Does Tenon have a browser extension?

Tenon is primarily known for its API, but has offered browser-based testing interfaces alongside the API. The API is Tenon's core product — it accepts a URL or HTML string and returns structured accessibility issue data with WCAG criterion references, severity ratings, and element selectors. This makes it highly flexible for integration into virtually any development tool, testing framework, or reporting system. Silktide, by contrast, is a SaaS dashboard platform with scheduled crawling rather than an API-first approach.

Is Silktide good for accessibility testing?

Silktide provides solid automated WCAG accessibility scanning as part of its web quality platform. Its accessibility module detects common WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 violations, provides prioritized issue lists with remediation guidance, and tracks improvement over time. Silktide's strength is that accessibility data lives alongside SEO, content quality, and usability scores in a single platform — making it easy to see the full health of a website from one dashboard. Its weakness for pure accessibility use cases is that dedicated tools like axe DevTools, Tenon, or Deque's platform offer deeper WCAG coverage and more nuanced remediation guidance.

How much does Tenon cost compared to Silktide?

Tenon has historically offered API-based pricing based on the number of API calls or pages tested, with plans for individuals, teams, and enterprise. Silktide pricing is subscription-based and tiered by number of pages crawled and features enabled. Both platforms target mid-market to enterprise customers and have custom pricing for larger organizations. For accurate current pricing, request demos from both vendors — pricing structures in this space change frequently and depend heavily on your site's scope.

Which is better for CI/CD — Tenon or Silktide?

Tenon is significantly better suited for CI/CD integration. Its API-first architecture means you can call Tenon from any CI system, test runner, or build script and get structured accessibility results that can trigger pass/fail gates. Silktide is a scheduled crawling platform designed for web teams monitoring production sites — it doesn't provide the same kind of programmatic CI/CD integration that development teams want for pre-production accessibility regression testing. For CI/CD accessibility testing, Tenon (or axe-core, which is free) is the more appropriate choice.

Tenon vs Silktide 2026: Which Accessibility Platform Is Better for Your Team?

Quick Comparison: Tenon vs Silktide

Tenon

Primary model: API-first accessibility testing
Core audience: Developers, DevOps, QA engineers
CI/CD integration: Excellent — API integrates with any pipeline
Scope: Accessibility only
Dashboard: Reporting + issue tracking
Pricing: API-based or subscription; custom enterprise

Silktide

Primary model: SaaS dashboard with scheduled crawling
Core audience: Web managers, content teams, digital directors
CI/CD integration: Limited — not API-first
Scope: Accessibility + SEO + content quality + usability
Dashboard: Central web quality hub with multi-site support
Pricing: Subscription by page volume; enterprise custom

What Are Tenon and Silktide?

Tenon is an accessibility testing platform built with a developer-first philosophy. Its core product is a REST API that accepts URLs or raw HTML and returns structured accessibility issue data: WCAG criterion violated, severity, element selector, and remediation guidance. This API-first design makes Tenon highly flexible — it integrates into CI/CD pipelines, custom test frameworks, internal dashboards, and development tools without requiring a specific workflow or interface. Tenon also offers dashboard reporting for tracking issues over time and managing remediation workflows.

Silktide is a web quality management platform that covers several disciplines in one dashboard: accessibility, SEO, content quality, and usability. Organizations use Silktide to get a comprehensive view of web health across their entire site (or portfolio of sites) through scheduled automated crawls. Silktide is particularly popular in UK public sector organizations and higher education, where comprehensive web quality reporting — including accessibility compliance under WCAG 2.1 — is a regulatory requirement.

Developer Workflow Fit

This is where the two platforms diverge most sharply.

Tenon: Built for Developers

Tenon's API model means developers can integrate accessibility testing wherever they test other things:

Call the Tenon API from GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI, or any CI system
Send rendered HTML from staging environments for pre-production checks
Integrate with Selenium, Playwright, or Cypress to test page states that require interaction
Build custom reporting dashboards using structured JSON responses
Set pass/fail gates based on severity thresholds or issue counts
Test authenticated pages by passing session cookies through the API

Silktide: Built for Web Teams

Silktide's SaaS dashboard model is designed for web managers and content teams who need regular site monitoring without developer involvement in every audit:

Scheduled crawls that surface accessibility issues automatically (no manual triggers needed)
Prioritized issue queues that non-developers can triage and assign
Multi-site portfolio management for agencies or organizations with multiple properties
Executive-level reporting on accessibility compliance progress over time
Content team workflows for addressing content-layer accessibility issues (alt text, heading structure)
Cross-discipline visibility: see accessibility, SEO, and content health in one view

WCAG Coverage and Accuracy

Both Tenon and Silktide cover WCAG 2.1 AA violations and have expanded toward WCAG 2.2. Tenon's rule set was developed specifically for accessibility and is considered technically rigorous — well-regarded in the accessibility professional community for low false positive rates and actionable issue descriptions.

