A11yWatch vs Pa11y
A11yWatch
a11ywatch.com
Pa11y
pa11y.orgSide by side
| Figure | A11yWatch | Pa11y |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $14/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Digital Accessibility Platforms | 7.8 (#7) | 8.1 (#6) |
| Spec score · Web Accessibility Software | 7.8 (#14) | 8.2 (#11) |
| Spec score · Website Accessibility Tools | 7.5 (#91) | 8.7 (#14) |
| Spec score · Accessibility Testing Software | 7.4 (#132) | 8.6 (#21) |
| CI/CD integration | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
Plans
A11yWatch
- Hobby — 10,000 estimated monthly scans$14 a month
- Hobby — 20,000 estimated monthly scans$24 a month
- Hobby — 40,000 estimated monthly scans$44 a month
- Hobby — 60,000 estimated monthly scans$54 a month
- Hobby — 100,000 estimated monthly scans$84 a month
In their own words
Pa11y
Pa11y is a free, open-source set of tools for checking website accessibility. Its command-line interface loads a page for a one-off test and highlights issues, while Pa11y CI checks a list of pages in continuous-integration workflows. Pa11y Dashboard tests pages daily and graphs improvements or regressions over time. Pa11y Webservice supplies JSON data for the Dashboard or a custom dashboard-style front end. The package runs from the command line or Node.js, uses HTML_CodeSniffer by default, and can also use the axe test runner. WCAG2AA is the default CLI standard, with WCAG2A and WCAG2AAA selectable. Reports can be human-readable CLI output, CSV, HTML, JSON, or TSV. Configuration uses command-line options or JSON and JavaScript files, and local HTML files can be tested with an absolute path. Pa11y provides API access, scheduled scans, site-level scanning, and CI/CD integration across Linux, macOS, Windows, web, API, and self-hosted setups. Pa11y 10 requires Node.js 22.13.0 or newer on an even-numbered release.