Stop refreshing pages by hand. Below: six ways to track website changes, compared — and the one-minute setup that sends you an email, Telegram or Slack alert only when the content really changes.
Start monitoring free →Tracking changes on a website means re-loading a page on a schedule, comparing it with the previous version and getting an alert when the content differs. You can do it by hand, with feeds and search alerts, or with a website change monitor that runs the checks for you and sends the difference — what was added, what was removed — to your inbox, Telegram or Slack.
The right method depends on three things: whether the site already publishes a feed, how fast you need to know, and whether you can keep a computer or server running. Here are the six options, from the simplest to the most reliable.
By the PageRadar team · Updated 31 October 2026 · We make PageRadar, one of the tools below.
A bookmark and a reminder. Free and fine for one page you look at weekly anyway. It breaks down as soon as timing matters: a restock or a price change that lands overnight is gone by morning, and small edits in long pages are easy to miss by eye.
If the site has a blog, changelog or news section, it may publish an RSS or Atom feed. A feed reader then shows new posts automatically. The catch: feeds only cover new posts, never edits to existing pages such as pricing, terms or product pages — and many sites have no feed at all.
Google Alerts emails you when new search results match a keyword. Useful for news and brand mentions across the web, but it does not watch a specific page: it depends on Google re-indexing the site, can lag by days, and silently misses edits. See Google Alerts alternatives for when to use which.
Extensions such as Distill.io or Visualping's can check pages from your browser. Easy to start, but local checks only run while your computer is on and the browser is open, which is exactly when you are already looking.
Open-source tools such as changedetection.io or urlwatch are free and flexible. You run them on your own server or Docker host — and you own the uptime, browser updates, proxies and alert setup. A good fit if you already run infrastructure; a weekend project if you do not.
A hosted service checks the page from the cloud on a fixed schedule, filters out noise and alerts you with a diff. Nothing to install or keep running. PageRadar is one of these; the best website change monitoring tools compares the others honestly, including when they beat us.
| Method | Cost | Catches edits to a page | Works with your computer off | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checking by hand | Free | Only if you notice | — | None |
| RSS feed | Free | No — new posts only | Yes | Only if the site has a feed |
| Google Alerts | Free | No — new search results | Yes | A keyword |
| Browser extension | Free–paid | Yes | No (local checks) | Install an extension |
| Self-hosted detector | Free + server | Yes | Yes, if your server is up | Docker, browser, alerts |
| Cloud change monitor | Free plan, paid from $7/mo | Yes | Yes | Paste a URL |
The exact page you care about — a product, a pricing page, a filtered search, a policy. If a filter or size changes the URL, set it first and copy that URL.
Choose "Watch only part of the page" and pick the element visually — a price, a stock label, a table — or paste a CSS selector. Optionally add a prompt such as "only alert when the price changes".
Daily on the free plan, hourly on Basic, every 15 minutes on Pro, every 5 minutes on Business. Alerts go by email, or Telegram, Slack, webhook and RSS from Basic up.
Most pages change on every load: rotating banners, "updated 3 minutes ago" stamps, cookie notices, recommendation carousels. A naive monitor alerts on all of it, and after a week you stop reading the alerts. Three habits keep the signal clean:
| What you watch | Suggested interval | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Restocks, drops, ticket releases | 5–15 minutes | Stock can sell out within the hour |
| Car and property listings | 15–60 minutes | Good listings go the same day |
| Competitor pricing, product pages | Hourly | You want it the same day, not the same minute |
| Job postings on company sites | Hourly to daily | Early applications get read first |
| Terms, policies, regulations, docs | Daily | Changes matter, minutes do not |
A sold-out product, size or drop — see restock alerts.
A specific model on a dealer stock locator — see car stock alerts.
New flats and houses on agent sites — see property alerts.
Pricing and feature pages of rivals — see competitor monitoring.
A product name, a date, "registration open" — see content monitoring.
Regulatory notices, policies and terms that change without announcement.
Ignores ads, cookie banners, timestamps, and rotating content. You only hear about changes that actually matter.
Clear before/after comparison showing exactly what text was added or removed. No guessing.
Email, Telegram, Slack, and webhooks. Get notified wherever you already work.
Paste a CSS selector to watch just a pricing table, a specific div, or a single paragraph — ignore the rest of the page.
Daily checks to every-5-minute monitoring. The right frequency for every use case.
A full REST API, an MCP server, signed webhooks, and RSS feeds for developers to plug monitoring into their workflows and AI agents.
3-10× cheaper than Visualping. Cancel anytime with one click.
| PageRadar Pro | Visualping Personal 1K | Site Spy Starter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $10/mo | $14/mo | €9/mo |
| URLs monitored | 100 | 10 | 50 |
| Check frequency | Every 15 min | Every 15 min | Every 10 min |
| AI summary of changes | ✓ | ✓ | Pro (€25) |
| Telegram alerts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Slack alerts | ✓ | Business ($140+) | via webhook |
| Highlighted text diff in alert | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Screenshot (image) diff | ✗ | ✓ | Pro (€25) |
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Prices and features from each vendor's published pricing page, October 2026.
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