ScanGov vs Lighthouse
Free, open-source page audit built into Chrome, and the engine behind PageSpeed Insights. How Lighthouse and ScanGov compare on what they check, what they cost, who sees the results, and what you can show a board or auditor.
Lighthouse powers part of ScanGov's scan, so this is not a contest. Lighthouse is free, runs in Chrome, and audits one page at a time for performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO. PageSpeed Insights adds real-user Core Web Vitals from the Chrome User Experience Report. ScanGov runs those checks across every page on a schedule, adds readability, security.txt, crawler access, and the .gov check, keeps the history, and publishes a scorecard you can compare with peers.
Free tool from Google. Lighthouse website. Claims checked 2026-10-28; sources at the end of this page.
The executive view
| Question | ScanGov | Lighthouse |
|---|---|---|
| If a compliance deadline is the concern | Every page, every indicator, on a schedule, with a dated record of what changed and when. | Lighthouse grades one page at a time and keeps nothing. ScanGov runs the same checks across every page and keeps the record a deadline requires. |
| If budget is the concern | Published prices from $50 a month. The top plan is $12,000 a year. | Lighthouse is free, and ScanGov uses it. What you pay ScanGov for is the whole site, the schedule, the history, and the scorecard. |
| If public scrutiny is the concern | A public scorecard for every domain, so you see your grade before anyone else does. | Anyone can run Lighthouse on your homepage. ScanGov shows you the same grade before they do, for every page. |
| If vendor accountability is the concern | A neutral, public, monthly record you can write into a contract and check without asking the vendor. | A Lighthouse score in a contract is one page, one day, one laptop. A ScanGov scorecard is every page, every month, in public. |
| What it checksThe scope of what the tool looks at. | Accessibility, security headers, usability and Core Web Vitals, readability, and whether AI tools and search engines can read the site. Every page, against 103 open standards. More | Performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO for one page at a time, including HTTPS, HSTS, CSP, robots.txt validity, and structured data.[1] |
| What it costsWhether the price is public and what buyers report paying. | Public. $50 to $1,000 a month, by number of domains and page scans. No quote needed. More | Free and open source.[1] |
| Who can see the resultsWhether results are private to the account or public. | Public by default. Every scanned domain has a scorecard anyone can open, and your team's full dashboard is private to your account. More | A report on your screen. Nothing is stored or published unless you save it.[1] |
| Do you have to switchWhether it replaces what you have or runs next to it. | No. ScanGov runs next to whatever you use today and covers checks most suites leave out. More | Nothing to switch. ScanGov runs Lighthouse as part of its own scan, across every page, on a schedule.[1] |
| What you can show a board or auditorThe record it leaves behind. | A dated history of every score change, a public scorecard, and a trend line for every indicator. More | A one-page snapshot. There is no history, no site-wide grade, and no comparison population.[1] |
Compare in detail
Every tool on this site answers the same capability rows. Use the tabs to show one indicator at a time.
