Viome Reviews: Should you try a Viome gut microbiome test?

Your body is home to trillions of microorganisms — with as many bacterial cells as human ones.1 Fortunately, this collection of microbes that we call the microbiome evolved alongside us, and it has a vested interest in keeping us alive and well.2 But how do you know if your microbiome is healthy?

Viome is one of the first and most respected microbiome testing companies to sell tests directly to consumers. Viome aims to provide you with the most comprehensive understanding of your microbiome at this time and even provides personalized supplements and probiotics to optimize its performance. We’ve tested both the microbiome testing kits and the personalized supplement program, researched Viome’s approaches, and even visited Viome’s lab to learn more about its methodology and help you decide whether it’s worth a try.

Viome’s sophisticated tests provide insights into your gut microbiome, biological age, and nutritional needs, while customized probiotics and supplements help you easily take action to get healthier. The company recently developed a simple test to screen for oral and throat cancer, and it’s constantly evolving toward new tests and more accurate sequencing methods. This is a phenomenal value that we would recommend to anyone who can afford it.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test the health services we review, including Viome. All told, our team has spent over 450 hours testing and researching Viome and its competitors, poring over hundreds of scholarly articles about the microbiome, gut health, and genomic sequencing.

When it comes to Viome, we tried the test kits for ourselves and also tested the resulting supplement recommendations. Additionally, we paid a visit to Viome’s labs to get a first-hand look at its technology and techniques. This experience gave us unique insight into the company’s commitment to quality, transparency, and service. (By the way, our testing team liked these products enough to recommend them to family and friends.)

Like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. We’ll continue to keep tabs on Viome’s growth and that of its competitors to ensure this article is up to date.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions to live healthier lifestyles.

After testing, researching, and comparatively analyzing at-home microbiome test kit options, we’re very impressed by Viome. Our team assessed Viome across key evaluation criteria: results, privacy, cost, customer care, and efficiency. The results criterion weighs a bit more heavily on our overall rating because those results are going to guide your hand in future wellness decisions, whether they’re medicinal, dietary, or behavioral. With that much potential to influence your daily life, the results had better be informative and useful.

The next most important criterion is privacy. A tremendous amount of personal data is changing hands and being evaluated here. Information about your health and wellness — even critical genetic information — is at play. It’s imperative that companies respect and protect your privacy in health testing.

Cost, customer care, and efficiency are all parts of the transactional experience with Viome, and they receive roughly equal weighting in our final assessment. Ultimately, Viome scored well in each category and beat out every competitor in everything but pure cost (though from a value standpoint, Viome’s pricing is hard to beat).

Let’s take a look at each criterion in greater depth.

Results

Viome’s results are where the company shines. It offers incredibly high accuracy and reliability thanks to its consistent investment in evolving tech and testing methods. Many other companies rely on DNA sequencing, but Viome uses RNA, which provides a better picture of active microorganisms in the gut.3

The documentation you receive after testing is comprehensive and easy to follow. It lists common foods you should avoid, as well as foods that are particularly good for your current microbial composition. Viome’s Health Intelligence Test takes it even further, detailing things like biological age and the health of your stress response, immune system, and more. The company’s most comprehensive screening, the Full Body Intelligence Test, adds cardiometabolic health and even cognitive wellness to the picture.

Aside from listing foods and substances to add to your diet or avoid, Viome gives you deeper information about why these recommendations make sense specifically for you based on your test results. If you want to dig deeper, you get to explore the clinical studies that underpin the recommendations. Other companies in the gut biome testing space can give you similar guidance, but their reports are either poorly written and hard to follow or lack meaningful depth beyond a few generic recommendations.

Our testers uniformly saw benefits from taking the personalized probiotics, prebiotics, and supplements Viome provided. After about a week, they noticed increased bowel regularity and decreased brain fog. In one case, a tester with mild GERD and gastritis saw his symptoms improve within 2-3 weeks of use. We can confidently say that these supplements make a noticeable difference when you take them. They’ll likely increase your quality of life and possibly reduce the symptoms of disorders related to gut health.

Floré is the only other testing company we could recommend if you’re looking for custom probiotics, but its offerings are a little more limited than Viome’s (no supplements), and its testing methods are a little less accurate and comprehensive. For accurate sequencing, Tiny Health’s testing comes second behind Viome’s, but Tiny Health doesn’t offer any probiotics or supplements whatsoever.

Privacy

Viome is upfront about its data policies. The company can store your sample analysis for up to ten years, but it does so having scrubbed them of your personal information. So the material can’t be tied to you in any way, and Viome commits not to sell any of your data.

