Best Free Accessibility Scanners to Try First

A free scan should tell you what to fix next, not just hand you a score. The best free accessibility scanner for a first pass is the one that matches the page in front of you: a live page you can open in a browser, a page behind a login, or a page you are still building. This guide groups six free options by what each one checks, so you can start with one, confirm a finding with a second, and then do the short manual pass no scanner can do for you.

How to pick a free scanner

Start with the kind of result you can act on. A visual overlay helps when you need to see where a problem sits on the page. A browser panel helps when you need the exact element, the rule it broke, and a suggested fix. A guided assessment helps when you need to check keyboard use and other points that code alone cannot judge. Price is not the deciding point here, since all six options below have a free route. The deciding points are page type, result format, and how much manual checking you are ready to do after the scan.

Shortlist by job:

• WAVE, for a visual view of errors, contrast problems, alerts, structure, and ARIA on a rendered page.
• Axe DevTools, for element level findings in the browser, with filters for WCAG 2.2 AA and other levels.
• Google Lighthouse, for a quick combined audit in Chrome, with a score and a list of failed audits.
• Accessibility Insights for Web, for automated checks plus guided manual tests against WCAG 2.2 AA.
• Axeazy free scan, for a whole homepage check that leads to code level fix detail rather than a single page overlay.
• Browser accessibility panes, for a direct look at names, roles, and focus order while you inspect a page by hand.

The scanners, by what they check

WAVE

WAVE puts icons on the page itself, so a missing alt attribute, a low contrast passage, or a broken heading order shows up where a visitor would meet it. Its summary groups results into errors, contrast errors, alerts, features, structural elements, and ARIA. That split matters. An error points to a known problem. An alert points to a point that needs a human look. A feature shows a structure that is present, such as a heading or a landmark, and still needs a check for sense and order.

Use WAVE when a page is live and you want a fast visual read. Open the online tool with a public address, or use the browser extension for a page behind a login or a page that changes after it loads.

Axe DevTools

Axe DevTools runs inside the browser and reports the failing element, the rule, and the WCAG criterion tied to it. Its settings page lets you filter results by standard, including WCAG 2.2 AA and WCAG 2.2 A, which helps when you have a clear target and do not want older or stricter rules mixed into the same list. The panel view suits a developer or a site owner who is comfortable opening developer tools and reading element names.

Use axe DevTools when you want a fix list you can hand to a developer. Scan one page at a time, work through the serious items first, and re-run the same page after a fix.

Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse runs inside Chrome and gives an accessibility category beside performance, best practice, and search checks. Its accessibility score is a weighted average of audits, with weighting based on axe user impact, and each audit is pass or fail. That last point is easy to miss. If one button on a page lacks an accessible name while nine buttons have one, that audit still fails. The score is useful for tracking change over time on the same page. It is not a verdict on a whole site.

Use Lighthouse when you want a quick first read and you already work in Chrome. Run it on mobile and desktop views, since target size and layout problems can differ by view. Then move to a tool that names each failing element when you need to fix the list.

Accessibility Insights for Web

Accessibility Insights for Web starts with automated checks, then adds guided tests. Its assessment process measures against WCAG 2.2 Level AA success criteria, and it separates requirements into automated, assisted, and manual types. Automated items are judged by the tool. Assisted items are judged with help from the tool. Manual items come with instructions for a person to judge. That mix is the point. Keyboard order, visible focus, and the sense of a link label often need a person at the keyboard, not just a rule.

Use this tool when you have an hour and want a structured pass over a key page, such as a home page, a booking page, or a checkout page. Work through the tests in order, mark each requirement as you go, and keep the report as a dated record of what you checked and what still needs work.

Axeazy free scan

The Axeazy free scan takes about 60 seconds, needs no signup, and checks a homepage with 98 automated checks drawn from axe-core rules covering WCAG 2.0 A and AA, 2.1 AA, 2.2 AA, and best practices. The value here is what comes after the count. For sites with a GitHub repository, fixes arrive as a real pull request with a visible code diff that the owner or developer reviews and merges. For other sites, the owner gets computed fix values plus a guided checklist to apply by hand. Colour contrast is detected and a correct colour is calculated, but a visible colour change is never applied without owner approval.

