WAVE vs Complience.app
WAVE is the right tool when a person is looking at one page in the browser. Complience.app is the right tool when the page has to be checked again next month, and when cookies matter as much as alt text.
WAVE vs Complience.app at a glance
| Criterion | WAVE | Complience.app |
|---|---|---|
| Job | One-off visual check in the browser | Scheduled axe-core scan plus cookies and a PDF |
| Engine | WAVE rules with inline icons | axe-core against WCAG 2.2 A/AA on Playwright |
| Recrawl | You open it again | Weekly or monthly queue |
| Cookies | Not collected | Pre-consent cookies and third-party requests |
| PDF / white-label | No | Yes; client label on Pro |
| Best for | Designers learning on one template | Agencies and owners who need a dated pack |
What is the difference between WAVE and Complience.app?
WAVE shows failures as icons on the live page. Complience.app loads the URL in Playwright, stores an axe-core score, and can recrawl it. The WebAIM Million, a WAVE-style pass over the top 1,000,000 home pages, found detectable WCAG 2 failures on 95.9% of them in 2026. That is why WAVE still belongs in a designer’s browser. It is also why a one-off pass is not a monitoring program.
Where WAVE is stronger
Inline icons on the live page, a free extension, and a teaching UI for designers. If you are learning WCAG on a single template, start there.
Where Complience.app is stronger
Headless Playwright loads, axe-core scores you can store, cookies and pixels before Accept, a PDF with a client label, and email when the score drops. WAVE does not sit in a queue and re-run itself.
Who each is for
Use WAVE while someone is looking at one template. The extension paints the failing element on the page. Use Complience.app when that URL has to be checked again next month, and when the client also asks whether analytics fired before Accept. Keep both. WAVE is the microscope. The schedule is the smoke alarm. Neither one is a cookie banner, and neither one certifies WCAG.
When should you keep both?
Keep WAVE for design QA in the browser. Schedule Complience.app on the production URL. The WebAIM Million, a WAVE-style pass, found detectable WCAG 2 failures on 95.9% of the top 1,000,000 home pages in 2026. A one-off icon pass will keep finding those. It will not email you when a theme update brings them back, and it will not list cookies set before Accept.
Other comparisons
Questions
Check a public URL
Homepage teaser. Sign in for PDF, history, and a schedule. The 7-day trial does not require a credit card.
