ScanGov vs Siteimprove
Enterprise web governance platform with accessibility, search, analytics, and content modules. How Siteimprove and ScanGov compare on what they check, what they cost, who sees the results, and what you can show a board or auditor.
Siteimprove is the incumbent in most large public-sector web teams. It sells a suite of modules for accessibility, search, analytics, and content, scans whole sites on a recurring schedule, and reaches pages behind a login. Pricing is by quote. ScanGov covers security headers, crawler access, and readability that Siteimprove does not list, publishes its prices and its standards, and gives every domain a public scorecard. Most teams that try ScanGov run it next to Siteimprove rather than in place of it.
Paid product from Siteimprove. Siteimprove website. Claims checked 2026-10-28; sources at the end of this page.
The executive view
| Question | ScanGov | Siteimprove |
|---|---|---|
| If a compliance deadline is the concern | Every page, every indicator, on a schedule, with a dated record of what changed and when. | Siteimprove covers WCAG, PDF, and authenticated pages. ScanGov adds a public record of where every site stands and the checks Siteimprove leaves out. |
| If budget is the concern | Published prices from $50 a month. The top plan is $12,000 a year. | Siteimprove contracts for public bodies run from $25,000 a year. ScanGov's top plan is $12,000 a year, published, and does not require a quote. |
| If public scrutiny is the concern | A public scorecard for every domain, so you see your grade before anyone else does. | Siteimprove results stay inside the account. A ScanGov scorecard shows what anyone with a browser can already find. |
| If vendor accountability is the concern | A neutral, public, monthly record you can write into a contract and check without asking the vendor. | Siteimprove reports are yours alone. A ScanGov scorecard is a neutral record you can put in a vendor contract. |
| 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 | Accessibility, search visibility, analytics, and content, sold as separate modules. Marketed against WCAG, ADA Title II, Section 508, and the 21st Century IDEA Act.[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 | By quote. Buyers report $15,000 to $40,000 a year for small organizations and $25,000 to $100,000 or more for government and higher education, plus onboarding fees.[4] |
| 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 | Private to the account. We found no public scorecard or public report option.[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 | Siteimprove is usually the tool already in place. ScanGov adds the checks Siteimprove does not list and does not require dropping it.[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 | Dashboards and reports inside the platform. Siteimprove's federal platform is FedRAMP Ready, which ScanGov is not.[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 | Siteimprove |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | ||
| Scans the whole site on a schedule | Yes Every page in your sitemap, on a schedule, with on-demand rescans. More | Yes Crawls the whole site on a recurring schedule.[6] |
| Keeps a history of scores over time | Yes Pulse trend lines and a dated changelog for every indicator. More | Not confirmed Trend reporting is not described on the pages we checked. |
| Scoped views for a team or section | Yes Filters by site, topic, and URL path, with members attached. More | Not confirmed Role-based views are mentioned, but not how they are scoped.[2] |
| Single sign-on | Partly Okta through OpenID Connect (OIDC) on Business and Enterprise plans. Microsoft Entra ID is not supported yet. More | Not confirmed Not described on the pages we checked. |
| Scans pages behind a login | No No. ScanGov scans public pages only. | Yes Covers internal and authenticated pages.[2] |
| Checks every deploy before it goes live | Yes A free GitHub Action audits your site on every deploy. More | Partly CI/CD and an MCP server for VS Code and Claude Code are listed. We did not confirm a deploy gate.[2] |
| Sends issues to GitHub or a ticket system | Yes GitHub integration, pre-filled issue reports, and CSV, JSON, or Markdown export. More | Yes Jira connector and Azure DevOps. No GitHub integration is listed.[3] |
| Public scorecard and peer rankings | Yes A public scorecard for every domain and rankings against peers on scangov.org. More | No Results stay inside the platform. No public scorecard or peer ranking.[1] |
| Open, published standards with fix guidance | Yes 103 published standards, each with guidance on how to fix it. More | No Checks are proprietary. Guidance lives inside the product and help center.[6] |
