Aging Clocks Catalog · For buyers and repeat testers
What a biological-age test buys you
Four contrasting offerings show why the assay, algorithm, report, advice service and data contract should never be treated as one validated claim.
A dated comparison, not an endorsement. These four contrasting offerings were observed on 21 September 2026, without checkout, account creation, sample submission or seller contact. Displayed US-facing dollar prices are not delivered quotes. A readable listing does not establish current fulfillment; an unknown term is not evidence that the seller has no policy.
The assay measures a specimen. The model estimates a target. The report selects and labels outputs. A protein- or organ-looking result can be a prediction, not a direct measurement.
A consultation, membership or action programme adds a service. A model publication does not establish that the purchased package improves decisions or health.
What is measured—and what is inferred?
| Offering and assay | Named outputs / service | Connected evidence and unresolved equivalence |
|---|---|---|
| TruDiagnostic · TruAge | Finger-prick blood DNA methylation. Named outputs include OMICmAge, SYMPHONYAge and DunedinPACE. Organ/protein/function-looking outputs can be inferred, not directly assayed. [C01] | OMICmAge has a 2026 peer-reviewed paper; Systems Age has a 2025 publication; DunedinPACE has longitudinal-target and reliability evidence. Exact purchased report-to-artifact equivalence and independent collection-to-report change error remain unestablished. [M05; M21; M22] |
| GlycanAge | Finger-prick blood IgG glycan analysis, age/related indices and interpretation support—not DNA methylation. [C04] | Original IgG glycan-age research connects profiles to age and metabolic traits. Publicly pinned deployed coefficients/version and applicable individual-change limits were not established. [M12] |
| Tally Health · TallyAge | Cheek-swab DNA methylation age report, with optional membership/action programme. [C07] | Tally-funded CheekAge research developed in buccal samples; a later mortality study used a modified, incomplete-feature blood implementation. Exact current TallyAge-to-CheekAge equivalence and prospective mortality validation of the purchased cheek pipeline remain unestablished. [M23; M24] |
| InsideTracker · InnerAge 2.0 | Venous routine blood markers transformed into a proprietary age score and recommendations. The page lists different marker counts by sex. [C10] | The direct laboratory results are distinct from the added algorithm. The inspected listing did not establish equivalence to clinical Phenotypic Age or KDM, a sufficiently specified model, independent current-version validation or added decision benefit. Legacy-branded fulfillment was not tested. |
A publication is not automatically validation of the whole product
TruAge: OMICmAge’s version of record appeared on 25 February 2026; Systems Age’s on 15 September 2025. Neither should be described here as merely a preprint. OMICmAge discloses sponsored research, company involvement and patent interests. External-cohort evidence is not the same as an independent commercial evaluation. Deployment uses DNAm-derived inputs, not direct measurement of the customer’s entire proteome and metabolome. [M21; M22]
TallyAge: the later CheekAge mortality analysis used a blood adaptation with incomplete features and standardized delta scores. It is relevant prognostic evidence but not proof that one current consumer cheek swab forecasts an individual death date or that the membership causes benefit. The researchers’ commercial affiliation must remain visible. [M23; M24]
GlycanAge: a small longitudinal subset in the original research had heterogeneous trajectories. That does not supply a universal current-service retest response or error bound. Seller claims about triplicates or a one-year margin need to identify whether they concern assay precision, age prediction or individual change. [M12; C04]
Price, burden and commitments
| Offering | Observed price and timing | Repeat budget / unresolved terms |
|---|---|---|
| TruAge | Standalone $499; TruAge/TruHealth bundle $849. Product page: prepaid US return and about 3–4 weeks after receipt; provider page says 2–4 weeks. [C01; C02] | Two standalone tests at unchanged price: $998 before unknown extras, not a quoted repeat plan. No required membership established for the standalone listing. International eligibility, tax and refund/cancellation details not fully established. |
| GlycanAge | Kit, return process and interpretation support; about 3–4 weeks advertised. Dynamic shop text did not reveal a reliable price/currency. [C04; C05] | No all-in or repeat quote. Terms describe assay-failure reprocessing/replacement and limited refunds with shipping/handling deductions. Countries and separate refund-page detail not fully verified. [C06] |
| TallyAge | Standalone $249, free-shipping language and about 6–8 weeks. [C08] | Two at unchanged price: $498 before unknown extras. Six-month seller retest advice is not an evidence-derived interval. Membership terms describe monthly auto-renewal, nonrefundable fees and cancellation at least three days before the next period; do not infer membership is mandatory for every standalone test. Current membership total and all country restrictions unverified. [C07; C09] |
| InnerAge 2.0 | Readable listing: $249, $99 add-on to a named Ultimate plan, mobile draw +$119. No reliable current turnaround adopted. [C10] | Hypothetical test + mobile draw: $368; two: $736, before other costs. Page describes US/Canada arrangements and mobile-draw restrictions; these are not verified current law or checkout eligibility. Subscription, cancellation, final fulfillment and global availability remain unresolved. |
The repeated-price sums are budgeting illustrations, not reasons to retest. Compare the whole acquisition process: kit, collection, lab, shipping, taxes, interpretation, subscription commitments and a failed or unusable sample. More outputs are not automatically more useful; a cheaper score that does not help your decision is not automatically better value.