One thing that separates Viome from most of the competition is its sequencing method, which leverages RNA rather than DNA. That provides an additional level of privacy, as RNA databases are all but nonexistent when it comes to identifying individuals. That means that de-identified data from your sample can’t be used alongside ancestral or criminal DNA databases to determine its owner.

Companies like Viome may sometimes be subpoenaed for user data, including DNA, when it’s available. Viome’s competitors could be forced to hand over some of your sensitive information in such a case, but the data Viome can provide is much more limited in scope.

Cost

Viome’s Gut Intelligence Test sits at a comparable price point to a lot of the competition. Still, the results it offers and its ability to turn those into personalized probiotic, prebiotic, and supplement regimens are a significant improvement over other companies’ offerings. And you can save $110 on Viome tests by using the coupon code INNERBODY.

Here’s a quick look at how the cost of Viome’s Gut Intelligence Test compares (with our coupon code) to other top gut microbiome tests on the market:

The subscription costs for Viome’s personalized products are quite high at first glance, but a deeper look comparing them to the costs of other high-end probiotics (that aren’t formulated specifically for your unique microbiome) reveals a more reasonable position in the marketplace. You can also take 15% off your first six months with coupon code INNERBODY15.

When you consider both the free retesting and the fact that your probiotic formula is tailored to — and evolves with — your tested microbiome, the value advantage Viome offers is clear.

Customer care and efficiency

Viome is fast and generous with its responses to customer inquiries. Our testers repeatedly found answers to their questions without having to look any further than the chat feature on the company’s website, at the other end of which are real humans and not bots. Also, one of Viome’s most generous features is that the company will update you with improved results if it uses your archived sample with any new technology or methods it develops.

Processing samples for the human microbiome can take longer compared to at-home tests in other sectors like sexual health or general wellness. But Viome’s turnaround time was right in line with what you’d expect from this kind of testing, if not a little quicker. Shipping isn’t lightning-fast, but our testers routinely received kits within five business days, which we found reasonable. Personalized supplements came in the mail a bit faster, but it still takes a little over a week for Viome to formulate them.

If there’s one thing we’d like to see Viome incorporate, it’s the option to have a one-on-one consultation with a care provider (e.g., a dietician or gastroenterologist) who can walk new users through sometimes complicated health concerns. Viome’s results do an excellent job spelling out even some of the most complex topics for most people, but there are bound to be lingering questions for many. And, after all, other companies offer consultations — sometimes for free, other times as part of memberships (Tiny Health), and still other times for a fee.

Founded in 2016, Viome is a nutritional genomics company that aims to empower people with wellness advice based on the composition of their gut microbiome and their cellular and mitochondrial health. It offers trustworthy, convenient at-home tests and a secure interface for reviewing results and recommendations. Viome’s services also include subscription options for those who want to incorporate personalized prebiotics, probiotics, and supplements into their routines based on their results. You can use Viome strictly to test and learn, or you can opt for the ongoing subscription services, which include free follow-up tests every 12 months.

We’ve covered Viome for several years and have watched as it has grown to offer new tests and services, including its recently developed oral and throat cancer screening. Compared to the rest of the gut microbiome testing field, Viome seems to have a head start on faster, more accurate testing procedures.

Who could benefit from using Viome?

Viome’s testing is ideal for just about everyone, as we all have unique microbiomes. Learning more about the makeup of the collection of microbes in your gut can be an essential first step in diagnosing or even treating certain diseases and disorders. And with Viome’s additional insights into cellular and metabolic performance, most people can discover ways to improve their health. Of course, that’s just on the testing side.

Viome’s prebiotic, probiotic, and supplement subscriptions can offer benefits for most people, as well. The fact that the company develops these from a catalog of more than 200 components based on your results means you’re more likely to feel a difference than if you indiscriminately purchased a multivitamin and hoped for the best.

It’s worth noting that Viome no longer advises pregnant women or women looking to become pregnant to use custom supplements, though they can still enjoy personalized prebiotics and probiotics. Viome has been working on a supplement package for perinatal women for some time, but it has yet to materialize. The reason for this remains something of a mystery, especially as the list of ingredients Viome uses for its supplements includes several essentials for pregnancy (for instance, a highly bioavailable form of vitamin B9). For now, we recommend Ritual as a first choice for prenatal vitamins.

Viome video unboxing and review recap

Here’s a brief video summarizing our findings about Viome and showing you what you’ll receive when you order a testing kit.

