Free website change detection no longer means writing a scraper and a cron job yourself. The quickest route is a hosted monitor: AyeWatch has a free preview with no card, takes a URL plus a plain-English rule, and only alerts when the change matches the rule.
If you write code for a living, you have probably sketched the DIY version: fetch the page, hash the body, diff it against yesterday, send yourself an email. It works for a weekend. Then the page adds a timestamp, a script renders the content client-side, or the site starts blocking your IP, and you are maintaining a scraper instead of shipping.
Free options, ranked for developers
1. AyeWatch
You paste the page, write what you care about ("alert me when the changelog mentions a breaking change to the auth API"), and pick a schedule. AyeWatch reads each change for meaning instead of diffing bytes, so a rotated footer or a new build hash does not fire an alert.
The free preview needs no credit card and includes push and the in-app feed. When you want alerts in Slack, Discord or a webhook to your own service, paid plans start at $9 a month, billed in monitoring credits. There is also an API on paid plans if you would rather create monitors from code later.
2. Distill Web Monitor
A browser extension (and desktop app) from Neemb Web Services. You click the element you want, or write an XPath, CSS or JavaScript selector if you prefer precision. Monitors can run locally in your browser or in Distill's cloud, and the free plan includes some cloud monitors. Alerts go out by email, SMS, sound, pop-up, phone push and Slack or Discord webhooks.
3. Visualping
A hosted service with a Chrome extension. You choose a page and describe what you are watching for, and it emails you when the page changes, with a one-sentence AI summary. The free plan needs no card.
4. PageCrawl
A hosted monitor that gives every change an importance score from 0 to 100, so you can set a threshold and skip the trivial ones. It has a free plan.
How they compare
| Tool | Selection | Noise handling | Runs where | Free start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AyeWatch | Plain-English rule | Judges the change against your rule | Cloud, iOS, Android | Free preview |
| Distill | Click or XPath/CSS/JS | Selector scope | Browser, desktop or cloud | Free plan |
| Visualping | Page plus a description | AI summary of the change | Cloud and extension | Free plan |
| PageCrawl | Page | Importance score and threshold | Cloud | Free plan |
When to still write your own
If you need to parse structured data out of a page, store every version in your own database, or watch thousands of URLs as part of a product, a scraper you control can be the right call. For the common case, keeping an eye on a vendor's docs, a pricing page, a status page or a release notes page, a hosted monitor saves you the upkeep.
Pages developers tend to watch
- Release notes and changelogs for libraries you depend on.
- API deprecation pages from cloud providers.
- Pricing pages for tools on your team's bill.
- Status pages that lack a feed you can subscribe to.
FAQ
Is there truly free website change detection? Distill, Visualping and PageCrawl all have free plans, and AyeWatch has a free preview with no card. Paid AyeWatch plans start at $9 a month.
Can I send change alerts to a webhook? Yes. AyeWatch supports webhooks on paid plans, and Distill can call raw webhooks.
Does a monitor handle pages rendered with JavaScript? Check each tool on your specific page during the free period, since rendering support varies by site.