How much does Silktide cost?

Silktide does not publish transparent pricing publicly — it uses a sales-led pricing model with custom quotes based on the number of websites, pages, and users. Based on publicly available information and user reports, Silktide pricing typically starts in the range of $500–$2,000+ per month for mid-sized organizations. Silktide is positioned primarily at public sector, education, and large enterprise customers with significant website management needs. Annual contracts are standard.

Silktide vs AudioEye 2026: WCAG Scanner vs Hybrid Accessibility Platform

What Is Silktide?

Silktide is a UK-based web accessibility and digital governance platform designed primarily for public sector organizations, universities, and large enterprises that need to manage accessibility across many web properties. Founded in 2003 and rebranded around accessibility-focused governance, Silktide has become particularly prominent in the UK public sector market — used by local councils, NHS trusts, and government agencies required to comply with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR).

WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Scanning

Silktide crawls websites and runs automated accessibility checks against WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 success criteria. It identifies specific failing elements with page-level and element-level attribution, telling you exactly which HTML element violates which success criterion.

Team Workflow Tools

Silktide provides built-in workflow features for assigning accessibility issues to team members, tracking remediation progress, setting due dates, and monitoring improvement over time. This makes it practical for organizations with multiple content editors and developers.

Prioritization Engine

Issues are scored by severity and impact, allowing teams to address the most critical violations first. Silktide's scoring helps organizations build a prioritized remediation roadmap rather than drowning in an unmanageable issue list.

Content Quality and SEO

Beyond accessibility, Silktide also checks for content quality issues, broken links, readability scores, and basic SEO factors — making it a broader digital governance tool for organizations that manage large content libraries.

Reporting and Compliance Documentation

Silktide generates detailed reports suitable for internal stakeholders, board reporting, and regulatory audits. For UK public sector organizations, these reports support PSBAR compliance documentation requirements.

Silktide's Core Philosophy

Silktide is built on the premise that accessibility compliance requires fixing your website's actual code — not adding client-side workarounds. Every Silktide report points to specific HTML violations that your team needs to remediate. There is no overlay component; Silktide is purely a scanning, monitoring, and workflow management platform.

What Is AudioEye?

AudioEye is a US-based web accessibility platform founded in 2005 and publicly traded (AEYE) since 2019. AudioEye takes a hybrid approach to accessibility: it combines automated WCAG monitoring, a human expert accessibility audit program (called its "Trusted Tester" program), and an assistive technology overlay — a JavaScript widget deployed to your website that attempts to modify certain accessibility behaviors client-side.

AudioEye's monitoring component crawls your website and identifies WCAG violations with remediation recommendations. Its human audit program provides periodic manual reviews by certified accessibility specialists. The overlay component adds features like a toolbar that users can activate to adjust contrast, font sizes, and other visual preferences — and makes automated fixes to certain detectable WCAG violations (like adding missing alt attributes) client-side without modifying your source code.

AudioEye prices its platform with different tiers — starting with a self-serve automated monitoring plan and scaling to enterprise plans that include human expert audits. The overlay is included across tiers as part of AudioEye's approach to "immediate" compliance improvements while teams work on underlying code remediation.

AudioEye's Hybrid Distinction

AudioEye positions itself as differentiated from "pure overlay" products by combining scanning, human audits, and overlay technology. Its Trusted Tester program and certified accessibility specialists add credibility beyond purely automated tools. However, the overlay component remains controversial — and websites using AudioEye have still faced ADA lawsuits from disability rights organizations, arguing the overlay does not make sites genuinely accessible to users of standard assistive technologies like JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver.

Scanner vs Hybrid: Two Different Philosophies

The most important philosophical difference between Silktide and AudioEye is how each platform believes accessibility compliance should be achieved.

Silktide: Fix the Source

Silktide operates on the principle that accessibility requires remediating violations in your actual HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Every report identifies specific code violations, and the workflow tools help your team track remediation to completion.

