CompliaScan vs Google Lighthouse
Google Lighthouse is a free, excellent tool for a quick single-page audit, and its accessibility checks are powered by axe. CompliaScan runs a fuller axe-core scan plus custom checks and adds crawling, monitoring, and reporting. Both are legitimate. Here is how they compare.
Single-Page Audit vs Ongoing Site Scanning
Lighthouse ships inside Chrome DevTools and audits a single URL across performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. Its accessibility category runs a subset of the axe-core rules. That makes it a fast, free, and genuinely useful spot check, and CompliaScan actually surfaces Lighthouse-style audits as one of its own enhanced scanning features.
Where Lighthouse is a strong fit
- Completely free and open source, built into Chrome DevTools with zero install
- Accessibility audits are powered by axe-core rules
- Also covers performance, SEO, and best practices in one run
- Scriptable via the CLI and Lighthouse CI for pipeline gates
For teams managing accessibility across a whole site over time, Lighthouse on its own has clear gaps:
- Accessibility is one of several categories and uses a subset of axe rules, so it catches fewer issues than a dedicated axe run
- Tests one page per run with no crawling, monitoring, or alerting
- No shareable compliance PDF, per-element remediation workflow, or AI fixes
- The numeric accessibility score is easily misread as a compliance percentage, which it is not
CompliaScan runs the broader axe-core ruleset plus custom checks, crawls up to 1,000 pages, re-scans on a schedule, and produces PDF reports with per-element fix guidance and optional AI recommendations. Use Lighthouse for a quick free check on one page, and CompliaScan when you need continuous, site-wide coverage.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | CompliaScan | Google Lighthouse |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility engine | Full axe-core + custom checks | Subset of axe-core |
| Price | Free / $69/mo | Free (open source) |
| Pages per run | Up to 1,000 (crawled) | 1 |
| Automatic crawling | ||
| Scheduled monitoring & alerts | ||
| PDF reports | ||
| Per-element fix instructions | ||
| AI fix recommendations | Yes (BYOK) | |
| Performance / SEO audits | Lighthouse audit included | Yes (core feature) |
| CI/CD integration | REST API | Lighthouse CI |
| Developer API | ||
| Built into the browser |
Pricing Comparison
CompliaScan
- Free: $0 Single-page scan, no account needed
- Starter: $69/mo Multi-page, reports, monitoring
- Pro: $179/mo API, weekly monitoring, 10 team members
- Business: $349/mo 1,000 pages, daily monitoring, unlimited
Google Lighthouse
- Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools: Free
- Lighthouse CLI and Lighthouse CI: Free (open source)
- PageSpeed Insights (uses Lighthouse): Free
- Lighthouse is open source and free. The trade-off is scope: it audits one page at a time with a subset of accessibility rules.
Lighthouse is free and hard to beat for a quick single-page check. The moment you need to scan a whole site, track it over time, or hand a report to a stakeholder, you need tooling built for that. CompliaScan starts free and scales to $349/mo for 1,000 pages with daily monitoring, PDF reports, and AI fix suggestions.
Key Advantages of CompliaScan over Google Lighthouse
A fuller accessibility ruleset
Lighthouse's accessibility category runs a subset of axe rules alongside performance and SEO. CompliaScan runs the full axe-core ruleset plus custom checks focused entirely on accessibility, so it surfaces issues a Lighthouse run can miss.
Whole-site coverage, not one page
Lighthouse audits a single URL per run. CompliaScan crawls up to 1,000 pages automatically from one starting URL, so you see issues across templates and deep pages, not just the home page.
Monitoring and stakeholder reports
Lighthouse has no scheduling, alerting, or report export for compliance. CompliaScan re-scans on a schedule, alerts on regressions, and generates shareable PDF, JSON, and CSV reports.
Fix guidance and BYOK AI
Lighthouse flags failures with documentation links. CompliaScan gives per-element fix instructions tied to the specific WCAG criterion, plus optional AI-generated code fixes using your own API key.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lighthouse good enough for accessibility testing?
Lighthouse is a great free starting point and its accessibility audit uses real axe rules, but it runs a subset of them on one page at a time as part of a broader performance audit. For a single quick check it is excellent. For catching more issues across a whole site and tracking them over time, a dedicated scanner like CompliaScan goes further.
Does the Lighthouse accessibility score mean I am compliant?
No. A Lighthouse accessibility score of 100 only means the automated checks that ran found no failures. It is not a WCAG or ADA compliance percentage. Automated tools catch roughly 30 to 40 percent of WCAG success criteria; the rest needs manual testing. CompliaScan is explicit about this too.
Do CompliaScan and Lighthouse use the same engine?
Both rely on axe-core for accessibility. Lighthouse uses a subset of axe rules within its accessibility category, while CompliaScan runs the fuller axe-core ruleset plus custom checks. CompliaScan also includes a Lighthouse-style audit as one of its enhanced scanning features.
Is Lighthouse free?
Yes. Lighthouse is free and open source, built into Chrome DevTools and available via CLI and PageSpeed Insights. CompliaScan also offers a free single-page scan with no account, and paid plans from $69/mo for multi-page scanning, monitoring, and reports.
Should I use Lighthouse or CompliaScan?
Use both. Lighthouse is perfect for a fast, free check while you build. CompliaScan is for ongoing, site-wide scanning with monitoring, reporting, and fix guidance. They fit different moments in the same workflow.
Go Beyond a One-Page Audit
Try CompliaScan free and see the full axe-core ruleset applied across your whole site, with monitoring, PDF reports, and AI fix recommendations. No account needed.
Feature data based on publicly available information as of early 2026. Competitors' features and pricing may change.