Pros and cons at a glance
Advantages
- Far cheaper£69 vs £150–£400 at a solicitor. Same Wills Act 1837 compliance.
- Typical 24-hour turnaroundVersus 2–4 weeks for most solicitor Wills.
- No appointment requiredComplete the questionnaire from your kitchen table.
- Structured questionnaireAsks the right questions in plain English, in a consistent order.
- Quality-checkedEvery draft passes through an automated review pipeline before release.
- Easy updatesOne free update after payment; £69 to rewrite later.
Trade-offs
- Not for very complex estatesDiscretionary trusts, business succession, foreign property — go to a solicitor.
- You still need two witnessesThat's a Wills Act 1837 requirement, not a flaw of online Wills. Solicitor Wills need this too.
- Self-service questionnaireYou complete it yourself rather than being interviewed. ClearLegacy review catches gaps.
- You print and sign at homeThe signed paper version is the legal document. ClearLegacy includes a signing pack with diagrams.
- Not regulated by the SRAWill-writing services aren't required to be SRA-regulated. Wills Act compliance is the legal bar.
The pros, expanded
1. Cost
The headline number. A reviewed cheap Will in the UK from ClearLegacy is £69 — roughly a quarter to a fifth of what a high-street solicitor charges. Mirror Wills for couples are £99. The legal product is identical: same Wills Act 1837 compliance, same probate registry processing.
2. Speed
A ClearLegacy online Will in the UK is reviewed and usually emailed back within 24 hours. Solicitor Wills typically take 2–4 weeks because of appointment scheduling, draft cycles and paper post.
3. Convenience
No appointment. No travel. No half-day off work. The questionnaire takes 15 minutes and you can pause and resume.
4. Structured drafting
A well-designed online questionnaire asks the right questions in a consistent order — guardians for children, residuary estate, specific gifts, funeral wishes. The structure means nothing gets forgotten. That's a strength the best UK online Will services share.
5. Structured review
Every draft goes through a structured review before release — beneficiary details, executor appointments and guardian clauses are validated against your answers and the document is checked against the Wills Act 1837 requirements. This is what separates a £69 quality-checked Will from a £20 DIY kit.
The trade-offs, expanded
1. Complexity limits
Online Wills are designed for straightforward estates. If you need a discretionary trust for a vulnerable beneficiary, foreign property handling or a complex business succession plan, an online Will isn't the right tool. ClearLegacy's review flags this and refers you out.
2. Witnessing still required
This is sometimes listed as a "con" of online Wills, but it's actually a Wills Act 1837 requirement that applies to every Will in England and Wales. A solicitor Will needs two witnesses too. The "online" part is just the drafting.
3. Self-service
You answer questions from a questionnaire rather than talking to someone face-to-face. Some clients prefer that — others want a conversation. The trade-off is real, but ClearLegacy's plain-English design and automated review cover most of the gap.
When an online Will is the right choice
Most homeowners
A house, named beneficiaries, executors, optional guardians — the standard estate.
Couples
Mirror Wills for couples are a fixed £99, with each partner's wishes set out in their own Will.
Parents
Naming guardians for children under 18 is one of the most important reasons to have a Will.
Cohabiting partners
Intestacy rules don't recognise unmarried partners — a Will is essential.
When a solicitor is the right choice
- Discretionary trusts for vulnerable beneficiaries
- Foreign property or non-UK domicile complications
- Business shareholdings with succession agreements
- Contested family situations or expected challenges
- Estates substantially over the £325,000 nil-rate band that need bespoke tax planning
How the pros and cons stack up vs. competing options
ClearLegacy is a fixed-fee online Will service for England & Wales. To see how that compares head-to-head with the alternatives, see the best online Will UK guide for editorial comparisons, the cheap Will UK guide for the affordability angle and the online Will UK overview for how the product actually works. For the solicitor comparison specifically, the online Will vs solicitor page lays out the differences.
Make the most of the pros — for £69
15-minute questionnaire. Checked against the Wills Act 1837 and usually delivered within 24 hours. No advisor calls, no Calendly, no subscription — all self-serve.
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