WAVE vs IBM Equal Access Toolkit

From $0.04 per page (API, indicative)

Free and open source

Free for interactive use; the API is priced per page for bulk scanning.

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

Browser extension and single-page online checker are free.

Everything, self-hosted

Widely used

WebAIM (Utah State University) · since 2001

Emerging

IBM · since 2020

• The in-page visual overlay teaches non-specialists what is wrong far better than a list.
• Free for everyday developer and designer use.
• WebAIM's guidance behind each rule is authoritative and clear.

• Completely free including CI integration and reporting.
• Guidance is written for developers with concrete code examples.
• Includes design and content guidance beyond the code checker.

• Manual, page-by-page — not a CI tool.
• Alerts require human judgement, so counts are not directly comparable between pages.
• No issue tracking or programme management.

• Smaller community than axe-core, so fewer worked examples.
• Reporting is basic compared with commercial platforms.
• Rule set differs slightly from axe, which can confuse cross-tool comparisons.

Designers and developers learning accessibility, and quick manual spot checks.

Teams wanting a free, well-documented alternative or complement to axe.