axe-core vs axe DevTools

Free and open source

From $40 per user/month (indicative, Pro)

Free and open source. You pay in engineering time and CI minutes.

Free extension covers a lot. Pro adds guided manual testing; enterprise plans are quote-based.

Everything, self-hosted

Free browser extension with the core axe-core rule set.

Category standard

Deque Systems · since 2015

Widely used

Deque Systems · since 2015

• Effectively zero false positives, which is why it became the industry default.
• Integrates into any existing test suite in a few lines.
• Free, actively maintained, and aligned with WCAG updates.

• Guided manual testing addresses the two thirds of WCAG that scanners cannot.
• Findings come with concrete code-level remediation advice.
• Deque's accessibility expertise is the deepest in the industry.

• Automated rules detect roughly a third of WCAG issues — the rest need human testing.
• A library, not a workflow: no dashboards, tracking or reporting.
• Only evaluates the DOM state it is given, so dynamic states need explicit test coverage.

• Per-seat pricing adds up across a large engineering organisation.
• The free extension is good enough for many teams, blurring the upgrade case.
• Enterprise deployment needs process design, not just a licence.

Any team that wants accessibility checks inside their existing automated tests.

Organisations with a formal accessibility programme and compliance obligations.