If you are looking for a pregnancy test you may well opt to buy one from your local supermarket. After all, why would you not? High street pregnancy tests are fairly cheap and you can pick up quickly. But are they any good and which one should you choose?
In this article we put one of the leading supermarket pregnancy tests, the Sainsbury’s Pregnancy Test, up against the Zoom Baby Pregnancy Test. Which one is the best value and which will give you the most reliable results? We try them both out and give you our verdict.
COST
You can buy a pack containing two Sainsbury’s Pregnancy Tests for £3.60, both in store and on the company’s website. This means that a single pregnancy test is £1.80 from the supermarket. In comparison, the Zoom Baby pregnancy test costs less, coming in at just £1.29.
Best: Zoom Baby – it is not often that the supermarket’s get beaten on price, but in this case the Zoom Baby test is nearly 30% cheaper than the Sainsbury’s one.
INSTRUCTIONS
Both tests come with clear and easy-to-read instructions. We studied both and found that each was easy to follow. We like design of the Sainsbury’s Pregnancy Tests instructions and for this reason , we give the supermarket test a slight win here.
Best: Sainsbury’s – we like the design and look of the Sainsbury’s Pregnancy Test Instructions. They were also easy to follow, which is sometimes important if you are in a rush!
SENSITIVITY
The Zoom Baby Pregnancy Test is what we call an “early” pregnancy test. This is because it has a high sensitivity of 10mIU/ml. This means that the test can be used to check pregnancy up to 4 days before your period is due. The Sainsbury’s Pregnancy Test boasts that it allows you to test up to 5 days before your missed period. That means that it is also an early pregnancy test. It is not stated on the packaging how sensitive the test is but we would take a strong guess that it is also a 10mIU/ml pregnancy test.
Best: Sainsbury’s or Zoom Baby – it’s a draw, we are fairly certain that both test are early pregnancy test with a sensitivity of 10mIU/ml.
RELIABILITY
Both tests state that they are over 99% accurate. This level of reliability is when a pregnancy test is taken no earlier than one day before your missed period. If you test earlier, the results will be less reliable. For example,the Sainsbury’s pregnancy test is only 74% reliable when used 5 days before your missed period.
Best: Sainsbury’s or Zoom Baby – it’s another draw. Both are 99% reliable when used no earlier than one day before your missed period.
REVIEWS
There’s is a clear winner in this category. Zoom Baby pregnancy tests get better reviews than the Sainsbury’s one. When this article was written, a quick scan of the Zoom Baby website showed 18 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5. In comparison, the Sainsbury’s pregnancy test was showing a score of just 2.0 out of 5, based on 44 reviews.The biggest complaint from user of the supermarket test is. that it gave false positive results, which gave some ladies the impression that they were pregnant when they were not.
There is always risk of an incorrect pregnancy test result, especially when testing early, as we have already discussed. This is why they best time to check if you are pregnant is on, or just before, the day your missed period is due.
Best: Zoom Baby – the reviews for the Zoom Baby test are good, whereas the supermarket brand gets a less favourable write up. Based on this information alone, we have to hand this round to Zoom Baby.
OUR VERDICT – Zoom Baby is best!
When you are looking to buy cheap pregnancy tests these two may well be ones that you would consider. However there are two main reasons why we would also the Zoom Baby test over the Sainsbury’s one. A big factor is the cost .The Zoom Baby tests are a lot cheaper than the supermarket ones. If you are testing regularly, this can prove to be a significant saving. When you consider this, and also consider that the Zoom Baby one gets much better reviews, you will certainly agree that the Zoom Baby pregnancy test is best when compared head-to-head with the Sainsbury’s one.
