AccessCheck
As described:StopNarrowed:NarrowNo as described. Go only as EAA monitoring and evidence for EU web agencies.
web agencies · ~$200/month per agency account · last reviewed (next review by 29 Dec 2026) · 34 cited sources
Start this week
- Tell me your hours per week available, where you're based, which EU languages you can sell in, and whether you know an accessibility professional who would advise.
- Pick the first market (Germany/Austria or the Netherlands). List 50 agencies from Shopify, WooCommerce and Shopware partner directories, and book 20 calls.
- Run axe-core with Playwright on 10 client sites of one friendly agency. Hand-build one white-label report with template grouping, plus one draft statement in the local language.
- Check the working name: trademark search in the EU (EUIPO) and domain availability.
Checkpoints and kill gates
Decide in advance what counts as on track. Missing a checkpoint means changing the buyer or the offer, not adding features.
Day 30
~15 hrs/week
20 agency calls done. Accessibility advisor signed. 3 agencies agree to pay for the concierge report.
Full-time
20 agency calls done. Accessibility advisor signed. 3 agencies agree to pay for the concierge report.
If you miss it
Switch market once (DACH ↔ Netherlands). Missing twice means stop.
Day 90
~15 hrs/week
8 paying agency accounts, ≥$1k MRR (15 hrs: 5 accounts, ≥$600). Every month-1 payer renewed.
Full-time
8 paying agency accounts, ≥$1k MRR (15 hrs: 5 accounts, ≥$600). Every month-1 payer renewed.
If you miss it
Narrow to one CMS (WordPress/WooCommerce or Shopify agencies) and one market.
Month 6
~15 hrs/week
$2k MRR (15 hrs: $1.2k). ≥1 agency reselling to 10+ client sites.
Full-time
$2k MRR (15 hrs: $1.2k). ≥1 agency reselling to 10+ client sites.
If you miss it
Pivot A: evidence file + statement only, as an add-on for agencies that already use another scanner. Pivot B: direct to in-scope mid-size e-commerce (10–249 staff) in one country.
Month 12
~15 hrs/week
$5k MRR (15 hrs: $3k). Logo churn ≤2.5%/month.
Full-time
$5k MRR (15 hrs: $3k). Logo churn ≤2.5%/month.
If you miss it
Stop adding features. Fix onboarding and the care-plan resale kit only.
Month 18
~15 hrs/week
$8k MRR (15 hrs: $4k)
Full-time
$8k MRR (15 hrs: $4k)
If you miss it
Put all effort into the single best channel. Decide whether to add a second market.
Month 24
~15 hrs/week
$10k+ MRR (15 hrs: $6k+), profitable
Full-time
$10k+ MRR (15 hrs: $6k+), profitable
If you miss it
Above target: add a second market and consider paid acquisition. $2–6k: run it profitably. Below $1k: stop or pivot.
Do
1.Sell to EU web agencies that maintain client sites (WooCommerce, Shopify, Shopware, WordPress), not to individual stores
Target: ≥75% of MRR from agency accounts
Why: One agency brings 10–40 sites and a monthly billing habit. Most small stores are exempt (see Avoid 3).
2.Start in one market, in its language. Recommended: Germany/Austria (BFSG, MLBF regulator, private warning letters) or the Netherlands (ACM information requests). Pick the one where condition 2 holds.
Target: 20 agency calls in 30 days
Why: Enforcement and statement rules differ by country. "All of the EU" means localised for nobody.
3.Write a claims policy before any marketing. Say "monitors the WCAG criteria that can be tested automatically". Never "compliant", "certified", "EAA-ready" or "guaranteed". Have an EU lawyer review it.
Target: Lawyer-reviewed copy by day 60. Zero banned words in product, site and reports.
Why: The FTC fined accessiBe $1M for claiming automated compliance. Automated tools cover 16 of 50 WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria.
4.Run it by hand first. Scan with axe-core, add a manual keyboard and screen-reader pass, and send a white-label PDF report plus a draft statement each month. Charge for it.
Target: 5 agencies paying ≥€99/month by day 45
Why: It proves agencies will pay before you spend months on code.
5.Build on open-source axe-core and Playwright. Don't write a rules engine.
Target: Thin v1 in 8–10 weeks
Why: Deque reports axe finds 57% of issues by volume, with near-zero false positives. Your value is the workflow around it, not the rules.
6.Group issues by template and component. "Fix the product-card template once, and 3,400 errors on 800 pages go away."
Target: The top 10 fixes in each report cover ≥60% of detected issues
Why: This turns a 5,000-line scan into a developer's to-do list. It is the fix guidance agencies can actually hand over.