Violations identified in source code
Remediation tracked through workflow
No client-side overlay
Aligns with WCAG conformance model
Defensible in court and regulatory audits

AudioEye: Monitor + Patch + Overlay

AudioEye combines monitoring that identifies violations, human audits that guide remediation, and an overlay that applies certain fixes client-side without changing source code — attempting to bridge the gap during remediation.

Automated monitoring + human audits
Overlay applies some client-side fixes
Human Trusted Tester program for manual review
Hybrid approach: some code remediation, some overlay
Overlay has faced legal challenges as compliance strategy

For organizations whose primary concern is ADA lawsuit protection, the distinction matters significantly. Courts evaluating web accessibility cases assess whether websites are actually accessible to users of standard assistive technologies — JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and similar screen readers. Client-side overlays have consistently failed to make websites accessible to these users in tested scenarios, and plaintiffs' attorneys have become adept at demonstrating overlay failures in litigation.

The AudioEye Overlay Controversy

AudioEye's overlay component has been the subject of significant criticism from the accessibility community and has not prevented ADA lawsuits for websites using it. Several key issues have been documented:

Overlay Failures in Screen Reader Testing

User testing with real assistive technology users has shown that AudioEye's overlay (like most overlays) does not reliably fix WCAG violations that affect screen reader users. Client-side JavaScript that modifies the DOM after page load creates inconsistent experiences that screen readers — which interpret the page structure at load time — may not correctly process.

ADA Lawsuits Filed Despite AudioEye Deployment

Multiple websites using AudioEye have been named in ADA web accessibility lawsuits. Disability rights organizations have documented cases where AudioEye-enabled websites remained inaccessible to blind users using JAWS or NVDA. The presence of an overlay has not been accepted as a compliance defense in these cases.

WCAG Conformance Requires Fixing Source Code

WCAG conformance — the legal standard in most ADA accessibility cases — requires that the website itself meets accessibility criteria, not that a client-side script makes runtime modifications. Overlay-applied fixes generally do not satisfy WCAG conformance requirements because they are not part of the website's native accessible implementation.

AudioEye's Human Audit Program Is More Defensible

AudioEye's Trusted Tester program and human accessibility audits are more defensible than the overlay alone. Manual audits identify violations that automated tools miss, and audit documentation demonstrates good-faith compliance efforts. Organizations using AudioEye primarily for human-guided code remediation — rather than relying on the overlay as a compliance shortcut — get more genuine compliance value.

Pricing Comparison

Silktide Pricing

Entry level: ~$500–$2,000+/month (custom)
Enterprise: Custom pricing, multi-site
Target market: UK public sector, education, large enterprise
Procurement: Sales-led, annual contracts
Modules: Accessibility + content quality + SEO governance

AudioEye Pricing

Starter: ~$49–$199/month (automated monitoring only)
Growth: ~$299–$1,000+/month (includes human audits)
Enterprise: Custom pricing, white-glove service
Overlay: Included across all tiers
Procurement: Self-serve to sales-led depending on tier

AudioEye's lower starting price points make it more accessible than Silktide for smaller organizations, but the value of lower-tier plans that rely heavily on the overlay is questionable for genuine ADA compliance purposes. Silktide's pricing positions it firmly as an enterprise and public sector tool.

Who Should Use Silktide vs AudioEye?

Choose Silktide if:

You're a UK public sector organization required to comply with PSBAR (Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations)
You have a large website with many pages and multiple content contributors who need workflow-guided remediation
You want a scanning-first approach with no overlay component — focusing entirely on code-level WCAG fixes
You need digital governance beyond accessibility — including content quality, readability, and SEO oversight
You have dedicated developer and content resources to execute on remediation recommendations

Choose AudioEye if:

You want periodic human expert accessibility audits from certified specialists alongside automated monitoring
You're a US-based organization seeking a publicly traded accessibility vendor with enterprise support
You need a solution that includes manual WCAG testing beyond what automated tools can detect
You understand the overlay limitations and intend to use AudioEye primarily as a monitoring and human-audit tool — not as an overlay-first compliance strategy
Your budget allows for AudioEye's growth or enterprise tiers that include meaningful human review

Affordable WCAG Monitoring for Small Businesses

Both Silktide and AudioEye are enterprise-priced products designed for large organizations. Small businesses that need protection against ADA web accessibility lawsuits through genuine WCAG compliance monitoring need a different solution.

