# ChangePulse — SaaS Pricing Page Change Watcher (`chrisrosil/changepulse`) Actor

Watch SaaS pricing pages for real content changes. Hash, diff, and get structured change events — pay only per check and per detected change.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/chrisrosil/changepulse.md
- **Developed by:** [Christopher Rosil](https://apify.com/chrisrosil) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools, MCP servers
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $50.00 / 1,000 change detecteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## ChangePulse — SaaS Pricing Page Change Watcher

Watch SaaS pricing pages for real content changes. Hash, diff, and get structured change events — pay only per check and per detected change.

**Live:** https://apify.com/zombiekiller69/changepulse

Schedule a list of public `/pricing` (or any) URLs. ChangePulse normalizes HTML (optional CSS selector), stores a SHA-256 hash across runs, and emits a dataset row when content actually moves. Built for competitive pricing intel, agencies, and agent pipelines that need `changed: true` events — not prose digests.

### Why this (not DIY ChatGPT)

One-shot summarizers do not give you storage, schedules, hash history, or marketplace PPE metering. ChangePulse is ops infrastructure: fetch → hash → compare → event.

### Pricing (pay-per-event)

| Event | Price | When |
|-------|-------|------|
| Actor start | $0.00005 | Every run |
| URL check | $0.002 | Each successful fetch+hash |
| Change detected | $0.05 | Hash differs from previous run |

**Cost example:** 20 pricing pages × daily × 30 days ≈ 600 checks → **~$1.20**, plus $0.05 only when a page actually moves.

### Demo proof (2026-08-23)

Controllable page bumped `$10/user` → `$12/user`:

- Baseline: https://console.apify.com/actors/ijj59HRQY9Xgk3GrY/runs/VMYaZ8AzHIgOMVlgy — `url-check`, `changed: false`
- Change: https://console.apify.com/actors/ijj59HRQY9Xgk3GrY/runs/qukgDjyeyVlvX12tU — `url-check` + **`change-detected`**, `changed: true`

```json
{
  "changed": true,
  "changeType": "pricing",
  "diffSnippet": "- Pro$10/user\n+ Pro$12/user",
  "runId": "qukgDjyeyVlvX12tU"
}
```

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.notion.so/pricing",
    "https://linear.app/pricing",
    "https://vercel.com/pricing",
    "https://stripe.com/pricing",
    "https://www.figma.com/pricing",
    "https://slack.com/pricing",
    "https://airtable.com/pricing",
    "https://www.canva.com/pricing"
  ],
  "contentSelector": "main",
  "compareWithPrevious": true
}
```

Tips:

- Prefill with your competitor `/pricing` URLs.
- Set `contentSelector` (e.g. `main`) to cut nav/footer noise.
- Pass a persistent **state store** when running under limited permissions so hashes survive across runs.
- Schedule daily or hourly in Apify Tasks; alert only on `changed: true`.

### Output fields

`url`, `hash`, `previousHash`, `changed`, `changeType`, `diffSnippet`, `snippetAfter`, `httpStatus`, `checkedAt`, `runId`

### Ideal schedules

- Daily Apify Task on 5–20 rival pricing URLs
- Webhook / dataset → Slack or MCP agent only when `changed` is true
- Baseline first run (no change), then alert on diffs

### Limitations

Public HTML only. JS-heavy SPAs that return empty shells may need a browser Actor later. Prefer tight CSS selectors.

### Categories / SEO keywords

SaaS pricing page monitor, competitor pricing watcher, URL change detection, content hash diff, pricing page tracker, competitive intel automation, MCP change events

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Public URLs to fetch and hash (SaaS pricing pages, changelogs, landing pages).

## `contentSelector` (type: `string`):

Optional CSS selector for the main content region. When set, only that subtree is hashed (reduces false positives from nav/footer).

## `compareWithPrevious` (type: `boolean`):

If true, load the prior hash from Apify Key-Value Store (or local .state/) and set changed / previousHash / diffSnippet.

## `userAgent` (type: `string`):

Optional User-Agent string for fetches. Leave empty for the ChangePulse default.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Abort each fetch after this many seconds.

## `notifyOnFirstSeen` (type: `boolean`):

If true, emit a baseline change row (changeType=baseline) on the first observation of a URL. Default false (store hash only).

## `stateStore` (type: `string`):

Named Key-Value Store used to persist URL hashes across runs (required for change detection under limited permissions). Create once and reuse.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.notion.so/pricing",
    "https://linear.app/pricing",
    "https://vercel.com/pricing"
  ],
  "contentSelector": "",
  "compareWithPrevious": true,
  "userAgent": "",
  "timeoutSecs": 30,
  "notifyOnFirstSeen": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset rows: url, hashes, changed flag, snippets, HTTP status.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.notion.so/pricing",
        "https://linear.app/pricing",
        "https://vercel.com/pricing"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("chrisrosil/changepulse").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": [
        "https://www.notion.so/pricing",
        "https://linear.app/pricing",
        "https://vercel.com/pricing",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("chrisrosil/changepulse").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.notion.so/pricing",
    "https://linear.app/pricing",
    "https://vercel.com/pricing"
  ]
}' |
apify call chrisrosil/changepulse --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,chrisrosil/changepulse"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ijj59HRQY9Xgk3GrY/builds/wJMiFDTsUffO6ylj0/openapi.json