How Much Does a Shopify Accessibility Audit Cost? (2026 Pricing)
How much does it actually cost to audit and fix accessibility on a Shopify store? The answer depends on tier — there are four distinct ways to do it, each with documented public pricing and a different scope of deliverable. This guide covers all four, the realistic cost range for each, what they deliver, and which fits which store size.
What an "accessibility audit" actually delivers
An audit is not a fix. The audit produces a report — typically a list of WCAG criteria the storefront fails, the specific elements + URLs where each failure occurs, and a remediation recommendation per failure. The work of actually applying the fix is separate.
Different tiers package the audit + fix work differently:
| Tier | Audit | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Free automated scan | Yes (axe-core, ~30-40% coverage) | No (lists violations only) |
| AI auto-fix subscription | Yes (axe-core, with manual-review flagging) | Yes (~70-80% auto, remainder flagged) |
| Freelance consultant | Yes (manual + automated) | Separate engagement |
| Accessibility firm | Yes (manual + automated, VPAT-grade) | Separate engagement, optional retainer |
The cheapest tier covers 30-40% of criteria; the most expensive covers everything but charges enterprise rates. The middle tiers exist because most Shopify stores do not need the firm-grade VPAT and would not justify the firm-grade price.
Tier 1 — Free automated scan
Cost: $0. Coverage: 30-40% of WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA criteria — everything axe-core can verify automatically. Deliverable: a list of failures with the exact CSS selector, the WCAG criterion, the severity, and the suggested fix. Best for: every Shopify merchant as a starting point. Validates the violation count and lawsuit-risk tier before spending anything.
AccessComply's free scanner runs axe-core via Playwright on the live storefront, scans desktop and mobile viewports, and reports per-failure with full URL + selector context. The report is downloadable; the merchant can share it with whoever does the remediation.
The 30-40% coverage gap is real — a free automated scan does not catch:
- Most cognitive-load issues (3.1.x, 3.2.x criteria).
- Most semantic-meaning issues (1.3.1 Info and Relationships).
- Live-region / status-message timing.
- Real screen-reader navigation experience.
- Form-flow logic (3.3.4 Error Prevention for legal/financial transactions).
Closing the gap requires either an AI-augmented tool (tier 2) or a human auditor (tier 3 or 4).
Tier 2 — AI auto-fix subscription
Cost: $49-$399/month. Coverage: 70-80% of WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA criteria auto-fixed; remainder flagged for manual review. Deliverable: ongoing scans + automatic source-code fixes applied to the theme + accessibility statement + audit trail. Best for: small / mid / most enterprise Shopify stores.
AccessComply's subscription tiers:
- Starter — $49/month: unlimited scans, deterministic auto-fixes (alt text, contrast, form labels, skip nav, focus indicators, heading order, ARIA labels), quarterly monitoring.
- Shield — $99/month: + AI fixes (context-dependent issues like nuanced alt text, ARIA descriptions), monthly monitoring, accessibility statement generation.
- Fortress — $199/month: + weekly monitoring, priority support.
- Citadel — $399/month: + dedicated support, enterprise features, multi-store consolidated reporting.
All tiers include automatic theme backups before every fix, post-fix re-scan verification, and rollback if a fix introduces a regression.
For comparison, overlay-vendor pricing (accessiBe, UserWay, AudioEye, EqualWeb) ranges $49-$490/month for tools that do not modify source code and do not produce ADA compliance per the FTC's January 2025 order against accessiBe. The pricing is similar; the deliverable is fundamentally different. Honest comparison →
Tier 3 — Freelance accessibility consultant
Cost: $1,500-$5,000 for a one-time Shopify store audit + remediation report, plus $150-$250/hr for ongoing remediation work. Coverage: full WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA — manual + automated review. Deliverable: a written report with screenshots, severity ratings, and recommended fixes. Best for: medium-traffic Shopify stores that want a one-time human-reviewed report and have an internal developer to apply the fixes.
Freelance accessibility consultants are usually individual contributors with WCAG-EM (Evaluation Methodology) experience, often holding the IAAP CPACC or WAS certification. They run automated scans, then manually evaluate the criteria automation cannot test — keyboard navigation, screen-reader-only content patterns, semantic meaning, cognitive-load issues.
