Guide
How much does a website accessibility audit cost?
Short answer: anywhere from free to $25,000, and the spread is not random. A manual expert audit of a small business site typically runs $2,000 to $7,000 and takes two to four weeks. Automated services run $100 to $500 and finish in hours. Free scanners cost nothing and check one page superficially. Here is what actually sets the price, so you can decide what you need before anyone quotes you.
The market, tier by tier
| Option | Typical price | Turnaround | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free scanner (WAVE, Lighthouse) | $0 | Instant | One page, the machine-checkable subset only, no report you can hand to anyone |
| Automated audit services | $100 to $500 | Hours to days | Whole-site automated findings in a structured report, nobody has reviewed it |
| Freelance specialist | $50 to $300 per page | 1 to 3 weeks | Manual expert review, quality varies with the individual, scheduling is yours to manage |
| Agency manual audit | $2,000 to $7,000 (SMB), $10,000 to $25,000+ (larger sites) | 2 to 6 weeks | Full manual WCAG evaluation, credentialed team, remediation guidance |
| AuditRush signed audit | $490 (10 pages) / $990 (25 pages) | 48-72 hours | Full-site evidence-backed findings, reviewed and signed by an IAAP-certified specialist |
| AuditRush automated audit | $149 | 24 hours | The same testing pipeline without human review, and the report says so on page one |
What actually drives the price
- Manual hours. A thorough human evaluation of one page against WCAG 2.1 AA takes a trained specialist one to three hours. Multiply by pages and you have most of an agency quote.
- Page count and complexity. Forms, checkout flows, PDFs, and web apps cost more than brochure pages, at every vendor.
- Credentials on the report. A named, certified reviewer (IAAP CPACC or WAS) is worth paying for when the report has to convince someone else: your attorney, a procurement team, a court. It is worth nothing if you only want a to-do list for your developer.
- Report depth. A list of failing elements is cheap. Findings with severity, evidence, WCAG criterion mapping, and concrete fix instructions take longer to produce and are what your developer and your attorney will actually use.
Why our signed audit is $490 when agencies charge $3,000
Automation does the sweep. Our testing pipeline captures every page, runs the full set of deterministic checks, and applies automated judgment to the criteria that need context, with evidence recorded for every finding. A certified specialist then reviews the findings, spot-tests the site, strikes anything that does not hold, and signs the report by name. You pay for expert judgment where it matters and not for the hours a machine can do better. The method is documented in full on our methodology page, including what the automation can and cannot see.
Which tier you actually need
- You received a demand letter or lawsuit: the signed audit, no question. Your attorney needs findings that survive scrutiny and a named credential behind them. This is the specific situation an unsigned report is not built for. Start with our 72-hour demand letter guide.
- You want to know where you stand: the $149 automated audit finds the bulk of real, fixable problems at a price that does not need a meeting to approve.
- You need proof for procurement or a regulator: the signed audit, because the signature is the point. See proactive audits.
Common questions
Is a free scan enough?
As a smoke test, yes. As an audit, no: automated checks cover roughly a third of WCAG success criteria, and free tools check one page at a time with no evidence trail. Every paid tier above exists because of what free scans miss. If you want the smoke test right now, run our free one-page check; it is honest about the same limits.
Does the audit price include fixing the site?
No, at any vendor. An audit tells you and your developer exactly what to fix and how; remediation is separate work, usually by whoever built your site. Beware of bundled "audit plus fix" quotes that blur what was independently assessed.
What does an audit cost after a demand letter?
The same as before one, at least here: flat $490 for 10 pages. What changes is the deadline. Demand letters typically give 14 to 30 days, which rules out the multi-week agency queue and is why we deliver in 48-72 hours.