Available tests

Viome offers five tests in all — three focused on your microbiome and cellular health, one looking at general oral health, and one dedicated to detecting oral and throat cancers:

Your microbiome is the entire population of microorganisms that live on and inside your body, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nonpathogenic parasitic protozoa.2 These microscopic beings provide tremendous health benefits when the best of them have the opportunity to thrive. The microbiome is so crucial that many scientists have begun to regard it as an organ unto itself.

According to Jordan Stachel, registered dietitian nutritionist and member of our Medical Review Board, “The public’s understanding of the microbiome has evolved significantly over the last five years or so, with more discussion and awareness in general surrounding this topic. This is promising, as the health of the microbiome directly correlates with one’s overall health and systemic wellbeing.”

Often, when people talk about their microbiome, they’re referring to the microorganisms that populate their intestines. We call this the gut microbiome. Healthy guts have thousands of species of microorganisms coexisting in relative harmony like a sprawling metropolis. There are bacteria, for example, that break down specific proteins that the body cannot digest alone. This results in greater bioavailability of nutrients in the food we eat. Taking in more nutrients from less food is just one of the ways these microorganisms helped us evolve into the efficient species we are today.

The more research we do into the various functions this population performs, the more we find how critical its health is to our well-being. Imbalances between “good” and “bad” bacteria in the gut appear in many studies as the potential cause for various health problems, many of which center on inflammation.5 Other studies draw compelling links between microbiome health and mood disorders like depression.6 Therefore, tending to the gut microbiome might benefit us in a host of profound ways — improving immunity, providing more restful sleep, protecting us as we age, promoting regularity, and even helping us to think more clearly.

Viome uses two types of advanced science and technology applications that make an enormous difference in testing efficacy:

• Metatranscriptomic sequencing
• Machine learning (artificial intelligence)

Metatranscriptomic sequencing

Metatranscriptomic sequencing involves looking at the entire transcriptome of the organisms in your gut.4 In short, Viome does not analyze the DNA of the microbes to determine what species are present. Instead, it tests the RNA.

RNA, like DNA, is a nucleic acid. While DNA is all the genetic information in an organism, RNA is the functional output of this information. Metatranscriptomic sequencing sequences the RNA of all the microorganisms present and actively expressing genes. Because DNA can leave a signature behind even after a microorganism has died, it can obscure the picture of your gut’s microbial community. Viome’s approach here provides a better reflection of the activities of all the living organisms and how these activities could impact your health — it’s a better way to test.

Artificial intelligence

Viome’s artificial intelligence is how it analyzes and interprets its findings against a wealth of scientific data about the microbiome. This machine learning allows Viome to understand the different species in your gut, what they likely mean for your health, and how to modify them for optimal wellness.

The more people who use the service, the more data the company can analyze — developing the pipeline, identifying new trends, and making it more intelligent by the day. Looking around at the field of competitors, it seems Viome is the only company utilizing artificial intelligence in its testing and results, and it’s been alone in this sense for years. Any competitor who starts using AI for its results now will likely be far behind in the process.

FDA breakthrough device approval

Viome’s combined use of the above technologies tuned for cancer cell detection in the mouth and throat allowed it to receive breakthrough device approval from the FDA for its Discovery CancerDetect Oral and Throat test.

According to the FDA, breakthrough devices “provide for more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating human disease or conditions; represent breakthrough technologies for which no approved or cleared alternatives exist; offer significant advantages over existing approved or cleared alternatives, including the potential, compared to existing approved alternatives, to reduce or eliminate the need for hospitalization, improve patient quality of life, facilitate patients’ ability to manage their own care (such as through self-directed personal assistance), or establish long-term clinical efficiencies; or (D) the availability of which is in the best interest of patients.”

Gut microbiome testing always requires a stool sample, but some of Viome’s tests look beyond the gut microbiome and require blood or saliva samples. And the company’s two oral tests only require a saliva sample. Let’s look at each collection type to better understand the process.

Stool collection

If your test involves the gut microbiome, you’ll have to submit a stool sample (this is true of any company’s gut microbiome test). It’s understandably not the most exciting kind of sample collection for most people, but Viome does whatever it can to make the process as simple, clean, and safe as possible. The company provides you with a collection paper that adheres to your toilet bowl, as well as a small scooper for actually collecting the sample and depositing it into the included tube. The Viome website has video instructions for added convenience.

Viome used to send two stool collection papers of different sizes in order to accommodate variations in toilet bowls, but now it sends two of the same collection papers designed to be universal. Our testers found that the new collection paper fit all toilets effectively, which took an element of guesswork out of the process. And the included scooper was effective, even with somewhat stiff bowel movements, which may occur in instances of mild dehydration.

