expensive and does not appear to report any more bacteria types (which is surprising given their claims, I expected counts close to Xenogenes shown at the top of this post). I do not have sufficient samples via CosmosID/Nirvanabiome to do more analysis.

nirvanabiome also appears to be targeting the Autism market. I have a separate blog on Autism and the Microbiome, so I am interested if they will produce actual beneficial results or if this is “the best of intentions, the worst of execution” scenario.