Updated August 1, 2026. Quick answer: a DIY will is a genuinely good decision for a straightforward estate and a genuinely bad one for four specific situations. The price gap is real — $129–$199 from a platform against a median $625 for an attorney-drafted simple will, middle half $450–$1,000 (LegalTemplates 2026, 909 firms, verified July 23, 2026). The question is not which is cheaper. It is whether your situation is one of the ones where a form fails.
The four situations where DIY fails
- A blended family. This is the big one. Intestacy and boilerplate both handle stepchildren badly, and the default outcomes are harsh — stepchildren inherit nothing without adoption, and a spouse’s share shrinks by statute when there are children from another relationship. If you want a result other than the default, you need drafting, not a template.
- Real property in more than one state. A second property generally means a second, ancillary probate in that state, and structuring around it is exactly what a template will not do.
- A realistic prospect of a contest. An estranged child, an unequal split you expect to be challenged, or any question about capacity at signing. Contest-resistance is built at execution — witnesses, sometimes a self-proving affidavit, sometimes a video — and it is worth paying for.
- A beneficiary who cannot inherit outright. A minor, someone with a disability whose means-tested benefits an inheritance would destroy, or someone with creditor or addiction problems. These need trust provisions, and getting a special-needs trust wrong is worse than having no trust.
Two drafting choices a template will not think through for you. A no-contest clause is not the lock people assume — in most states it cannot be enforced against an heir who had a genuine reason to sue. And naming two executors imposes unanimity by default, which is a heavier rule than “I trust you both equally” usually means.
When DIY is the right answer
A first marriage or single person, children who all get equal shares, property in one state, assets that mostly pass by beneficiary designation anyway, and nobody likely to object. That describes a large share of estates, and for it a $149 platform package executed correctly does the same job as a $625 document.
The honest caveat: most of what matters is not in the will at all. Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by beneficiary designation regardless of what the will says, and how the house is titled decides the house. Getting those right is free and matters more than which route drafted the will.
Execution is where DIY actually goes wrong
Not the drafting — the signing. Wills fail on witness requirements, on witnesses who are also beneficiaries, on missing self-proving affidavits that later force witnesses to be located and testify. If you go DIY, read your state’s execution requirements and follow them literally; that step is free and it is the one that voids wills.
The middle option most people miss
Attorney review of a document you prepared. Several platforms sell an attorney-support add-on, and many firms will review and execute a will for less than drafting from scratch. It is the sensible middle when your situation is mostly simple with one wrinkle.
Prices in detail: what a will costs · the full package · power of attorney. If a trust is on the table: will versus trust.
Getting the money side right
The document is the cheap part of this decision. What the estate holds, and how it is invested and titled, is where the money actually sits.
If your situation is not one of the four
The four situations above are the ones where an attorney earns the difference. If none of them describes you, a DIY will is a reasonable route, and how it is executed matters more than where the document came from. LawDepot builds a state-specific last will and testament you complete, sign and witness yourself.
LawDepot pays us a commission if you buy through this link — it costs you nothing extra. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Affiliate Disclosure.
Before cost, validity: what your state actually requires for a will to work — witness count, whether a notary is needed at all, and whether a handwritten or electronic will counts, with the statute cited on every cell.
Comparing the products themselves? Online will makers compared quotes only the prices we read from each company’s own page, discloses our one affiliate relationship in the table rather than a footer, and leads with the thing none of them control — your state’s execution rules.
Before you pay for anything: Maine and Wisconsin print a will form in their own statute, and a handwritten or self-typed will is valid anywhere it is executed correctly. The genuinely free routes to a valid will — including the ones we earn nothing from.