Siteimprove is an enterprise accessibility program sold by demo, covering web pages, PDFs and apps with expert services; BearScan is a self-serve scanner with published prices for one site at a time. Choose Siteimprove for an organization-wide governance program, BearScan for a site you need checked this week.
Summary
| Question | BearScan | Siteimprove | Better fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it checks your site | Real-browser scan, then models read what text and images mean | Crawler with AI agents, plus manual audits by specialists | Depends |
| How much of the site it covers | 10 pages free; 100 with a free account; up to 1,000 in a report | Web pages, PDFs, documents, apps and authenticated pages | Siteimprove |
| What you get back | Every issue with its page, element, fix and rule; a PDF; what it couldn't check | Dashboards and issue lists; manual audits and VPATs | Siteimprove |
| Whether it changes your site | No: it only reads public pages | No: it monitors and guides remediation | Depends |
| What it costs | Free scan; $49 report per site; $29 a month for Monitoring | Quote only; third-party estimates run $10,000 to $150,000+ a year | BearScan |
| How it fits your workflow | API, MCP server, GitHub pull-request checks, weekly rescans | CMS connectors, Jira, Figma plug-in, MCP server and API | Siteimprove |
| What it promises about the law | Never claims compliance; no legal protection offered | Says it helps meet requirements; no legal-protection program found | Depends |
Which should you choose?
| If you want | Choose |
|---|---|
| You want to scan a site now, without a demo or a contract. | BearScan |
| You want published pricing for a single site. | BearScan |
| You want results you can hand straight to a developer or coding agent. | BearScan |
| You run many sites, documents and apps and need governance across teams. | Siteimprove |
| You want certified specialists and VPAT writing in the same contract. | Siteimprove |
How we compared
We compared the two on seven questions a buyer asks: how each checks a site, how much of it they cover, what you get back, whether they change your pages, what they cost, how they fit a team’s workflow, and what they promise about the law. We make BearScan, so weigh our description of it accordingly. To keep the comparison honest we describe Siteimprove from its own pages, attribute its marketing claims to it, cite every source, and say where Siteimprove is the better choice. Prices and terms were read on and change often; check the vendor’s page before you buy.
Siteimprove at a glance
Siteimprove is a enterprise platform. An enterprise platform that monitors accessibility across web pages, documents and apps, with manual audits and training.
BearScan at a glance
BearScan is a website accessibility scanner. It checks a site against WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA in a real browser, reports each issue with the page, the element, how to fix it and the rule it breaks, and lists what it couldn’t check. Scanning is free; a full report is $49.
Feature by feature
How it checks your site
BearScan. BearScan loads pages in a real browser and measures what a visitor gets: computed names, contrast from computed styles, Tab order and visible focus, layout at 320 pixels wide, text spacing and content that moves. It then uses language and vision models to judge what text and images mean, such as whether a label or alt text fits. A rule it can't decide is reported as incomplete, never as a pass.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove Accessibility is part of an enterprise platform. It crawls content, uses AI agents to prioritize risk and guide remediation, and sells manual audits, workshops and VPAT writing by certified specialists. It contrasts itself with overlays, which it says don't fix the underlying code. A University of California FAQ says Siteimprove crawls a site every five days by default. Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab), ucop.edu (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. How a tool finds problems decides which problems it can find. Rules run on markup miss what only a rendered, operated page shows, such as focus order and whether a label means what it says. A tool that repairs pages as they load leaves your own code as it was, and your own code is what an accessibility claim examines.
Better fit: Depends. Siteimprove adds people and governance; BearScan is faster to start.
How much of the site it covers
BearScan. A scan without an account covers 10 pages. A free account covers up to 100 pages of one site, and a report up to 1,000. BearScan picks pages by template, one of each distinct kind, rather than by what the address looks like, and the report says how many pages of each kind it evaluated. It reads public pages only and never signs in.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove says it monitors web pages, PDFs, documents, mobile apps and internal or authenticated pages. Its help center says PDFs over 20 MB aren't checked and that PDF checking must be included in your subscription. The page allowance is set by contract and not published. Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab), help.siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. Accessibility problems live in page templates, so a tool that tests one page at a time can miss the template where the problem starts, and a tool that tests a handful of pages can miss most of the site. Check how pages are chosen and how many are included in the price.
Better fit: Siteimprove. For a large estate with documents and logged-in areas, Siteimprove covers ground BearScan does not.
What you get back
BearScan. The free scan lists every issue and the pages it appears on. The report ($49 per site) adds each issue's element, an explanation, the fix, a prompt you can hand to a coding agent and a PDF, with 48 hours of free reruns to verify your fixes. Every report lists what the scan could not check and never says a site is compliant.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove provides dashboards and issue lists, and its services include manual audits, workshops and VPAT writing from certified specialists (CPWA, CPACC or WAS). Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. A list of failures is not a fix. What matters is whether each result names the page and the element, explains the rule it breaks, says how to fix it, and says what the tool could not check, so you know where the gaps are.
Better fit: Siteimprove. Human audits and VPATs are services BearScan does not offer.
Whether it changes your site
BearScan. BearScan visits public pages the way a visitor does and reports what it finds. Nothing is installed on your site. To check that forms explain their errors it may submit a simple email-only form once, to its own origin, with an obviously invalid value; it never signs in, signs up, pays or buys anything.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove describes monitoring and guiding remediation rather than injecting fixes, and contrasts itself with overlays. Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. Some products work by adding a script that alters your pages as they load. That can fix some problems for visitors, but it adds a third-party dependency to every page, and it doesn't change the source code your developers maintain.
Better fit: Depends. Both leave your site as it is.
