Guides Head to Head

Lighthouse vs axe vs RGAA Test: Which Tool for RGAA Accessibility?

Three Tools, Three Philosophies

Lighthouse, axe, and RGAA Test are the most used in France with very different approaches.

Lighthouse

Chrome DevTools score on 100, ~40 rules. Quick but misleading — 100/100 doesn't mean accessible.

axe DevTools

Browser extension, 80+ WCAG rules, precise, CI/CD integrable. But not RGAA-specific, no RGAA compliance rate.

RGAA Test

The only RGAA-specific tool, evaluates 106 criteria, calculates official compliance rate, free, adapted to French legal context.

Which to Choose?

RGAA compliance: RGAA Test. Daily development: axe. First look: Lighthouse. CI/CD: axe-core. All three are complementary.

RGAA Test is essential for demonstrating RGAA compliance. Other tools complement for development and monitoring.
Yes, Lighthouse uses axe-core for accessibility tests but only runs a subset of rules (~40 of 80+). axe DevTools is more complete than Lighthouse for accessibility.
No, RGAA Test is complementary. Essential for RGAA compliance evaluation, but axe DevTools excels for daily development and Lighthouse for quick overview with performance and SEO.
RGAA Test is the only tool that calculates the RGAA compliance rate directly usable in the mandatory accessibility statement.

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