StackPath delivers websites through an Anycast CDN with 50+ PoPs, a Web Application Firewall, DDoS mitigation, and Edge Compute — but as an edge security platform it has no WCAG accessibility audit of pages it serves, no Core Web Vitals scoring, and no post-deployment front-end quality monitoring. PageGuard audits any website behind StackPath externally — free, no StackPath account access needed, results in 30 seconds.
ADA Title II Deadline: April 24, 2026
State and local government websites must meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 24, 2026. Government agencies, nonprofits, and educational institutions using StackPath for CDN delivery and WAF protection face this compliance deadline. StackPath's WAF filters malicious requests but cannot detect whether legitimate HTML responses contain WCAG violations such as missing alt text, broken heading hierarchy, or insufficient color contrast. An accessibility regression in pages served through StackPath is delivered immediately to all users at full CDN speed — with no StackPath alert, detection, or blocking. PageGuard checks all pages served through StackPath without requiring your StackPath account credentials or WAF configuration access.
| Feature | PageGuard | StackPath |
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | External website health monitor — scans any deployed URL for performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices | StackPath is a US-based edge computing and security platform founded in 2015 by Lance Crosby (former CEO of SoftLayer, which was acquired by IBM); StackPath provides Anycast CDN delivery across 50+ PoPs, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with OWASP rule sets, DDoS mitigation at the network edge, Edge Compute (serverless JavaScript execution at PoPs), and a private transit network backbone connecting its PoPs; StackPath targets security-conscious organizations that want CDN delivery combined with WAF and DDoS protection in a single platform; StackPath's WAF operates as a reverse proxy that inspects and filters HTTP traffic before it reaches the origin server; StackPath does not analyze the accessibility compliance, SEO quality, or Core Web Vitals of the websites it secures and delivers |
| Free tier | ✓ Yes — unlimited one-off scans, no signup required | No — StackPath does not offer a self-service free tier; StackPath CDN pricing starts at $10/month for 1 TB of bandwidth; StackPath WAF starts at $10/month per site; StackPath offers a trial for evaluation; however, StackPath has no WCAG accessibility auditing, no Core Web Vitals measurement, no technical SEO audit of websites it secures and delivers, and no ADA compliance monitoring at any price tier |
| Accessibility audit (WCAG / ADA) | ✓ Yes — WCAG 2.1 AA scored 0–100 with specific issue list | No — StackPath is an edge security and CDN platform that operates as a reverse proxy between users and origin servers; StackPath's WAF inspects incoming HTTP requests for malicious patterns and DDoS traffic, but does not analyze the HTML accessibility quality of the responses served to legitimate users; StackPath has no built-in WCAG compliance checking, accessibility scoring, ADA compliance monitoring, or HTML quality analysis; detecting WCAG violations on websites protected and delivered through StackPath requires an external audit tool that scans the live rendered HTML |
| Technical SEO audit | ✓ Yes — meta tags, headings, canonical, structured data | No — StackPath provides no SEO audit of websites it secures and delivers; StackPath analytics show CDN performance metrics, WAF block rates, DDoS event counts, and bandwidth usage — not the SEO quality of the HTML pages being served; StackPath does not analyze meta tag completeness, heading hierarchy, canonical URL correctness, structured data validity, or other technical SEO factors of web pages delivered through its CDN and WAF |
| Performance audit (Core Web Vitals) | ✓ Yes — LCP, CLS, FCP scored 0–100 per scan | No — StackPath analytics measure edge-layer performance metrics such as cache hit ratio, response time (TTFB at the edge), bandwidth, and request counts; StackPath does not measure browser-side Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, FCP, INP) as experienced by real users rendering pages served through StackPath; StackPath's Anycast routing, edge caching, and private transit backbone reduce TTFB and improve asset delivery speed, but measuring the actual browser-level Core Web Vitals requires external performance testing tools that run the full page render including JavaScript execution |
| Anycast CDN + WAF + DDoS protection | No — PageGuard is an external monitoring tool, not an edge security or CDN delivery service | ✓ Yes — StackPath's core value proposition: integrated CDN delivery and edge security on a single platform; StackPath CDN: Anycast routing across 50+ PoPs with a private fiber backbone connecting PoPs for low-latency inter-PoP traffic, HTTP/2, TLS 1.3, Brotli compression, real-time purge, and edge caching with cache rules configuration; StackPath WAF: Layer 7 web application firewall with OWASP Top 10 rule sets, custom rule creation, bot mitigation, rate limiting, IP reputation blocking, and challenge (CAPTCHA) responses for suspicious traffic; StackPath DDoS: network-level volumetric DDoS mitigation, Layer 3/4/7 attack scrubbing using StackPath's backbone and Anycast to absorb attack traffic before it reaches the origin; StackPath Edge Compute: serverless JavaScript execution at PoP locations using the V8 engine, allowing custom request/response manipulation at the edge without cold starts; StackPath's combined CDN + WAF + Edge Compute model lets security and performance teams manage delivery and protection from a unified dashboard |
| Automated website monitoring | ✓ Yes — weekly or daily scans with email alerts on score drop | No — StackPath does not perform automated front-end quality monitoring of WCAG compliance, Core Web Vitals, or SEO quality for websites it secures; StackPath provides security event alerts (WAF blocks, DDoS events, anomaly detection) and CDN performance analytics but does not monitor HTML accessibility regressions, Core Web Vitals degradation, or SEO issues on the web pages served through StackPath; automated front-end quality monitoring of websites using StackPath requires a separate external monitoring tool |
