AccessLint vs Octopus Scanner (formerly A11y Scanner)

AccessLint checks accessibility during development, on pull requests, and on live sites. Its WCAG 2.2 engine has 95 rules and a stated 53ms median audit across 5,000 real-world sites. Pull-request reviews inspect changed files and leave inline comments with the relevant rule and a suggested correction, but do not fail builds or block merges. Deploy-triggered scans require Starter or Pro, run asynchronously, and also do not synchronously fail builds. Saved user journeys can run daily, with email alerts for new violations or changes against a baseline. The toolkit provides checks for Playwright, Vitest, and Storybook, while pull-request reviews use a GitHub App. Starter and Pro include shareable read-only evidence reports with before-and-after screenshots of affected elements. Free covers public-repository pull-request reviews, one daily monitored flow, and violation trends. Starter costs $19 a month or $190 a year; Pro costs $349 a month or $3,490 a year. AccessLint says automated checks alone cannot make a site compliant.

Octopus Scanner, formerly A11y Scanner, is a free desktop tool for auditing website accessibility on Windows and macOS. It uses browser automation and axe-core-powered checks to scan sites against WCAG 2.2; setup also supports requirements including Section 508 and EN 301 549. It can record and replay authenticated flows such as logins and checkouts without code, and handle dynamic interfaces, Shadow DOM, embedded frames and dark mode. Scans produce an interactive HTML report and a companion CSV, and the tool can check the structure of linked PDF documents. Scanning, analysis and reporting stay on the local machine. Scanned-site traffic can be routed through HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS proxies. Optional update checks use official checksums and signatures, and updates can be reverted. The Windows download is 64-bit and the macOS download is ARM64. Listed version 5.0.9.8 is marked beta. The software is free; contributions to its independent developer are optional.