a11yfy vs A11ysaurio PDF Checker: Which WordPress PDF Accessibility Plugin Should You Use?

Who This Comparison Is For

If you manage a WordPress site with a backlog of PDFs — syllabi, board minutes, grant reports, scanned government forms — and you're facing EAA, ADA Title II, or WCAG 2.1 compliance pressure, you've likely come across both a11yfy and A11ysaurio PDF Checker. Both plugins scan PDFs for accessibility problems directly in the browser, without uploading files to a third-party server for the scan itself. But they diverge sharply on what happens after the scan, and that difference should drive your choice.

Pricing Comparison

A11ysaurio PDF Checker is entirely free. It's distributed as open-source GPL software through WordPress.org, with no premium tier, no account requirement, and no usage-based fees — scanning is unlimited because everything runs client-side with no backend doing the work. There is simply nothing to pay.

a11yfy's scanning step is also free and runs locally in the browser, so on that front the two are comparable. But a11yfy adds a second, paid stage: remediation. If a11yfy's scan finds problems, you can pay to have the plugin actually fix the PDF, and that fix runs on a credit system billed at roughly 1-3 credits per page depending on how broken the file is. The catch is that the dollar cost per credit isn't published on the WordPress.org listing — you have to go to a11yfy.com/pricing to find current rates, which is a real friction point if you're trying to budget for fixing a large backlog before a deadline.

Feature Comparison

Both plugins check PDFs against recognized accessibility frameworks and flag similar categories of problems: missing tags, absent alt text, broken reading order, and image-only/scanned PDFs with no text layer. a11yfy specifically tests against PDF/UA-1 using the 42 checkpoints of the Matterhorn Protocol (the same test suite behind veraPDF), and its scan results feed directly into an optional fix. A11ysaurio evaluates against a mix of WCAG 2.1 success criteria and ISO 14289 (PDF/UA), covering document tagging, image alt text, reading order, language declaration, heading structure, and scanned/image-only detection — and attaches its report to the file right in the Media Library.

The fundamental difference is what happens after detection. A11ysaurio stops at diagnosis: it tells editors what's wrong at the point of upload but has no mechanism to fix anything. a11yfy goes further — its paid remediation stage sends flagged files to EU-based servers to add structure tags, fix reading order, run OCR on image-only pages, and rebuild the PDF so it actually passes PDF/UA-1 rather than just getting flagged. That makes a11yfy the only one of the two that can resolve a scanned, image-only government form on its own; A11ysaurio can only tell you the form has no text layer.

Both are young tools. a11yfy is described as new, and A11ysaurio is newly listed with a small install base and no meaningful review history — worth treating both as early-adopter software rather than battle-tested infrastructure.

	a11yfy	A11ysaurio PDF Checker
Price	Free scan; paid remediation via credit system (1-3 credits/page, rate not published on WordPress.org)	Free, open source, no paid tier
Best for	Teams that need PDFs actually fixed, not just flagged	Teams that just need a first-pass diagnostic report
Standout feature	Paid remediation: OCR, tag structure, and reading-order fixes on EU-based servers	Fully client-side scanning with zero server involvement, even for the report
Standards checked	PDF/UA-1 via the 42-checkpoint Matterhorn Protocol	WCAG 2.1 and ISO 14289 (PDF/UA)
Platform	WordPress plugin, browser-based scan	WordPress plugin, browser-based scan

Which One Should You Choose?

If your budget is zero and you just need to know which PDFs in your media library are broken — untagged documents, missing alt text, no language declaration, scanned forms with no text layer — A11ysaurio PDF Checker does that job for free, with reports attached right in the Media Library, and never sends your files anywhere.

If you've already identified the problem PDFs and now need them actually fixed — especially scanned, image-only government forms that are otherwise painful to remediate by hand — a11yfy is the one built to close that loop, though you should check a11yfy.com/pricing before assuming what a 40-PDF remediation backlog will cost you.

A reasonable middle path: run A11ysaurio first as a free triage pass across your entire PDF library, then bring in a11yfy specifically for the files that fail and need real remediation rather than just a diagnosis. Neither tool is a full substitute for a desktop tool if you need heavy manual control over tag trees, complex nested tables, or interactive form fields — but for catching and, in a11yfy's case, actually fixing the most common PDF accessibility failures, either plugin is a reasonable place to start.