Two checkers, two shapes
WAVE puts icons and indicators on the page you are looking at. You inspect the live rendering. You see where the issue sits in the layout. That is excellent for developers and auditors who already know how to read a page.
Plainscan takes a Shopify or WordPress URL you paste. It reads the markup the server actually sends. It returns a report in English, with severity totals, then (for $14 once) copy-paste alt text, labels, contrast notes, and a PDF. You do not need to learn WAVE's icon language to know what to type into the theme.
Neither one is a legal certification. Neither one catches everything. If someone tells you a scan equals ADA or WCAG compliance, they are selling something Plainscan refuses to sell.
What WAVE is especially good at
Give WAVE credit. It is the tool a lot of people mean when they say "accessibility checker."
- You stay on the page. The issue is spatially where the control is.
- It is a known WebAIM project. The vocabulary matches how accessibility people already talk.
- It is the right first move when you can sit in a browser and click around a template.
If that is your workflow, keep using WAVE. Plainscan is not trying to be a WAVE skin, a WAVE clone, or a "WAVE but cheaper" pitch. WAVE's visual overlay-on-the-page model is the point of WAVE. We do not overlay the page.
What Plainscan is for instead
Plainscan is for the owner who will paste a fix tonight.
- Paste the URL. No extension required for the basic job.
- Free scan: no account, severity totals in plain English, 1 to 2 sample findings with fixes redacted.
- $14 once for that scan: full copy-paste list plus PDF.
- The report talks about missing alt, missing labels, contrast, heading structure. Not a wall of codes.
That maps to Shopify product photos, WordPress contact forms, and theme heading soup. Overlays do not rewrite those. WAVE will show you they are wrong. Plainscan will try to hand you the sentence to paste. How the scan runs is the mechanic. Pricing is the $14 line, with no monthly plan.
Not the same as an accessibility overlay
"Overlay" in the WAVE sense means icons drawn on the page you are testing. "Overlay" in the vendor-widget sense means a toolbar injected onto the live site for visitors (the accessiBe / UserWay pattern). Those are not the same thing.
- WAVE's overlay is a testing UI. Useful. Honest about being a checker.
- Product overlays claim to help end users without you changing HTML. They do not rewrite product photos, form labels, or heading structure.
Plainscan is closer to WAVE in intent (find issues) and closer to a written audit in output (a list, a PDF). It is not a visitor-facing widget. If your question is "should I buy a toolbar instead of fixing markup," the answer is no, and that argument lives on accessibility overlay alternative.
When to use which
- Use WAVE when you are looking at the page and want the issue pinned to the pixel.
- Use Plainscan when you want to paste a URL, read English, and leave with copy-paste fixes and a PDF.
- Use a human when you care about keyboard paths, screen reader UX, or anything past what automation can see. What scanners miss.
You can use both. Plenty of people will. The home scanner is Plainscan's half of that split.
FAQ
Is Plainscan trying to replace WAVE?
No. WAVE is a visual overlay-on-the-page checker from WebAIM. Plainscan is a pasted-URL report with plain-English, copy-paste fixes. Different jobs.
Does Plainscan overlay icons on my site?
No. Nothing is injected. You paste a URL. You get a report. It is a checker, not an overlay widget.
If WAVE is free, why would I pay $14?
You pay for the full Plainscan fix list and PDF for that scan. WAVE remains a strong free way to inspect the live page. Pay only if you want the written, copy-paste output.