The free scan without an account

On the home page you can scan any website without creating an account. You see the result before you decide on anything.

How the scan works

1. Enter the website’s address and choose “Start scan”.
2. The scan uses the sitemap and links to pick a meaningful selection of up to 30 pages, respecting the website’s robots.txt.
3. A real browser loads every page, also at 320 pixels wide, and checks it. The result is usually ready within a few minutes; the report updates itself in the meantime.

What exactly is checked: What the service checks – and what it doesn’t.

What the result contains

• the full scan report with every place, its pages, selector, measured value and screenshot,
• the uncertain results and the manual checks – you can assess findings and uncertain results without an account and read the manual checks; answering them takes an account: Answering the manual checks,
• a preview of the draft of your accessibility statement. The draft can be copied and downloaded in an account as soon as it is finished: Using the draft yourself.

The report is reachable at its address. The address cannot be guessed – but anyone who has it can open the report. Only pass it on if that is fine with you.

Limits – and why they exist

• The same website at most 3 times a day. Every scan loads dozens of pages from someone else’s server, and without an account we cannot know whether you run it. Once your domain is verified in your account, this limit no longer applies to your website.
• A short proof of work in the browser protects against abuse. The scan also works without JavaScript, but is limited more tightly then.
• No login areas, no click paths, no scheduled scans. Those require a verified domain.

What happens to your data

Results and screenshots of a free scan are deleted after 7 days. Before that, you can download the report including the images as a PDF: Reading the scan report. Form field contents are masked in the scanner’s browser before anything is stored. Details are in the privacy policy.

From the free scan to the statement

A free scan does not belong to any website in an account. Its manual checks therefore cannot be answered, its draft stays a preview, and it cannot be published. But you do not have to start over.

Above every page of the scan, the bar “Your path to the statement” shows what comes next; without an account its button reads “Create an account and continue” and, if you are already signed in, “Move this scan into an account”. Every link into the account carries this one name on the pages of the scan – including the one in the overview’s “Without an account” section, which says what works without an account and what does not. They all do the same thing: the scan moves into your account together with your assessment, creating the website along the way. Once that has happened, the “Without an account” section disappears.

If you do not have an account yet, the button takes you to registration first; the page there names the website whose scan you are continuing. If you already have one, sign in instead. In both cases the manual checks of this scan open afterwards, and a message confirms that it now belongs to your account. If the scan cannot be moved – for instance because your plan does not allow another website –, the account is created all the same, and the scan overview gives the reason at the very top, above the bar.

Two things moving the scan does not change:

• The domain stays unverified. A moved website gives nobody rights over someone else's domain; publishing still requires verification. If another organization has already verified the same domain, the scan is not moved.
• The evidence-image deadline keeps running. It is fixed when the scan is created and moving the scan does not extend it. If you need the images longer, download the PDF first: Reading the scan report.

After that it continues within the scan, station by station – the bar guides you: Reading the scan report.

1. Answer the manual checks: Answering the manual checks.
2. In the “Statement” tab, give the details for the statement. That completes your draft, and you can use it yourself – in every plan and without a verified domain: Using the draft yourself.
3. If you want to publish through the service, verify the domain for that (Adding a website and verifying the domain) – from the Starter plan: From scan to published statement.