Data access, retention and consent
| Offering | Observed policy description | Unresolved reader question |
|---|---|---|
| TruDiagnostic | Account access/download of processed information and research-consent choices. Withdrawal limits future research, not already completed work; the policy describes a delay before exclusion from newly starting research. Deletion/sample discard has legal, laboratory and research exceptions. [C03] | Are raw IDAT files or beta matrices supplied, at what cost, and does deletion cover each derived result? These exact details were not verified. |
| Tally | Third-party processing/research within stated consent terms. Listed retention includes 3 years for health/wellness information, 7 years for transactions and indefinite deidentified retention, with genetic/laboratory-law exceptions. [C09] | A portability right does not establish downloadable raw methylation files. “No sale” must not become “no sharing”; account deletion need not end all retention. |
| GlycanAge | Privacy route rendered cookie material and a loading placeholder; complete specimen/data policy not established. Terms allow processing outside the customer’s country. [C06] | Research consent, raw export, retention and deletion remain unknown in the inspected material. A cookie-policy date is not a verified sample/data-policy date. |
| InsideTracker | Privacy route did not yield enough substantive retention/research text for a reliable audit. Security/compliance claims were not independently audited. [C10; C11] | Raw lab access and proprietary-score portability, deletion and retention are separate unanswered questions. Missing retrieved text is not proof that protections are absent. |
This is not a legal-compliance verdict in any jurisdiction. Product pages, legal terms and evidence may change; the date describes the review, not a guarantee of availability or a current delivered contract.
Ask what precision means for the report you will receive
Measurement-evidence update, not a new product audit. A replicate made after DNA processing covers fewer steps than separate collections through the entire service. Matched-platform research also shows why a familiar clock name does not establish continuity across a method change. These findings motivate the questions below; they do not establish a threshold for TruAge, GlycanAge, TallyAge or InnerAge. [R03; R05]
| Ask the seller | What a useful answer would specify | What would not settle it |
|---|---|---|
| What exactly was reported at each visit? | Raw score, score-minus-age gap, age-regression residual or pace; model/report version, specimen, assay generation, imputation, normalization and reference calibration. | A brand name or the label “biological age” without the output definition. |
| Where did the precision experiment begin? | Split point, independent participant count, separate collections versus stored-sample duplicates, shipping/extraction/assay/computation stages, and matched timing and population. | Triplicates of one assay stage presented as precision of the whole collection-to-report service. |
| How were old and new methods bridged? | Paired representative specimens through both complete pipelines; a bridge fitted on designated data and evaluated independently for bias and remaining disagreement; disclosure of historical-report recalculation. | High correlation alone, or separately recentering both versions so their average residuals match. |
| What uncertainty applies to my reported change? | Absolute difference variance and bias in score-years, gap-years or pace units, as applicable; collection-to-report and intervisit conditions; whether an interval describes a group mean or an individual difference. | Cross-sectional age-prediction error, a mean-offset confidence interval or a seller’s preferred retest schedule used as a personal threshold. |
These are proposed questions derived from the replicate and platform evidence, not claims that a named seller uses the studied pipeline. The same-DNA platform example is not a conversion for purchased reports. Clinical-laboratory and proteomic change thresholds additionally need score-level covariance or full-pipeline repeated predictions; individual analyte CVs or protein ICCs do not supply them. [R03; R05]
Before paying—or paying again
- Define the decision.
