Tenon Review 2026: API-First Accessibility Testing Honest Assessment

Q: How much does Tenon cost?

Tenon has historically offered tiered pricing starting with a free tier (limited to a certain number of API calls per month) and paid plans that increase API call limits and add features. Tenon does not prominently publish current pricing — the most accurate pricing is obtained by contacting them directly or checking their current plan page. Competitor tools like Deque Axe offer more transparent pricing with a fully-functional free browser extension, and RatedWithAI offers site-wide scanning at $29/month.

Q: Is Tenon better than Deque Axe?

For most teams, Deque Axe is a stronger choice. Deque's axe-core is the industry-standard WCAG rule engine with the best-documented accuracy, and it offers more comprehensive tooling (browser extension, Jest/Cypress/Playwright integrations, GitHub Actions, CLI). Tenon's API-first approach is useful for custom integrations, but Deque's axe-core npm package achieves the same developer-integration goal with a more mature rule set. Tenon's main advantage is its simple REST API for teams who want to avoid npm dependencies.

Q: Is Tenon still maintained in 2026?

Tenon has been a smaller player in the accessibility tool market, and the competitive landscape has intensified significantly with Deque Axe, WAVE, and enterprise platforms expanding. As of 2026, Tenon's product is operational but has seen less innovation than competitors. Teams evaluating Tenon should verify current feature development status and support before committing — the alternative tool landscape (Deque, WAVE, RatedWithAI) is better-resourced.

Tenon (tenon.io) is an API-first web accessibility testing platform built for developers who want to integrate WCAG checks into automated pipelines. This review covers what Tenon does well, where it falls short, and how it compares to Deque Axe and other alternatives in 2026.

Updated June 2026 · By RatedWithAI Team

Quick Verdict: Tenon 2026

What Tenon does well

✓ Simple REST API for custom integrations
✓ Returns detailed WCAG issue data per check
✓ No browser dependency — pure API calls
✓ Webhook support for pipeline integration
✓ Reasonable for teams avoiding npm tooling

Where Tenon falls short

✗ Less comprehensive WCAG rules than Deque axe-core
✗ No browser extension for in-browser testing
✗ Less active development vs. Deque, WAVE
✗ Opaque pricing — hard to evaluate without contacting sales
✗ No enterprise governance dashboards

Bottom line: Tenon's API-first approach solves a real developer need, but Deque's axe-core npm package achieves the same thing with better WCAG coverage. For most teams, Deque or WAVE is the better choice in 2026.

What Is Tenon?

Tenon (tenon.io) is a web accessibility testing tool founded by Karl Groves, a well-known accessibility consultant. Unlike browser extensions (WAVE) or npm packages (Deque axe-core), Tenon was built from the start as a REST API — you send a URL or raw HTML to Tenon's API endpoint, and it returns a detailed JSON report of WCAG violations.

The API-first architecture was genuinely innovative when Tenon launched. It made accessibility checking language-agnostic — any team that could make an HTTP request could integrate accessibility testing into their pipeline, without needing a browser environment or Node.js runtime.

Tenon's primary audience is development teams looking to:

Integrate automated WCAG checks into CI/CD pipelines
Build accessibility testing into custom internal tools
Automate QA workflows without browser automation overhead
Generate accessibility reports as part of content publishing workflows

Tenon Features: What You Actually Get

1. REST API for WCAG Testing

The core product is a REST API endpoint. You POST a URL (or raw HTML fragment) with your API key, and Tenon returns a JSON response containing:

A list of accessibility issues found, with WCAG success criterion references
Severity levels for each issue
Code snippets of the offending HTML elements
XPath selectors to locate issues in the DOM
Remediation guidance per issue
A summary score / certainty rating for each finding

This response format is well-structured and genuinely useful for developers building automated testing workflows. The JSON output can be parsed and used to fail CI builds, generate reports, or feed dashboards — without any browser automation or Selenium dependency.

2. WCAG Rule Coverage

Tenon checks against WCAG 2.1 success criteria. The tool was built with its own rule engine rather than using Deque's open-source axe-core library. This is a meaningful distinction: axe-core is now the industry standard for automated WCAG testing accuracy, with the best-documented false-positive rate and broadest community validation. Tenon's rules are functional but less comprehensive and less actively maintained than axe-core.

In practice, Tenon will find most high-confidence automated WCAG failures — missing alt text, insufficient color contrast, missing form labels. For edge cases or newer WCAG 2.2 criteria, Deque's coverage is more complete.

WCAG 2.2 coverage: Verify directly with Tenon whether WCAG 2.2 success criteria (released October 2023) are covered in their current rule set. As of 2026, Deque Axe has more comprehensive WCAG 2.2 coverage.