What it costs
BearScan. Scanning is free. A full report is $49 per site, once. Monitoring is $29 a month ($228 a year) per site and adds the full report on every scan, weekly rescans with alerts and pull-request checks. The price doesn't change with your traffic.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove publishes no prices; its call to action is 'Request a demo'. A blog post by a competing vendor estimates third-party quotes at roughly $10,000 to $150,000 or more a year depending on size and modules. We include it as an estimate, not a Siteimprove figure. Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab), accessibilitychecker.org (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. Price models differ more than price. Some scale with your traffic, some with the pages monitored, some are quotes you only get after a call. Compare the cost for your site over a year, and what happens to the bill if your traffic doubles.
Better fit: BearScan. A site that needs a scan this week doesn't need an enterprise contract.
How it fits your workflow
BearScan. BearScan has a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server so coding agents can scan a site and read its findings, and a GitHub App that checks pull requests and scans the preview against the pull request's base commit, commenting only on lines the pull request added. Monitoring rescans weekly and emails you when something new fails. It has no browser extension and no library for unit-testing components.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove lists connectors for WordPress, Drupal, Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, Umbraco, Optimizely and Magnolia, a Jira connector, a Figma plug-in and an MCP server that brings its accessibility agent into AI development environments. It also offers an API. Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab), siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. A finding only helps if it reaches the person who fixes it. Look at whether results go where your team already works: pull requests, tickets, coding assistants, a CI job.
Better fit: Siteimprove. Its enterprise integrations are broader than BearScan's.
What it promises about the law
BearScan. BearScan reports what a scan found and what it couldn't check. It isn't legal advice, doesn't certify compliance, and offers no litigation support, guarantee or indemnity. Each issue links to the standard or law it is based on, so you and your lawyer can review it.
Siteimprove. Siteimprove says it helps teams meet regulatory requirements and keep content accessible. We found no guarantee or legal-protection program on the pages we read. Its figures on ROI and customers come from a study it commissioned and its own page. Sources: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab).
Why this matters. No tool can certify that a site is ADA compliant, because the ADA doesn't certify websites, and the Justice Department's guidance says a clean automated report doesn't necessarily mean everything is accessible. What differs is what a vendor claims and what it will stand behind in writing.
Better fit: Depends. Neither promises compliance.
Pricing in detail
| Plan | Price | What sets the price or what it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Siteimprove Accessibility | Quote only | Contract-specific; request a demo |
Siteimprove publishes no prices. Source: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab), read 2026-10-11.
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free scan | $0 | 10 pages without an account; up to 100 pages of one site with a free account; every issue and the pages it’s on |
| Full report | $49 per site, once | Up to 1,000 pages; each issue’s element, explanation, fix and coding-agent prompt; a PDF; 48 hours of free reruns |
| Monitoring | $29 a month or $228 a year, per site | The full report on every scan, weekly rescans with alerts, pull-request checks |
Strengths and gaps
Where Siteimprove is stronger than BearScan
- It covers documents, PDFs, apps and logged-in pages across a whole organization.
- It sells manual audits, VPAT writing and training from certified specialists.
- It integrates with enterprise content systems, Jira, Figma and AI coding tools.
Where BearScan is stronger than Siteimprove
- You want to scan a site now, without a demo or a contract.
- You want published pricing for a single site.
- You want results you can hand straight to a developer or coding agent.
Where BearScan falls short
- It has no manual expert audits, VPATs or accessibility training.
- It reads public pages only, so it can't test anything behind a login.
- It has no browser extension or in-test library for checking a component while you build it.
- It offers no litigation support, financial protection or guarantee.
- It scans websites, not mobile apps.
Our verdict: BearScan or Siteimprove
Choose Siteimprove for an organization-wide program with governance, documents and expert services, and a procurement process to match. Choose BearScan to check a site this week, with a published price, and hand the results to developers.
Whichever you pick, no automated tool can certify that a site is ADA compliant. The Justice Department’s guidance (opens in a new tab) says a “clean” report doesn’t necessarily mean everything is accessible, and our WCAG criteria pages say which criteria need a person.
Check your own site
The quickest way to compare is to see your own results. The scan is free and takes about a minute.
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Sources are listed beside each claim. Siteimprove’s own site: siteimprove.com (opens in a new tab).
Questions
Is BearScan an alternative to Siteimprove?
For finding accessibility problems, yes. Siteimprove is a enterprise platform: An enterprise platform that monitors accessibility across web pages, documents and apps, with manual audits and training. BearScan is a scanner that reports each issue with the page, the element, the fix and the rule it breaks, and never claims a site is compliant.
How much does BearScan cost compared with Siteimprove?
Scanning is free: 10 pages without an account, up to 100 pages of one site with a free account. A full report is $49 per site and Monitoring is $29 a month per site. Siteimprove: Quote only; third-party estimates run $10,000 to $150,000+ a year.
Does BearScan change my website like Siteimprove can?
No. BearScan only reads your public pages and reports what it finds. Siteimprove: No: it monitors and guides remediation.
How much does Siteimprove cost?
Siteimprove publishes no prices and sells by quote after a demo. A competing vendor's blog estimates quotes at roughly $10,000 to $150,000 or more a year, which is an estimate, not Siteimprove's figure.
Does Siteimprove fix issues automatically?
No. It monitors content and guides remediation, and Siteimprove contrasts itself with overlays that don't fix the underlying code.
How often does Siteimprove scan?
A University of California FAQ says it crawls a site every five days by default, adjustable through a support request.
Does Siteimprove check PDFs and logged-in pages?
Siteimprove says it monitors PDFs and authenticated pages. Its help center says PDFs over 20 MB aren't checked and that PDF checking must be included in your subscription.