Knowledge · Accessibility audits

WCAG audit: automated or manual? What each of them detects and how much it costs

“Is an online scanner enough to make my website WCAG compliant?” — that's the most common question we hear. The short answer: it's not enough, but it is the best first step. Below we honestly explain what an automated tool detects, what it will never detect, and when it is worth paying for a manual audit.

What does an automated audit detect?

Tools such as axe-core (the engine we use) analyse the page's code and simulate how the browser works. They excel at technically measurable problems:

• colour contrast — mathematically calculable, zero ambiguity,
• missing alt attributes on images,
• form fields without associated labels,
• missing page title, missing language declaration (lang),
• incorrect heading hierarchy (a jump from h1 to h4),
• invalid ARIA attributes (typos, wrong values),
• duplicate id identifiers,
• blocked zoom (user-scalable=no),
• buttons and links without an accessible name,
• table and list structure.

That's a solid portion of the criteria — it is estimated that automated tools detect around 30–50% of all WCAG criteria. Importantly, these are usually the most frequently occurring errors. In a typical online shop, an automated scan finds anywhere from a dozen to several dozen violations.

What will an automated tool NOT detect?

This is where a human is needed:

• Quality of alt text — the tool sees that an alt exists, but can't judge whether “IMG_4521.jpg” says anything useful,
• Real screen-reader operation — whether the reading order makes sense, whether dynamic messages (e.g. “added to cart”) are announced,
• Content comprehensibility — whether the language is simple and the instructions clear,
• Logical focus order — whether moving around with the keyboard happens in a sensible sequence,
• Keyboard traps — whether you can get out of a popup with the Esc key, for example,
• PDF accessibility — invoices, terms and conditions, catalogues,
• Communication by colour alone — a tool often cannot decide whether a red asterisk next to a field also has a text description.

How much does a manual audit cost?

Typical market prices (as of 2025/2026): a basic audit of a small website starts from around €600, an extended audit of a shop with its checkout process costs €1,200–4,500, and a comprehensive audit including testing with people with disabilities can cost even more. You usually wait from a few days to a few weeks for one.

A manual audit is necessary when: you are subject to an inspection by a supervisory authority, you are applying for public funding (EU projects often require full compliance), you want to obtain formal certification, or you serve public-sector clients.

The optimal strategy: automation first, human second

1. Automated scan (€0) — see the scale of the problem: scan your home page.
2. Full report (€35) — up to 20 pages of the domain, a PDF with a priority checklist for your developer.
3. Fixes at your own expense — you can fix the technical errors with your agency or developer in a few days.
4. Manual audit (from €600) — only on a “cleaned-up” site. The specialist will focus on what is genuinely difficult, instead of describing missing alt attributes. This realistically lowers the cost and duration of the audit.

Beware of “accessibility overlays”

There are companies on the market selling “full compliance in one line of JavaScript” — so-called overlays. Disability communities (including the National Federation of the Blind in the US) unequivocally reject them: they don't fix the page's code and often actually hinder the work of screen readers. An overlay will not make you compliant with the law. The only real path is fixing the source of the problem — the website's code.

Summary

An automated audit is like a blood-panel test: fast, cheap, and it points to problem areas. A manual audit is a visit to a specialist. A sensible website owner does the blood panel first — especially when it's free.