Checkly is code-first synthetic monitoring for engineers. PageGuard is no-code site health monitoring for everyone — auditing WCAG/ADA accessibility, Core Web Vitals, and SEO in 30 seconds without writing a single line of code.
ADA Title II Deadline: April 24, 2026
State and local government websites must meet WCAG 2.1 AA. Checkly can run custom accessibility assertions if you write them in Playwright, but requires engineering effort. PageGuard continuously monitors WCAG/ADA health automatically — alerting you before violations occur, no code changes needed.
| Feature | PageGuard | Checkly |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free + from $9/mo | Free (10k check runs/mo) + from $20/mo |
| Who is it for? | Small businesses, designers, agencies — no-code site health monitoring | Software engineers who want to write JavaScript/TypeScript monitoring checks as code |
| Accessibility audit (WCAG / ADA) | ✓ Yes — WCAG 2.1 AA scored 0–100 with specific issue list | No — does not audit WCAG or ADA accessibility compliance |
| Technical SEO audit | ✓ Yes — meta tags, headings, canonical, structured data | No — no SEO analysis or content auditing |
| Performance audit (Core Web Vitals) | ✓ Yes — LCP, CLS, FCP scored 0–100 | Partial — can collect Web Vitals via Playwright scripts, requires custom coding |
| Setup complexity | ✓ Zero — paste URL, get results in 30 seconds | High — requires JavaScript/TypeScript knowledge to write Playwright check scripts |
| API monitoring | No — focuses on public page health, not API endpoints | ✓ Yes — first-class API check support with assertions, headers, and auth |
| Browser workflow testing | No — scans pages, does not run scripted user flows | ✓ Yes — Playwright-powered browser checks for login flows, checkout, etc. |
| Best Practices audit | ✓ Yes — HTTPS, security headers, image optimization, more | No — no automated best practices auditing |
| AI-generated plain-English report | ✓ Yes — explains issues in non-technical language | No — outputs pass/fail assertions, no AI analysis |
| ADA Title II compliance monitoring | ✓ Yes — WCAG audit + alert on accessibility regression | No — does not audit or monitor ADA/WCAG compliance |
| CI/CD integration | No — standalone monitoring dashboard | ✓ Yes — GitHub Actions, Vercel, Netlify, and more deployment integrations |
| Code-first monitoring | No — visual dashboard for non-technical users | ✓ Yes — checks defined as TypeScript files, version-controlled with your codebase |
| Multi-site support | Yes — 1–50 sites depending on plan | Yes — unlimited check groups |
| Non-technical user friendly | ✓ Yes — designed for business owners and marketers | No — requires software engineering knowledge to write and maintain checks |
Performance + Accessibility + SEO + Best Practices in 30 seconds. No Playwright, no JavaScript, no setup — just paste a URL.
Results in ~30 seconds. 4 scores: Performance, Accessibility, SEO, Best Practices.
They serve very different audiences. Checkly is a code-first synthetic monitoring platform where engineers write Playwright TypeScript scripts to test API endpoints and browser user flows. PageGuard is a no-code website health monitor — paste a URL and get scored audits of Performance (Core Web Vitals), Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA), Technical SEO, and Best Practices in 30 seconds. If you need accessibility and SEO quality monitoring without engineering effort, PageGuard is the right tool.
Not automatically. You can add axe-core assertions to a Checkly Playwright browser check to test accessibility, but this requires custom JavaScript code to write and maintain. PageGuard automatically audits WCAG 2.1 AA compliance on every scan with zero code — critical for businesses preparing for the ADA Title II deadline on April 24, 2026.
Synthetic monitoring (like Checkly) runs scripted checks you write in code — testing that APIs return correct data and browser workflows complete successfully. Website health monitoring (like PageGuard) automatically audits page quality: performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. PageGuard requires no scripting — it analyzes what’s already on your page and scores it against industry standards.
Yes — they are complementary for engineering teams. Use Checkly to run Playwright browser checks and API assertions as part of your CI/CD deployment pipeline. Use PageGuard to continuously monitor site quality — WCAG/ADA accessibility, Core Web Vitals, technical SEO, and best practices — across all your production sites without writing any monitoring code. PageGuard starts at $9/month for up to 5 sites, free for one-off scans.