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Two Together: Save £100!
Save £100 when you purchase two funeral plans together. Call us for more details.
Direct cremation is increasingly becoming the done thing for British people looking to address their funeral needs. More and more people are becoming aware of the concept, but may still not know the answer to the question, “Is direct cremation a good idea?”. They may also understand the benefits, but still not be sure whether it is right for them. In this article, we want to answer some of these questions, helping you to understand whether direct cremation is a good idea for you, and if it could work for your funeral needs.
Key takeaways:
For those who don’t yet know what a direct cremation is, the simplest way to put it is that it’s a no-fuss cremation funeral focusing on the cremation process. Normally, there are no mourners in attendance, but, contrary to the widespread belief, you can attend a direct cremation. Typically, there are none of the formal elements of a traditional funeral like pallbearers, hearses, funeral processions, or costly floral tributes.
Instead, with Aura, the person who has died is brought to the crematorium from one of our local care centres inside a private ambulance. They are brought into the crematorium chapel, an attendant speaks a few words out of respect, and then, as soon as possible after that, the cremation occurs. The process is designed to be dignified, simple, and cost effective: something more and more British people are coming to value.
From cost to personalisation and flexibility, direct cremation offers many benefits.
A direct cremation is significantly cheaper than a traditional funeral. According to SunLife, the average cost of a traditional funeral in the UK last year was £4,285. Many people can’t comfortably afford this fee, and more and more often, unfortunately, some British people find themselves relying on their local government to provide their loved ones with a so-called ‘pauper’s funeral’ (better known as a ‘public health funeral’).
By comparison, Aura’s cremation services are available from as little as half of that national average price: our funeral plans start at £1,695, and our short-notice direct cremation services start at £1,195.
With the decline of religion in the UK, the prevalence of the traditional funeral has long been on the wane. People are now realising that, in accordance with their own beliefs on death and funerals, they don’t need to have a religious, formal and solemn funeral if they don’t want to. Instead, a direct cremation offers them the freedom to take care of the practical matters at a reasonable price, and then to have an end-of-life celebration at a later date, whenever their family feels ready and able. Such celebrations can be far more effective ways of remembering a loved one, than the traditional norm, especially if having a traditional funeral is not in line with their character or personality. By selecting a direct cremation instead of a more costly traditional funeral, the money saved can be used for the celebration of life, or any other matter as the family sees fit.
Another big thing about direct cremation that appeals to people is its simplicity. Direct cremation offers the possibility of a no-fuss funeral. We often don’t want to put other people to any trouble on our account, or to put them in a position where they will experience negative emotions. Many people associate traditional funerals – and the places in which they occur, like funeral parlours, churches, crematoria and cemeteries – with an emotional heaviness that is not relevant to who they were or how they lived their lives.
A direct cremation allows us to cut all of that out of the picture, taking care of the practical details and offering us the flexibility to be remembered (or not) by our families at a later ceremony of their own organising.
Whether or not direct cremation is the right choice for you will depend on who you are. It offers some big advantages on price, and there are some emotional and practical matters to consider, too.
A direct cremation is a great way to keep funeral costs down, as it forgoes a lot of costly elements typically associated with traditional funerals. As can be seen from the below table, funeral expenses are typically divided into ‘necessary’ and ‘avoidable’ costs. Direct cremation allows you to avoid most of the extras. If you are in a position where you need to claim funeral costs back from the government, then having a direct cremation could be a way of seriously minimising what you need to pay.
Otherwise, it’s a good way of making sure that you can prioritise your spending on what really matters. Instead of forking out for things you don’t care about, like flowers or hearses, your family can instead use the money to honour your memory on your terms at a memorial service later.
| Additional expenses | Average price* |
|---|---|
| Catering (e.g., for a wake) | £527 |
| Limo hire (e.g., for a procession) | £431 |
| Venue hire | £351 |
| Flowers | £222 |
| Order sheets | £123 |
| Funeral notice | £87 |
*Figures for ‘Avoidable Costs’ taken from the SunLife Cost of Dying Report 2025. (The funeral director used in each funeral may cause these prices to vary).
Many people find that a simple direct cremation service, whether fully unattended, or only attended by a small, intimate circle of loved ones, helps them to deal with grief more effectively than a traditional funeral. Often, we can’t face the public aspect of a funeral so soon after the death of the one we’ve lost; many of us feel pressured to act and behave in a certain way for the sake of public appearances when we’d rather just be alone, or with our nearest and dearest.
