Accessibility tools differ less in which rules they run than in how you run them: by hand on one page, inside your tests, across a whole site on a schedule, or alongside journeys. This roundup lists nine, grouped that way, with a one-line “best for”, how each is priced, its free tier and where it falls short. We make Sybqa, which is one of the nine; we say where it is not the right choice. None of these tools can certify a site as accessible.
Facts checked
How to read this list
The tools are grouped by how you run them. The order on the page is a grouping, not a ranking. Automated rules cover only part of WCAG, so every group below still leaves keyboard, screen reader and judgement checks to a person. We have not run these products head to head, so this page makes no claim about which finds more issues.
Extensions you run by hand on a page
These suit a person checking a page in context while they fix it.
WAVE
Best for: A person evaluating a page in context, including password-protected, local or highly dynamic pages.
WAVE, from WebAIM, is a suite of evaluation tools built to help people assess web content. Its Chrome, Firefox and Edge extensions run entirely in the browser and send nothing to its server. A subscription API charges credits (100 free for new accounts, one credit for a basic page analysis), a stand-alone API and testing engine can run inside your own infrastructure and CI, and an AIM report adds expert manual test results.
Look elsewhere if: you need site-wide tracking over time (its page points to Pope Tech for that), or you want more than one page at a time.
Accessibility Insights for Web
Best for: Developers who want a guided path from a quick check to a manual WCAG 2.1 AA assessment.
Microsoft’s extension for Chrome and Edge offers FastPass, automated checks for about 50 accessibility requirements, a visual helper for tab stops and keyboard access, and an assessment with step-by-step manual tests for WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The tools are open source on GitHub and no price is listed.
Look elsewhere if: you want hosted scheduling or reporting: a GitHub Action repository exists, but its README says the Azure DevOps extension is for Microsoft internal teams only.
axe DevTools
Best for: Teams that want axe-core with guided manual tests, user-flow analysis and reporting in one commercial product.
Deque sells the browser extension in a free version with basic axe-core automation, and a Pro version with AI-enhanced features, intelligent guided tests, user-flow analysis and Jira integration (its free trial needs no payment details). A Bundle adds CI/CD integration, linting, an MCP server and APIs, and is bought through sales.
Look elsewhere if: you want published prices for the paid tiers or a fully open-source stack: use axe-core directly.
Engines and command-line tools for your tests and CI
axe-core
Best for: Engineers who want accessibility assertions inside the tests they already run.
axe-core is an open-source (MPL-2.0) engine with rules for WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 at levels A, AA and AAA plus best practices. You call it from your test environment, and it returns elements as “incomplete” where it could not be certain and manual review is needed. Its README says it finds on average 57% of WCAG issues automatically.
Look elsewhere if: you want a report or an interface: it is a library, and you build the reporting and CI wiring yourself.
Pa11y
Best for: Teams that want a free, scriptable command line and CI check for a list of pages.
Pa11y is a free, open-source command-line tool (LGPL-3.0) that loads a page and lists accessibility issues, with a CI tool for lists of pages and a dashboard that tests pages daily. It can fail a build at a chosen issue level, and runs the HTML_CodeSniffer rules by default with axe as an option.
Look elsewhere if: you want a hosted service: you run the dashboard yourself, and it reports accessibility issues only.
Lighthouse
Best for: Teams that want an accessibility score next to performance, SEO and best-practice audits, from DevTools or CI.
Lighthouse is an open-source tool that audits one URL from Chrome DevTools, the command line or a Node module. Its accessibility score is a weighted average of pass-or-fail audits, weighted by axe user-impact assessments, and manual checks such as logical tab order and trapped focus are listed but do not affect the score. Lighthouse CI runs it in pipelines, with a GitHub Actions quick start.
Look elsewhere if: you need depth: a high accessibility score is not a conformance result, and the manual checks are left to you.
Scanning and monitoring a whole site
Pope Tech
Best for: Teams that want recurring site-wide scans on the WAVE engine, with a free plan to start.
Pope Tech prices by page tier. The free plan scans a 25-page sample each month for two users and one website; Team starts at $25 a month on annual billing for 50 pages; Business Plus starts at $225 a month on annual billing for 500 pages and adds scanning behind login, a developer API and GitHub and Bitbucket CI/CD templates.
Look elsewhere if: you need journeys or layout checks: it scans pages with the WAVE engine, and login scanning and CI sit on the higher plans.
BrowserStack Website Scanner
Best for: Teams that want domain-wide accessibility scans, scheduled daily or weekly, including pages behind a login.
The scanner extracts URLs from a sitemap or crawler, runs on-demand or recurring scans, covers PDF files and staging environments, emails reports and compares new, fixed and active issues between scans. The page offers a free start and lists no prices. BrowserStack’s accessibility menu also lists AI agents for issue detection and remediation and a test-automation product that adds WCAG checks to CI/CD.
Look elsewhere if: you want to know whether a signup or checkout journey works: it scans pages for accessibility issues rather than working through flows.