What will the report add beyond information you already have? General advice available without testing does not itself establish the test’s value.
- Ask for the exact output and evidence.
Which assay, model/version and report are delivered? Does the validation use that specimen and full pipeline in a relevant population?
- Ask what a repeat can resolve.
Use the precision and bridging questions above. Ask for uncertainty in the actual reported units, not a laboratory badge, age correlation or suggested retest interval.
- Check the whole commitment.
Confirm final eligibility, delivered cost, failed-sample remedies, cancellation, raw/report access, research consent, withdrawal and retained derivatives before purchase.
Bottom line: none of the inspected material establishes long-term outcome benefit from the purchased testing-and-advice package versus a realistic no-test alternative. That is not a finding of failure or an allegation against a seller. It means “no additional test for this decision” remains a reasonable option. For a report already in hand, start with interpretation rather than score optimization.
Sources and reading limits
Source labels distinguish primary research, seller documents and implementation notes. The four-offering audit and its M/C source observations remain dated 21 September 2026. Added R sources inform measurement questions reviewed on 22 September 2026, not refreshed seller terms or product certification.
C01. TruDiagnostic: About TruAge Seller description of outputs, specimen, intended use and turnaround; not independent validation.
C02. TruDiagnostic: TruAge store listing Visible prices and return/turnaround claims observed 21 September 2026; no checkout or delivered quote.
C03. TruDiagnostic privacy policy Research withdrawal, data access and deletion qualifications inspected; no legal-compliance audit.
C04. GlycanAge product overview Seller specimen, service and precision claims; no purchase or independent service test.
C05. GlycanAge shop Dynamic price content did not yield a reliable price/currency in the review.
C06. GlycanAge terms Relevant processing and failure remedies inspected. The privacy body did not render; the separate refund route was not reliably retrieved.
C07. Tally Health overview Seller programme and retest language; no programme evaluation.
C08. TallyAge standalone listing Price, shipping and turnaround observed 21 September 2026; checkout/country eligibility unverified.
C09. Tally privacy policy Retention/sharing clauses and programme terms inspected; current membership total and all jurisdictional details not established.
C10. InsideTracker InnerAge listing Readable legacy-branded listing; prices and arrangements observed 21 September 2026, not confirmed fulfillment.
C11. InsideTracker privacy route Reached without enough substantive text to audit retention/research consent; not evidence of absent protections.
M05. Belsky et al. (2022), DunedinPACE Primary longitudinal target, normalization, technical/cross-platform reliability and relevant validation text inspected; model not executed.
M12. Krištić et al. (2014; online 2013), Glycans are a novel biomarker of chronological and biological ages Primary development, external-population and small longitudinal-subset results; not validation of a pinned 2026 product.
M21. Chen et al. (2026), OMICmAge Published 25 February 2026. Primary development, external validation, replicate, limitation, access and conflict sections; sponsored/company-affiliated work with patent interests.
M22. Sehgal et al. (2025), Systems Age Version of record: 15 September 2025. Abstract/metadata and primary update linkage inspected; detailed rankings and current product equivalence withheld.
M23. Shokhirev et al. (2024), CheekAge: a next-generation buccal epigenetic aging clock Primary abstract, development/replicate description and conflicts; Tally-funded, with company-employee authors. No exact consumer-version match.
M24. Shokhirev et al. (2024), CheekAge is predictive of mortality in human blood Primary incomplete-feature blood adaptation and mortality-model sections; company-affiliated external-cohort study, not a prospective consumer cheek-test trial.
R03. McEwen et al. (2018), EPIC/450K clock assessment Relevant methods/results/discussion inspected, including normalization and the post-bisulfite-conversion technical split. No raw-array reproduction; its age-error-based heuristic is not adopted as an individual detection threshold.
R05. Tay et al. (2025), DNAm age differences across EPIC versions and specimens Relevant methods/results/conflicts and Supplementary Table S4 inspected. Same extracted DNA, 16 paired samples per specimen, ages 40–60, 14 Chinese participants; EPICv2 imputation was part of the pipeline. Rounded aggregate reconstruction, not raw-data reproduction. Main-text/S4 and normalization-reference discrepancies remain unresolved. Disclosures include clock-foundation and advisory roles.
Next: Interpret a changed or conflicting result or follow the worked purchase decision.