Online Will vs Free Will vs Solicitor Will: Which Should You Use?

The three ways to make a will in England and Wales

A will can be written for free through a charity scheme, online, or in person with a solicitor, and all three are used every day. All three are equally legal if signed and witnessed correctly.

A free will usually comes through charity campaigns that run at set times of year, or a will-writer funded by legacy donations. An online will is a guided questionnaire you complete yourself, often with a solicitor reviewing the final document. A solicitor will is drafted for you in a one-to-one appointment. The route you pick should match how complicated your estate is, not just your budget.

How the three options compare at a glance

On the five things that matter most, the free will wins on price, the solicitor will wins on tailoring, and the online will wins on value. Here is the short version before the detail.

	Free will	Online willBest value	Solicitor will
Cost	£0	£19.99 (single), £29.99 (couple)	£200 to £650
Solicitor check	Often none	Yes, every document	Yes, they draft it
Tailoring	Minimal	Covers standard estates	Fully bespoke
Speed	Days to weeks	About ten minutes to complete	One to three weeks with appointments
Best for	Very simple wishes	Straightforward estates	Complex estates

How much does each type of will cost?

A free will costs £0, an online will costs around £20 for one and £29.99 for a couple’s mirror wills, and a solicitor will costs £200 to £650. The gap is large, so it helps to know what the money buys.

• Free will: £0 for a single will. Usually tied to a charity scheme, a set time of year, or an expectation that you leave a gift to the sponsoring charity.
• Online will: £19.99 for a single will and £29.99 for a couple’s mirror wills with us, both prices including VAT, each last will and testament checked by a qualified solicitor.
• Solicitor will: £200 to £650 for a single will at most firms, more for complex estates. one leading legal services brand lists mirror wills at £249, and many firms charge £400 to £650 plus VAT.

Take a couple with a home and two children who want to leave everything to each other, then to the kids. A firm might charge them £249 to £550 for mirror wills. The same wishes online, solicitor-checked, cost £29.99. The winner on price alone is the free will. The winner on value, once you count the solicitor check, is the online will, covered next. See the full cost breakdown for more detail on what pushes the price up.

Which type of will is legally safest?

All three routes produce an equally valid will once signed and witnessed under the Wills Act 1837, regardless of price or format. The safety difference is whether anyone checks your will for errors before you sign, not the format itself.

A solicitor will has the most oversight, because a professional drafts it and spots issues like unclear gifts or witnessing mistakes. A solicitor-checked online will has that review step too, which is what separates it from a plain template you fill in alone. A free will varies: some charity schemes use qualified will-writers, others hand you a form with no review. The most common way a will fails is a witnessing error, for example a beneficiary or their spouse acting as one of the two witnesses, which cancels that person’s gift. A review step catches that before it becomes permanent.

How long does each option take?

An online will takes about ten minutes to complete, a free will takes days to weeks, and a solicitor will takes one to three weeks. Speed matters more than people expect, because the most common will is the one never finished.

With an online will you answer the questions in one sitting, then sign and witness the printed document at home. A solicitor will involves booking an appointment, the drafting time, and often a second visit to sign. Free schemes can be quick or slow depending on the charity’s process and whether they cap the offer to certain dates. If you have been putting a will off, the ten-minute route is the one most likely to get done.

Who is each option right for?

Match the route to the complexity of your estate, not just the price, since most people with a straightforward estate are well served online. Complex situations need a solicitor.

• Pick a free will if: your estate is very simple, you have no property concerns or blended-family issues, and you are comfortable with little or no checking. Read the charity or upsell conditions first.
• Pick an online will if: you want your wishes recorded properly and checked by a solicitor without paying full solicitor fees. This suits most straightforward estates, single people, and couples making mirror wills.
• Pick a full solicitor if: you have a blended family, business assets, foreign property, a taxable estate needing inheritance tax planning, or you want to protect assets in a trust. A solicitor consultation is also the right route if you and your chosen executor disagree on how the estate should be distributed.

A single person with a flat and savings who wants it split between two siblings is a clear online case. A business owner on a second marriage with children from the first is a clear solicitor case, because a standard will could accidentally leave those children with nothing.

What is the catch with a free will?

Free wills are rarely wrong, but they often come with conditions and gaps that cost you later, once the price tag hides the trade-offs.

Charity-funded schemes usually expect, and sometimes strongly encourage, a gift to the sponsoring charity, which reduces what your chosen people inherit. Many free routes are time-limited or capped to simple wills only, so anything beyond a basic will gets pushed to a paid upgrade. And where there is no solicitor review, a small drafting or witnessing error can go unnoticed until it is too late to fix. Free works for the very simplest cases. For most people, a £19.99 checked will removes the guesswork for the price of a takeaway.

Can you change your will later, and what does that cost?

Yes, you can change any will at any time, but the routes charge differently for it, so ongoing cost matters as much as the starting price.

With our online wills you get 28 days of free changes after the document is finalised, and after that you can make a small change by codicil or write a new will. Solicitors usually charge again for revisions or a new will. Free schemes rarely include updates at all. Since a will should change after a marriage, divorce, house move or new child, the cost of updating is part of the true price, not an afterthought.

Is an “online will” actually electronic?

No. An online will is drafted on a screen, but it must still be printed and signed by hand in front of two witnesses to be valid. This is one of the most common misunderstandings about online wills, and it matters.

England and Wales do not currently allow fully electronic wills, meaning a will created, signed, and stored entirely on a screen with no paper at all. Whichever route you choose, free, online, or solicitor, the finished document still has to be a physical piece of paper signed in wet ink with two witnesses present. The “online” part of an online will only describes how it is drafted, not how it is executed.

The temporary rules allowing witnesses to attend by video link during the pandemic expired in January 2024 and are no longer in force. Witnesses must be physically present when you sign.

That said, change is coming. The Law Commission published its final report on reforming this area of law in May 2025, recommending that electronic wills be allowed provided they use a verifiable, tamper-proof system. The government has acknowledged the law needs updating, but no new Act has been passed at the time of writing, so the paper-and-witnesses rule still applies to every route on this page. If you make a will today, expect to print and sign it, whichever option you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Is a free will as good as a solicitor will?

A free will can be perfectly valid, but it usually has less checking and more conditions. For a simple estate it may be enough. For anything involving property, blended families or tax, a solicitor-checked or full solicitor will gives you oversight a basic free will lacks.

Are online wills legally binding in the UK?

Yes. An online will is legally binding in England and Wales once you sign it in front of two independent witnesses who are not beneficiaries. The format does not affect validity. Correct signing and witnessing under the Wills Act 1837 is what makes any will legal.

Why use an online will instead of a free one?

An online will adds a solicitor check that most free wills skip, for around £20. You avoid the charity-gift expectations and simple-will-only caps of free schemes, and you get a document reviewed for the errors that quietly void unchecked wills.

When do I really need a solicitor for my will?

You need a solicitor when your estate is complex: a blended family, business or foreign assets, an estate large enough for inheritance tax, or a need to protect assets in a trust. For a straightforward estate, a solicitor-checked online will covers you at a fraction of the cost.

Will an online will be accepted for probate?

Yes. Probate accepts a will based on whether it is valid, not how it was made. A correctly signed and witnessed online will carries the same legal standing as one drafted by a solicitor. Keeping the signed original safe and findable matters more to probate than the format.

Can I make a fully electronic will with no paper?

No, not yet. England and Wales require a printed, wet-signed will witnessed in person by two people, whichever service you use to draft it. The Law Commission has recommended allowing electronic wills, but no new law has been passed, so this rule still applies to all three routes on this page.