After my last post, I decided to do a head to head analysis of Legacy vs. Dadi vs. Sppare.me. I spent a lot of time digging into these companies (and others, like Cryochoice, which I didn’t cover) so please like and share the post if it was helpful to you! and thank you to everyone who has already reached out!
Conclusion: Legacy is a better choice than Dadi for most people
final scores:
LEGACY: 19/20
DADI: 15.5/20
Below I’ll explain the key things I was looking for and the score I gave each company.
NOTE: I updated my review in July 2021!! Legacy went up 1 point and Dadi went up 1 point as well! Last updated in March 2022 to add some new facts and figures. Note that Dadi is no longer an independent company, they sold to Ro. I may write a post about this later!
THIRD PARTY CREDIBILITY/TRUST.
what does the rest of the world think about these companies? have they been validated? are they just startups trying to take my money or can i trust them?
LEGACY: 5/5
i thought this was extremely clear to me. i did a lot of research on all of the companies and they were the best here. they were founded at harvard university, they won a bunch of international awards, they have a very strong team and very credible advisors. they did a really good job i thought of making that clear.
+1 for harvard
+1 for team and advisors
July 2021 update: I also like that they work directly with the Navy SEALs and are covered by insurance companies now, that’s pretty cool!
DADI: 3.5/5
i thought they did a good job overall. they seem to have really cool tech, and i loved their video showing how the kit is made and how it is used. i used their product and its a cool touch to have everything in one mechanism. it is clearly professionally designed.
i have heard of their advisors like jacques cohen and that seems like a big name in the male fertility world. i also found multiple articles about them, like in GQ or other big articles, so they clearly have some third party credibility.
what i didn’t like: they don’t have a team page which i’ve always found super strange (same with sppare.me). i sent the website to my bf and he was googling the company as well.
it turns out their ceo used to run a GIF company and has some gifs of him that do not super inspire confidence for a company that is testing and freezing my sperm…. !!!!
then lastly they have a ‘reviews’ section on the website but it seems fake?? they don’t seem like real reviews at all and i couldn’t find those reviews anywhere else online. so that just seemed kind of shady. why lie about something like that??
-0.5 for no team page and -0.5 for weird images of ceo online (see bottom)
+0.5 for good, well known advisors
-0.5 for fake reviews on website
July 2021 update: I like that they removed most of the obviously fake reviews and just put in media quotes and quotes from real people. I found them on Trustpilot but it seems that they’re having issues here now, maybe they’re out of kits, but their score was only 4.0/5.0 which doesn’t seem great. Overall, I’m giving Dadi an extra +0.5 points here
ANALYSIS QUALITY.
once i looked at what the rest of the world thought, i also wanted to do my own research. i thought both companies were good, but legacy was better.
LEGACY: 5/5
their semen analysis includes all the main factors (although not clear if they include ph or liquefaction, mine didn’t) and was basically the same as what i got from my clinic. this was a +1.
i liked that they gave an explanation of everything and i had someone to talk to throughout the whole process. customer service here was a +1
i think they have more room for improvement in how they visualize the results, so this was a -0.5. it was mostly text and i found their ‘client dashboard’ a little confusing to navigate while dadi made it extremely simple for me to understand and showed simple visuals of my scores.
cost of analysis only (incl morphology): $195
July 2021 update: I like that they totally overhauled their results and now include DNA Fragmentation which is super cool! I’ve updated this +0.5
DADI: 3.5/5
I didn’t like that you have to pay extra to get a full analysis, otherwise you only get volume, count, and concentration which don’t really mean much. they don’t test motility by default which is the most important thing to test for, so this was a -1.
You also don’t get a detailed analysis, you just get high level scores. on the one hand, it tells you almost everything you need to know but i feel more secure with all the details, same at as a clinic. this was a -0.5
they have a video of your sperm which is a +0.5 because it’s pretty cool!
Finally, you can’t choose to only do analysis, which was a -0.5 since you HAVE to have your sperm frozen. what if you don’t want to freeze it? someone e-mailed to tell me that if you only want analysis, and you e-mail them asking to cancel the freezing subscription immediately, they’ll just refund you the full amount you paid. it doesn’t make sense to me but thought I’d share….