The audit produces a report. The fix work is typically billed separately at $150-$250/hr. A small Shopify store with a clean violation list might absorb 5-10 fix hours; a complex Plus store might run 30+ hours.
A freelance consultant does not produce a VPAT-grade Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). For VPAT/ACR, see Tier 4.
Tier 4 — Accessibility firm
Cost: $5,000-$25,000 for an initial Shopify store audit + remediation roadmap; $2,000-$10,000/year for ongoing monitoring + retainer. Coverage: full WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA + Section 508 + EN 301 549, manual + automated, multiple auditors per review. Deliverable: comprehensive conformance report, draft VPAT 2.5, optional remediation engagement. Best for: enterprise Shopify Plus stores with regulatory exposure (federal contracts, state/EU market-surveillance enforcement, public-sector resale, BFS application prep).
Established firms — Deque, TPGi, Level Access, Siteimprove, Allyant — staff teams of certified accessibility auditors and run multi-day reviews on storefronts with detailed manual evaluation. The deliverable is enterprise-grade: a published conformance report, a draft VPAT for procurement, and typically an ongoing retainer for remediation guidance.
The retainer matters: WCAG conformance is not a one-time achievement. Theme updates, new product additions, third-party app installs, content updates all introduce regressions. Firms include ongoing monitoring + quarterly re-audits in the typical $2K-$10K/year tier.
For most Shopify stores, Tier 4 is overkill. For stores that genuinely need it (Fortune 500 brands on Plus, B2B Plus selling to federal/EU procurement, public-sector resellers), it is the only tier that produces the legally-defensible documentation buyers expect.
Total cost over 12 months — by store size
| Store size | Free scan | AI subscription | + Freelance one-time | + Firm one-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby / under $50K/yr | $0 | $588 ($49 × 12) | — | — |
| Small / $50K-$500K/yr | $0 | $1,188 ($99 × 12) | + $2,500 audit | — |
| Mid / $500K-$5M/yr | $0 | $2,388 ($199 × 12) | + $4,000 audit + $2K fix | + $8,000 audit |
| Plus / $5M+ /yr | $0 | $4,788 ($399 × 12) | — | + $15,000 audit + $5K/yr retainer |
The numbers above are illustrative ranges based on public pricing across the market. Specific quotes vary with store complexity, integration count, multi-language footprint, and timeline urgency.
What about lawsuit-cost avoidance?
A typical ADA Title III settlement on a small/mid-size Shopify store runs $5,000-$25,000 plus $10,000-$50,000 in defense legal fees plus $2K-$20K mandatory remediation plus $2K-$10K ongoing monitoring under a typical 12-18 month consent decree. See the live Lawsuit Cost Calculator for a state + revenue-specific estimate.
Even the highest-tier subscription cost ($4,788/year) is less than the lower bound of a single ADA settlement. The math favors prevention by a wide margin.
Decision tree
Is your store live and accepting orders? → Yes → Run a free scan today.
│
Did the free scan return CRITICAL or HIGH? ──────┘
Yes → AI subscription ($49-$199/month) is the right starting tier.
No → AI subscription Starter or just maintain the free quarterly scan.
Are you on Shopify Plus + selling to enterprise / government? → Yes → Add a firm audit at year 1.
Are you in the BFS application track? → Yes → Combine AI subscription + freelance audit at month 30.
Are you preparing for an EU member-state market-surveillance check? → Yes → Combine AI subscription + firm audit + per-country accessibility statement.
Quick checklist for evaluating any audit vendor
- Does the audit produce a written report (not just a dashboard)?
- Does the report cover both WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA?
- Does the deliverable include the specific selector / element for every failure?
- Does the vendor produce a VPAT/ACR (required for federal contracts)?
- Is ongoing monitoring included or extra?
- Is remediation work included or billed separately?
- Is the audit scope per-page, per-template, or whole-storefront?
- Does the vendor have certified auditors (CPACC, WAS, IAAP)?
- Does the vendor publish their methodology publicly?
Further reading
Scan your store free, fix violations at the source
AccessComply scans your Shopify store for ADA + EAA / WCAG 2.1 + 2.2 AA violations and applies real source-code fixes — no overlays, no widgets.