Skip to content

Changedetection.io

Changedetection.io is an open-source tool to monitor websites for content changes.

What it is

Changedetection.io is a self-hosted web monitoring tool that tracks changes in website content. It provides a clean web interface to add URLs, set up filters, and configure notification triggers for when specific parts of a page change.

What problem it solves

It eliminates the need for manual checking of websites for updates. Whether it's tracking price drops on e-commerce sites, monitoring software release pages, or watching for new posts on a blog that lacks an RSS feed, Changedetection.io automates the observation process and pushes alerts to you.

Where it fits in the stack

In an automation ecosystem, Changedetection.io acts as a Web Event Trigger. It can send webhooks to n8n or Apprise, allowing you to kick off complex workflows (like automatically downloading a new software version or updating a budget spreadsheet) based on external website changes.

Typical use cases

  • Price Tracking: Monitoring Amazon or specialized retail sites for discounts.
  • Stock Alerts: Checking if a "Sold Out" item has come back into stock.
  • Regulatory Monitoring: Tracking changes to government or corporate policy pages.
  • Visual Regression: Capturing screenshots over time to see how a site's design evolves.

Strengths

  • Multiple Fetchers: Supports basic fast fetching as well as Playwright/Selenium for Javascript-heavy sites.
  • Granular Filters: Use CSS selectors, XPath, or JSONPath to monitor only specific parts of a page.
  • Snapshot History: Keeps a history of changes, allowing you to see exactly what was added or removed.
  • Massive Notification Support: Integrates with Apprise to support 70+ notification services.

Limitations

  • Captcha Blocks: Can struggle with sites that use aggressive anti-bot measures like Cloudflare Turnstile or reCAPTCHA.
  • Resource Usage: Using the Playwright/WebDriver fetchers for many sites can be memory-intensive.
  • Complexity: Monitoring complex SPAs (Single Page Applications) may require advanced CSS selector knowledge.

When to use it

  • When you want to monitor websites for content changes or price drops.
  • To receive automated notifications when a specific page updates.
  • For tracking software releases or news without manual checking.

When not to use it

  • For high-frequency monitoring of rapidly changing data (consider specialized trading or scraping tools).
  • If you need to monitor content behind complex, multi-step authentication that isn't easily scriptable.

Getting started

Docker Compose

To run Changedetection.io using Docker Compose:

services:
  changedetection:
    image: dgtlmoon/changedetection.io
    container_name: changedetection
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/datastore
    restart: unless-stopped

Access the interface at http://localhost:5000.

CLI examples

You can monitor the service via Docker:

# View service logs
docker logs changedetection

# Check the version
docker exec changedetection python3 -c "import changedetectionio; print(changedetectionio.__version__)"

# Restart the service
docker restart changedetection

API examples

Changedetection.io features a REST API. Authenticate with your API key from the Settings tab:

# List all watches
curl http://localhost:5000/api/v1/watch \
     -H "x-api-key: <your_api_key>"

Backlog

  • Configure visual filter to ignore dynamic elements like timestamps.

Contribution Metadata

  • Confidence: high
  • Last reviewed: 2026-06-15

Sources / References