Blood collection

Blood collection with Viome’s Health Intelligence and Full Body Intelligence kits is equally simple and will be a little more familiar for many people. The kits provide you with a few automatic retractable lancets to prick your finger and collect blood into slim vials that look like narrow eye droppers. These devices, called MiniVets, soak up blood nicely, so you don’t have to produce too much of it to gather the required amount. One of our testers — who doesn’t always bleed very well — filled his MiniVets with ease.

You have to fast for at least eight hours before collecting your blood sample. It’s easiest to perform your collection early in the morning before consuming anything other than water.

Saliva collection

Saliva collection is definitely the easiest and most straightforward of Viome’s three sample collections. You receive a vial, cap, and small funnel, and you spit through the funnel into the vial. Then you cap it up, and you’re good to go. You’ll submit saliva as part of Viome’s Oral Health Intelligence, CancerDetect Oral and Throat, and Full Body Intelligence tests.

The Gut Intelligence Test [$169 with discount code INNERBODY] focuses strictly on your gut microbiome. From a stool sample you collect at home, Viome can tell you about the health of your gut microbiome and how you can improve it. The company generates a report that shows you the activities of the microorganisms living in your gut, including factors such as:

• Digestive efficiency
• Inflammation
• Gas production
• Metabolic fitness

Viome’s Gut Intelligent Test is the most comparable to microbiome tests offered by competitors, but it’s more thorough. Whereas other testers look only at bacterial populations, ignoring other microorganisms whose presence plays a vital role in overall gut health, Viome’s test looks at:

• Bacteria
• Yeast and other fungi
• Viruses
• Archaea
• Eukaryotes

The results are both fascinating and actionable. For instance, one of our testers discovered that — among other foods — bell peppers could be problematic in his diet. A couple of easy clicks within Viome’s interface revealed that his gut microbiome contained the pepper mild mottle virus, which studies show can cause gut inflammation.7

The Precision Probiotics + Prebiotics plan [$68 for the first six months with code INNERBODY15] is a subscription plan that provides you with monthly supplies of customized probiotics and prebiotics. Based on your test analysis, Viome will formulate a blend specifically suited to the needs of your gut microbiome. The company has a pool of over 200 possible bacterial strains and ingredients at its disposal to ensure a personalized mixture using your test results, data from clinical trials and laboratory research, and sophisticated AI that crunches all of this data together to produce the recommendations.

This personalization is important because there’s a tremendous diversity of probiotic strains available to consumers. Depending on the state of your gut microbiome and your specific needs and goals, one strain could improve your health, while another may have adverse effects. This is why Stachel, when working with clients, places an emphasis on “an individual’s symptoms and treating the whole person.”

Unfortunately, many probiotic manufacturers don’t list the strains they use, only providing you with a genus and species. Since different strains within a species can yield varying results, knowing exactly what you’re taking is crucial. Fortunately, Viome provides strain-specific information for its probiotics.

Viome’s Health Intelligence Test [$229 with discount code INNERBODY] includes all of the services offered in the Gut Intelligence Test but also measures your genes’ activity using RNA sequencing from a blood test. Integrating the data from a blood sample with the data from your stool sample, it yields various scores that give you a more comprehensive picture of your health.

The parameters you gain access to with the Health Intelligence Test include the following:

Metabolic fitness

Viome’s metabolic fitness score is a measurement of microbial activity related to blood sugar, insulin resistance, and weight control. Anyone concerned with diabetes, obesity, or other ailments related to weight and blood sugar could gain crucial insights here.

Biological age

This fascinating score measures how hard your cells have to work to achieve their essential functions. Lower efficiency in cellular activity comes as we age.8 Viome’s vast data stores allow it to compare your activity against enough people to determine whether your cells are working more or less efficiently than those of your peers.

Cellular health

Your cellular health score is a high-altitude view of your general wellness, measuring inflammation, stress, efficiency, and age. It can identify potential triggers like oxidative stress or environmental toxins, allowing the company to recommend particular supplements. As with each of its other reported scores, Viome gives you ample opportunity to drill much deeper to understand the rationale behind its recommendations.

With Cellular Health, for instance, you could drill down on mitochondrial health — an exploration of how well your cell’s tiny mitochondria are functioning as they provide vital energy that enables cells to do things like repair themselves. In the case of one of our testers, mitochondrial health was suboptimal, and one of the supplements Viome recommended for improving mitochondrial health was quercetin.

