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COMPARISON

Litmus vs WAVE

WAVE is a great free tool for quick one-off accessibility checks on a single page. But that's all it is — a one-page-at-a-time checker with no memory, no dashboard, and no automation. If you're responsible for accessibility across an entire website, you need something that monitors continuously, tracks progress, and alerts you to regressions. Litmus does all of that — contact us for pricing.

Feature comparison

Side by side

Feature
Litmus
WAVE
Pricing
Contact for pricing
Free
Scanning engine
axe-core (WCAG 2.1 AA)
Proprietary
Site-wide crawling
Yes — up to 100 pages
No — one page at a time
Scheduled scans
Daily or weekly
No
Trend analytics
Yes
No
PDF reports
Yes
No
Email alerts
Yes
No
Self-serve signup
Yes — under 2 minutes
No signup needed
Contracts
None — cancel anytime
None
Free trial
14 days, no credit card
Always free
Overlay widget
No
No
WAVE drawbacks
  • -Tests only one page at a time — no site-wide scanning
  • -No dashboard, no saved history, no compliance tracking
  • -No scheduled scans or regression alerts
  • -No PDF reports for stakeholders or legal documentation
Litmus advantages
  • +Litmus crawls up to 100 pages per scan automatically
  • +Full dashboard with violation history and trend analytics
  • +Scheduled daily or weekly scans with email alerts on regressions
  • +Export PDF reports for stakeholders, legal, or clients
Pricing

WAVE: Free vs Litmus: Contact for pricing

Custom pricing for your needs

We tailor plans to your team and volume. Reach out and we'll get you a quote.

Contact for pricing
FAQ

Common questions about Litmus vs WAVE

Is WAVE good enough for ADA compliance?

WAVE is a useful spot-checking tool but it only tests one page at a time and doesn't track results over time. For ongoing ADA compliance, you need automated site-wide scanning with historical tracking — which is exactly what Litmus provides.

Why pay for Litmus when WAVE is free?

WAVE checks one page at a time with no saved results. Litmus scans your entire site on a schedule, tracks compliance trends over time, generates shareable PDF reports, and alerts you immediately when new accessibility issues appear.

Can WAVE generate compliance reports?

No. WAVE shows results in the browser but has no reporting or export features. Litmus generates professional PDF reports you can share with stakeholders, legal teams, or clients to demonstrate compliance progress.

Ready to switch from WAVE?

Start scanning your website for WCAG 2.1 AA violations in under 2 minutes. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

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