Real numbers, not estimates

How much does cremation cost?

The honest answer is that it varies more than almost anything else you will buy, and the variation is the useful part. These are direct cremation prices taken from 21 funeral homes' own published price lists, with the date each list was issued.

For either moment:Use nowUse aheadsame questions, different timing

What direct cremation actually means

Direct cremation is the cremation on its own: collecting your person, the paperwork, the cremation itself, and returning the ashes to you. No viewing, no ceremony beforehand, no casket beyond a simple container.

That matters for comparing, because it is the one line that means the same thing at every funeral home. A quote for "cremation" with a service attached is not comparable to another home's. Direct cremation is.

You can still hold any ceremony you want afterwards, at any time, anywhere. Many families do exactly that, and shape the farewell separately once the pressure of the first week has passed.

Near Nashville

Lowest is The Cremation Company at $915. Highest is Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home & Memorial Park at $4,700. That is a difference of $3,785 for the same service.

Every Nashville price, line by line

Near Charlotte

Lowest is Greene Funeral Service at $1,595. Highest is McEwen Funeral Service-Pineville Chapel at $3,090.

Every Charlotte price, line by line

Why the range is this wide

• Nothing about the more expensive one is more careful. It is the same service. The difference is what the business charges, not what happens to your person.
• The crematory fee is often separate from the funeral home's own fee, and some lists include it while others do not. Ask which.
• An urn is almost always extra, and you are allowed to buy one elsewhere, or use something of your own.
• Two homes with different names may share an owner. Of the 30 lists here, 22 belong to two national companies, so calling both is not always two opinions. Each page says who owns it.

Before you call anyone

Ask for the direct cremation price, and ask whether the crematory fee and the container are included. That one question, asked of three homes, is usually worth more than anything else you will do this week, and it takes about ten minutes.

A page you can print with the four numbers to ask for, or check a quote you have already been given.

Every figure here is taken from a funeral home's own General Price List. Prices change and these lists carry different dates, so confirm the current number with the home before deciding. Hestia is not a funeral home, nothing is marked up, and no business pays to appear.

If nobody has died, and you are working this out early

Most people who look up what a funeral costs are not arranging one today. They are trying to work out what to put aside, or what to write down so their family is not guessing.

The numbers above are the right ones for that too, with one caution: they are today's prices and they will not be today's prices in ten years. What survives is the decision, not the figure. A family that knows you wanted direct cremation and no viewing can act on that at any price.

• Write down what you would want, free, in about ten minutes. It is not a contract and it costs nothing.
• What planning ahead actually involves, and what it does not require you to buy.

Hestia does not sell prepaid funeral plans and does not take a payment toward a funeral. Writing your wishes here commits you to nothing and locks in no provider. Hestia is free for families, and we take no payment from funeral homes.