How much does cemetery software cost?

For small-cemetery products the subscription generally falls between roughly $700 and $2,000 a year, but the subscription is only one of four charges. Setup or onboarding fees, mapping and digitisation charges, and per-user pricing can each exceed the subscription. Mapping is usually the largest: it is commonly billed per acre, at rates that reach four figures per acre.

Why is cemetery mapping so expensive?

Professionally drawn cemetery maps are usually priced per acre because they involve survey-grade work on the ground. That makes the charge scale with the size of the cemetery rather than the number of records, so a six-acre cemetery can face several thousand dollars before its first subscription payment.

What cemetery software costs — the whole bill, not the sticker

Q: How much does Sexton cost?

$750 a year includes the first cemetery, plus $50 a year for each additional cemetery owned by the same organization. Each cemetery has its own licence key; the organization shares two computers across all its cemeteries. Every feature is included, with no setup fee, no mapping bill, no per-person charge and no tiers. Five years for one cemetery is $3,750 if the annual rate stays the same.

If you are a treasurer trying to put a number in front of a board, the frustrating thing about this category is that quotes are not comparable. One product looks cheaper than another and turns out to cost four times as much in year one. It is not usually deception; it is that cemetery software is billed in four separate places and vendors lead with whichever one flatters them.

Here are the four, so you can ask about all of them.

1. The subscription

The yearly or monthly licence. For small-cemetery products this generally lands somewhere between roughly $700 and $2,000 a year, often split into tiers by number of records, number of users, or which features are included. Watch for tiers, because the tier that has the feature you actually need is rarely the one in the headline price.

Ask: what does this cost per year, and what is in the tier above it?

2. Setup or onboarding

A one-off charge to get you running: configuring the account, importing your records, training. It ranges from nothing at all to several thousand dollars depending on how much is done for you.

Ask: is there a one-time fee before the first subscription payment, and what does it include?

3. Mapping and digitisation — the one that surprises people

This is the largest and least expected line in cemetery software, and it is the reason two quotes for the same cemetery can differ by five figures.

Products that offer professionally drawn maps generally charge per acre, and per-acre mapping in this industry commonly runs into four figures for each acre. Do the arithmetic on your own cemetery before you go any further: a six-acre country cemetery can face several thousand dollars of mapping before its first subscription payment, and a twenty-acre one considerably more. Some vendors also charge separately to digitise paper records, priced per record or per page.

Ask: is mapping charged per acre, what is the rate, and how many acres do you make us? Then multiply it yourself.

4. Per-person charges

Some products charge per user or per seat. This matters more than it sounds for a volunteer association, because boards change: the treasurer who leaves takes a seat with them and the new one needs another, and a product priced per person quietly gets more expensive every time your board turns over.

Ask: is the price per cemetery or per person, and what happens when the board changes?

Work out five years, not one

A cemetery association buys this once and keeps it for a decade. A one-year figure hides setup and mapping entirely, and a monthly figure hides the annual total. The number to take to a board meeting is:

(subscription × 5) + setup + mapping + (per-person charges × the people who will actually use it)

That is the number worth comparing, and it is the number a board can approve without a second meeting when something turns up later.

Questions that are worth asking, whoever you buy from

What is the total in year one, including everything?
Is there a charge to bring in the records we already have?
Is mapping included, and if not, how is it priced?
What happens to our records if we stop paying — can we still get them out?
Does it work if the office has no internet that day?
How many people can use it, and does that change the price?

The last three matter as much as the money for a volunteer-run cemetery, and they are the ones most likely to be answered vaguely.

What Sexton costs

$750 a year includes your first cemetery, plus $50 a year for each additional cemetery your organization owns. Each cemetery has its own licence key, and your organization shares two computers across all its cemeteries. No setup fee, no mapping bill, no charge per person, no tiers. Every feature is included, billed once a year by invoice — a cheque after the board meeting is the normal way it gets paid. Five years for one cemetery is $3,750 if the annual rate stays the same.

There is no separate mapping charge: you lay the sections out yourself in an afternoon, and no one comes out to the property. The pricing page has the full pricing details, and what Sexton does lists what the price covers.