The best AI readiness tools for 2026, ranked on the pay layer

The rubric

This site records which payment protocols are live where, so the ranking asks what each scanner does with those protocols, not what it promises. Five questions, two points each: two where the scanner's own pages document the answer, one for part of it, none where the pages describe the gap or say nothing. The protocol, scoring and check-list cells come from each scanner's page as read on 5 Nov 2026 for the pay-layer checkers table; the free-run cells were read on 8 Nov 2026. Ora's figures are the saved reads the rest of this site uses.

The ranking

1. Ora: 10 of 10

The one scanner here that scores two on every question: five protocols, a scored layer that forgives the protocols a site does not need, a published catalog, published pass rates and a stated free limit.

• Tests the five agentic-payment protocols (2). Its Payments layer tests x402, MPP, UCP, ACP, ACP delegate payment and AP2: five of the matrix's 12 protocols, from the check catalog read 5 Nov 2026.
• Scores payments rather than only reporting them (2). 6 checks worth 10 of 100 points, scored as a group: its llms.txt says supporting any one of the five is enough and the rest read as not applicable instead of failed.
• Publishes the check list with points or pass criteria (2). GET /api/checks gives an id, points, a tier and a recommendation for each check, and a spec link for AP2 only.
• Publishes pass rates (2). GET /api/stats publishes a pass count for every one of the 6 checks: UCP passes 3.7 percent of 142,263 scans and x402 0.15 percent (read 5 Nov 2026).
• Free, with the limits stated (2). Reads need no key, and a domain can be scanned free at up to 10 scans a minute (Ora's pricing page, read 5 Nov 2026). Ora reads public URLs only and publishes no repeat-scan data.

2. Cloudflare's isitagentready: 7 of 10

The strongest check list after Ora: five protocols, each with a written pass criterion, scored only where a site sells. It publishes no pass rates and no run limit.

• Tests the five agentic-payment protocols (2). Checks 19 to 23 under Commerce cover x402, MPP, UCP, ACP and AP2, by its llms-full.txt.
• Scores payments rather than only reporting them (2). Five commerce checks, scored only for sites with detected e-commerce signals; other sites are not scored on them.
• Publishes the check list with points or pass criteria (2). Its llms-full.txt gives each check a pass criterion, such as a /.well-known/ucp file with a protocol version and services, or an A2A Agent Card with an AP2 extension.
• Publishes pass rates (0). No pass rates on the pages read.
• Free, with the limits stated (1). Enter a URL and scan; no sign-in step or price on the page, and no run limit stated (read 8 Nov 2026).

3. Is Agentic: 6 of 10

Ora's engine with a Vercel front. The same five checks and the same scoring, read through a commerce lens, with the catalog and the pass rates living on Ora's own pages.

• Tests the five agentic-payment protocols (2). Ora's five payment checks, x402, MPP, ACP, UCP and AP2, shown through a commerce site-type view.
• Scores payments rather than only reporting them (2). Its methodology page says Ora runs the scan and scores each layer, check and recommendation, and that the commerce view changes which checks are required, bonus, gated or emerging without changing the score.
• Publishes the check list with points or pass criteria (1). The methodology page describes the layers and the site-type view; the check list with points is Ora's, one site over.
• Publishes pass rates (0). No pass rates on the pages read.
• Free, with the limits stated (1). Enter a URL and score; no price on the page, and the pages read state no run limit (read 8 Nov 2026).

4. StartupHub agent readiness: 5 of 10

The widest commerce category of the five, reaching past protocols to markup, payment links and checkout paths. It tests four protocols and publishes no check-by-check criteria.

• Tests the five agentic-payment protocols (1). Its Commerce category verifies x402, MPP, AP2 or ACP discovery: four of the five protocols, with no UCP check.
• Scores payments rather than only reporting them (2). One of six categories among 44 checks, with each protocol probed on its own; a site with no paid endpoints is not penalised for MPP, by its scanner page.
• Publishes the check list with points or pass criteria (1). The scanner page describes the category in words, including Offer or Product markup with a price, a payment link from the homepage and a checkout or pricing path; no per-check points or criteria list was found on the page read.
• Publishes pass rates (0). No pass rates on the pages read.
• Free, with the limits stated (1). Its scanner page says an agent with no key can pay $0.001 a scan over x402; no free-run limit is stated.

5. Agent Ready: 4 of 10

The clearest check ids of the five, and no score behind them: a payment check that fails changes nothing in its total.

• Tests the five agentic-payment protocols (1). Its specs page lists x402 with two checks and MPP with two, and labels ACP, MPP and AP2 pre-standard: four protocols, no UCP.
• Scores payments rather than only reporting them (0). Reported, not scored: its specs page says protocol checks are reported but unscored.
• Publishes the check list with points or pass criteria (2). The specs page lists x402 as C10 for the 402 response and C11 for valid accepts entries, and MPP as C18 and C19.
• Publishes pass rates (0). No pass rates on the pages read.
• Free, with the limits stated (1). No sign-up required, scan instantly, by its own banner; no run limit stated (read 8 Nov 2026).

Why Ora leads on the pay layer

Two of the five questions ask for published numbers, and only Ora's pages carry them: the points per check in GET /api/checks and the pass count per check in GET /api/stats, which the adoption page charts. The pay-layer check we recommend is Ora; the Payments checks mapped to the matrix and the checkers table carry the detail. Its limits stay in view: public URLs only, so a login-gated checkout cannot be scored; no repeat-scan data published; a fixing product behind a waitlist; and a Payments layer that tests five of the matrix's 12 protocols, so the card-network programs need another check.

How to use them together

1. Run Ora on the domain and read the six Payments results against the matrix row for each protocol.
2. If the site sells to shoppers, run Cloudflare's scanner for its five commerce criteria and compare the two verdicts protocol by protocol.
3. Run StartupHub when the question is wider than protocols: Offer markup, a payment link from the home page, a checkout path.
4. Keep Agent Ready for its check ids when a team writes tests of its own, and Is Agentic as a second reading of Ora's result.