When considering creating a digital memorial altar, people often face immediate paralysis: where do we even start? The digital landscape offers dozens of platforms, hundreds of tools, and seemingly infinite configuration options. A Google search for “online memorial” returns millions of results. Some platforms promise “easy setup in five minutes.” Others offer “comprehensive digital legacy management.” Still others focus on specific traditions, communities, or technologies.
This article lists some of the most commonly used platforms and tools:
Dedicated Memorial Platforms
Purpose-built memorial websites represent the most straightforward option for many families. These platforms exist specifically to host tributes, obituaries, and digital memorials.
Ever Loved has emerged as perhaps the most popular general-purpose memorial platform in North America. It offers an intuitive interface for creating memorial websites that combine obituaries, photo galleries, guestbooks, and basic customization options. The free tier provides substantial functionality, while paid options add features like custom domains and enhanced design control. Ever Loved works well for families wanting a complete memorial solution without technical complexity—you can have a functional memorial site running within an hour.
Keeper Memorials takes a more comprehensive approach, integrating memorial websites with funeral planning tools, digital guestbooks, and archival features. Its strength lies in combining immediate funeral needs (service information, flower orders, livestreaming) with long-term memorial maintenance. This makes it particularly valuable for families in the immediate aftermath of loss who need both practical funeral tools and lasting tribute space.
WeRemember (by Ancestry) connects memorial pages directly to family trees and genealogical records. For families already using Ancestry for genealogy, this integration is seamless—memorial content becomes part of a larger narrative of family history. The platform’s simplicity makes it accessible to users who might find more feature-rich platforms overwhelming.
Legacy.com partners with funeral homes and newspapers to host obituaries and tributes. While more commercial in tone than some alternatives, it offers wide reach—many families find their way to Legacy.com through newspaper obituary links. The platform handles high traffic well and provides professional-looking memorial pages with minimal setup.
GatheringUs focuses on virtual memorial services and ceremonies rather than static tribute pages. Its strength lies in hosting online funerals, livestreaming services, and coordinating virtual gatherings—particularly valuable for geographically dispersed families or when in-person gathering is impossible. The memorial pages function as event hubs rather than pure tribute spaces.
Faith-Specific Platforms
Religious and spiritual communities have developed platforms aligned with particular traditions and practices.
HeavenAddress caters specifically to Christian families, incorporating scripture, prayers, and liturgical elements familiar to various denominations. The platform understands Christian memorial culture—offering digital candle lighting, prayer submission forms, and integration with church community networks.
Shraddhanjali.com serves Hindu families with culturally appropriate memorial and shraddha ceremony support. The platform incorporates elements meaningful in Hindu practice—virtual diya lighting, mantra recitation spaces, and connections to priests who can perform rituals. For Hindu families, especially in diaspora, this platform bridges physical distance from traditional ritual spaces.
Social Media and Existing Platforms
Many families create memorials using platforms they already know and trust rather than learning new systems.
Facebook Memorial Pages and Memorialized Profiles offer familiar interfaces where friends and family already gather. Facebook’s massive user base means most people can access memorial content without creating new accounts. The platform’s photo albums, timeline posts, and commenting features provide basic memorial functionality, though with limitations around customization and permanence. You can make a request to create such a page by providing a proof of death. For those planning ahead, you can set up your memorialization preferences by going to Settings > Account Ownership and Control > Memorialization Settings. Here you can choose to either memorialize your account or have it deleted after you pass away.
Instagram memorial accounts work particularly well for visual storytelling, such as photo collages, short videos, story highlights organized by theme. The platform’s emphasis on images over text suits certain memorial styles, especially for younger audiences comfortable with Instagram’s interface. To request that an Instagram account be memorialized, use the Instagram Memorialization Request form. Unlike Facebook, Instagram does not currently allow users to designate a Legacy Contact to manage their account after death. This means no one can make changes to a memorialized Instagram account.
YouTube channels dedicated to memorial content can host video tributes, recorded services, photo slideshows with music, and ongoing video messages. The platform’s search and recommendation algorithms help memorial content reach extended networks, though they can also feel inappropriately commercial. Family members can use Google’s Inactive Account Manager (set up before death) to determine what happens to the account after prolonged inactivity To request account closure, contact Google’s support team with documentation such as a death certificate Channels can remain online indefinitely if not deleted, serving as lasting memorials. Technoblade (Alexander, 1999-2022) was a beloved Minecraft YouTuber who passed away from sarcoma cancer in June 2022. His channel has become one of the most well-known memorial channels on YouTube.
WhatsApp and Signal groups create private, secure spaces for close family to share memories, coordinate rituals, and maintain ongoing connection. While not “memorial platforms” per se, these encrypted messaging apps often become de facto memorial spaces for families who want intimacy and control.
Pinterest boards serve as visual collection spaces: gathering images, quotes, symbols, and inspirational content related to the deceased. The platform’s organizational structure (boards, pins, sections) maps well onto memorial altar logic. For example, there used to be a 9/11 memorial board, but it appears to have been removed.
Content Management and Web Platforms
For families wanting more control and customization, traditional web platforms offer flexibility at the cost of steeper learning curves.
WordPress (both WordPress.com hosted and self-hosted WordPress.org) provides powerful memorial website capabilities. Free WordPress.com accounts offer simple drag-and-drop site building with memorial themes. Self-hosted WordPress installations give complete control but require more technical knowledge. The platform’s vast plugin ecosystem means almost any memorial feature can be added—prayer counters, candle lighting widgets, audio players, calendar systems.
