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What is Changedetection.io?

Changedetection.io is a powerful, self-hosted web monitoring tool that automatically detects changes on websites and sends you instant notifications. Whether you’re tracking price drops, monitoring competitor updates, or waiting for job postings, changedetection.io keeps you informed in real-time.
Changedetection.io is available both as a self-hosted solution (free and open source) and as a managed service at $8.99/month — half the price of comparable services.

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Key Problems Solved

Price Tracking

Monitor product prices and get notified when they drop below your target amount

Stock Alerts

Know instantly when out-of-stock items become available again

Content Updates

Track government announcements, news updates, and regulatory changes

Competitive Intelligence

Monitor competitor websites, job postings, and industry developments

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Core Features

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Visual Selector Tool

Target specific parts of web pages with precision using the Visual Selector. Click and select exactly what you want to monitor — no coding required.
The Visual Selector requires a Playwright content fetcher connection (included in the managed service or configurable in self-hosted deployments).

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Browser Automation

Perform interactive browser steps before monitoring:
  • Fill in text boxes and forms
  • Click buttons and navigate menus
  • Accept cookie prompts
  • Log into password-protected pages
  • Refine searches and add items to carts

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Advanced Content Filtering

XPath & CSS Selectors

Use XPath 1.0/2.0 or CSS selectors to extract specific content

JSON Monitoring

Monitor JSON APIs with JSONPath or jq filtering

PDF Tracking

Detect text changes in PDF documents

Regex Support

Trigger on text patterns using regular expressions

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Flexible Notifications

Get alerted through 80+ notification services powered by Apprise:
  • Messaging: Discord, Slack, Telegram, Microsoft Teams
  • Email: SMTP, Office365, Gmail
  • Custom: Webhooks, JSON APIs, custom integrations
  • System: Syslog, desktop notifications
All notifications support Jinja2 templating for customized content.

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Intelligent Scheduling

  • Schedule checks in any timezone
  • Limit monitoring to specific days and times
  • Quick presets for business hours or weekends
  • Configurable check intervals per watch

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Conditional Monitoring

Only trigger notifications when specific conditions are met:
  • Price above or below threshold
  • Keywords present or absent
  • Percentage changes
  • Custom logic combinations

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Common Use Cases

  • Product price tracking and drop alerts
  • Restock notifications for sold-out items
  • Discount and sale monitoring
  • Special deal announcements
  • Job posting alerts on career pages
  • Competitor website monitoring
  • Regulatory compliance updates (RegTech)
  • Security advisories and software releases
  • Government department updates
  • Legal document changes
  • API response monitoring
  • Social media search results
  • Property listing changes
  • Discogs restock alerts
  • Pokémon card availability
  • Limited edition releases

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Architecture Overview

Changedetection.io operates with a modular architecture:

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Content Fetchers

  • HTML Requests: Fast, lightweight fetcher for static pages
  • Playwright: Full Chrome browser with JavaScript support
  • Selenium WebDriver: Alternative browser automation (deprecated)

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Processors

  • text_json_diff: Traditional text and JSON comparison (default)
  • restock_diff: Specialized for product availability and pricing
  • image_ssim_diff: Visual comparison using image similarity

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Data Storage

All data is stored locally in a file-based datastore (default) or can be configured for other backends.
If you’re monitoring sensitive URLs, use the self-hosted version to maintain complete data privacy. With changedetection.io, you control your data, not third parties.

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Browser Extension

The Chrome extension lets you add the current webpage to your changedetection.io instance with a single click. Simply install, sync with your instance, and start monitoring.

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API Support

Full REST API for programmatic management:
  • Create, update, and delete watches
  • Manage tags and notifications
  • Import and export configurations
  • Query system information
Explore the Interactive API Documentation or download the OpenAPI Specification.

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Privacy & Security

✓ Self-hosted: Complete control over your data
✓ No tracking: Your monitored URLs stay private
✓ Local storage: All data remains on your infrastructure
✓ Proxy support: Route requests through proxies for anonymity
✓ Open source: Audit the code yourself (Apache 2.0 license)

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Next Steps

Quick Start

Get your first monitor running in 5 minutes

Installation

Self-host with Docker, pip, or Docker Compose

Visual Selector

Learn to target specific page elements

Notifications

Configure alerts for your preferred channels
Need help? Check out the tutorials and how-to guides or visit the GitHub repository for community support.

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