Proofday vs free website testing tools
Short answer: free tools such as Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights and online link checkers are excellent and often enough. Use them first. Proofday’s $149 Launch Check is for the moment you need one organized handoff package across up to 10 pages: an owner summary, deduplicated developer tickets, full-page desktop and mobile screenshots, and a retest. You pay for less assembly work, not for checks no free tool can do.
What the free tools do well
- Google Lighthouse (built into Chrome DevTools): performance, accessibility, SEO and best-practice audits for one page at a time, with guidance on each finding.
- PageSpeed Insights: Lighthouse lab data plus real-user Core Web Vitals field data when Google has enough traffic for the URL.
- W3C Link Checker and similar link checkers: crawl for broken links.
- Browser DevTools device mode: preview any page at phone sizes and see console errors.
- Proofday’s own free tools: the 36-item checklist and a one-page quick preview (raw HTML, no browser, no screenshots).
Side by side
| Need | Free tools | Proofday Launch Check ($149) |
|---|---|---|
| Deep performance diagnostics | Yes (Lighthouse, PageSpeed) | Basic load timing only |
| Broken links | Yes (link checkers) | Yes, with HTTP status, across up to 10 pages |
| Full-page desktop + mobile screenshots of every page | Manual | Yes (1366×768 and 390×844, Chromium) |
| Mobile overflow with the offending elements named | Manual in DevTools | Yes |
| One owner summary with Pass / Needs fixes / Fail | No | Yes |
| Findings deduplicated into copy-ready tickets | No, you write them | Yes |
| Retest after fixes | Re-run yourself | One included |
| Forms, payments, logins, Safari/Firefox, real devices | Not covered | Not covered (marked “not tested”) |
| Cost | Free | $149 one-time per site |
When free tools are enough
- A one-page or very small site you can check by hand in under an hour.
- You already have a QA process and someone who writes tickets.
- You mainly care about speed scores.
When a packaged report helps
- A client handoff is due and you want an independent record to share.
- Several pages and two screen sizes need checking and nobody has time to compile screenshots.
- You want tickets your developer can act on without a meeting, and a re-check after fixes.
Proofday’s $149 Website Launch Check loads up to 10 public pages in Chromium at desktop (1366×768) and mobile (390×844) sizes and returns an owner summary (Pass / Needs fixes / Fail), copy-ready developer tickets, full-page screenshots and one retest, by email. Forms, payments, logins and email delivery are marked “not tested”.
See the sample reportRun a free quick previewGet the $149 Launch CheckFAQ
Is Lighthouse enough to test a website before launch?
Lighthouse is a strong free audit for performance, accessibility and SEO on one page at a time. It does not check every page’s links in one run, take full-page screenshots at two sizes, or turn findings into a client summary and tickets, so many teams pair it with a manual pass or a packaged report.
What does Proofday add over free tools?
Organization: one owner summary, deduplicated developer tickets, full-page desktop and mobile screenshots for up to 10 pages, and one retest, delivered by email. The underlying checks overlap with free tools.
Is the free Proofday preview the same as the paid check?
No. The free preview fetches one page’s raw HTML and samples up to eight links. It does not render a browser or take screenshots. The paid check renders up to 10 pages at desktop and mobile sizes.
Updated 2026-10-16 by Steven Jackson, who runs Proofday. Related: 36-item website launch checklist · Webflow QA before launch · Framer launch checklist · Client handoff QA · Proofday vs free tools