We carry out a quantitative comparison between gas-puff imaging (GPI) turbulence measurements in Alcator C-Mod inner-wall limited discharges (Zweben et al 2009 Phys. Plasmas18 082505) and 3D flux-driven drift-reduced Braginskii turbulence simulations of scrape-off layer dynamics. The comparison is carried out for a series of inner-wall limited discharges where the magnetic field and the density are varied. The comparison between GPI data and non-linear simulations yields overall good agreement for several observables, such as the Dα emission levels and intermittency, the radial and poloidal correlation lengths and propagation velocities, and the power and frequency spectral density.