12:27 CET Starting this week, the German government is offering free rapid testing for everyone, while supermarkets have also started selling home test kits. What is the difference between these tests and what are they both good for? If youâve been paying attention to the news recently, youâve probably heard lots of talk about Schnelltests (rapid tests) and There are similarities and differences between these two types of testing. Both Schnelltests and Selbsttests are antigen tests as opposed to PCR tests. This means that they do not look for traces of the virusâ genetic material, but can detect its surface characteristics.