Where to Light a Candle Online for Someone Who Died
If you want to light a candle online for someone who died, there are four kinds of places to do it, and they are quite different:
- A free public candle wall, where your candle sits among thousands of others. Grateful.org is the best-known one. Free, no account.
- A candle on their obituary or memorial page, where the family and other mourners will see it. Echovita charges for this; memorial sites like Forever Missed and GetMemorial let signed-in visitors light one on the page.
- A real candle lit on your behalf at a shrine, for a donation. The Sanctuary of Lourdes is the main example.
- A yahrzeit flame for Jewish families, lit each year on the anniversary. Ritualwell offers this for a donation.
Which one is right depends on one question: who do you want to see it? Just you, the family, or nobody but God. The details below were checked on each site's own pages in November 2026. Prices change, so check before you pay.
At a Glance
| Where | What it is | Cost | Account? | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grateful.org | Free public candle wall | Free | No (name or initials and email) | Anyone browsing the wall |
| Echovita | Candle on an obituary page | $7.99 (1 month), $14.99 (1 year), $24.99 (forever) | No (name and email; can be anonymous) | Visitors to that obituary |
| Forever Missed | Candle in a memorial's tributes | Not shown before sign-in | Yes | Visitors to that memorial |
| GetMemorial | Candle on a memorial page | Free short-lived candle; year-long candle costs Memorial Coins | Yes | Visitors to that memorial |
| Sanctuary of Lourdes | A real candle lit at the Grotto's Chapels of Light | Suggested offering from €8 (minimum €2) | Not required to browse | Lit in person, not shown online |
| Ritualwell | Yahrzeit flame on a virtual wall, lit each year | $72 donation | Donation checkout | A public page you can share |
A Free Candle Wall: Grateful.org
Grateful.org (it used to be gratefulness.org) has run an online candle for years. You choose a purpose, including "Memorial", type a short dedication, and add your name or initials and an email address. The site says candles are free for everyone, paid for by donations, and that more than 23 million have been lit from 241 countries.
Your candle joins a shared wall. Anyone who clicks it can read your dedication. The site does not say how long a candle stays, so do not rely on it as a permanent record.
Good for: a private moment, at 2am, without telling anyone. Not for: letting the family know you were thinking of them. They will never see it.
A Candle on Their Obituary Page
If the death was recent, there is a good chance an obituary is online somewhere: a funeral home site, a newspaper, or an aggregator.
Echovita. Echovita obituary pages have a "light a candle" button. You choose how long it burns on that page: $7.99 for a month, $14.99 for a year, or $24.99 for an "Eternity" candle. You give a name and email, and you can tick a box to light it anonymously. Echovita's FAQ says that most of the commission on candles and flowers goes to family members who have claimed the obituary. One thing to know: Echovita often publishes obituaries the family did not write or ask for. Our page on Echovita alternatives explains how that happens and what families can do.
Funeral home pages. Many funeral home obituaries run on licensed tribute-wall software that includes virtual candles alongside flowers and condolences. Check the obituary first. If there is a candle option, that is where the family is most likely to look in the first weeks. Our guide to Tribute Archive alternatives describes how these walls work.
Find a Grave does not have candles. Signed-in members can leave a virtual flower on a memorial, at most one per memorial per day, with a short note. It is free, but you cannot leave flowers from the app.
A Candle on a Memorial Page
If the family has made an online memorial, a candle there is the one they are most likely to see, and it stays next to everyone else's messages.
Forever Missed. Under "Leave a tribute" on a Forever Missed memorial you will find Lay a Flower, Light a Candle and Leave a Note. Clicking Light a Candle asks you to sign in first. We could not see whether it costs anything before signing in.
GetMemorial (ours). This is our product, so weigh it accordingly. On a GetMemorial page, signed-in visitors can choose Pay Tribute and leave a White Candle, which is free and appears in the page's Tributes for everyone to see. There is also a year-long candle, chosen from Light a Candle: it burns beside their portrait for one year and costs Memorial Coins, which are bought in the app (698 to 798 coins depending on the candle). The candle beside the portrait is shown only to you; everyone sees in Tributes that you lit it. If the family has not made a page and you are close enough to offer, our guide on how to make a tribute page walks through it.
Whatever site the memorial is on, a candle with one line of text means more than a candle alone. "Lit this for you on your birthday, Dad. The roses are out." That is the part the family will reread.
A Real Candle, Lit for You
Some people want a flame that actually burns, not a picture of one.
The Sanctuary of Lourdes in France takes candle offerings online. For the smallest option, a candle at the Chapels of Light opposite the Grotto, the suggested offering is €8 (or €14 and €20 for larger candles), with a minimum of €2. The sanctuary says it lights it the following day at 4pm Central European Time. There is a candle on the Grotto candlestand itself (suggested €50, minimum €30) and large personalised candles that can carry text and a photo (suggested €200, minimum €100, made over four days). The sanctuary describes these as candles lit "for your intentions". All amounts are offerings, not prices.
Many parishes, cathedrals and shrines closer to home do the same thing, often by email or phone rather than a web form. If the person who died belonged to a parish, ask the parish office first. A candle lit where they actually worshipped can mean more to the family. For a Catholic family in November, our page on All Souls' Day covers the other ways this month is kept.
A Yahrzeit Flame
Jewish tradition marks the anniversary of a death, the yahrzeit, by lighting a candle at home that burns for about 24 hours. That candle is lit in person; there is no online substitute for it in the tradition.
If you also want a lasting public marker, Ritualwell offers a memorial plaque and memory page for a $72 donation. Their name stays on Ritualwell's virtual wall and is "lit" each year on the yahrzeit date (by the Gregorian calendar), with a page you can share with family.
Which One to Choose
- You want a quiet moment, just for you: Grateful.org.
- You want the family to know you were thinking of them: the candle option on the obituary or memorial page they are actually using. If you are not sure which page that is, ask one of them. A candle on a page nobody visits does not reach anyone.
- Their faith mattered: a real candle at their parish, or at a shrine like Lourdes.
- It is an anniversary or a holiday: add a line about the day. On the first holiday without them, a candle with a sentence is often the easiest thing a far-away relative can do. If you are lighting one for an anniversary, our list of anniversary of death messages has words if you need them.
A candle online is a small thing. It does not have to be more than that. What matters is that someone, somewhere, will know you remembered.
GetMemorial helps families build lasting online memorials in minutes, a place where candles, messages and photos from everyone who loved them stay together. Start one at GetMemorial.com.