Use this scan when you want a homepage read plus a clear next step toward code level fixes. Paid plans start around $29 a month, with paid prices shown at checkout, and paid plans add weekly monitoring and PDF reports.

Browser accessibility panes

Chrome, Edge, and Firefox each include an accessibility pane in developer tools. These panes show the accessibility tree, which is the name, role, and state a browser passes to assistive technology. They do not scan a page for you. They show you what a screen reader would receive for one element at a time, which makes them a strong check after a scanner flags a vague label or a missing name.

Use a pane when a scanner result is unclear. Inspect the element, read its computed name, and check whether the name matches what a visitor sees on screen. If the name is empty, generic, or duplicated across several controls, rewrite it in plain words before you move on.

What free scanners miss

Every scanner in this list checks code and rendered markup. None of them can judge whether alt text is accurate, whether a heading order makes sense to a reader, or whether a form error message helps a person recover. A scanner can confirm that alt text exists. Only a person can say whether that alt text describes the image. A scanner can confirm that a button has a name. Only a person using a keyboard can say whether the button is easy to reach and easy to use.

Plan a short manual pass after any free scan. Tab through the page from the top, watch where focus goes, and note any point where focus disappears, jumps out of order, or lands behind a sticky header. Read the page with images off, if your browser allows it, and check whether the text alone still makes sense. Those two passes catch problems that a clean scan can hide.

How to use the results without wasting a day

Run the homepage first, then one high value page: a product page, a booking page, or a contact page. Fix repeated template problems once, in the template, rather than fixing the same heading or label on page after page. Keep a short list of the rules that keep coming back. If missing labels recur, the fix is a content habit, not a one off edit. If contrast recurs, the fix is a colour choice in the design, not a patch on each page.

When a result is unclear, confirm it with a second tool before you change code. Two tools that share the same engine will often agree, so pair an axe based tool with WAVE for a second view, or pair a scan with a manual keyboard pass. When tools disagree, trust the manual check for sense and order, and trust the element level report for markup detail.

Related reading: Best Accessibility Tools for Small Business and Free Website Accessibility Scan in 60 Seconds. For a quick self test on contrast, try the contrast quiz.

FAQ

Is one free scanner enough for a whole site?

No. One scanner checks one page at a time, and a site shares templates, menus, and footers across many pages. Use one scanner for the homepage, repeat it on key templates, and add a manual keyboard pass. A whole site view needs repeated scans or a monitoring plan.

Does a clean scan mean a page meets WCAG 2.2 AA?

No. A clean automated result means the checks that tool can run found no failures on that page at that time. WCAG 2.2 AA includes criteria that need human judgement, such as focus not obscured, dragging alternatives, and accessible authentication. Treat a clean scan as a good start, not a final verdict.

Which free scanner should a non developer start with?

Start with WAVE for its visual icons, then use the Axeazy free scan for a homepage read with fix detail. WAVE shows where problems sit. The free scan gives a count plus a route to code level fixes. Both need no signup for the first check described here.

What should I fix first after a free scan?

Fix items that block use first: missing form labels, buttons and links with no name, and keyboard focus that disappears or goes out of order. Then fix contrast and heading order, since those affect reading and page structure. Leave wording polish for last, after the blocking items are clear.

Last checked: October 31, 2026

Sources

• WAVE evaluation tools from WebAIM
• Axe DevTools extension settings from Deque
• Lighthouse accessibility scoring from Chrome for Developers
• Assessment in Accessibility Insights for Web
• WCAG 2.2 from W3C
• Axeazy pricing page

Run Axeazy's free 60 second scan when you want a homepage read plus a clear route to code level fixes.

Related reading

• Best WCAG 2.2 Testing Tools for 2026 Checks