Pa11y vs Total Validator

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.

Total Validator is a freemium tool for checking website accessibility, HTML, CSS, broken links and spelling. Automated accessibility checks cover WCAG 2.2, 2.1 and 2.0, US Section 508 and ARIA standards. It validates HTML and XHTML against W3C and WHATWG standards, and CSS against W3C standards. The product runs through web, Windows, macOS, Linux, an API and a browser extension, with CI/CD integration. Jenkins, Team City and Selenium can call the CI version, which also provides a Web API. Remediation guidance is included. Pro can test authenticated pages, intranets, private websites and JavaScript-generated DOMs through browser extensions, while returning results locally for security. The free Test version shows only a one-page issue summary. Basic handles one page at a time; whole-site and multiple-site validation are Pro features. Manual review tools and mobile testing are not provided.