# SaaS Pricing Monitor – Structured Diff & Change Alerts (`conceivable_extension/saas-pricing-monitor`) Actor

Monitors SaaS competitor pricing pages, extracts structured plan schemas (plan names, prices, features, limits), diffs against previous runs, and only charges PPE when a meaningful change is detected. Returns natural-language summaries of what changed. AI or pattern-based extraction.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/conceivable\_extension/saas-pricing-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [joseph fadero](https://apify.com/conceivable_extension) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $400.00 / 1,000 pricing 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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## SaaS Pricing Monitor – Structured Diff & Change Alerts

**The only SaaS pricing monitor that extracts structured plan data and charges only when something actually changes.**

Replace £200/month Tierly and Competera with pay-per-meaningful-event. Eight pricing-monitor actors exist on Apify Store — all re-scrape full pages every run and return screenshots or raw HTML. None extract structured plan schemas. None compute semantic diffs. None emit only-on-change.

### What it does

1. Visits SaaS pricing pages using a real browser (Playwright)
2. Extracts a structured plan schema: plan names, prices, billing intervals, per-tier features, usage limits
3. Compares against the previous run stored in Key-Value Store
4. **Only charges `pricing-changed` when a meaningful change is detected** — not on every run
5. Returns a natural-language summary: "Pro plan increased from $49 to $59 (+20%)"

### Extraction modes

- **Pattern Based** — regex + DOM heuristics; no API key required; fast and cheap
- **AI Structured** — GPT-4o-mini extracts the full schema; most accurate (~$0.0001/page)
- **Both** — AI validates pattern extraction

### Pricing

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Run started | £0.05 |
| Page scanned | £0.08 |
| Pricing changed | £0.40 |
| New plan added | £0.20 |
| Plan removed | £0.20 |

**10 pages daily, no changes = £0.85/day. 1 pricing change found = +£0.40.**

### Input

| Field | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| pricingUrls | required | Pricing page URLs to monitor |
| extractionMode | pattern\_based | ai\_structured, pattern\_based, or both |
| openaiApiKey | – | Required for ai\_structured mode |
| sensitivityLevel | medium | high / medium / low change threshold |
| includeNoChangePages | false | Include unchanged pages in output |
| screenshotOnChange | true | Screenshot on change detection |

### Output fields

`url`, `companyName`, `checkedAt`, `lastCheckedAt`, `hasChanged`, `changeType`, `changeSummary`, `changeDetails[]`, `plans[]`, `previousPlans[]`, `screenshotKey`, `status`, `chargedEvent`

#### Plans schema

Each plan: `name`, `price`, `currency`, `billingInterval`, `annualDiscount`, `perUser`, `features[]`, `usageLimits{}`, `isPopular`, `isFree`, `ctaText`, `isCustomPrice`

### n8n integration

Schedule daily → filter `hasChanged: true` → Slack message with `changeSummary` and `changeDetails` → update Google Sheet competitor pricing matrix.

# Actor input Schema

## `pricingUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct URLs to SaaS pricing pages to monitor. Example: 'https://competitor.com/pricing'.

## `extractionMode` (type: `string`):

How to extract structured plan data from the pricing page. AI mode is most accurate; pattern-based is faster and cheaper.

## `openaiApiKey` (type: `string`):

Required when extractionMode is 'ai\_structured' or 'both'. Get your key at platform.openai.com. Stored securely.

## `sensitivityLevel` (type: `string`):

How sensitive the change detection is. High flags any price or feature change; Low only flags major price changes (>15%).

## `includeNoChangePages` (type: `boolean`):

If false, only pages with detected changes appear in the Dataset. If true, all checked pages are returned.

## `screenshotOnChange` (type: `boolean`):

Take a full-page screenshot when a pricing change is detected. Screenshot is stored in the Actor Key-Value Store.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "pricingUrls": [
    "https://www.notion.so/pricing"
  ],
  "extractionMode": "pattern_based",
  "sensitivityLevel": "medium",
  "includeNoChangePages": false,
  "screenshotOnChange": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `resultsDatasetUrl` (type: `string`):

Structured SaaS pricing-plan snapshots (plan names, prices, billing intervals, tier features, usage limits) with semantic diffs against the prior run, produced by this run.

# 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 = {
    "pricingUrls": [
        "https://www.notion.so/pricing"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("conceivable_extension/saas-pricing-monitor").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 = { "pricingUrls": ["https://www.notion.so/pricing"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("conceivable_extension/saas-pricing-monitor").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 '{
  "pricingUrls": [
    "https://www.notion.so/pricing"
  ]
}' |
apify call conceivable_extension/saas-pricing-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/aWy0rHjpAxUrtDKpQ/builds/uOwgr72lfUZt4ggN0/openapi.json