CommonLook (Allyant) vs. Ockem Proof
Allyant plays both sides of the market: CommonLook software for teams who remediate in-house, and remediation services for everyone else. Proof replaces the loop itself — not the person operating it.
The short version
CommonLook PDF is the long-standing professional’s editor, now in a browser as well as on the desktop, with an advanced editor for specialists and a simplified one for everyone else. Allyant’s services team remediates for you, quoted per project, returns documents “within days” and backs each one with a 100% conformance guarantee. Ockem Proof automates the checker-fix-recheck loop those experts run by hand: the rule engine re-verifies every machine fix automatically, only judgment calls reach a person, and every document leaves with a criterion-by-criterion certificate at a published per-document price.
Side by side
Compared as of . Vendors change their offers; our sources are listed at the end of this page.
| CommonLook (Allyant) | Ockem Proof | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A CommonLook PDF subscription (browser or desktop, with a free 7-day trial), or remediation services. Allyant publishes no prices for either. | Certified documents at a published price per document. |
| Who does the work | Your staff in the editor, or Allyant’s services team. | The machine, plus your judgment calls — or Assured, where Ockem’s experts finish the human lanes, quoted per document. |
| Time to a price | A free trial or a demo for the software; services through “Request a Remediation Quote.” | Published pricing; the free assessment prices your whole library up front. |
| Turnaround (services) | Documents back “within days”; Allyant’s suite page says five business days. | Most documents are usually done within the hour, larger ones typically the same day; certification follows your team’s decisions, at your pace. |
| Verification | Built-in validation in the editor; the person running the tool reviews the results. | Automatic re-verification by the rule engine after every fix, and a strict gate: no certificate while any check is unresolved. |
| Evidence artifact | A downloadable Validation Report per PDF and a remediation history; services add a conformance report “down to each individual tag” and the 100% conformance guarantee. | A certificate with per-criterion outcomes and the attester of record, and a version history in which every saved version is kept by default and can’t be altered. |
| Ramp-up | An advanced editor for practitioners and a simplified editor, with live and on-demand training. | Start the day you sign up; most documents are usually done within the hour. |
Choose CommonLook (Allyant) if…
- You employ remediation specialists who want a professional editor and the toolchain they already know.
- You need alternate formats beyond accessible PDF — braille, large print, audio — from one vendor, a line Allyant expanded with its September 2026 acquisition of Braille Works.
- You want a services vendor that puts a 100% conformance guarantee on each remediated document.
- Procurement favors a long-tenured incumbent with decades in the market.
Choose Ockem Proof if…
- You need to budget the corpus today — published per-document pricing, no quote cycle for software or services.
- Days per document doesn’t survive contact with a deadline and a large backlog.
- You don’t want to train staff to operate a remediation editor.
- You want every check, every decision and who made it on record behind each document’s certificate.
Fair questions
Isn’t CommonLook the industry standard?
As an expert’s editor — yes, and we’d never pretend otherwise; many professional remediators check their work with it. The question is whether you want to staff and run that loop by hand. Proof exists to automate the checker-fix-recheck cycle those experts spend their day in, leaving people only the judgment calls. If you already employ specialists and they’re keeping up with your volume, CommonLook is a reasonable tool. If the backlog is winning, the loop is the problem — not the operator.
Allyant says automation alone isn’t enough. Aren’t you automation?
Allyant writes that “automation on its own is not advanced enough to make variable, or complex content accessible and compliant.” We agree with the premise — that’s why Proof is not automation alone. Every machine fix is re-verified automatically by the rule engine, criteria that genuinely require judgment go to a person whose decision is recorded, and a document cannot be certified while any check is unresolved. The disagreement isn’t human-versus-machine; it’s whether the person should do the tedium or just the judgment.
Are we comparing against the software or the services?
Both, because Allyant sells both and the ladder maps cleanly: if you were going to license CommonLook and staff it, compare that to Auto-Certified, where the machine does the work and you keep the judgment calls. If you were going to send documents to their services team, compare that to Assured, where Ockem’s experts finish the human lanes, quoted per document. Either way, the certificate comes standard.
Comparison written by Ockem. Competitor details are taken from allyant.com public pages (CommonLook PDF, remediation services, the CommonLook suite, training, alternative formats and the Braille Works announcement) as of October 2026 and may change. If we’ve got something wrong, tell us and we’ll fix it.
See the difference on one of your own PDFs.
Free, no account. You get the remediated file and a verification record; certify it for $59 when you’re ready.