Changedetection.io: Free and Open-Source Tool for Monitoring Website Changes

Changedetection.io is a free, open-source tool that allows you to monitor changes on websites, including HTML code, content, or even specific words or characters. It supports WebDriver and Playwright for handling dynamic websites, while also ensuring compliance with standards like PCI or legal documentation requirements.

Key Features

  • Automated Website Monitoring: Simply enter a website URL and Changedetection.io will track any changes in the HTML code or content.

  • Browser Automation: With the “Browser Steps” feature, you can automate actions like logging in, adding products to a cart, or accepting cookies — especially useful when monitoring websites that require user interaction.

  • Real-Time Price and Stock Alerts: Enable the “Re-stock & Price detection for single product pages” option to extract metadata from HTML and monitor product prices or stock status. You can set conditions to be notified when a price drops or an item is restocked.

  • Powerful Filtering: Supports advanced filters such as “Trigger on text,” “Remove text by selector,” and “Extract text,” with regular expression (Regex) support. You can target specific elements using XPath, CSS Selectors, or extract structured JSON data using JSONPath and jq.

  • Smart Scheduling and Conditions: Schedule monitoring by time zone, weekdays, or working hours. You can configure alerts to trigger only when a price drops below a specific value or when certain keywords appear on a page.

Who Should Use Changedetection.io?

  • Legal and Compliance Professionals: Track changes to legal documents, government regulations, or industry standards and get instant alerts.

  • Journalists and Researchers: Monitor changes in PDF documents, official announcements, and organization news. You can generate an RSS feed from detected changes for easy aggregation.

  • Security Experts and Web Admins: Detect unusual changes in HTML source code. Supports dynamic sites using WebDriver or Playwright.

  • Businesses and E-commerce Professionals: Monitor competitors’ product prices and inventory in real-time and adjust your strategy accordingly. API integration is available for automation.

  • Shoppers and Deal Hunters: Get instant alerts when a product goes on sale, is restocked, or has a special promotion.

Installation Guide

Using Docker Compose:

bash
docker compose up -d

Standalone Docker:

bash
 
docker run -d --restart always -p "127.0.0.1:5000:5000" -v datastore-volume:/datastore --name changedetection.io dgtlmoon/changedetection.io

Installing on Windows:

  1. Install Python and make sure to add Python to PATH.

  2. Install setuptools:

bash
pip3 install setuptools
  1. Install Changedetection.io:

bash
pip3 install changedetection.io
  1. Run Changedetection.io:

bash
changedetection.py
  1. Open the interface in your browser:

cpp
 
http://127.0.0.1:5000

Using pip (Linux/Mac):

bash
 
pip3 install changedetection.io
changedetection.io -d /path/to/empty/data/dir -p 5000

Then access via browser:

cpp
 
http://127.0.0.1:5000

Updating Changedetection.io

With Docker:

bash
docker pull dgtlmoon/changedetection.io
docker kill $(docker ps -a -f name=changedetection.io -q)
docker rm $(docker ps -a -f name=changedetection.io -q)
docker run -d --restart always -p "127.0.0.1:5000:5000" -v datastore-volume:/datastore --name changedetection.io dgtlmoon/changedetection.io

With Docker Compose:

bash
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Filtering Options

Supports XPath 1.0, JSONPath, jq, and CSS Selectors. You can customize your filters as needed by exporting XPath using various element selector tools.

Notification System

Changedetection.io supports many notification methods (email, Office365, Discord, custom APIs, etc.). Just add one or more notification URLs in the “Notifications” tab for each watched page.

Examples:

  • Discord:

arduino
discord://webhook_id/webhook_token
  • Email:

perl
mailto://user:pass@example.com?to=receivingAddress@example.com
  • Custom API:

arduino
json://someserver.com/custom-api

Additionally, Changedetection.io can parse embedded JSON in HTML pages — especially useful for modern e-commerce websites that use structured data.

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