Cellular senescence

Cellular senescence describes the process by which cells cease to divide as they get older. This cessation leads to decreased efficiency and an inability to break down proteins and complete basic cellular operations. Older cells can also contribute to overall toxicity in the body.16

Viome’s Full Body Intelligence Test [$289 with discount code INNERBODY] is a relatively recent offering from the company. It replaced the Health Intelligence Test in Viome’s Full Body Health Solutions program, formerly called its Complete Plan. Aside from screening your blood and stool, this test incorporates a saliva sample to evaluate your oral microbiome.

On top of all the parameters that the Gut Intelligence and Health Intelligence Tests offer, Full Body Intelligence’s additional saliva examination can reveal important aspects of your cognitive and cardiovascular health.9 This allows the company to more finely tune your regimen of probiotics, prebiotics, and supplements to maximize your health.

Additional parameters evaluated through the Full Body Intelligence Test include:

Viome’s Full Body Health Solutions program [$169/month for the first six months with code INNERBODY15] is a subscription plan based on the Full Body Intelligence Test. If you can afford it, we highly recommend it. Included in this plan are:

• All insights you would gain from Gut and Health Intelligence Tests
• Additional insights that come from the oral microbiome evaluation
• Monthly supplies of bespoke pre-/probiotics
• Monthly supplies of bespoke supplements
• Monthly supplies of bespoke oral probiotic lozenges
• Retesting every 12 months to fine-tune your personalized formula

The program may seem expensive at first glance, but less so after calculating the sum of off-the-rack alternatives. With the cost of the average high-quality probiotic ($30-50), the average high-quality prebiotic ($20-40), and the average high-quality multivitamin ($30-50), you could spend $80-$140 on comparable products at the pharmacy. And those might have nothing to do with your unique microbiome, nor will they offer free comprehensive yearly testing.

While the Full Body Intelligence Test includes an oral component, it mostly examines the makeup of your oral microbiome. The dedicated Oral Health Intelligence Test [$149 with code INNERBODY] looks at more parameters of oral health, extending to the health of your throat and sinuses. It only requires a saliva sample to run, as well, making it the least invasive of Viome’s tests.

The recommendations you get from the Oral Health Intelligence Test may not be the same as those you’d get from a Full Body Intelligence Test unless Viome already has such a test on file for you. Too many of the Full Body parameters are missing from this test for them to align perfectly.

Fortunately, treating an imbalance in your oral microbiome is a process connected to, but not dependent on, how you approach your gut microbiome. That’s why Viome has begun offering a new probiotic lozenge for oral health.

VRx My·Biotics Oral Lozenges

Viome’s VRx oral lozenges are designed to break down in your mouth, where they can have the most direct impact on your oral microbiome. Like the probiotics included in the precision offering above, these lozenges are custom-tailored to work for your unique oral microbiome as determined by the Oral Health Test.

As with the other supplemental products from Viome, you can subscribe to these for a monthly rate [$59/month for the first six months with code INNERBODY15] and receive yearly retesting to ensure you’re on the right track.

Viome made a name for itself in microbiome testing, but the mRNA sequencing and expansive AI system it has built have far-reaching benefits well beyond microbes. The company’s first foray into other kinds of testing has earned it a breakthrough device approval from the FDA. This is the technology behind Viome’s Discovery CancerDetect Oral and Throat Cancer.

All the test requires is a saliva sample. The system works similarly to the process Viome uses to evaluate your oral microbiome as part of its Full Body Intelligence Test. The difference is that Viome trained its metatranscriptomic system to detect microbial signatures that exist only in positive cancer patients whose profiles were fed into the system. With that information as an identifier, the system has been able to detect both oral squamous cell carcinoma and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with incredible accuracy. The CancerDetect system has a ≥94% specificity, a measure of such a test’s ability to identify cancer biomarkers accurately in a positive individual. It also has a ≥90% sensitivity, which means less than 10% of tests result in false negatives.14

Based on the fact that Viome has trademarked both the Viome Discovery and CancerDetect names, we hope that this is just the beginning of the company’s ability to detect cancers and other diseases. Viome wouldn’t comment as such yet, given the sensitive nature of such developments, but one of the papers detailing the project in Nature mentions colorectal and pancreatic cancers as potential targets. Innerbody readers will be among the first to know when Viome unveils new products.

Viome’s pricing is decidedly simple, as each of the company’s five tests and three product subscription plans comes with its own price tag. Here’s a quick look at the options and what they include. And remember that Innerbody Research readers get $110 off test orders with the discount code INNERBODY and 15% off the first six months of subscription plans with code INNERBODY15. The prices below are with our coupon codes applied.

