Find the best way to
monitor obituaries
Compare ObituaryMonitor to manual searching and Google Alerts. See which approach fits your needs.
Manual Searching
Checking obituary websites daily yourself
Pros
- Free
- You control which sites to check
Cons
- Time-consuming (15-30 min/day)
- Easy to forget or miss days
- Can't check all 2,500+ sources
- No alerts—you have to look
- Mental burden of remembering
Google Alerts
Email alerts for web mentions
Pros
- Free
- Automated
- Easy setup
Cons
- Misses most obituary sources
- High false positive rate
- No SMS alerts
- No confidence scoring
- Common names generate spam
ObituaryMonitor
Purpose-built obituary monitoring
Pros
- 2,500+ obituary sources
- 90%+ confidence matching
- Email and SMS alerts
- Location and relative matching
- Set and forget—zero daily effort
- Private and secure
Cons
- Paid service ($14.99/mo)
Feature-by-feature comparison
See exactly what each method offers
| Feature | ObituaryMonitor | Manual Search | Google Alerts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sources monitored | 2,500+ obituary sources | 1-5 sites you remember to check | Limited web results |
| Monitoring frequency | 24/7 continuous | When you remember | Once daily at most |
| False positive rate | Very low (90%+ confidence) | You filter manually | High (many irrelevant results) |
| Time investment | 2 min setup, then zero | 15-30 min/day per person | 5 min setup + daily filtering |
| SMS text alerts | Yes, instant | No | No |
| Match confidence scoring | Yes, 90%+ threshold | Your judgment | No |
| Location filtering | State, city, county | Manual review | Limited |
| Relative matching | Yes, improves accuracy | Not available | Not available |
| Coverage completeness | Comprehensive | Incomplete | Very incomplete |
Time and cost analysis
What does manual monitoring really cost you?
Manual Searching (per person)
ObituaryMonitor
Bottom line: Even at minimum wage, manual searching costs more than ObituaryMonitor—and covers far fewer sources.
Why automated monitoring beats manual checking
You can't check every source
There are over 2,500 obituary sources across funeral homes, newspapers, and aggregators. Manual checking covers maybe 1% of them.
Life gets in the way
Vacations, sick days, busy weeks—manual checking requires daily discipline. Automation never takes a day off.
Timing matters
Obituaries can appear and disappear from websites. 24/7 monitoring catches notices that brief manual checks miss.