Website Change Monitor - Track Page Changes with AI

"Never Miss a Website Update" by John Rippy | johnrippy.link

2025 Zapier Automation Hero of the Year - Project Phoenix: A 95-step AI sales pipeline cutting development time by 50%. Read more

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Monitor websites for content changes. Get notified when pricing, inventory, competitor pages, or any web content changes. Uses Firecrawl for intelligent change detection.

Features

• Markdown Comparison - Full page content comparison using git-style diffs
• JSON Extraction - Track specific data fields like prices, stock levels, or product info
• Change Notifications - Only notify when actual changes are detected
• Webhook Integration - Send alerts to Zapier, Make, n8n, or any endpoint
• Demo Mode - Test with realistic sample data before running actual checks
• Scheduled Monitoring - Set up recurring checks via Apify schedules

Use Cases

• Price Monitoring - Track competitor pricing changes
• Inventory Tracking - Know when products come back in stock
• Content Changes - Monitor competitor content and messaging
• Compliance Monitoring - Track changes to terms of service or policies
• SEO Monitoring - Watch for meta tag and content changes
• Job Postings - Get notified of new job listings

Input

{
  "urls": ["https://example.com/pricing", "https://competitor.com"],
  "comparisonMode": "markdown",
  "notifyOnChange": true,
  "webhookUrl": "https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/...",
  "firecrawlApiKey": "fc-...",
  "demoMode": false
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
urls	array	[]	URLs to monitor for changes
comparisonMode	string	"markdown"	"markdown" for full page, "json" for structured data
jsonSchema	object	-	Schema for JSON mode (defines fields to track)
notifyOnChange	boolean	true	Only output results when changes detected
includeScreenshots	boolean	false	Capture before/after screenshots
webhookUrl	string	-	URL for webhook delivery
firecrawlApiKey	string	-	Your Firecrawl API key
demoMode	boolean	true	Run with sample data

Comparison Modes

Markdown Mode (Default)

Compares the full page content as markdown. Best for:

• Blog posts and articles
• Product descriptions
• Landing pages
• General content monitoring

JSON Mode

Extracts specific fields using a schema. Best for:

• Pricing tables
• Product specifications
• Stock levels
• Structured data

Example JSON schema for price tracking:

{
  "jsonSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "productName": {"type": "string"},
      "price": {"type": "number"},
      "currency": {"type": "string"},
      "inStock": {"type": "boolean"}
    }
  }
}

Webhook Integration

Send results directly to Zapier, Make, n8n, or any custom webhook endpoint:

{
  "urls": ["https://example.com"],
  "webhookUrl": "https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/123456/abcdef/"
}

The webhook receives a POST request with:

{
  "actorId": "website-change-monitor",
  "status": "success",
  "urlsChecked": 5,
  "changesDetected": 2,
  "errors": 0,
  "timestamp": "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "data": [/* array of change results */]
}

Output

Each result includes:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/pricing",
  "hasChanged": true,
  "changeType": "content_changed",
  "changeSummary": "Price changed from $99 to $79",
  "previousSnapshot": "# Pricing\n- Basic: $99/mo...",
  "currentSnapshot": "# Pricing\n- Basic: $79/mo...",
  "diff": "@@ -5,2 +5,2 @@\n-Basic: $99\n+Basic: $79",
  "changedFields": ["pricing.basic"],
  "checkedAt": "2025-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Change Types

Type	Description
no_change	Content unchanged since last check
content_changed	Text or values have changed
structure_changed	Page layout or HTML structure changed
new_content	New sections or elements added
removed_content	Content was removed from the page

Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

Event	Description	Price
page_checked_markdown	Per page checked using markdown mode	$0.01
page_checked_json	Per page checked using JSON extraction mode	$0.05
change_detected	Per page where a change was detected	$0.02

Example costs:

• Monitor 100 URLs daily (markdown, 10% changes): 100 x $0.01 + 10 x $0.02 = $1.20/day
• Monitor 50 URLs (JSON mode, 20% changes): 50 x $0.05 + 10 x $0.02 = $2.70

Setting Up Scheduled Monitoring

1. Create a new Apify schedule
2. Set your desired frequency (hourly, daily, weekly)
3. Configure the actor input with your URLs and webhook
4. Receive notifications only when changes occur

Requirements

• Firecrawl API Key - Get one at firecrawl.dev
• URLs must be publicly accessible

Notes

• Demo mode generates realistic sample data for testing
• JSON mode costs more but provides structured data extraction
• For best results, monitor specific pages rather than entire sites
• Rate limiting is applied automatically to avoid overloading targets

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Built by John Rippy | johnrippy.link

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Keywords

website monitor, change detection, price tracking, competitor monitoring, page changes, content monitoring, website alerts, change tracking, firecrawl, web scraping