The range, and what actually differs
A funeral business website costs from nothing to several thousand. The difference between the bands is not how it looks. It is whether a family at two in the morning can find out what to do first, whether the price information is presented in the format the regulator asks for, and whether someone can make contact in the way they are able to at that moment.
Here are the bands, what each buys, and how to read a quote.
Band 1: a Google Business Profile and no website
Cost: nothing.
You get: a phone number, an address, opening hours and reviews.
You do not get: anywhere to publish a price list in a required format, a page explaining the first steps after a death, a pre-need or consultation booking route, or pages for celebrancy, memorials and planning ahead.
Right for: almost no funeral director. A celebrant just starting out can work this way for a while.
Band 2: a template or builder site, $500 to $2,000 (roughly £400 to £1,600)
A local designer or a do-it-yourself builder with your logo, a few photographs and a contact form.
You get: a presence with your name on it.
Usually missing: a price list built as a structured page rather than a PDF, a step-by-step page for the first days, contact on every page including an out-of-hours route, readable type and contrast for older visitors, and a booking route for planning-ahead appointments.
Right for: a celebrant, or a memorial mason with a small local catchment.
Band 3: a purpose-built life events site, $2,500 to $6,000 (roughly £2,000 to £4,800)
Built around the eight pages a funeral business usually needs: home, when someone dies, services and prices, planning ahead, team and premises, celebrants and ceremonies, memorials, contact.
You get: a price page built to your regulator's required format and easy to keep current, a what-happens-next page written in short sentences, phone and a gentle message form on every page, consultation booking for pre-need and will writing, real photography of the premises and the people, and pages that can be edited without a developer.
Not usually included: photography, though for this trade it is worth budgeting for, because stock imagery is the thing families notice most.
Right for: any funeral director, and any practice with more than one service line.
Band 4: groups and multi-branch firms, $8,000 and up
Several branches with their own pages and price lists, integration with arrangement software, tribute or obituary hosting, and multiple brands.
After launch
- Hosting: managed hosting at $20 to $50 a month, or free tiers on a framework host. In your name.
- Domain: a small annual fee. Yours.
- Booking tool: Calendly or Acuity for consultations, on a modest monthly plan. Practice software is a separate cost you probably already have.
- Maintenance: a care plan monthly, or hourly when something needs changing. Price changes are the most common edit, so make sure you can do them yourself.
Where the band 3 money goes
- The price pages. Not a PDF. A structured page you can update the day a price changes, in the layout your regulator specifies, with the additional options listed separately where that applies.
- The first-days page. What to do when someone dies at home, in hospital, in a care home. Who to call. What you need to bring. This is the page that gets read at 2am.
- Contact everywhere. A tappable number in the header on every page, the out-of-hours arrangement stated plainly, and a short message form for people who cannot speak yet.
- Booking for planning ahead. Pre-need and will writing appointments are the enquiries that can wait for a calendar, so give them one.
- Calm design. Real photographs, generous type, high contrast, no sliders, nothing that moves.
- Speed and accessibility, because a large share of visitors are older and many are on a phone in a hospital corridor.
Judging a quote
Ask six questions. Who owns the domain. Is the price list a page I can edit, or a PDF someone else has to replace. Is there a page about the first steps after a death. Is the phone number on every page and does it work with one tap. Can I book a planning-ahead consultation online. What is the plan for keeping prices current when they change.
A quote that cannot answer the second and the sixth is selling a brochure.
Where this sits
Our life events sites are band 3 at a fixed price, and the scope is set out on the life events websites page, with separate pages for funeral directors, celebrants, memorial masons and will writers. The cost is not the interesting number. The interesting number is how long it takes you to correct a price on the site when it changes, and whether a family can find the answer they came for without asking anybody.