Website Change Detector

Website change detector tools watch a URL and ping you when the page actually updates. That is the whole job. You should not need a screenshot overlay, a CSS selector, or a laptop left open overnight.

Most detectors fail in the same way. They fire on ads, A/B tests, and cookie banners. You mute them. Then you miss the pricing change that mattered.

What a detector should actually report

You care about substance. A number on a pricing page. A new paragraph on a TOS. A job that appeared on a careers board. Cosmetic restyles are noise.

Page change alerts on AyeWatch describe the change in plain English. Visualping will show you a pixel diff. Distill will watch one DOM node if you pick it. Use those if you want the overlay. Use a detector that reads the page if you want to know what changed.

How to set one up

Paste the HTTPS URL. Write the alert rule the way you would tell a colleague. "Tell me when the listed price or plan names change, ignore layout." Pick push if minutes matter, email if they do not.

A detector pointed at a competitor pricing path is a different watch than one pointed at a TOS. Keep them separate. One noisy homepage watch will train you to ignore both. Free Preview gives you six lifetime runs across three topics. Paid plans add Slack, webhooks, and faster checks. Pro starts at $9/month. Daily is enough for a page that moves twice a month. Use a faster interval when Friday afternoon edits are the risk.

When a free screenshot tool is enough

If you only need to prove that a legal disclaimer moved, a visual monitor is fine. If you monitor more than a handful of pages, or you also want topic coverage across the web, a keyword-blind detector that summarizes the change is less work per week.

Start with one URL you already refresh by hand. If the first alert is useful, add the next page. If you monitor five URLs today by muscle memory, pick the one that already burned you once. That is the detector worth proving first.