10 Best Website Accessibility Checkers & Tools (2026)

⚡ Quick Picks

Best overall: RatedWithAI — Best value for ongoing accessibility monitoring ($29/mo)
Best free extension: WAVE — Quick visual accessibility checks
Best for developers: axe DevTools — CI/CD integration and guided testing
Best for learning: Accessibility Insights — Guided WCAG assessment
Best open-source: Pa11y — Free CLI tool for CI/CD pipelines

How We Evaluated

We evaluated each tool based on five criteria:

Accuracy — How well does it identify real WCAG violations?
Usability — Can a non-developer understand the results?
Pricing — Is the value proposition reasonable?
Monitoring — Does it offer ongoing scanning, or is it one-off?
Approach — Does it help fix real issues, or mask them with overlays?

Important note: We deliberately excluded overlay-only solutions (accessiBe, UserWay widget-only plans) from this list. While they have their place, they don't "check" accessibility in the traditional sense — they attempt to modify it. For overlay comparisons, see our accessiBe alternatives guide.

RatedWithAI

axe DevTools (Deque)

Developer Testing Suite

Free extension / Pro from $400/yr

Best for: Development teams with accessibility maturity who need CI/CD integration

axe DevTools by Deque Systems is the gold standard for developer-focused accessibility testing. The free browser extension runs axe-core scans on any page, while the Pro version adds guided testing, issue tracking, and CI/CD pipeline integration.

Strengths

✓Industry-standard axe-core engine
✓Free browser extension is genuinely powerful
✓CI/CD integration catches issues in development
✓Guided testing for complex WCAG criteria
✓Trusted by Fortune 500 companies

Limitations

•Pro version is expensive for small teams
•Steep learning curve
•Developer-focused — not for non-technical users
•No ongoing monitoring in free version

Verdict: The developer's choice. If your team has accessibility expertise and needs testing integrated into the development pipeline, axe DevTools Pro is excellent. For everyone else, the free extension is still the single best accessibility browser extension available.

WAVE (WebAIM)

Visual Evaluation Tool

Free extension / API from $100/mo

Best for: Quick spot-checks and learning about accessibility issues visually

WAVE by WebAIM overlays visual indicators directly on your web page, showing errors, warnings, and features. It's one of the most popular free accessibility tools and is excellent for understanding how accessibility issues manifest on a page.

Strengths

✓Completely free browser extension
✓Visual indicators make issues easy to find
✓Contrast checker built in
✓Well-established and widely documented
✓Excellent educational tool

Limitations

•Manual — one page at a time
•No scheduled monitoring
•API can be expensive at scale
•Visual overlay can be overwhelming on complex pages

Verdict: Every developer should have WAVE installed. It's the quickest way to spot-check a page for accessibility issues. Pair it with a monitoring tool like RatedWithAI for ongoing coverage.

Google Lighthouse

Built-in Browser Audit

Free (built into Chrome)

Best for: Quick, free audits as part of overall site performance checks

Lighthouse is built into Chrome DevTools and provides accessibility scoring alongside performance, SEO, and best practices audits. It uses axe-core under the hood and gives you a 0-100 accessibility score.

Strengths

✓Completely free — built into Chrome
✓Runs alongside performance and SEO audits
✓Uses axe-core engine
✓Available in Chrome DevTools, CLI, and CI
✓Good baseline for accessibility awareness

Limitations

•Limited accessibility rules compared to full axe-core
•Score can be misleading (100 doesn't mean fully accessible)
•No monitoring or scheduling
•Tests only automated checks — misses 60%+ of WCAG criteria

Verdict: A great starting point that everyone has access to. Use it for baseline checks, but don't rely on a Lighthouse 100 score as proof of accessibility. You'll need more thorough testing.

Pa11y

Open-Source CLI Tool

Free (open-source)

Best for: Technical teams wanting free, scriptable accessibility testing in CI/CD

Pa11y is an open-source command-line accessibility testing tool. It runs automated WCAG checks and can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines, scripted for batch testing, and customized extensively.

Strengths

✓Completely free and open-source
✓CLI-based — perfect for CI/CD pipelines
✓Pa11y Dashboard for visual results
✓Highly customizable and scriptable
✓Active open-source community

Limitations

•Requires technical setup and maintenance
•No managed service — you host everything
•Documentation can be sparse for advanced use cases
•No built-in monitoring UI without Dashboard setup

Verdict: The best free option for technical teams. If you're comfortable with CLI tools and want free, scriptable accessibility testing, Pa11y is hard to beat.

Siteimprove Accessibility

Enterprise Platform

Custom ($10,000+/yr typical)

Best for: Large enterprises needing comprehensive digital governance

Siteimprove offers a full digital quality management platform that includes accessibility alongside content quality, SEO, and analytics. Their accessibility module provides detailed WCAG conformance reporting and remediation guidance.