Silktide's accessibility module provides solid coverage but accessibility is one of four disciplines it covers. Specialized accessibility platforms (Tenon, axe DevTools, Deque) generally provide more nuanced remediation guidance and deeper rule sets for edge cases. For organizations where accessibility is the primary compliance concern, dedicated tools tend to serve better; for organizations needing the broader web governance view, Silktide's integrated approach wins on efficiency.

The 30–40% Automated Coverage Limit

Both Tenon and Silktide detect automated WCAG violations — roughly 30–40% of the full WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria. Issues requiring human judgment — focus management in JavaScript applications, reading order, meaningful alternative text, cognitive accessibility — require manual testing with screen readers and keyboard navigation. Neither platform replaces comprehensive manual auditing.

Silktide's Strength: Public Sector and Higher Education

Silktide has particular traction in UK public sector organizations and higher education institutions, where the UK's Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) require WCAG 2.1 AA compliance and accessibility statements. Silktide's platform supports the monitoring, reporting, and documentation workflows that public sector digital teams need to demonstrate compliance to oversight bodies.

Tenon is used more broadly across enterprise development teams globally, particularly organizations with mature DevOps practices where accessibility testing needs to live inside the same pipeline as other quality gates.

Who Should Use Tenon vs Silktide

Choose Tenon if...

You need API-first accessibility testing that integrates with CI/CD pipelines
Your engineering team wants programmatic control over accessibility test execution
You need to test authenticated pages, specific page states, or rendered JavaScript applications
You're building a custom accessibility reporting or issue tracking workflow
Accessibility testing belongs in your development pipeline alongside unit and integration tests

Choose Silktide if...

You need web quality management across accessibility, SEO, content, and usability
Your web team needs scheduled monitoring without developer involvement in each audit
You're in the UK public sector or higher education with PSBAR compliance requirements
You manage multiple sites and need a portfolio-level view
Non-developers (content managers, web coordinators) need to act on accessibility issues

Alternatives to Consider

Before committing to either platform, it's worth considering other options in the space:

axe-core (free) — If your primary use case is CI/CD integration, the free axe-core library integrates with Jest, Playwright, and Cypress without a SaaS subscription. Tenon's API adds managed reporting and issue tracking on top.
Deque axe DevTools Pro — For teams already using axe-core, the paid tier adds advanced rules, guided testing, and deeper reporting without switching to a different rule set.
Siteimprove — Similar scope to Silktide (accessibility + SEO + content), with stronger analytics integrations and an established enterprise customer base.
Pope Tech — Dashboard reporting layer on top of axe-core, with strong higher education market presence and affordable pricing.
RatedWithAI — Continuous monitoring for smaller teams: automated WCAG detection with regression alerts every time your site changes.

Start with a Baseline Accessibility Scan

Before evaluating Tenon, Silktide, or any platform, see what WCAG issues your site has today — free, no account required.

Run Free WCAG Scan View Continuous Monitoring ($29/mo)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Tenon and Silktide?

Tenon is an API-first accessibility testing platform built for developers who want programmatic CI/CD integration. Silktide is a web quality management platform covering accessibility, SEO, content quality, and usability in a unified dashboard for web teams. Tenon suits engineering-led accessibility programs; Silktide suits web management teams needing multi-discipline site quality oversight.

Is Tenon better for developers than Silktide?

Yes, if CI/CD integration is your priority. Tenon's REST API integrates with any pipeline, test framework, or build system with a few lines of code. Silktide is a scheduled crawling dashboard — it monitors production sites on a schedule but doesn't provide the same kind of pre-production, per-build accessibility testing that developers want in their pipeline. For developer-integrated accessibility testing, Tenon (or free axe-core) is the more appropriate tool.

Is Silktide good for UK public sector organizations?

Yes — Silktide has significant traction in UK public sector and higher education, where the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) require WCAG 2.1 AA compliance and public accessibility statements. Silktide's monitoring, reporting, and documentation features align with the compliance workflows these organizations need. Its multi-discipline web quality view is also useful for public sector digital teams managing accessibility alongside content quality and SEO.

Does Tenon cover WCAG 2.2?

Tenon has been expanding its rule set to cover WCAG 2.2 success criteria. Its core rule set was already comprehensive for WCAG 2.1 AA, and WCAG 2.2 adds relatively few new criteria (primarily around cognitive accessibility, mobile interactions, and authentication). Check Tenon's current documentation for specific WCAG 2.2 criterion coverage, as their rule set is actively maintained.

Can Silktide test single-page applications (SPAs)?

Silktide's crawling engine handles JavaScript-rendered content to a degree, but SPAs with complex client-side routing and dynamic state can be challenging for scheduled crawlers. Tenon's API approach — where you pass the rendered HTML of specific page states — is generally more reliable for testing JavaScript-heavy applications in specific states (logged in, after interactions, etc.). For comprehensive SPA accessibility testing, API-based tools like Tenon or axe-core with Playwright/Cypress are more appropriate.