Honest, sourced, includes a row where we lose
How wcagcheckr compares
The accessibility tools you’d actually find in the store — plus the overlay you shouldn’t. Every box below is one we can defend, citations and all, including the one where a competitor beats us. A rigged comparison would undercut the whole point of an honest-audit tool.
| wcagcheckr Honest audit + proof New | axe DevTools Dev audit ext ~400k users | WAVE Visual checker ext ~700k users | accessiBe Overlay widget $1M FTC order, 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free → $99/mo all-in | Free → paid per-seat | Free | Paid, by traffic |
| Tests your real site (not an overlay) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Works on private / authed pages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| axe-core 4.11.4 rules engine | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Visual overlays + vision simulators | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi-state matrix audit (30+ states) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Delta-only reporting (only new issues) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Lawsuit-exposure grade (A–F) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI per-finding judges + walkthroughs | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Court-grade forensic anchoring (RFC-3161) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| VPAT + legal export factory | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| PDF/UA document audit | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| SSO / on-prem (enterprise) We dropped the Enterprise tier — no SSO/on-prem today. Deque’s enterprise bundle has it. | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
| FTC action for deceptive marketing | None | None | None | $1M (2025) |
What each one actually is
axe DevTools
The dev-tool incumbent (~400k Chrome Web Store users). Same axe-core engine we run — but a single rest-state scan, no interaction-state matrix, no delta-only baselines, no legal/forensic exports.
WAVE
The most-installed free checker (~700k, WebAIM). Excellent visual overlays for spotting issues — but single-page, single-state, detection-only: no baselines, no AI, no evidence, no PDF/UA.
accessiBe
Not an audit tool — an overlay widget that injects a layer over your real site and sells a litigation pledge. The FTC ordered it to pay $1M in 2025 for deceptive claims. We test your real site instead.
Also in the store: Silktide (200+ checks, simulators) and Siteimprove’s checker — both strong, both free, both single-state detectors that stop before the matrix, the proof, and the legal exports. Sources: Chrome Web Store listings, FTC (accessiBe order, 2025). The “SSH/SSO” row is our honest loss — we dropped the Enterprise tier, so no SSO/on-prem today.