3. CI/CD and Automation Support

Tenon's API can be called from any CI/CD environment that supports HTTP requests — GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI, GitLab CI, and others. The pure API approach means no browser or Node.js dependency, which can simplify some pipeline configurations.

Tenon also offers webhook support, allowing you to configure Tenon to post results to a URL when a scan completes — useful for integrating into monitoring workflows or notification systems.

That said, Deque's axe-core npm package, Jest/Cypress/Playwright integrations, and GitHub Actions support provide comparable pipeline integration with a more comprehensive rule set. The "no npm dependency" advantage of Tenon's API is real but narrow.

4. Dashboard and Reporting

Tenon provides a web dashboard for viewing scan results, tracking issues over time, and managing projects. The dashboard is functional but basic compared to enterprise platforms like Monsido, Siteimprove, or Silktide. It's designed for development teams, not compliance officers or executive stakeholders.

If you need enterprise governance dashboards, compliance officer reporting, or multi-site monitoring for non-technical stakeholders, Tenon is not the right tool. Enterprise platforms like Monsido or Siteimprove serve that audience.

Tenon Pricing 2026

Tenon's pricing is structured around API call volume — you pay for the number of checks you run per month. Tenon has offered:

Free tier: Limited API calls per month (historically around 250 checks/month), suitable for evaluation or very small-scale use
Paid tiers: Higher API call limits, typically tiered by volume — contact Tenon for current pricing
Enterprise: Custom pricing for high-volume API usage

Pricing caveat: Tenon's published pricing has changed over the years and is not prominently displayed on their site. Get current pricing directly from Tenon before making a purchasing decision. The competitive landscape has also shifted — Deque's axe DevTools is free for the browser extension, and the npm package (axe-core) is open-source and free.

For most teams, the economics favor Deque Axe (free to open-source npm package) over Tenon's API pricing for equivalent developer-focused accessibility testing.

Tenon vs Deque Axe: Key Differences

Category	Tenon	Deque Axe
WCAG Rule Engine	Proprietary	axe-core (open-source standard)
WCAG 2.2 Coverage	Partial (verify)	Comprehensive
Primary Interface	REST API	Browser ext + npm + API
Browser Extension	No	Yes (free)
CI/CD Integration	Via REST API	Native (Jest, Cypress, GH Actions)
npm Package	No	Yes (axe-core, free)
Free Tier	Limited API calls	Full browser extension + open-source npm
Active Development	Slower pace	Very active
Community / Ecosystem	Small	Very large (powers Chrome DevTools)

Who Should Use Tenon?

Tenon may be a fit if:

• Your team works in a language/stack without a Node.js environment
• You specifically want a REST API without npm dependencies
• You're building a custom accessibility testing integration via HTTP
• You're evaluating tools and want to test Tenon's API response format

Consider alternatives if:

• You need the most comprehensive WCAG 2.2 rule coverage (use Deque Axe)
• You want a free browser extension for manual testing (use Deque or WAVE)
• You need native Jest/Cypress/Playwright integration (use Deque axe-core)
• You need enterprise governance dashboards (use Monsido or Siteimprove)
• You want affordable site-wide scanning without CI/CD complexity (use RatedWithAI)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tenon used for?

Tenon is an API-first web accessibility testing platform. Developers submit URLs or HTML to Tenon's REST API and receive back JSON reports of WCAG violations — useful for integrating accessibility checks into CI/CD pipelines and automated testing workflows without browser dependencies.

How much does Tenon cost?

Tenon offers API call-based pricing with a limited free tier. Paid plans scale by API call volume. Current pricing is best obtained directly from Tenon, as it has changed over the years and isn't prominently published. The free tier from Deque Axe (browser extension) and open-source axe-core npm package are competitive alternatives at zero cost.

Is Tenon better than Deque Axe?

For most teams, Deque Axe is the stronger choice. Deque's axe-core is the industry-standard WCAG rule engine with better accuracy, broader WCAG 2.2 coverage, native browser extensions, npm packages, and test framework integrations — much of it free. Tenon's pure REST API has a niche advantage for non-Node.js stacks.

Is Tenon still maintained in 2026?

Tenon remains operational, but development velocity has been slower than competitors. Teams considering Tenon should evaluate the current state of WCAG 2.2 rule coverage and recent changelog activity before committing. The competitive landscape has evolved significantly since Tenon launched.

Want Site-Wide WCAG Scanning Without the API Complexity?

RatedWithAI provides site-wide WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 scanning with a shareable compliance report at $29/month — no API integration, no enterprise contract, no npm packages required.

Run Free Accessibility Scan →

Free scan for any public URL. No setup required.