Lighthouse vs Yellow Lab Tools (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Lighthouse and Yellow Lab Tools share a 3.2 GPA, both are free, so the choice depends on which platforms you need.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Lighthouse
Google's open-source audit of page speed, accessibility and SEO
Free
Yellow Lab Tools
Free open-source audit of a page's speed and front-end code
Free
Which one is for you
Pick Lighthouse if
- Fits if you're a web developer fixing speed and accessibility problems on a page
- Works for adding automated page audits to continuous integration
Look elsewhere if
- Too light for watching a whole site, as it audits one page per run
- Skip it if you don't want to install Node 22 and Chrome, which the command-line and Node routes need
- Watch out: the Agentic Browsing category is experimental, needs Chrome 150 or later and an origin trial for its WebMCP audits
- Not for you if you planned to use the extension on local sites or pages behind a login, which it can't test
Pick Yellow Lab Tools if
- Fits if you're a front-end developer tracing what makes one page heavy or slow
- Works for testing pages on localhost or an intranet through a private copy
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need a whole site checked, as each run tests one page address
- Not for you if you want ongoing monitoring, since no scheduled tests are described
- Watch out: the public site processes one run at a time, so a test can wait behind others
- Tight if you self-host on Windows, which the author says is untested; Linux and macOS are documented
- Watch out: under GPL-2.0, changes to a hosted copy's code must be published under the same license
How we grade them
| 3.2GPALighthouseVery good | 3.2GPAYellow Lab ToolsVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree and open source under Apache 2.0, built into Chrome DevTools and also run from the command line, a Node module, a Chrome extension or PageSpeed Insights. | AFree under the GPL-2.0 license: the public website, its REST API, the npm command-line tool and the server code. There's no paid plan; the author takes donations through GitHub or Ko-fi. |
| Free plan and trial | AEvery audit category, report format and plugin is free, with no account. | AEvery part is free, with no paid tier on record. The catch is the public instance, which processes one run at a time, so a test can wait in a queue. |
| Features | CFour audit categories with a fix for each failed check, pages behind a login, stack packs and plugins, plus an experimental check of readiness for AI agents. The gap the listing shows: one page per run, so regressions across a site need Lighthouse CI or another tool. | CA score out of 100 and a grade per rule across network, images, DOM, JavaScript, CSS, fonts and server config, with the offending files listed. It does a one-page front-end audit fully, but that's a smaller job, with no site-wide crawl or monitoring described. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record. If you have Chrome, it's already in DevTools with nothing to install. The command-line and Node routes need Node 22 or later. | BNo rating on record. On the public site you give it a page address and a device type and wait for the report. Running your own copy is another matter: it needs Node.js, documented for Linux and macOS only. |
| Platforms and integrations | BRuns in Chrome DevTools, from the command line, as a Node module for CI, as a Chrome extension and through PageSpeed Insights, with reports shared as GitHub gists. | BWeb, with a public REST API that returns JSON, plus an npm command-line tool and a server you can run on Mac or Linux. No phone app, and no integrations on record. |
| Best for | auditing one page's speed, accessibility and SEO | auditing one page's front-end code for free |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Lighthouse and Yellow Lab Tools. How we grade
Price against what you get
Lighthouse has no paid plan and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Yellow Lab Tools has no paid plan and scores 2.7.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score for the same starting price. Of the other technical SEO tools on the chart, none scores higher than Lighthouse for less, and none scores higher than Yellow Lab Tools for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Yellow Lab Tools is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Lighthouse also covers site audit.
In commonFree planWebOpen sourcePage speed
At a glance
| Lighthouse | Yellow Lab Tools | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license: run it in Chrome DevTools, the command line, a Node script, the Chrome extension or PageSpeed Insights. | Entirely free: the public website, the API, the command-line tool and the self-hosted server, with donations through GitHub or Ko-fi. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Linux | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Gaël Métais | |
| Price read from | developer.chrome.com | yellowlab.tools |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Lighthouse
- The command-line and Node workflows need Google Chrome and Node 22 or later installed.
- Audits one page per run; Lighthouse CI or another tool is needed to watch for regressions across a site.
- The Agentic Browsing category is experimental, needs Chrome 150 or later, and its WebMCP audits need an origin trial.
- The Chrome extension cannot test local sites or pages behind a login; Google recommends DevTools instead.
Yellow Lab Tools
- Each run tests one page address; the documentation describes no site-wide crawl or scheduled monitoring.
- The public instance queues runs and processes one at a time, so a test can wait behind others.
- Self-hosting needs Node.js and is documented for Linux and macOS; the author says Windows is untested.
- Under the GPL-2.0 license, changes to the code of a hosted copy must be published under the same license.
Key features
Lighthouse
- Four audit categories
- Scores performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO, and each failed audit links to a page on why it matters and how to fix it.
- Several ways to run it
- A Lighthouse panel in Chrome DevTools, an npm command-line tool, a Node module for CI systems, a Chrome extension, or PageSpeed Insights with nothing to install.
- Pages behind a login
- Audits any page, public or requiring authentication; the DevTools workflow can also test local sites.
- Agentic Browsing audits
- An experimental category checks llms.txt, WebMCP tool registration and accessibility for agents, shown as a pass ratio rather than a 0 to 100 score.
- Reports and sharing
- Save reports as HTML or JSON, open them in the Lighthouse Viewer, and share them as secret GitHub gists.
- Stack packs and plugins
- Stack packs give advice specific to the CMS or framework a site uses, and plugins let developers add their own audit categories.
Yellow Lab Tools
- Scored page audit
- Gives a global score out of 100 and a grade per rule, grouped as network, images, DOM, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS, web fonts and server config.
- Offenders and score gain
- Each rule lists the files, selectors or functions at fault and says how many points the global score would gain if it were fixed.
- Device and access settings
- Simulates a phone, tablet or desktop, and can send cookies, basic HTTP login details or a proxy, or block and allow chosen domains.
- Public API
- A REST API on yellowlab.tools queues runs, reports their status and returns the full JSON result or parts of it, with CORS allowed.
- Command line and Node module
- Installed from npm, the yellowlabtools command tests a page and prints the result as JSON or XML, with an optional screenshot.
- Private server
- The server code can be installed on your own machine or run from a community Docker image, for testing pages on localhost or an intranet.
Plans
Lighthouse
Open source$0
Every audit category, HTML and JSON reports, the Lighthouse Viewer, stack packs and plugins.
Yellow Lab Tools
Free$0
The public instance at yellowlab.tools, its REST API, the npm command-line tool and the open-source server.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Lighthouse or Yellow Lab Tools?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Lighthouse and Yellow Lab Tools are free to use.
Which has a free plan, Lighthouse or Yellow Lab Tools?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Lighthouse and Yellow Lab Tools have a free plan.
Which platforms do Lighthouse and Yellow Lab Tools run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Lighthouse lists a browser extension and only Yellow Lab Tools lists macOS and Linux apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.