Fix the source, keep the evidence
People shopping for an alternative to a managed overlay service usually like the idea of managed help but want the improvements to live in their own code rather than in a layer that runs on top of it. GuardGrid scans what you actually publish, documents it, and offers hands-on remediation as a separate engineering service that changes your source.
What managed overlay services are built to do
Some vendors pair an automated toolbar and runtime fixes with managed human remediation delivered inside the subscription. It is a genuine step past a pure widget, because it puts people in the loop rather than promising that automation alone solves accessibility. For an organization with no internal capacity at all, having someone else own the work is worth real money, and the hybrid pitch is an honest response to the limits of automation.
The question worth asking in the demo is a simple one: when a fix is made, where does it land? If it is applied at runtime by a script on the page, your served HTML is unchanged, and everything downstream of that HTML, including an independent audit, sees the original markup. If it lands in your templates and content, it is yours permanently.
Accessibility overlays and widgets have drawn both litigation and regulatory scrutiny in the United States. Courts have seen a wave of ADA lawsuits naming sites that rely on them, and regulators have acted against overlay marketing that promised automatic compliance the product did not deliver. GuardGrid is not an overlay. We scan every page for real WCAG issues, show the exact failing element, and keep a dated evidence trail, so compliance rests on documented work rather than a script injected into your pages.
What changes when the fix is in your source
Fixes that survive cancellation
When remediation happens in your source, the improvement belongs to you. Nothing regresses because a subscription lapsed or a script failed to load on a slow connection.
Nothing added to your page weight
GuardGrid crawls from outside. No tag, no runtime layer, no third-party script in your Content Security Policy review, and no new dependency between your visitors and your content.
Evidence built from your real scans
VPAT 2.5, dated Compliance Evidence PDFs, a publishable accessibility statement, and score history. Documents that describe your site, generated from per-page findings rather than from a certification process.
Governance beyond accessibility
The same crawl returns SEO and content quality, broken links, privacy and cookie inventory, and security headers and TLS posture, plus AI visibility across Claude, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews.
GuardGrid vs overlays with managed services
| Dimension | GuardGrid | Overlay plus managed service |
|---|---|---|
| Full-site scanning | Every page in your property, scanned in one pass, on a schedule you set. No representative-page sampling. | Automated scanning across the site is typically included. Page coverage varies by plan, so check the current vendor documentation. |
| Evidence and VPAT | VPAT 2.5, Compliance Evidence PDFs, a publishable accessibility statement, and score history, all generated from your real scan data. | Compliance reporting and certification-style artifacts are commonly offered. Confirm the exact formats with the vendor. |
| In-page visual review | Page Explorer Visual Review shows each violation marked in place on a screenshot of the page. | Varies by vendor. Ask how findings are presented in context. |
| AEO / AI visibility | Built in. Measures whether Claude, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews surface your site, with per-property question sets and Content Gaps. | Not a stated focus of this category. |
| Overlay widget | No. Nothing is injected into your site and no script runs on your pages. | Yes. A JavaScript layer on your pages is central to how fixes get delivered. |
| Remediation model | Pinpoints the exact failing element and gives WCAG-mapped remediation guidance. Hands-on fixes are a separate done-for-you service from Revion Solutions. | Fixes are applied at runtime, with managed human remediation layered on top as part of the subscription. |
| Pricing posture | Published on the site: free, $49, $149, and $399 per month. Annual billing saves 10%. | Published subscription tiers plus quoted enterprise plans. |
The GuardGrid column describes capability we ship today. The other columns describe classes of product rather than any single vendor, because products and packaging change often, so those cells stay general on purpose: check the current documentation of whichever tool you are evaluating before you decide. Last reviewed August 2026.
Platform and people, priced separately
GuardGrid keeps the two things apart on purpose. The platform is a subscription with published pricing: it crawls every page in one pass on a schedule you set, grades each property A to F weighted by severity, names the exact failing element and the WCAG criterion it breaks, shows the violation marked in place on a screenshot of the page, and generates the VPAT 2.5, Compliance Evidence PDFs, accessibility statement, and score history. Tasks let you assign findings to a person and verify the fix with a targeted re-scan.
The remediation is a scoped engineering engagement from Revion Solutions. Our team works in your CMS or codebase, starts with the templates because most sites carry the bulk of their violations in five to ten reusable ones, handles the PDF library most tools skip, and re-scans to confirm each fix. What you own at the end is a better site, plus a documented before-and-after that does not depend on us.
Buy just the platform if you have people. Add the service if you do not. Either way the scanner is telling you the truth about the site rather than about the layer in front of it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between runtime remediation and source remediation?
Runtime remediation applies changes in the visitor browser after your page loads. Source remediation changes the HTML your server sends. Only the second one alters what an auditor, a procurement reviewer, or a plaintiff testing your site actually receives. GuardGrid measures and documents the second one.
GuardGrid also offers remediation services. How is that different?
Revion Solutions engineers work in your codebase or CMS and change the source, template by template, then re-scan to verify each fix. The result is a site that is better on its own, with or without any vendor script. Nothing depends on a subscription staying active to keep working.
Does GuardGrid load anything on my site?
No. There is no script, no tag, and no runtime layer. GuardGrid crawls your site externally the way a search engine would, so it adds no weight to your pages and nothing breaks if you stop paying.
What evidence does GuardGrid produce?
VPAT 2.5 for procurement, Compliance Evidence PDFs with severity breakdowns and protective legal framing, a publishable accessibility statement, score history showing your trend over time, and raw exports in CSV, JSON, and XLSX.
Can GuardGrid scan PDFs and content behind a login?
Yes to both. PDF accessibility detection covers text, tags, and reading order, and authenticated scanning reaches student portals, staff intranets, and LMS course pages rather than only your public marketing site.
Other comparisons
Overlays vs code-level compliance
Why a script running in the visitor browser cannot produce the evidence a procurement office, an auditor, or a plaintiff will ask for.
Read itGovernance suites vs published pricing
The same full-site coverage without a quote-only contract and a procurement cycle that outlasts the deadline you are working to.
Read itWidgets vs a documented WCAG record
How teams move from a widget in the corner to a per-page record they can hand over the day someone asks for it.
Read itOr start with the pillar: ADA compliance tools compared
Find out what your source actually says.
Run a free scan and see the grade, the failing elements, and the evidence you could hand to procurement.