What funeral homes’ own price lists really say

Key findings

• Only 873 of the 19,805 trading funeral homes we track, about 4.4%, publish a general price list online that we could find, read and check.
• In 15.7% of the price lists we checked, the direct cremation price leaves out the cremation, which is billed separately. Where the list prints that charge it runs a median $350, from $90 to $715.
• About one figure in 6 first read off these lists was wrong or unclear once it was checked against the page, for example a price that only applies with a casket bought from the home, a child’s rate, or an hourly charge standing in for the full price.
• For the same funeral homes, the direct cremation figures held by an online funeral home directory sit a median 16% below what the homes’ own lists say. Against lists dated 2025 or 2026 the gap is 23%, and against lists from 2019 or earlier the two are level with each other.
• Of the dated lists, 50% were published in 2025 or 2026 and 21% in 2019 or earlier.

Most homes publish nothing a family can check

The FTC Funeral Rule requires every funeral home to give a general price list to anyone who asks about arrangements in person, and to quote its prices over the telephone. It does not require the home to put that list online, and most do not.

We searched the websites of the funeral homes we track, followed their links, opened the pages that only load in a browser, and read every price list we found. That produced a checked price list for 873 trading homes across 40 states, from 678 distinct lists. For everyone else, the only way to learn what a funeral costs is still to ask the home directly.

The cremation that is not in the price

A direct cremation is sold as the simplest thing a funeral home offers, and families compare homes on that one number. We checked 683 lists for whether that number includes the cremation itself.

On our funeral home pages the printed fee is added into the direct cremation price for 75 homes, and 53 more are shown as a price plus crematory fee, so neither looks cheaper than it is. When you ring a funeral home, ask whether the price includes the crematory fee.

Why a price list is harder to read than it looks

A general price list is a legal document, and it reads like one. The same item often appears several times, with different containers, different vehicles or different days of the week, and the lowest number on the page is often not a price anyone can pay on its own.

Of the 10,585 figures first read off these lists, 1,351 turned out to be wrong and 441 unclear when each one was checked again against the page. The traps were the same ones a family meets.

• A lower price that applies only if you also buy a casket from the home.
• A rate for an infant or a child printed above the adult price.
• An hourly or per-mile charge read as the whole charge.
• A package total mistaken for a single service, or the reverse.
• A direct cremation or burial price that leaves out the container, the casket or the cremation.

Only confirmed figures appear on this site. When you read a list yourself, read every option line under a heading, not just the first number.

Directory prices trail the homes’ own lists

For 603 funeral homes we hold both a checked price list and a direct cremation figure from an online funeral home directory. The directory figure is a median 16% lower. Only 9% are more than a fifth higher, against 43% more than a fifth lower. Consumer group survey figures for the same homes sit 3% above the lists, across 365 homes.

The gap follows the age of the list. Against a list dated 2025 or 2026, the directory sits 23% below it. Against a list from 2019 or earlier, it sits level with it. That is what you would expect if the directory figures were collected some years ago and prices have risen since.

Between states the picture is noisier, because states also differ in which homes publish. The widest gap is in Florida, where the typical list is from 2025 and the directory sits 28% below the homes’ lists. The narrowest is in Georgia, where the typical list is from 2019 and it sits 4% below them.

Groups with at least 15 homes holding both figures. Medians throughout.

How old the lists are

Funeral homes are not required to date their online price lists, and many do not. Of the 626 distinct lists behind our prices that carry a date, 50% were published in 2025 or 2026 and 21% in 2019 or earlier. Where a home keeps several versions online, we use the newest, and a list dated before 2016 is not used at all. Our funeral home pages show the date each list carries, where it has one.

Methodology

Finding the lists. We searched each trading funeral home’s own website for its general price list, following links two pages deep, reading its site map, and opening pages in a real browser where a list only appears once the page runs. Lists published by state consumer groups for named homes were included.

Reading them. Each list was read from its text and from an image of each page. Lists that could not be read that way were read in full from the page images. Every figure that could reach the site was then checked again, independently, against the page image, and confirmed only if it was the lowest complete price for that item. 8,793 figures were confirmed.

Matching lists to homes. A list is attached to a funeral home only if it prints that home’s phone number, street address or name.

The crematory fee. Where a list mentions a separate cremation or crematory charge, every page that mentions it was read to decide whether a direct cremation family pays it on top. A reading that covered all of those pages and raised no doubt settles the list. Where it did not, further readings decided, and a list that could not be settled is left out of the fee figures.

The directory comparison. For homes holding both a checked list and a directory or survey figure, each ratio compares the direct cremation price the list prints, before any crematory fee we add, with the other figure for the same home. The reported numbers are medians.

Reproducing it. The computation is scripts/mkpricelists.py. Our funeral home listings link to the list behind each price.

What this study cannot tell you

• It describes homes that publish. A home that puts its price list online may price differently from one that does not, so none of this is a national average.
• Coverage is uneven. Some states have far more checked lists than others, because consumer groups there collect them or homes there post them.
• Printed prices change. A list shows what a home charged on the date it carries. Ring the home before relying on any figure.
• List age is not the only difference. The directory comparison shows the gap following list age, but states also differ in which homes publish, so the state table is a pattern, not a proof.

Common questions

Citing this study

Free to quote and republish with attribution and a link.

Burial Estimator, “What funeral homes’ own price lists really say”, 2026-09-14. 10,585 figures from US funeral home general price lists, each checked against the page. https://burialestimator.com/research/funeral-price-lists