| Capability | ScanGov | Lighthouse |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | ||
| Scans the whole site on a schedule | Yes Every page in your sitemap, on a schedule, with on-demand rescans. More | No One URL per run. The CLI can be scripted, but you build and host the loop.[1] |
| Keeps a history of scores over time | Yes Pulse trend lines and a dated changelog for every indicator. More | No No. Each run is a fresh report.[1] |
| Scoped views for a team or section | Yes Filters by site, topic, and URL path, with members attached. More | Not applicable Not applicable. There are no accounts. |
| Single sign-on | Partly Okta through OpenID Connect (OIDC) on Business and Enterprise plans. Microsoft Entra ID is not supported yet. More | Not applicable Not applicable. There are no accounts. |
| Scans pages behind a login | No No. ScanGov scans public pages only. | Yes Yes, from DevTools on any page you are signed in to.[1] |
| Checks every deploy before it goes live | Yes A free GitHub Action audits your site on every deploy. More | Partly The Node module and CLI can run in CI. You write the thresholds and the workflow.[1] |
| Sends issues to GitHub or a ticket system | Yes GitHub integration, pre-filled issue reports, and CSV, JSON, or Markdown export. More | No No. Findings stay in the report. |
| Public scorecard and peer rankings | Yes A public scorecard for every domain and rankings against peers on scangov.org. More | No No. There is no comparison population. |
| Open, published standards with fix guidance | Yes 103 published standards, each with guidance on how to fix it. More | Yes Open source, with a public description for every audit.[1] |
| Public pricing and self-serve signup | Yes Four plans from $50 a month. Pay and start scanning in minutes. More | Yes Free. Nothing to sign up for.[1] |
| Accessibility | ||
| Automated Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) checks | Yes Automated WCAG checks on every page, ranked by impact in the tasklist. More | Yes An accessibility category scored from automated checks.[1] |
| PDF accessibility | Yes PDF checks are included in the scan. | No No. Lighthouse audits HTML pages only. |
| Video captions and embed titles | Yes Captions on page videos and titles on embedded players. More | No Not audited. |
| Botability | ||
| Robots.txt, sitemap, canonical, and schema checks | Yes Robots.txt, sitemap, canonical tags, and schema on every page. More | Partly Checks that robots.txt is valid and structured data parses. No sitemap or canonical check across the site.[1] |
| Content visible to crawlers that do not run JavaScript | Yes Reports whether a crawler that does not run JavaScript sees your content. | No No. Lighthouse runs JavaScript, so it cannot tell you what a crawler that does not run it sees. |
| AI crawler access and readiness | Yes Checks whether good bots, including AI crawlers, can reach the site. More | No Not audited. |
| Security | ||
| Security headers on every page | Yes HTTPS, HSTS, Content Security Policy (CSP), and X-Content-Type-Options on every page. More | Partly Flags missing HTTPS, HSTS, and CSP on the audited page under best practices.[1] |
| Security.txt | Yes Checks for a valid security.txt. | No Not audited. |
| .gov domain check | Yes Flags government sites not on a .gov domain. | No Not audited. |
| Usability | ||
| Core Web Vitals, lab data | Yes Lab Core Web Vitals on every page, scored against the standards. More | Yes Lab Core Web Vitals with detailed diagnostics. Deeper than ScanGov on a single page.[1] |
| Core Web Vitals, real-user field data | No No. ScanGov reports lab data only. | Yes Through PageSpeed Insights, which adds Chrome User Experience Report field data for LCP, INP, and CLS.[2] |
| Titles, descriptions, viewport, and social tags | Yes Titles, descriptions, viewport, and social sharing tags on every page. | Partly Title, meta description, and viewport under SEO. No social sharing tags.[1] |
| Readability | ||
| Reading grade level per page | Yes Automated Readability Index and Flesch-Kincaid on every page. More | No Not audited.[1] |
| A reading level target for the site | Yes Set a reading level target per site. More | No Not audited. |
See how your own site scores first: find your public scorecard on scangov.org, or book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
Does ScanGov use Lighthouse?
Yes. Lighthouse runs as part of ScanGov's scan for performance and accessibility checks. ScanGov adds its own checks for security headers, security.txt, the .gov domain, crawler access, and readability, then scores everything against 103 open standards.
Is Lighthouse enough for an accessibility compliance deadline?
Lighthouse finds a useful share of automated accessibility issues on one page. It does not cover PDFs or video, keeps no history, and cannot tell you how many pages still fail. For a deadline you need every page, on a schedule, with a record.
Why does ScanGov not report real-user Core Web Vitals?
ScanGov reports lab data from its own scans. PageSpeed Insights adds field data from the Chrome User Experience Report, so run it on your busiest pages alongside ScanGov. ScanGov's standards pages for First Contentful Paint, Largest Contentful Paint, and Time to First Byte include videos that show how to fix each one.
Sources
Every bracketed number in the tables links here. Dates are when we last checked the page. Tell us if something has changed.
- Lighthouse overview, Chrome for Developers, checked 2026-10-28.
- About PageSpeed Insights, checked 2026-10-28.
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All tools side by side
The executive view and the full capability table for every tool we compare.