A direct cremation allows the practical matters of the funeral to be seen to without delay, whilst affording the family all the time they need to process the most immediate and rawest feelings of grief before feeling ready to organise or attend a more uplifting and personal celebration of their loved one’s life.
Despite the rising popularity of direct cremation in the UK, there are some fairly common concerns about it which people sometimes have. Sometimes funeral myths or cremation myths play their part in these concerns. Nevertheless, if you hold any of these concerns, we want to assure you that we take them seriously, and to offer you some reassurance.
It’s not hard to understand why people feel that direct cremation is a less dignified option, if we perceive the elements of a traditional funeral as evidence that we care more about the person who has died. Without these extra elements, people often worry that a funeral seems barer, more clinical, and less respectful. However, this is something of a stereotype about direct cremation that doesn’t reflect the shift in British cultural attitude towards less formal and elaborate funerals.
Whilst the funeral process of a direct cremation is more efficient, and over more quickly, it isn’t any less dignified or handled with any less respect than a traditional funeral. The only thing that is not normally included is the content of a ceremony as led by a funeral celebrant. People now recognise that, through direct cremation, they have the flexibility they need to put all of those things into an end-of-life celebration at a later date. In any case, with Aura, there are attended options that allow you to have a small ceremony at the cremation, if you wish.
The ashes of the person who has died are also handled with care and dignity. We can either hand-deliver them to your family at home in one of our scatter tubes, or we can scatter them on the family’s behalf at the crematorium’s own Garden of Remembrance.
The problem with a traditional funeral is that it tends to serve jointly as the funeral of the person who has died and their memorial, with a small gathering or ‘wake’ often happening on the same day in a nearby location. Now, people are recognising the opportunity that a direct cremation provides to have a much more personal send-off in line with their lives, personalities, achievements, and tastes.
Rather than pigeonholing our loved ones into a narrow range of possible responses to our passing, with a later memorial or celebration of life, there is the potential to strengthen the bonds between our friends and our family through our very loss. That is one of the things that is beautiful about death. Let’s say for example’s sake that we were a big football fan in life. Our family could attempt to use this to commemorate us meaningfully going forward. On the anniversary of our death, each year they could attend a match at the stadium of our favourite team, and our memorial could be football-themed. With greater time and distance between the memorial and our funeral / death, these occasions have much more scope to be uplifting, happy and celebratory than a formal, traditional funeral.
The beauty of this is that literally any interest or theme will work. Whatever it was that made you who you were can be adapted for use as a theme, helping to fuse the act of grieving your loss with the creation of new memories. These ideas can even be incorporated into the return and distribution or scattering of your ashes, with creative cremation ashes ideas a more and more important part of how we honour our loved ones.
A direct cremation offers a whole range of possibilities and advantages to those considering their funeral options. It’s one of the most cost effective funeral options and alternatives in the UK to the traditional funeral. Not only does this reduce the financial strain on families when they are trying to deal with their grief, it allows them, if they so choose, to prioritise their spending on an end-of-life celebration that truly reflects who they were.
As a result, people feel that direct cremation also allows them to have the final say. Rather than settling for a traditional format, people can take care of the necessities and then fully tailor a remembrance event around themselves at a later date. Conversely, it also works for those who’d prefer to quietly slip away without making any fuss, and without having any kind of event at all.
With Aura, you can have the benefit of full flexibility with one of our direct cremation funeral plans. We want you to feel fully comfortable with your decision, which is why we allow you to cancel or amend it at any time without incurring any charges or admin fees. You will only pay extra if you want to expand or upgrade your plan to a bigger one. Before making any decisions, we would always encourage you to weigh up your options and to compare funeral plans, or by comparing direct cremation providers and costs if your needs are more immediate.
We hope that this article has helped to answer the question “is direct cremation good?” for you. It’s a very personal decision and one that should be weighed up carefully, so if there is anything we can do to help you understand things better or feel more reassured, we’d be pleased.
Aura is the UK’s top-rated national provider of ‘Cremation Services’ on the consumer site, Trustpilot, with a score of 4.9/5 stars. We’ve earned that recognition from the families who’ve placed themselves in our care by offering a uniquely compassionate and people-centred service. Our Aura Angels are the industry-leading funeral arranging team whom you will have access to through our funeral services. They are experts on funeral admin and logistics, and they will be there to lend an ear and guide you through the process. If you have any further questions about direct cremation, why not download our funeral plan brochure today?
Our brochure includes all the details you need surrounding our prepaid direct cremation funeral plans.
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