Strengths

✓Comprehensive platform (not just accessibility)
✓Detailed conformance reporting
✓CMS integrations
✓Enterprise support and training
✓WCAG 2.2 support

Limitations

•Very expensive — enterprise pricing only
•Overkill for small-to-medium businesses
•Long sales and implementation cycles
•Complex interface with steep learning curve

Verdict: If you're a large organization needing a comprehensive digital governance platform, Siteimprove is well-established. For most teams, it's massively over-scoped and over-priced.

Tenon.io

API-First Testing

From $39/mo

Best for: Teams wanting accessibility testing as an API service for custom integrations

Tenon takes an API-first approach to accessibility testing. You send HTML or URLs to their API and get structured accessibility results back. This makes it ideal for custom integrations, internal tools, and unique workflows.

Strengths

✓API-first design for custom integrations
✓Test HTML snippets, not just live URLs
✓Good documentation
✓Flexible pricing tiers

Limitations

•API-first means no great built-in UI
•Smaller community than axe/WAVE
•Requires development effort to integrate
•Less frequently updated rules

Verdict: A solid choice if you need accessibility testing as a service within custom internal tools. Not the best fit if you want a ready-to-use scanning dashboard.

ARC Toolkit (TPGi)

Professional Testing Extension

Free extension

Best for: Accessibility professionals who need detailed, standards-referenced testing

ARC Toolkit by TPGi is a Chrome extension used by professional accessibility auditors. It provides detailed, standards-referenced results and is particularly good at testing complex interactive components.

Strengths

✓Free and professional-grade
✓Excellent ARIA and interactive component testing
✓Standards-referenced results
✓Used by professional auditors
✓Color contrast analysis

Limitations

•Steeper learning curve than WAVE
•Manual testing only — no monitoring
•Less intuitive interface for beginners
•Chrome-only

Verdict: If you're a professional auditor or want the most detailed accessibility analysis, ARC Toolkit delivers. For teams new to accessibility, start with something simpler.

Accessibility Insights (Microsoft)

Guided Testing Tool

Free

Best for: Teams new to accessibility who need guided testing workflows

Microsoft's Accessibility Insights provides both automated and guided manual testing. The FastPass feature quickly identifies common issues, while the Assessment tool walks you through all WCAG criteria with step-by-step instructions.

Strengths

✓Completely free
✓Guided Assessment feature is excellent for learning
✓FastPass for quick automated checks
✓Tab Stops visualization
✓Available for web and Windows apps

Limitations

•Manual Assessment is time-consuming
•No cloud-based monitoring
•Limited to Chrome/Edge
•Less well-known than WAVE/axe

Verdict: The best educational accessibility tool available. The guided Assessment is an incredible way to learn WCAG criteria hands-on. Every accessibility beginner should try it.

#10

SortSite

Desktop Crawler

$149 one-time / $349 team

Best for: Teams wanting a one-time purchase desktop tool for site-wide accessibility audits

SortSite is a desktop application that crawls your entire website and produces comprehensive accessibility reports. The one-time purchase model makes it unique in a market dominated by subscriptions.

Strengths

✓One-time purchase — no subscription
✓Full site crawling
✓Checks accessibility, SEO, broken links, and standards compliance
✓Offline — no data sent to external servers
✓Detailed PDF reports

Limitations

•Desktop-only (Windows/Mac)
•No continuous monitoring
•Interface feels dated
•No collaboration features

Verdict: If you want a one-time purchase tool for periodic audits without ongoing subscription costs, SortSite is worth considering. Just know you'll miss continuous monitoring.

What No Automated Tool Can Catch

Before choosing a tool, understand an important limitation: automated accessibility checkers can only detect about 30-40% of WCAG criteria. The remaining 60-70% require human judgment.

Things automated tools consistently miss:

Whether alt text accurately describes the image content
Whether the reading order makes sense logically
Whether interactive components are truly keyboard-navigable
Whether error messages are helpful and clear
Whether video captions are accurate and synchronized
Whether the site makes sense when CSS is disabled

This is why automated scanning is a starting point, not the finish line. Use tools from this list to catch the automated issues (which are often the most impactful), then supplement with manual testing for comprehensive coverage.

Start with a free accessibility scan

RatedWithAI scans your site with the axe-core engine and shows you exactly what needs fixing. No signup, no credit card — just results.

Get your free accessibility report

Related Resources

ADA Compliance Checklist 2026 — Complete guide for business owners
How to Fix Common WCAG Failures — Practical fix guide
Best accessiBe Alternatives 2026 — If you're specifically leaving an overlay
RatedWithAI vs WAVE — Detailed comparison
WCAG 2.2 Complete Guide — Understand the standard