Cost of analysis only (incl morphology): $199 + $99 = $300
July 2021 update: It seems they are testing motility by default now, although you still have to pay extra for morphology and access to nurses, which Legacy offers for free. So I want to add +0.5 points but I find their report so much less helpful than Legacy’s so I’m going to keep it as-is instead of adding and then removing 0.5 points. I just don’t think their report is particularly useful if you really want to know your sperm parameters!
FREEZING QUALITY.
this mattered a lot to me since i was planning on doing freezing, and probably for the next 5 or 10 years, so i wanted to know my sample would be safe.
LEGACY: 5/5
I liked everything legacy has when it comes to freezing. i spoke to someone on the phone and they walked me through the whole process, which i think is also on the website. they have really really good risk mitigation practices. they explained that when they finish the analysis, they put it into a short term freeze in preparation for shipping. then:
- a few days later, they thaw a small amount to make sure it froze properly, and they then test the count and motility (and give you the results)
- they ship it to their cryostorage facility in two shipments in case anything happens to one of the shipments (they told me their shipper hasnt had an issue since the 1980s)
- then at the facility they divide your sperm into multiple tanks and locations which is really cool since it means even if there was a malfunction somewhere, your sperm is stored in more than one place
+1 for each and also +0.5 because they explained it to me so clearly
also you freeze 3-6 vials (they said it depends on how much sperm you produce in your ejaculation, i had 5 vials frozen)
July 2021 update: No change
DADI: 4/5
there’s nothing wrong with the way dadi freezes. they use a company that has been around for a long time called New England Cryogenic Center and it seems very reputable, the head of the clinic is one of their advisors and her name is dr. grace centola, she seems very qualified.
+1 because their clinic is the same place they do the freezing, so this means no risk during transportation
+0.5 because it seems to be a credible facility with a good track record
-1 because their clinic is the same place they do the freezing! since they can’t do any redundancy like legacy does
-0.5 because you freeze 3 vials no matter what, which is fine, but it just means you’ll probably get less vials than legacy.
July 2021 update: Added +0.5 because I think that I was a little harsh when giving them a -1 for not having redundancy for their clinic
PRICE
LEGACY: 4.0/5
I thought legacy’s pricing was fine but not as cheap as dadi’s. it costs $195 for the analysis and then you can buy 5 years of storage for $495.
-1.5 because their annual plan is more expensive than dadi ($145 vs. $99) and because on average, they are about 10% more expensive than dadi for long-term storage
+0.5 because they have a monthly option and because they don’t charge withdrawal fees
total cost:
6 months: $90
1 year: $145
2 years: $290 (145/year)
5 years: $495 ($99/year)
10 years: $1,000 ($100/year)
50 years: $4,000 ($80/year)
July 2021 update: They do now offer payment in instalments, so I removed my -0.5
DADI: 4.5/5
overall they have good pricing for storage and actually while they list the storage at $99/year you get a 10% discount if you prepay so really it’s more like $90, which is the rate i used for the calculations below
-0.5 because they have a $300 withdrawal fee
6 months: N/A
total cost:
1 year: $100 (included in the cost of your $200 analysis)
2 years: $190 ($95/year)
5 years: $450 ($90/year)
10 years: $900 ($90/year)
50 years: $4,500 ($90/year)
July 2021 update: They do now offer payment in instalments
overall:
Legacy is better than Dadi for sperm testing, especially if you want a detailed repot and care about things like morphology or DNA fragmentation.
Legacy is better than Dadi for QUALITY of sperm freezing, especially since they do all these additional tests and store your sperm in multiple locations
Dadi is better than Legacy for PRICE of sperm freezing, especially if you’re only freezing for a year or two. If you’re freezing for 5 or more years, they’re comparable, although Dadi will still be about 10% cheaper
July 2021 edit: It seems you can get sperm freezing for free with Legacy if you have insurance. I haven’t tried it myself so please let me know if it works for you!
Prologue:
July 2021 update: I thought these photos of the Dadi CEO were super funny but I think they were just distracting up top, so I moved them down here! I still think they’re really funny! But maybe not for someone who is handling your sperm……..
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bonus content of dadi’s CEO tom smith
Sperm testing and sperm freezing journey from home 