Viome custom probiotic and supplement subscriptions:

As you can see, Viome’s subscription levels offer customized nutritional formulas, either as a simple pre-/probiotic mixture or as a complete regimen of prebiotics, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, and food extracts. We believe the value of this service is exceptionally high, both in terms of cost and convenience. Subscriptions also come with free retesting every 12 months, so you can see how your new regimen affects your microbiome balance or your health and wellness scores over time.

You can take the Gut Intelligence or Full Body Intelligence Tests on their own and add a subscription plan after you receive your results. But since the test is less expensive with the plan and you have the option to cancel at any time, that’s probably the least economical option.

Insurance, FSAs, and HSAs

It’s becoming increasingly common for FSAs and HSAs to cover gut health tests, either as direct forms of payment or through reimbursements. Many Viome products are eligible for reimbursement with many HSAs and FSAs, but not all. You should check with your plan administrators to be sure. Viome’s other tests and supplements are not eligible for reimbursement at this time. Other companies are a little easier to work with. Floré, for example, accepts FSA and HSA payments directly.

Generally, insurance companies don’t cover this kind of at-home testing,

Viome results and reports

No matter which test you take, Viome designs a tailor-made action plan to help you improve the ecosystem of microbes present in your gut. This plan includes steps to help you improve the overall diversity of microorganisms, reduce the presence of pathogenic microorganisms, and increase the presence of “good” microorganisms.

The report includes foods (and potentially supplements) you should incorporate into your dietary regimen, as well as those you should avoid. These personalized diet and supplement recommendations could help you improve:

• Sleep
• Digestion
• Immune function
• Skin health
• Mental focus
• Energy levels
• Mood
• Weight management

In each reporting area, you’ll be able to drill down deeper as Viome explains its recommendations (for example, why you should avoid a certain food, how a different food would particularly benefit you based on your test results, or how a particular substance added to your supplement regimen could improve your metabolic health). Viome provides links to clinical studies that yielded the results that compelled the company to make these recommendations.

Many recommendations in Viome’s reports are generated with the help of its artificial intelligence system. Compared to a practicing physician who may be so busy that they have too little time to consume the vast amount of research published in their field, Viome’s AI stays up-to-date on the latest microbiome research and compares your specific microbiome with data from countless other customers, research papers, genetic sequencing projects, and more.

So having a nutritionist or two go over your results and make recommendations may be useful, but having that effort bolstered by AI can lead you and those nutritionists to relevant clinical research they might otherwise have missed, helping make Viome’s results more relevant than any other company’s.

Viome’s Chief Scientist took us on a tour of the company’s Seattle-area laboratories in late 2021. While visiting its research lab, warehouse, accessioning lab, pre-PCR lab, and sequencing lab, we saw first-hand the techniques and technology the company employs to provide exceptionally accurate results and found a company on the cutting edge of its market.

Instead of relying on other companies to develop testing methods, Viome has a research department dedicated to innovations in blood, saliva, and stool testing. That gives it a distinct advantage over other providers, as its testing knowledge extends beyond practical methods and into the very hardware used in the process. The research lab has a quiet hum of excitement about it, and it’s clear that the scientists there are deeply engaged in what they’re doing.

Viome’s latest focus (and the focus of the research scientist shown above) is proteomic testing, specifically related to proteins involved in cancers and food sensitivities. This testing can potentially identify markers for leaky gut, insulin resistance, and tumor necrosis factor alpha, with possible future applications in several critical areas, including digestive inflammation and mental health.15 One of the culminations of Viome’s current research could be a direct-to-consumer food sensitivity test that is both superior to and much more affordable than existing tests on the market, improving accessibility for many Americans.

Viome is also in the process of designing and building processing robots to replace its current technology. On our trip, we encountered Viome’s liquid-handling robot (pictured at the top of this section), which costs about $350,000 and is the size of a large dresser. The new machines Viome is designing are about the size of a shoebox. More importantly, they cost only about $25,000 each, which will significantly reduce costs.

“What we’re doing is disruptive,” said Momo Vuyisich, Chief Scientist at Viome. “We really want to disrupt the healthcare industry because it’s so annoying in so many ways.”

Viome has developed a proprietary preservative that allows its samples to remain stable at room temperature, which is a huge advantage for the company. It’s working toward testing microRNA for added specificity in its understanding of gene expression. With each innovation, Viome’s tests get faster, more accurate, and less expensive. And since it controls more and more aspects of its process, it can react to problems without relying on outside companies.

All this furious forward momentum is necessary, though. Dr. Vuyisich is all too aware that Viome is competing in a space defined by rapid innovation.