7.Guide the manual checks automation can't do: keyboard path through checkout, screen-reader spot checks, focus order, error messages. Capture dated notes and screenshots.
Target: ≥50% of agency accounts complete a manual checklist per client each quarter
Why: The French court rejected Carrefour's 71% conformance argument. Checkout and browsing flows were the focus of the cases.
8.Keep an evidence file per site: scan history, manual checks, fixes shipped, statement versions, barrier reports received. One-click PDF export.
Target: Export in under 2 minutes
Why: It is what an agency sends when a client receives an authority notice or a German warning letter (Abmahnung). It records effort. It is not a legal defence.
9.Generate the accessibility statement per country and language (German, Dutch, French, English first), pre-filled from scan and manual-check data, with a named contact and a feedback route
Target: Every paying site has a published, dated statement
Why: France fines missing information separately (up to €25k). The free W3C generator is generic, so yours must be EAA- and country-specific to be worth paying for.
10.Help agencies sell a monthly "accessibility care plan" to their clients: white-label reports, a client portal, a pricing guide, and a free prospect scan the agency sends to leads
Target: Average agency account covers ≥15 client sites by month 12
Why: This gives the agency a new recurring line. It is your expansion revenue and your referral engine.
11.Price for agencies, annual pushed. Studio €99/mo (10 sites), Agency €249/mo (40 sites), Agency Plus €499/mo (120 sites, scripted checkout scans). Direct business €79/mo per site. Annual: 2 months free. No free plan beyond a one-off prospect scan.
Target: ≥40% of new accounts on annual by month 12
Why: Pope Tech sells unlimited sites at $225/month, so the premium has to come from EU statements, evidence and white-label.
12.Automate operations from day one: scheduled scans, auto-emailed monthly client reports, self-serve onboarding, docs over calls
Target: Support ≤2 hrs/week at 15 hrs/week
Why: Limited hours go to selling and product, not to running reports by hand.
13.Publish a monthly "EAA enforcement tracker" (cases, authorities, complaint counts, with sources) in the language of your market
Target: 1 post a month. 30% of trials from organic search by month 9.
Why: Buyers search for enforcement news. Accurate, sourced reporting builds the trust that overlay vendors lost.
Avoid
1.Any overlay, widget or "one line of code" fix
Why: FTC $1M order against accessiBe. 1,048 practitioners signed the Overlay Fact Sheet. It is the one thing your positioning exists to reject.
2.The words "compliant", "certified", "guaranteed", a "100% score" or an "EAA-ready" badge
Why: Automated tools miss most criteria. One customer who gets a notice after seeing "compliant" in your report is a liability claim.
3.Small Shopify and WooCommerce stores as the main customer
Why: Businesses with under 10 staff and ≤€2M turnover or balance sheet are exempt for services (BFSG §3(3), §2 no. 17). The survivors pay $0–29 and churn after the first cleanup.
4.Fear marketing with inflated fines ("€100k per violation")
Why: German law says up to €100k per offence, and France up to €50k per service. No confirmed EAA fine had been reported as of mid-2026. Misquoting the law undermines an "honest" brand.
5.Legal advice: drafting replies to authorities or warning letters, or saying whether a client is exempt
Why: Refer these to lawyers. You supply the evidence file, not the legal position.
6.Enterprise sales against Siteimprove, Level Access, Deque or Silktide
Why: They sell on 12-month contracts (Siteimprove median ~$15.6k a year, per Vendr) with audit teams. You can't win that at 15 hrs/week.
7.Your own rules engine or AI auto-fix at launch
Why: axe-core is free and better tested. AI-generated fixes that break a checkout are your liability.
8.Scanning every page every day
Why: Compute grows with pages scanned. Scan a template sample weekly and key journeys daily on the top plan only.
9.Turning into a manual audit agency
Why: Audits don't scale with limited hours. Refer them to partners for a fee (10–20%).
10.The US ADA market at launch
Why: Different law, litigation-driven, and the overlay fight is loudest there. Revisit after $10k MRR.
11.Mobile app testing, PDF remediation and video captioning at launch
Why: Each is its own product with its own specialists.
12.Lifetime deals (AppSumo) or a generous free plan
Why: They attract stores that are exempt or won't pay, and they flood support.
13.Paid ads before month 6
Why: Until agency retention is proven, ads buy one-off scans that cancel.
14.Adding features when a checkpoint fails
Why: A miss means wrong market, wrong CMS or wrong buyer. Change that instead.