Octopus Scanner (formerly A11y Scanner) vs Pa11y

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.

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.