As the ECGT Directive's 27 September 2026 enforcement date approaches, the market for automated green-claims compliance tools has grown from two products in 2023 to more than a dozen in 2026. This page compares eight of them side by side: what they scan, how verification works, pricing, and the specific use cases each fits. No affiliate links, no sponsored placement.
Disclosure: Greenwashing Checker — the tool operating this website — is included in the comparison alongside its competitors. Feature claims for all tools are sourced from the respective public product pages and verified 23 April 2026.
Evaluation Framework
Each tool is evaluated against six criteria derived from the ECGT substantiation requirements and from typical compliance-team workflows:
- Banned-terms coverage — how many of the EU's banned and restricted terms are actively scanned for.
- Scope — single page, full site, PDF, packaging, or claim-by-claim input.
- Verification method — keyword matching only, or NLP / AI-based context detection.
- Output — list of findings, PDF report, API response, dashboard.
- Pricing — free tier, entry paid tier, enterprise.
- Use case fit — marketing team, in-house legal, retailer onboarding third parties, enterprise-wide monitoring.
Side-by-Side Comparison Table
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Scope | Verification | Key differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenwashing Checker (this site) | Yes (3 scans/day, 1 page each) | €29/month (Pro, 100 pages/scan) | Website URL scan + PDF output | Keyword list (28 banned terms) + ClimateBERT NLP context check | Free unlimited single-page scans + published banned-terms database |
| Provenance Green Claims Checker | Yes (claim-by-claim input) | Contact sales | Individual claim text input | AI + reviewer feedback | Built around per-claim editorial workflow for brand teams |
| Compare Ethics | No | Contact sales | Retailer supply chain, third-party brands | Certification database matching + audit | Multi-brand retailer compliance, 100% supplier coverage model |
| Bird & Bird Green Claims AI Scanner | Demo only | Enterprise pricing | Full website + documents | Legal-trained AI + law firm review | Integrated legal opinion output for EU and UK jurisdictions |
| EcoAppraise | Yes (limited) | Paid tiers not public | Claim + URL input | AI assesses evidence against independent sources | Evidence-source verification against public databases |
| ethy Green Claims Compliance | Yes (knowledge base) | Contact sales | Brand-level, product-line | Expert consultancy + tooling | UK Green Claims Code specialization |
| ESA GreenClaims | ESA-funded projects | Project-based | Land-use sectors (mining, oil, forestry) | Satellite imagery verification | Remote-sensing verification for land-intensive claims |
| CSSN Greenwashing Assessment Tool | Fully free (academic) | — | Indicator-question input | Taxonomic question bank | Academic, exhaustive greenwashing taxonomy |
Sources cross-checked against product pages on 23 April 2026. Enterprise pricing disclosed only via sales contact in most cases; figures shown are public starting prices.
Tool Profiles
Greenwashing Checker
Built as the default reference for the EU's 28 banned and restricted environmental marketing terms. Free tier allows three scans per day of up to one page each, with results available as an on-page report. Pro tier (€29/month) scans up to 100 pages per domain and exports a signed PDF compliance report. NLP layer uses the ClimateBERT / environmental-claims model from Hugging Face to detect borderline phrasing that keyword matching would miss. The scan tool is public.
Provenance Green Claims Checker
Claim-by-claim editorial tool rather than full-site scanner. Marketers paste a draft claim and receive structured feedback on compliance risk. Best fit for high-volume copywriting teams running new product launches. Pricing via sales conversation.
Compare Ethics
Targets multi-brand retailers managing many third-party suppliers. The platform enables automation of verification for supplier sustainability claims at scale. Positioned for "moving from spot checks to 100% compliance" — enterprise procurement use case.
Bird & Bird Green Claims AI Scanner
A major European law firm's AI-assisted ESG compliance tool, integrated with legal review. Produces a jurisdiction-specific risk assessment for EU and UK markets. Enterprise-only; typical engagement starts at a scoped legal review rather than a subscription.
EcoAppraise
AI-driven claim-level assessment that compares a claim against evidence from independent public sources. Useful for verifying supplier claims or competitive benchmarking. Pricing tiers not public.
ethy Green Claims Compliance
UK-focused consultancy + tooling bundle. Deep specialization in the UK CMA Green Claims Code and now the DMCC Act 2024. Suits UK brands making sustainability claims in the British market, especially SMEs needing external review before publication.
ESA GreenClaims
European Space Agency Business Applications project providing satellite-verified validation of corporate environmental claims in land-intensive sectors — mining, oil & gas, forestry, agriculture. Remote-sensing data verifies deforestation, emissions, and land-use claims independently. Project-based engagement model.
CSSN Greenwashing Assessment Tool
Academic tool from the Climate Social Science Network at Brown University. Exhaustive taxonomy of greenwashing forms paired with yes/no indicator questions. Free and ideal for training, research, and internal audits, but not designed for automated website scanning.
Which Tool for Which Use Case
| Use case | Recommended tool(s) |
|---|---|
| SME needing free ECGT scan before 27 Sept 2026 | Greenwashing Checker (free tier) + CSSN (for internal training) |
| E-commerce brand with 100+ product pages | Greenwashing Checker Pro (€29/month) or Provenance for editorial workflow |
| Retailer onboarding 1000+ third-party suppliers | Compare Ethics |
| UK brand facing CMA enforcement under DMCC Act | ethy + ASA-aligned legal review |
| Multinational needing legal opinion | Bird & Bird Green Claims AI Scanner + local counsel |
| Land-use sector (mining, oil, forestry, agri) | ESA GreenClaims + ISO 14064-verified footprint |
| In-house compliance training | CSSN taxonomy + Greenwashing Checker free tier |
Most compliance teams adopt two tools: one automated scanner covering the full website surface, plus a claim-level workflow tool for pre-launch review of new copy. The combination typically costs under €500/month for an SME and scales from there.
Start Free Today
Our free tier scans any URL against the EU's 28 banned and restricted terms in under 60 seconds. Upgrade to Pro (€29/month) for full-site coverage and PDF reports.
Compare PlansFrequently Asked Questions
Which tool has the largest banned-terms database?
Greenwashing Checker publishes an open list of 28 banned and restricted terms directly aligned with ECGT Annex I. Most competitor tools do not publish their full term list, making like-for-like comparison difficult.
Do any of these tools give legal advice?
Only the law-firm tools (Bird & Bird Green Claims AI Scanner, law-firm integrations inside Provenance and ethy) produce legal advice. All other tools provide compliance signals, not legal opinions — a distinction that matters for documentation and privilege.
Can a free tool be enough for full ECGT compliance?
For a single-page website, yes. For multi-page sites (>10 pages), a paid tier or a second audit tool is recommended. The ECGT's substantiation requirement applies to every page, not a sampled subset.
What is satellite-based verification useful for?
Claims that can be falsified by objective land-use or emissions data — deforestation commitments, reforestation projects, emission-capture claims, oil-field flaring claims. ESA's GreenClaims project targets this specifically.
Which tool is best for supplier onboarding?
Compare Ethics is purpose-built for retailers managing many third-party brands. Its workflow is structured around converting spot-check supplier audits into continuous verification.
Bottom Line
No single tool is right for every use case. Pair a full-site scanner (Greenwashing Checker or equivalent) with a claim-level review tool matched to your workflow (Provenance for editorial, Compare Ethics for retailer procurement, Bird & Bird for legal opinion). Start with a free scan of your site today at greenwashing-checker.com/en/#scan and decide on additional tooling from there.