The numbers are hard to argue with. Direct cremation accounted for around 3% of UK funerals in 2019. By 2024, that figure had reached 20% — one in five. The category was built largely by a single company, Pure Cremations, founded in 2015, which grew to become the UK’s largest seller of funeral plans before being acquired by private equity in 2023. Dozens of providers have since followed.
If you are an independent funeral director, you will have felt this shift. Families are more aware of direct cremation than they have ever been, and cost is increasingly part of the arrangement conversation. This piece is an honest look at what is happening, why, and — more usefully — what it actually means for your practice.
Why families are choosing it
Cost is the headline reason, and it is a real one. A direct cremation typically costs around £1,600. A simple attended funeral now averages over £4,000. In a cost-of-living environment where many families are genuinely stretched, that gap is significant.
But cost is not always the whole story. Some families choose a direct cremation because they want to do things differently — because a crematorium chapel service does not reflect the person, or because they want more time to plan a gathering that feels right. The growth in direct cremation has happened alongside a broader shift towards celebration-of-life events and away from formal, fixed-format services.
Understanding why a family is asking about direct cremation changes the conversation. Sometimes it is purely financial. Sometimes it is something else entirely.
The figure that changes how you think about this
Here is the thing that tends to surprise people: according to SunLife’s 2024 Cost of Dying Report, nearly 90% of families who chose a direct cremation still held a separate ceremony, wake, or gathering afterwards. A third held a wake, over a quarter held a memorial service, and nearly one in five held both.
The cremation and the farewell have been separated — but the farewell still happens. Which means that for independent funeral directors, the question is not simply “how do we compete with direct cremation providers on price?” The question is “what role can we play in the gathering that follows?”
That is a very different conversation, and a more interesting one.
What forward-thinking funeral directors are doing
The most straightforward response is to offer direct cremation yourselves, on your own terms, with the care and personal attention that a national provider cannot match. Many independent funeral directors already do this. The difference is not the cremation — it is the relationship before, during and after.
Beyond that, there is a genuine opportunity around the separate memorial. Families who choose direct cremation are often more engaged in planning the gathering than families who have a traditional funeral, because they have more freedom and more time. They want help. They want guidance on venues, on format, on what to print, on how to structure the time together.
Funeral directors who position themselves as the people families turn to for that guidance — not just for the cremation paperwork — tend to maintain a much stronger relationship through the whole process.
Stationery for the separate memorial
This is where we can help directly. Families planning a memorial gathering after a direct cremation often want a memorial booklet — something printed that people can hold on the day and take home afterwards. It is not a traditional order of service tied to a crematorium running order. It is something warmer: photographs, a poem, a note about the person, the music that will play.
Because there is no fixed service date to work around, families have more time to get it right — and the results are often more personal than anything produced under the pressure of a funeral-day deadline. These booklets tend to be the things families are most glad they arranged.
If you are already referring families to us for traditional funeral stationery, the same arrangement works here. You can point families our way early in the process, knowing they will be looked after and that something good will arrive on time. If you would like to discuss a trade arrangement, we are easy to talk to.
The honest summary
Direct cremation is not going away. The price gap with traditional funerals remains wide, awareness is high, and the major providers are well-funded and well-marketed. Independent funeral directors who treat this as purely a threat will find it difficult. Those who treat it as a shift in how families want to do things — and adapt accordingly — tend to find that the relationship with bereaved families remains just as strong.
Families still need to say goodbye. They always will. The form is changing. The need is not.
We work with independent funeral directors across the UK, providing a fully bespoke design, print and delivery service for the families in your care. Call us free on 0800 612 6484, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm, or find out more about working with us on a trade basis.
