How much does a website accessibility audit cost?

Costs vary enormously depending on what kind of audit you actually need. Here's roughly how the options break down.

Free automated scanners

Tools like WAVE and axe DevTools are free and genuinely useful, but built for developers — the output is a list of technical rule violations (e.g. "4.1.2 Name, Role, Value") without much explanation of what to actually do about them.

One-time scan + plain-English report ($5–$50)

Same category of automated testing as the free tools, but translated into plain language with specific fixes. This is where AccessScore sits — a free score, and $7 for the full report with fixes and a downloadable PDF. Good fit for a single site check without an ongoing commitment.

Accessibility overlay subscriptions ($50–$500+/month)

Widget-based services that add a JavaScript layer claiming to fix issues on the fly. These have drawn significant criticism from accessibility advocates and disabled users themselves — overlays often don't fix underlying code issues and can sometimes make a site harder to use with real assistive technology, not easier.

Manual audits by accessibility specialists ($1,000–$20,000+)

A human expert, sometimes including actual disabled testers using real assistive technology, manually reviews the site against WCAG. This catches issues automated tools structurally can't — things like whether alt text is actually meaningful, not just present. This is the right choice for larger sites, regulated industries, or after receiving a legal demand letter — but it's overkill for a first check.

What actually makes sense for most small businesses

Automated scanning catches roughly half of all WCAG issues — importantly, the half that's cheapest and fastest to find and fix (contrast, alt text, labels, headings). Starting there, fixing what it finds, and escalating to a manual audit only if you have specific legal exposure or a complex site is the practical order of operations for most small businesses.

Run a free automated scan to see where your site stands before spending more.