Everplans alternatives in 2026: 5 options worth considering

My father-in-law had an Everplans account for three years before he died. He'd uploaded his insurance policies, his bank login credentials, a scanned copy of his will. When my wife and I finally accessed it through the deputy system, everything was there. Every document accounted for.

What wasn't there: any explanation. Why he'd chosen to leave the cabin to his brother instead of splitting it. What he wanted us to do with his woodworking tools. Whether he'd forgiven his estranged daughter. The vault was full, but it felt empty.

That experience is what pushed me into researching Everplans alternatives, and it's what I hear from a lot of people who land on this page. The platform does what it promises. It stores your stuff and shares it with the right people. But if you want more than a filing cabinet for the dead, you might need something else.

Why people look for Everplans alternatives

I've talked to dozens of users who left or are considering leaving Everplans. Their reasons cluster into a few patterns:

The annual subscription. At $99.99/year, Everplans costs real money over time. After five years, you've spent $500 on what is essentially organized file storage. If you stop paying, your family loses access. That's a strange design for a product meant to outlive you.

No personal content. You can store a PDF of your will but you can't write a letter to your daughter. There's no guided writing, no way to capture the personal side of your legacy. Everplans treats end-of-life planning as a logistics problem. For some people it is. For others, it's not enough.

The free tier doesn't help much either. Everplans lets you store 10 items for free. Ten. That's not even enough to list your bank accounts and insurance policies, let alone retirement funds and investment accounts. It's a demo, not a free plan.

And the interface feels dated. This is subjective, but it comes up often. Everplans launched in 2012 and the design reflects that era. Competitors have gotten more polished since then.

5 Everplans alternatives worth looking at

1. When I Die Files

Full disclosure: this is our product. I'm including it because it was built specifically to address the gaps I described above.

When I Die Files combines document storage with legacy letter writing. You can upload your insurance policies and write a letter to your spouse explaining what your years together meant. Both live in the same platform, both are end-to-end encrypted, and both can be shared with specific people under your control.

The pricing model is one-time, not recurring. Your family's access doesn't depend on a credit card that expires after you die. There's a free tier that lets you write and store without paying anything.

What it doesn't do: create legal documents. If you need a will drafted, you'll still need a tool like Trust & Will or a local attorney. When I Die Files stores and delivers; it doesn't do the legal drafting.

Pricing: Free to start. One-time purchase for full features. Best for: People who want document storage plus personal messages in one place.

2. Trust & Will

Trust & Will approaches the problem from the opposite direction. Where Everplans stores documents you've already created, Trust & Will creates the documents themselves. You answer questions about your assets, beneficiaries, and wishes, and it generates state-specific legal documents: wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives.

Their Will Plan costs $199 for individuals ($299 for couples) with a $19/year renewal for ongoing editing access. The Trust Plan runs $499/$599 with a $39/year renewal. You can add attorney review for $299 extra. According to the American Bar Association, every adult should have at minimum a will, healthcare directive, and durable power of attorney.

If your issue with Everplans is "I don't have a will yet and I'm just storing miscellaneous PDFs," Trust & Will solves the upstream problem. It won't replace Everplans for ongoing document storage or sharing, though. Many people use both.

Pricing: From $199 one-time plus $19/year for editing access. Best for: People who need legal documents created, not just stored.

For a deeper breakdown, read our Trust & Will alternatives comparison.

3. Cake

Cake (joincake.com) is completely free and covers more ground than you'd expect for zero dollars. You can document medical wishes, funeral preferences, financial information, and personal messages. The platform walks you through planning with guided questions and generates shareable documents. Their advance directive tool aligns with AARP's recommendation that everyone over 18 should have healthcare wishes documented.

The trade-off is depth. Cake doesn't offer encrypted file storage, has limited upload capabilities, and the customization options are basic. It also relies on advertising partnerships, which may or may not bother you. But as a free alternative to Everplans' $99.99/year, it hits a surprising number of the same checkboxes.

I recommend Cake for people who are just starting out and don't want to commit money before they know what they need.

Pricing: Free. Best for: First-time planners who want guided help without paying.

4. Lantern

Lantern positions itself as an end-of-life planning companion rather than a vault. It helps you create advance directives, plan funeral details, organize documents, and think through decisions you might not have considered. The editorial content is well-written and the tone is warm without being saccharine.

Where Lantern falls short compared to Everplans: it's lighter on secure storage. You can organize your planning, but it's not designed to be the permanent repository for every sensitive document your family needs. Think of it as a planning tool that helps you make decisions, not a vault that holds the results.

Pricing: Free basic planning; paid tiers for comprehensive features. Best for: People who want help making end-of-life decisions rather than simply storing paperwork.

5. GoodTrust

GoodTrust handles the digital afterlife specifically. It focuses on your online accounts: social media, email, subscriptions, photos stored in the cloud. You can designate a digital executor, set up instructions for each account (delete, memorialize, transfer), and store your credentials. A 2023 McAfee study found that the average person has over 100 online accounts, and most families have no idea how to access them after a death.

This makes GoodTrust more of a complement to Everplans than a direct replacement. Everplans handles your financial documents and physical-world information; GoodTrust handles your digital accounts. If you're leaving Everplans because it doesn't address your 50+ online accounts, GoodTrust fills that gap. If you're leaving because you want personal letter writing or better pricing, GoodTrust won't help.

Pricing: From $49.99 one-time for basic plans. Best for: People primarily concerned with managing online accounts and digital assets after death.

Quick comparison table

How to decide

The right Everplans alternative depends on what's actually frustrating you about it.

If it's the subscription cost, look at When I Die Files (one-time pricing) or Cake (free). Both cover core planning functionality without annual renewals.

If it's the lack of personal content, When I Die Files is the clearest choice. It was designed from the start to combine practical storage with personal writing. You can read our detailed comparison with Everplans for a head-to-head breakdown.

If it's that you don't have legal documents yet, Trust & Will solves the creation problem. Then store the results wherever you prefer.

If it's that your digital life is massive and Everplans doesn't address online accounts well, GoodTrust handles that gap. You might also want to read our guide to what happens to your online accounts when you die.

And if you're not sure what you need yet, Cake is free and gets you started. You can always migrate to a more comprehensive platform later.

A note on switching

Moving away from Everplans isn't painless. There's no automated export that dumps everything into a zip file. You'll need to re-download documents and re-upload them to your new platform. Budget an afternoon for it.

Before you switch, make a list of everything you've stored: documents, account information, contacts, instructions. Then verify the new platform supports all of it. Some tools are great for personal content but don't handle sensitive credentials. Others are great for legal documents but won't let you write a goodbye letter to your spouse.

The good news: if you're motivated enough to research alternatives, you're motivated enough to do the migration. An afternoon of re-uploading now gives you a better platform for the next several decades.

Whatever you choose, your family will thank you for having planned at all. When I Die Files gives you a place to keep both the logistics and the love letters, without a yearly fee hanging over all of it. Start for free whenever you're ready.