Google Sites offers the simplest website builder—truly drag-and-drop with minimal learning required. While less sophisticated than WordPress, it’s free, integrates seamlessly with other Google services (Photos, Drive, Calendar), and provides “good enough” functionality for many family memorials. A tech-savvy grandchild can build a functional memorial in an afternoon.
Wix and Squarespace provide middle-ground options—more design flexibility than dedicated memorial platforms, easier than WordPress. Both offer memorial-specific templates, though they’re commercial platforms with ongoing costs for custom domains and advanced features.
Cultural and Academic Platforms
Specialized platforms serve particular communities or purposes beyond family memorials.
Omeka and Omeka.net (simplified hosted version) cater to archival and curatorial approaches—ideal for museum-style memorial exhibits, ethnographic documentation, or scholarly memorial projects. The platform emphasizes proper metadata, contextual information, and preservation standards.
Mukurtu CMS specifically serves indigenous communities, built with cultural protocols and sensitive materials in mind. It includes features for restricting access based on community membership, seasonal availability of certain content, and proper attribution of cultural knowledge.
StoryCorps focuses on oral history preservation—recording and archiving stories that can become memorial content. While not a memorial platform itself, StoryCorps provides infrastructure for the audio storytelling central to many memorial practices.
Emerging Technology Platforms
Cutting-edge memorial experiences require specialized platforms.
Mozilla Hubs and Spatial.io enable browser-based virtual reality memorial spaces without requiring VR headsets or downloads. Families can create 3D memorial environments—temples, gardens, gathering spaces—that visitors explore using mouse and keyboard or VR headsets.
Second Life and Somnium Space offer persistent virtual world parcels where families can build and maintain ongoing memorial spaces. While requiring more commitment than temporary VR experiences, these platforms create permanent digital places of remembrance.
HereAfter AI and StoryFile use artificial intelligence to create interactive memorial avatars. Family members record stories and answer questions, which AI processes to create conversational memorial experiences—visitors can “ask” the deceased questions and receive relevant recorded responses.
Día de los Muertos Virtual Memorial Altars
The rich tradition of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) has found meaningful expression in digital spaces through virtual ofrendas (altars).
MiAltar Virtual stands out as a dedicated platform specifically designed for creating digital Day of the Dead altars, offering personalized backgrounds, traditional altar styles, and the ability to invite family collaborators from around the world. The platform has proven particularly valuable for diaspora communities and college students who lack physical space for traditional altars.
Kwillt offers “Remembrance Patches” that function as collaborative virtual ofrendas where families can upload photos, voice notes, and memories throughout the year.
Community-based initiatives have also emerged, including the Día de Los Muertos Collective in Toronto, which maintains a communal “Virtual Altar” where people worldwide can share photos of their home altars and honor loved ones collectively.
Educational institutions have embraced the format as well—Arizona State University students created interactive virtual altars for deceased Chicana/o/x authors, complete with narration and graphic design, while Harvard’s Peabody Museum offers an interactive 360° altar for educational exploration.
These digital ofrendas preserve essential cultural elements—photos of the deceased, representations of traditional offerings like marigolds and favorite foods, candles, and personal mementos—while adapting the practice for modern life, geographic dispersal, and year-round remembrance beyond the traditional November 1-2 celebration dates.
Apps for Digital Memorial Altars
Beyond web platforms, dedicated mobile and desktop apps serve memorial functions.
Memorial-specific apps: MemLife (iOS | Android) provides a mobile-first experience for preserving life stories, offering hundreds of prompts to help families record meaningful memories and milestones, organize them into timelines, and export PDF “Life Books” for memorializing loved ones. LifeWeb 360 functions as a collaborative memorial scrapbook platform where friends and family share stories, photos, and videos organized by “Life Threads” (themes representing different aspects of the deceased’s life), with memories that can be transformed into physical memory books.
Grief support apps: My Grief Angels provides free peer-led virtual grief support groups organized by type of loss, a grief journal, community chat spaces, and mobile apps (Virtual Grief Support) connecting people grieving worldwide.
Meditation and mindfulness apps: Insight Timer and Calm host memorial-oriented content including guided meditations specifically for grief and loss, ambient soundscapes for remembrance, and contemplative practices designed to help people process grief and connect with memories of deceased loved ones. Insight Timer offers specific guided meditations like “Connect to Your Deceased Loved Ones,” while Calm provides series on “Caring for Your Grief” and “Grieving” from grief counselors, demonstrating how general wellness apps can serve memorial and therapeutic purposes alongside their broader mindfulness offerings.
There also appears to have been a Japanese app for remembering, but it appears to have been discontinued.
Other Platforms for Non-Technical Users
Technical complexity varies enormously across platforms. For families without web design experience or technical confidence, several options stand out for genuine ease of use.
For visual, image-focused memorials: Google Photos shared albums or Padlet. Both are extraordinarily simple. Google Photos: create an album, invite contributors, everyone uploads photos. Padlet: create a board, share the link, people drag and drop content. Neither requires web design knowledge.
For maximum simplicity with some customization: Canva websites. Canva has expanded beyond graphic design into simple website building. Using their memorial templates, you drag and drop elements, change colors, swap images—it’s more like making a poster than building a website. The result can be published as a web page with a single click.
How to choose?
The honest truth: the easiest platform is whichever one your family already knows. If grandma uses Instagram daily but has never opened Facebook, an Instagram memorial account will be easier for her than Facebook, regardless of Facebook’s objectively simpler memorial features. Start with familiar tools before learning new ones.