| AI-generated plain-English report | ✓ Yes — explains issues in non-technical language | No — StackPath provides no AI-generated health report or plain-English explanation of front-end accessibility, SEO, or Core Web Vitals issues for websites it secures; the StackPath dashboard shows security event logs, WAF rule matches, CDN performance analytics, and bandwidth billing — not front-end quality analysis of the web pages being delivered |
| ADA Title II compliance monitoring | ✓ Yes — WCAG audit + alert on accessibility regression | No — StackPath does not audit or alert on WCAG compliance for websites it secures and delivers; government agencies, nonprofits, and educational institutions using StackPath for CDN and WAF protection face ADA Title II compliance requirements with an April 24, 2026 deadline; StackPath's WAF protects against malicious traffic but cannot detect whether legitimate HTML responses contain WCAG violations such as missing alt text, broken heading hierarchy, or insufficient color contrast; an accessibility regression in HTML pages served through StackPath is delivered to all users immediately without any StackPath alert or detection |
| Works on any deployed platform | ✓ Yes — scans any URL on any hosting or platform | StackPath operates as a reverse proxy in front of websites hosted on any platform (dedicated servers, cloud hosting, on-premises), routing traffic through StackPath's CDN and WAF before serving it to users; StackPath does not scan or monitor the front-end quality of the web pages it secures and serves; StackPath is an edge security and delivery platform, not a web page health monitoring service |
| Independent external audit | ✓ Yes — third-party scan, shareable URL for clients/stakeholders | No — StackPath provides no built-in tool to generate a shareable external front-end health report for websites it secures; the StackPath portal provides WAF event logs, DDoS event history, CDN analytics, and SSL certificate management — not WCAG accessibility scores or Core Web Vitals quality scores shareable with clients, procurement teams, or ADA compliance auditors |
| Instant on-demand scan | ✓ Yes — results in 30 seconds, no code changes needed | No — no on-demand front-end health scan of websites behind StackPath; auditing a StackPath-protected website for WCAG accessibility, Core Web Vitals, or SEO quality requires running third-party tools against the public URL; StackPath has no concept of scanning the HTML quality or accessibility compliance of web pages served through its CDN and WAF |
| Multi-site dashboard | ✓ Yes — 1–50 sites depending on plan | StackPath's portal manages multiple CDN sites and WAF configurations across an account; there is no cross-website front-end health dashboard showing WCAG compliance, SEO quality, or Core Web Vitals for multiple websites using StackPath as their CDN and WAF layer |
| Pricing for health monitoring | ✓ Free + from $9/mo for automated monitoring | Front-end health monitoring not available — StackPath CDN from $10/month (1 TB bandwidth); StackPath WAF from $10/month per site; Edge Compute pricing based on CPU time and requests; no WCAG or Core Web Vitals monitoring at any tier |
Get WCAG accessibility scores and Core Web Vitals for any website behind StackPath CDN or WAF. Checks alt text, heading hierarchy, color contrast, and overall page health in 30 seconds. No StackPath account, WAF credentials, or portal access required.
Results in ~30 seconds. 4 scores: Performance, Accessibility, SEO, Best Practices.
Yes — PageGuard scans any public URL regardless of whether it is protected by StackPath, Cloudflare, Fastly, or any other edge security platform. Paste your website URL into PageGuard for a full health report covering WCAG accessibility, Core Web Vitals, SEO, and best practices in ~30 seconds. PageGuard scans the HTML response that legitimate users receive through StackPath, checking for alt text, heading structure, meta tags, color contrast, Core Web Vitals, and more. No StackPath account, WAF credentials, or portal access required.
No — StackPath is an edge computing and security platform (Anycast CDN + WAF + DDoS protection) that secures and accelerates website delivery. It has no built-in WCAG compliance checking, accessibility scoring, or ADA compliance monitoring. StackPath's WAF inspects incoming requests for malicious traffic patterns (SQL injection, XSS, bot traffic) but does not analyze the HTML quality of responses served to legitimate users. Detecting WCAG violations on live production pages behind StackPath requires an external audit tool like PageGuard.
No — StackPath's WAF addresses security threats (malicious requests, bot attacks, DDoS) but has no impact on WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance. ADA Title II compliance is determined by the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript accessibility of the pages themselves, not by the security layer protecting the server. A website fully protected by StackPath WAF and DDoS mitigation can still fail WCAG 2.1 AA due to missing alt text, insufficient color contrast, keyboard navigation issues, or broken heading hierarchy. PageGuard audits the rendered HTML for WCAG compliance independently of any security or CDN layer in front of the site.
No — they serve completely different purposes. StackPath is an edge computing and security platform providing Anycast CDN delivery across 50+ PoPs with a private backbone, a Web Application Firewall with OWASP rule sets and custom rules, Layer 3/4/7 DDoS mitigation, and Edge Compute (serverless JavaScript execution at PoP locations). PageGuard is an external quality monitoring tool that audits the front-end HTML of deployed web pages for WCAG compliance, Core Web Vitals, and SEO quality. Organizations using StackPath for edge security and CDN delivery should also use PageGuard to verify that their HTML pages meet accessibility standards that StackPath's security and delivery layer does not monitor.