“If I told you I was going to drive my Tesla 100 mph down the freeway today, you might be disturbed, but would you be flabbergasted by that?” he asked. “No — you can do that easily, right? But if someone told you that in ten years, you could sit in that same Tesla and drive one hundred billion miles per hour, what would you say? No way, right? That’s four times the speed of light! That’s literally not possible. But in genomics, that’s exactly the scale of development that occurred in ten years.”

He added, “In 2004, when we finished the human genome project, you had to have a hangar — like a Boeing-size hangar — full of instruments working for ten years to do what our sequencer can do in one day. And that cost a billion dollars, whereas this costs a thousand dollars.”

Viome’s most impressive piece of current technology might be its sequencing robot, shown above. This $1 million robot can run 20 billion sequences in parallel over 24-48 hours.

Dr. Vuyisich underscored the ambition and fast development that characterize the company based on our experience and testing: “We have to disrupt ourselves.”

At times, Viome appears to surprise even itself with the pace of advancements. One astonished Viome employee overheard our conversation about the shoebox robots, turned to a nearby executive, and asked, “Is that true?”

Step 1: Order your test kit or subscribe

Viome’s ordering process is very straightforward. You can choose from any of its tests or subscription systems in just a few clicks.

Step 2: Register your kit and provide some information

Once you receive your kit, you should register it online. During registration, Viome collects your answers to an extensive questionnaire covering your lifestyle, symptoms you may be experiencing, important details about hip and waist measurements, and other health and nutrition information.

Your answers to these questions help Viome’s AI system make patterns and connections to ensure that its actionable insights are as personalized and helpful as possible.

Step 3: Collect your test samples

After registering your test kit, you can collect your stool sample. Viome provides you with two identical stool collection papers. One of these papers is a spare, in case you need it. Simply adhere one of the collection papers to the toilet so that the paper stretches loosely across the bowl and doesn’t droop near the water. Following the instructions, deposit your stool onto the paper and then use the scoop to transfer one pea-sized amount of your stool to the tube. Then seal the tube and shake it. You can place the paper in the toilet and flush it after a few minutes of soaking.

If you ordered the Health Intelligence Test, you’ll also need to collect a blood sample. You must fast for eight hours before collection, so the company advises you to collect your sample early in the morning, not long after you wake up and before consuming anything other than water (being hydrated before blood collection is recommended for better blood flow).

The Full Body and Oral Intelligence Tests also require a saliva sample, while the CancerDetect Oral and Throat Cancer test requires only saliva.

Step 4: Receive results

Gut Intelligence and Oral Intelligence Test results should be available within 2-3 weeks of Viome receiving your sample, while Health Intelligence and Full Body Intelligence Test results take 3-4 weeks. The company will notify you when your results are ready, and you can log into the portal on its website to access them.

Step 5: Take action

If you ordered a test kit by itself, you could put the rich microbiome insights in your report to good use, modifying your dietary and supplement routine. If you subscribed to Viome’s probiotics, supplements, or oral lozenges, then Viome will be in touch to explain the formulation process further.

Step 6: Begin personalized regimen (for subscribers only)

Viome will send subscribers monthly shipments of supplements formulated to help optimize your specific gut health. These may be only a probiotic and prebiotic mixture, or they may also include additional nutritional supplements depending on your subscription. Take them as directed.

Initially, you’ll have to wait a short while for Viome to design the probiotic formula that best meets your needs. This process took an average of nine days during our testing.

Step 7: Retest

If you subscribe to any of Viome’s monthly plans, you’ll receive a new test kit every 12 months. This allows the company to assess how well its prebiotics, probiotics, and supplements have been working for you and make any adjustments as needed.

Shipping with Viome is free within the United States. It takes about 3-5 business days for your kit to arrive — depending somewhat on your location. The company will provide you with shipping and delivery notifications via email. Return shipping for your sample is also free and takes a similar amount of time. These shipping times are slightly faster than the average we calculated for all the microbiome tests we’ve taken, though the math was thrown off a bit by extended delays from Ombre while the company was transitioning to a new name and new ownership.

Subscribers who receive probiotic and supplemental shipments from Viome should find improved shipping times for these products. The products consistently reached our testers in two days, with delivery notifications via email.

14-day return policy

Viome is a little strict with its return policy. The only way to get 100% of your money back — including shipping — is by canceling your order within 24 hours. For kit orders only, you have 13 more days to cancel your order, but Viome will charge a processing fee of up to $35. How that fee is calculated is unclear. Viome doesn’t entertain any return requests for kits after 14 days beyond the date of your order. And any and all subscription products and service sales are final after 24 hours, with no opportunity for returns once the items ship.

