In this post, we’ll breakdown how exactly we calculate the final audit quote we send out to our clients. We’ll also cover reasons our audits are among the best in the industry.
How Much Does an ADA Website Compliance Audit Cost?
Accessible.org audits cost between $2,500 – $7,500 for most clients. The audit cost varies based on pages in scope, complex elements, and accessibility status. Our website accessibility audit cost includes WCAG 2.1 AA standard and fully manual evaluation.
To learn more purchasing an audit, read our guide to the perfect ADA website compliance audit where we talk about what it looks like for the client when everything goes right.
Disclaimer: This breakdown applies to the vast majority of websites. If your website is a platform or extremely unique, obviously this can change how we calculate the price.
Table of Contents
Pages in Scope
We charge $250 to $350 per page for a website accessibility audit so the number of pages in scope will directly impact the final price.
Of course, the final scope is always up to the website owner but we recommend the scope includes:
- primary userflows
- primary layouts
- most trafficked pages
- pages with unique content
So for larger websites with more layouts, etc., the project scope will usually encompass more pages (or screens) and thus the final price will be higher.
Note that screens can include different views such as a series of interfaces that appear within a single URL.
The $250 – $350 price range depends on the complexity of the work each page requires. For instance, a simple, information-based website like a WordPress blog is easier to audit than a Shopify e-commerce site. Therefore, the blog would be at the lower end of the range, while the Shopify site would be at the higher end.
If you need 10 pages of your website audited, you can estimate the cost by multiplying 10 by $300, resulting in $3,000. Your final quote will likely be very close to that number.
Complexity
As we just previewed, the complexity of a website will directly affect the cost of the audit. But what exactly does this mean?
Complexity correlates with the dynamic nature of a website. What is complex basically comes down to the degree to which interact elements are involved. Interactive elements include many functional components such as:
- Selectors
- Menus
- Sliders
- Checkboxes
- Form fields
- Radio buttons
So the more a user can interact with the website, the more functionality that is present, the more time we will spend testing and inspecting and, thus, the higher the cost will be.
To keep things simple, we assign the complexity of a page to one of three categories with the approximate cost:
- low – $250
- medium – $300
- high – $350
Accessibility Status
A third factor in the audit cost is the current state of accessibility. We can get a really good feel of your website’s overall level of accessibility just through a quick initial assessment of your website.
If we conclude there are many accessibility issues for us to work through, this will increase the price. If the website looks fairly clean, this will keep the price towards our baseline.
Either way, we still evaluate all content and elements within scope. The difference is that for websites with more accessibility issues, the evaluation and reporting will take us longer.
Keep in mind, we expect websites to have accessibility issues so if there are dozens of unique issues, this is par for the course.
In an extreme scenario, one client requested a quote on a very old ecommerce website using outdated technology. The homepage alone had so many accessibility issues that we recommended a complete rebuild because it would have been much cheaper and faster to create a brand new, fully accessible design on the Shopify platform than to audit and fix all of the issues.
Audit Quality
One aspect of ADA website audits that is commonly presumed by clients is quality, but the quality of website accessibility audits within the industry varies significantly. And just because you hire an expensive digital accessibility company doesn’t mean you will get a high quality audit.
There’s a loose analogy to fast food when it comes to how some companies produce audits. For the factory style settings, it’s more like they churn out audits rather than anything else. And, of course, when you’re churning out something that shouldn’t be mass produced, the quality is sacrificed.
Put simply, there are a fair amount of accessibility companies churn out pour quality audits.
Part of the Accessible.org audit price is the high quality of our audits. Our technical experts genuinely care about accessibility and spend time to ensure that no accessibility issues are missed and the client receives a thorough, detailed report that is easy to understand.
Fully Manual Audits
Another way we differ from many digital accessibility companies is our audits are always fully manual. While we review scan results to ensure comprehensive coverage and accuracy, we never copy and paste them into our audit reports.
We conduct only fully manual evaluations and firmly reject hybrid audits. Scan results are used solely to complement our manual process, ensuring thoroughness and accuracy in identifying accessibility issues.
Mobile and Desktop
Our audits also include evaluating your website in desktop environment with the option to add mobile device testing as well. This means you’ll know of accessibility issues present on desktop environment and can easily add-on mobile device testing.
Desktop audits cover approximately 90% of accessibility issues across all devices. Most key considerations like headings, screen reader compatibility, and keyboard navigation are identical between desktop and mobile. Mobile-specific testing focuses primarily on touch target sizes, gesture controls, and responsive layouts and usually only costs an additional 10%.
Attention to Detail
We also pay close attention to detail because we know better than anyone else that details matter when it comes to accessibility. Not only in terms of access, but in terms of lawsuits.
WCAG Standard
By default, our audits are conducted using the WCAG 2.1 AA standard. Version 2.1 conformance level AA has been incorporated as the technical standard for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and provides for robust accessibility. For an additional fee, we can evaluate using the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
Summary
This is how we determine the price of our website accessibility audit services along with what sets us apart. Generally, your quote will come down to:
- number of pages in scope
- complexity of pages
- accessibility status
Our pricing page contains are prices on the other services and training we offer.
We believe in being completely transparent with clients. We not only describe exactly what we offer, but we tell you how much it will cost.
This saves both us and our clients and prospective clients so much time and ultimately money. When expectations are clear, it really sets a strong foundation going forward.