Accessibility alongside journeys and layout
Sybqa (we make this)
Best for: A first check of a site you are about to share, where accessibility, phone-width layout and key journeys are checked together.
Paste a link and review the plan; a real browser then runs axe-core rules, contrast measurements and checklist rules for touch targets and labels on the pages a journey reaches, at desktop (1440 px), phone (390 px) and narrow (320 px) widths. Findings come with screenshots and steps to reproduce, and blocked or not-run checks are never counted as passed. The free plan gives 10 runs a month after sign-up without AI review.
Not the right choice if: accessibility is the programme: it has no guided manual tests, expert audits, scheduled site-wide scans or conformance statement, and it does not crawl a whole domain.
The tools side by side
Nine website accessibility testing tools compared on the points each publishes
Tool
Best for
Pricing model
Free tier
AI / agentic
CI support
Where it falls short
WAVE
Evaluating one page in context
Subscription API by credit; stand-alone engine licensed; no extension price stated
100 free API credits for new accounts
None listed
Stand-alone API and testing engine can run in CI
One page at a time online; site-wide monitoring points to Pope Tech
Accessibility Insights for Web
A guided path to a WCAG 2.1 AA assessment
No price listed; open source
No paid tier listed
None listed
GitHub Action repository; Azure DevOps extension is Microsoft-internal
Manual, per-page workflow; no hosted scheduling
axe DevTools
axe-core plus guided tests and reporting
Free extension; Pro with free trial; Bundle via sales
Yes: free extension with basic axe-core automation
AI-enhanced features on Pro
CI/CD integration in the Bundle
No published paid prices
axe-core
Assertions inside existing tests
Open source (MPL-2.0)
Free
None listed
You wire it into your own tests and CI
A library: no report or interface
Pa11y
Free CLI and CI checks of a page list
Open source (LGPL-3.0)
Free
None listed
Pa11y CI; can fail at a chosen issue level
Self-hosted dashboard; accessibility issues only
Lighthouse
An accessibility score beside performance and SEO
Open source
Free
None listed
Lighthouse CI; GitHub Actions quick start
Score is not conformance; manual checks unscored
Pope Tech
Recurring site-wide scans on the WAVE engine
Page tiers: free, Team from $25, Business Plus from $225 a month on annual billing
Yes: 25-page sample a month
None listed
GitHub and Bitbucket CI/CD templates on Business Plus
Page limits; login scanning and CI on higher plans
BrowserStack Website Scanner
Domain-wide, scheduled scans
No prices listed
Free start offered
Issue detection and remediation agents listed
A separate test-automation product adds WCAG checks to CI/CD
Pages, not journeys; no stated prices or limits
Sybqa (ours)
Accessibility with journeys and layout
A free plan, then a paid plan with AI credits
Yes: 10 runs a month after sign-up, no AI review
AI review of findings on the paid plan
GitHub Action and API tokens
No guided manual tests, site-wide scans or conformance statement
Which one to choose
Choose Sybqa if
You want accessibility, layout and journeys checked together on a site you are about to share.
You want a report with screenshots and steps to reproduce for a developer or client.
You want a free first look without installing anything.
Look elsewhere if
You are fixing a page by hand and want to see issues in context: WAVE or Accessibility Insights.
You want rules in your own test suite or CI: axe-core, Pa11y or Lighthouse CI.
You need site-wide tracking over time: Pope Tech or the BrowserStack Website Scanner.
These combine well: a hand-run extension while you fix, an engine in CI to stop regressions, and a scanner to watch a large site. See automated accessibility testing for what rule engines catch and miss, and the one-to-one audit tool comparison for axe, WAVE and Pa11y beside Sybqa.
What this roundup does not claim
None of these tools, Sybqa included, can certify that a site is accessible or compliant, and a clean automated run is a floor rather than a conformance statement. Coverage figures such as the axe-core README’s 57% are vendor estimates, not guarantees for your site. We read each vendor’s public pages on the date shown under Sources, have not compared issue counts head to head, and do not rank the tools.
Common questions
What is the best free website accessibility testing tool?
There is no single best one; it depends on how you want to run it. For a person checking a page, the WAVE and Accessibility Insights extensions and the free axe DevTools extension are listed above. For tests and CI, axe-core, Pa11y and Lighthouse are open source. Pope Tech has a free 25-page plan for scanning, and Sybqa’s free plan gives 10 runs a month after sign-up. The comparison table sets out each free tier.
Can an automated accessibility tool prove my site is compliant?
No. Automated rules cover only part of WCAG, and tools such as axe-core return “incomplete” results that need a person to review. Keyboard, screen reader and judgement checks still have to be done by hand, so treat a clean run as a floor, not a conformance statement.
Do I need a site-wide scanner as well as a page checker?
Only if you have many pages to watch over time. A page-level extension or engine is enough to fix what you are working on; a scanner such as Pope Tech or the BrowserStack Website Scanner adds recurring scans and trend reports across a larger site.