This is one of the least forgiving return policies among the companies we’ve investigated. Tiny Health also has a 14-day policy, and it charges a 3% return fee and a processing charge of $30 instead of Viome’s $35. Floré and Ombre have 30-day return windows, with Ombre being the only one of those two to charge a fee (25%). BIOHM has the best policy of the bunch, offering 60 days with no fees.

Subscription cancellation

If you subscribe to any of Viome’s monthly plans, you can cancel at any time, but there may be a steep cancellation fee involved.

Say you sign up for the Precision Probiotics + Prebiotics plan. As part of that plan, Viome sends you a free test to get the baseline data required for their formulation. So, if you cancel your subscription at any point in the first three months, Viome will charge you the cost of one month’s subscription as a cancellation fee. The same rule would apply to any of the company’s subscription plans.

In Viome’s defense, it seems like this fee is in place to prevent people from using the subscription platform to get a cheap test. The Gut Intelligence Test costs $169 (with coupon code INNERBODY), but you could get the test and a month’s worth of probiotics for just $68 — the cost of your first month on the Precision Probiotics + Prebiotics plan. If you suddenly canceled, Viome would lose money on the deal. Charging you the cost of an additional month’s subscription to cancel helps Viome offset the potential loss.

For that reason, there is no cancellation fee if you buy a test on its own, get your results, and then decide to sign up for a monthly subscription. You’ll have already paid full price for your first test, and Viome won’t lose money if you cancel.

After three months on any subscription plan, you can cancel without penalty.

Viome separates any identifiable information from your health data. All data is protected with multiple layers of encryption to ensure its security.

Viome also commits never to sell your data and won’t provide your information to employers, health insurance companies, or law enforcement (unless they are legally required to do so).

When you test with Viome, the company may use your anonymized data to advance its scientific research. Before doing so, it will de-identify all aspects of your sample and results, ensuring that none of the data can be traced back to you as an individual. And because Viome uses RNA data instead of DNA data, its database is all but useless to law enforcement and other entities that would wish to use its data to identify individuals.

By contrast, companies like Floré and Tiny Health utilize DNA, which makes their databases more susceptible to subpoena and search. But DNA isn’t the slam dunk criminal catcher that primetime police dramas would have you believe. Everything from over-similarities in DNA between unrelated individuals to lab errors has resulted in wrongful arrests and even convictions from time to time. That makes putting your DNA out there all the more hazardous to your freedom should such an unfortunate, albeit rare, incident indicate that you were at the scene of a crime you didn’t commit.

Maybe Viome sounds pretty good to you, but you aren’t quite sure it’s your best option. Based on the research and testing we’ve done, we believe that Viome will be the best option for most people, but there may be other considerations that could steer you toward an alternative. Let’s look at some of those options to complete the picture.

Other microbiome testing companies

Viome isn’t the only microbiome testing company out there; it just has the most advanced sequencing methods paired with an AI system that generates results based on an enormous quantity of data points. But there are other companies that might cost less and offer more targeted testing, or those that cost a little more and offer types of tests that Viome has yet to produce.

Here’s a quick rundown of our favorite microbiome testing companies:

You can learn more about each of these companies and the microbiome itself by reading our complete microbiome testing guide.

Off-the-shelf probiotics

If you’re primarily interested in Viome for its probiotics, you might find yourself wondering whether you really need to test your microbiome before taking some. You might also wonder how necessary it is to have those probiotics custom-made. Based on our experience, we firmly believe that microbiome testing and custom probiotics and supplements are a more reliable way to see positive results than utilizing off-the-shelf options without any knowledge of your microbiome’s makeup.

If you’re determined to try some probiotics without any testing, we’d recommend a multi-strain option. Gastroenterologists often prescribe limited strains in specific cases because they can determine what a patient might benefit from the most based on symptoms and diagnoses. But without any knowledge of your microbiome (or a medical degree), you might end up with a strain that’s already abundant in your system or one that isn’t going to prosper at all, essentially throwing your money away. A multi-strain probiotic offers you a better chance of seeing a positive shift in your microbiome away from bacteria that don’t serve you well and toward more helpful strains.

Probiotic companies we often recommend include:

• Primal Harvest: Combines probiotics and prebiotics with multivitamin complexes to create formulas targeting things like immunity and gut balance
• Garden of Life: Offers multiple options designed for men or women and often contains additional ingredients like prebiotics and digestive enzymes
• Cymbiotika: A high-end company specializing in probiotics that use oil combinations to improve bioavailability

And be sure to make necessary adjustments to your diet alongside any probiotic usage. As Stachel says, “Alcohol and heavily processed foods should be limited in general when wanting to start a probiotic or prebiotic to optimize gut health.”