| Public pricing and self-serve signup | Yes Four plans from $50 a month. Pay and start scanning in minutes. More | No No public pricing. Every call to action is a demo request.[1] |
| Accessibility | ||
| Automated Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) checks | Yes Automated WCAG checks on every page, ranked by impact in the tasklist. More | Yes WCAG checks across the digital estate, with AI-generated fixes for WordPress and Drupal.[2] |
| PDF accessibility | Yes PDF checks are included in the scan. | Yes PDF scanning and a PDF remediation agent that writes alt text.[2] |
| Video captions and embed titles | Yes Captions on page videos and titles on embedded players. More | Not confirmed Not described on the pages we checked. |
| Botability | ||
| Robots.txt, sitemap, canonical, and schema checks | Yes Robots.txt, sitemap, canonical tags, and schema on every page. More | Partly The Search module covers SEO visibility and answer engine optimization. We did not confirm robots.txt or sitemap checks.[1] |
| Content visible to crawlers that do not run JavaScript | Yes Reports whether a crawler that does not run JavaScript sees your content. | Not confirmed Not described on the pages we checked. |
| AI crawler access and readiness | Yes Checks whether good bots, including AI crawlers, can reach the site. More | Partly Markets AI answer engine optimization. We did not confirm an AI crawler access check.[1] |
| Security | ||
| Security headers on every page | Yes HTTPS, HSTS, Content Security Policy (CSP), and X-Content-Type-Options on every page. More | No Security is not among the modules listed.[1] |
| Security.txt | Yes Checks for a valid security.txt. | No Not offered.[1] |
| .gov domain check | Yes Flags government sites not on a .gov domain. | No Not offered.[1] |
| Usability | ||
| Core Web Vitals, lab data | Yes Lab Core Web Vitals on every page, scored against the standards. More | Not confirmed Performance checks are not described on the pages we checked. |
| Core Web Vitals, real-user field data | No No. ScanGov reports lab data only. | Not confirmed Not described on the pages we checked. |
| Titles, descriptions, viewport, and social tags | Yes Titles, descriptions, viewport, and social sharing tags on every page. | Partly Covered by the Search module. We did not confirm the exact checks.[1] |
| Readability | ||
| Reading grade level per page | Yes Automated Readability Index and Flesch-Kincaid on every page. More | Not confirmed Readability scoring is not described on the pages we checked. |
| A reading level target for the site | Yes Set a reading level target per site. More | Not confirmed Not described on the pages we checked. |
See how your own site scores first: find your public scorecard on scangov.org, or book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to replace Siteimprove to use ScanGov?
No. ScanGov scans public pages and reports to its own dashboard, so it runs next to Siteimprove. Most teams keep Siteimprove for authenticated pages and analytics and use ScanGov for security headers, crawler access, readability, and the public scorecard.
How much does Siteimprove cost?
Siteimprove does not publish prices. Vendr reports $15,000 to $40,000 a year for 1,000 to 5,000 pages and one or two modules, and $25,000 to $100,000 or more a year for government and higher education, plus $2,000 to $10,000 in onboarding. The UK G-Cloud listing shows £1,500 to £11,100 per licence for one add-on. ScanGov plans run $50 to $1,000 a month.
Is ScanGov FedRAMP authorized?
No. Siteimprove's federal platform is FedRAMP Ready. ScanGov does not hold FedRAMP, StateRAMP, or SOC 2, and only scans public pages, so no non-public data passes through it.
What does ScanGov check that Siteimprove does not?
Security headers and security.txt on every page, whether the site is on a .gov domain, whether crawlers and AI tools that do not run JavaScript can read the content, and reading grade level against the plain language standard. Siteimprove does not list these among its modules.
Sources
Every bracketed number in the tables links here. Dates are when we last checked the page. Tell us if something has changed.
- Siteimprove for Government, checked 2026-10-28.
- Siteimprove web accessibility software, checked 2026-10-28.
- Siteimprove integrations, checked 2026-10-28.
- Vendr: Siteimprove pricing and plans, checked 2026-09-10.
- UK G-Cloud: Siteimprove Content Analytics listing, checked 2026-09-10.
- Siteimprove help center: the scan process, 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.