RatedWithAI provides continuous WCAG scanning powered by axe-core — the same testing engine used across enterprise accessibility tools — with compliance history documentation that demonstrates good-faith compliance efforts to courts and regulators. At $29/month, it's purpose-built for small business ADA protection without requiring enterprise procurement or six-figure annual contracts.

Silktide

$500–$2,000+/month

WCAG scanning + team workflow tools for public sector and large enterprise

Enterprise pricing — UK-focused public sector market

AudioEye

$49–$1,000+/month

Automated monitoring + human audits + overlay hybrid approach

Overlay component has not reliably prevented ADA lawsuits

RatedWithAI

$29/month

Continuous axe-core scanning + compliance history for ADA protection

Purpose-built for SMB ADA lawsuit protection

WCAG Scanning for Small Businesses — $29/month

Continuous axe-core powered monitoring that identifies real WCAG violations and builds the compliance history that protects against ADA lawsuits. Run a free scan now.

Run Free Scan View Pricing ($29/mo)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Silktide and AudioEye?

Silktide and AudioEye take meaningfully different approaches to web accessibility. Silktide is a pure WCAG auditing and team workflow platform — it scans your website for accessibility violations, prioritizes issues, and provides workflow tools to help your developers and content editors fix them. AudioEye is a hybrid platform that combines automated WCAG monitoring with human expert accessibility audits and an assistive technology overlay. Silktide focuses entirely on helping organizations build more accessible websites through code remediation. AudioEye adds a client-side overlay on top of monitoring, which has attracted legal scrutiny — several class-action lawsuits have been filed against websites using overlay technology.

Is Silktide better than AudioEye for WCAG compliance?

For organizations seeking genuine WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 compliance through code remediation, Silktide's approach is more aligned with how WCAG compliance is achieved — by fixing violations in the underlying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Silktide's scanning engine checks against WCAG success criteria and provides specific remediation guidance. AudioEye's automated monitoring component can identify violations, but its reliance on an assistive overlay as part of its compliance story has faced legal challenges. Courts and accessibility advocates have consistently found that overlays cannot substitute for fixing underlying code violations.

Does AudioEye prevent ADA lawsuits?

AudioEye markets its platform as providing ADA compliance protection, but the overlay component has not reliably prevented ADA lawsuits. Multiple class-action lawsuits have named websites using AudioEye as defendants, arguing that the overlay did not make their websites genuinely accessible to screen reader users. AudioEye's human expert audit component provides more defensible compliance work, but the overlay itself does not fix underlying WCAG violations. Genuine ADA compliance requires identifying and remediating actual code violations.

What is Silktide used for?

Silktide is used primarily by public sector organizations, universities, NHS trusts, local councils, and large enterprises — particularly in the UK — to manage web accessibility compliance across their website portfolios. Silktide helps these organizations identify WCAG violations, assign remediation work to developers and content editors, track compliance progress over time, and generate reports for regulatory and audit purposes. It also includes content quality, readability, broken link checking, and basic SEO governance features, making it a broader digital governance platform for organizations managing large websites with many contributors.

What is the best alternative to AudioEye for small businesses?

For small businesses that need genuine WCAG compliance monitoring without enterprise pricing, RatedWithAI provides continuous axe-core powered scanning at $29/month. Unlike AudioEye's overlay approach, RatedWithAI identifies real WCAG violations in your website code and builds a compliance history that documents your good-faith remediation efforts — the strongest defense against ADA web accessibility lawsuits. Silktide is also a strong option for organizations with developer resources, but its enterprise pricing puts it out of reach for most small businesses.