Are Cheap Wills Any Good?

Solicitor fees for a simple will in England and Wales often run to £150 to £400 or more, so a £69 alternative naturally invites the question of what is missing. Historically, some very cheap will kits were indeed poor: blank templates with no guidance, ambiguous wording, and little or no explanation of the signing rules that make a will legally effective.

That reputation has stuck to 'cheap wills' generally, even though the underlying technology and drafting behind modern online services has moved on considerably. The fair test is not the price, but whether the specific service you are looking at does the job properly.

The failures that matter are always the same regardless of price: vague wording that does not clearly identify a gift or beneficiary, no clear executor appointed, or, most commonly, a will that was never validly signed and witnessed because nobody explained the rules properly. Under section 9 of the Wills Act 1837, a will needs your signature made or acknowledged in front of two witnesses present together, who then also sign it themselves.

None of these problems are caused by low price directly. They are caused by a service that does not ask the right questions or explain the right steps, which can happen at any price point, including expensive ones.

Look for a service that asks specific, guided questions rather than handing you a blank editable document, produces final wording built from your actual answers, and gives clear step-by-step instructions for signing and witnessing, ideally with a checklist. These features cost the provider very little to build well, but they are what separates a good template from a bad one.

Also check the price is genuinely one-off. A £69 single will, or £89 for mirror wills, with no subscription and nothing extra to pay to receive your finished document, is a straightforward and honest structure to look for.

For a straightforward estate, a spouse or partner, children, and ordinary assets like a home, savings and personal possessions, a well-built cheap will is entirely capable of appointing executors, naming guardians, making specific gifts, and setting out the residue clearly. This covers the vast majority of people making a will for the first time.

It stops being appropriate once things get more complicated, business assets, trusts, overseas property, or a blended family needing careful balancing between a spouse and children from an earlier relationship. In those cases the issue is not price, it is that a fixed-question format cannot replace a solicitor's judgement.

Ask whether the price includes everything you need to finish, whether signing guidance is clear and written down, whether you can amend your answers for free before signing, and whether the final wording is tailored to your answers rather than generic. If a provider answers all of these well, the price being low is a benefit, not a warning sign.

If your estate has any genuine complexity, the answer changes: no cheap will, however well built, replaces advice tailored to an unusual situation. But for most people, a good cheap will is simply a good will that happens to be affordable.