backdoor vs AudioEye

Backdoor does exactly one thing: it sits locally, intercepts Claude Code's API calls, translates Anthropic's request format into OpenAI-compatible calls, and forwards them to a backend you pick. Streaming and full tool use survive the hop, the whole server is a single Python file under 600 lines in an MIT-licensed repo — auditable in an afternoon. A health_check.py endpoint gives you basic monitoring, and an animated terminal wizard writes the .env so provider switching is a one-line edit. Local inference through Ollama means nothing leaves the machine; Groq and NVIDIA NIM free tiers cover low-volume use. AudioEye operates in a completely different layer of the stack. Its job is a public website: automated scanning, auto-remediation of a portion of findings, and custom fixes written and deployed by certified accessibility specialists. Coverage is stated as 37 of 55 WCAG 2.2 A/AA success criteria, continuous 24/7 monitoring, human audits, screen reader and keyboard simulation, a visitor-facing overlay for font size and contrast, Android/iOS app testing, and VPAT/ACR documentation for procurement. It reaches your site via a snippet or plugins for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Shopify, Magento, Salesforce, Sitecore, and Adobe Experience Manager. The only genuine overlap is a shared word: both are "tooling." One reduces what you pay an LLM provider; the other reduces legal exposure on a public web property. Judging them on the same feature checklist is meaningless.

Backdoor costs nothing. It's MIT-licensed and free to run; the only money involved is whatever your chosen backend charges — and the README quantifies that: routing 500 million tokens through Claude Code costs $9,834 on Claude Opus 4.7 versus $5.34 on DeepSeek V3 Flash, a claimed 99.95% reduction. Groq and NVIDIA NIM free tiers can keep the bill at zero for light use, and Ollama keeps it at zero plus your own hardware. Your real costs are time (three commands, then a .env edit per switch) and risk: no SLA, no official support, and the terms-of-service question around pointing Claude Code at non-Anthropic providers sits with you and your legal team. AudioEye is a paid managed service quoted per engagement, with a free standalone scanner as the front door. You're buying labor as much as software: continuous scanning, specialist-written custom fixes, human audits, and VPAT/ACR generation. Whether that's worth it depends on your exposure — an organization facing or preventing an accessibility lawsuit, or producing procurement documentation, is buying a different kind of insurance than a cost-per-token spreadsheet. Note the pricing axes don't even match: one is measured in tokens, the other in compliance risk and staff hours you didn't have to hire.