# SaaS Price Hike Monitor: Pricing Page Change Alerts (`fayoussef/saas-price-hike-monitor`) Actor

Watch the pricing pages of the software you pay for and get warned before renewal: price increases with old and new price, removed free plans, new tiers. AI reads each page into plans and prices, any vendor, no setup.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fayoussef/saas-price-hike-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Youssef Farhan](https://apify.com/fayoussef) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $6.80 / 1,000 vendor checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Price Hike Monitor: Pricing Page Change Alerts

Software vendors raise prices, cut limits and drop free plans, and most teams find out from the renewal invoice, too late to lock in the old annual rate. This Actor watches the pricing pages of the tools you pay for and tells you **what changed, from what to what**, the week it happens.

### What you get

One row per vendor per run:

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **CHANGED** | Something you asked to be alerted on changed. `changeSummary` says it in one line, `changes` has every detail |
| **UNCHANGED** | Prices are exactly as last time |
| **BASELINE** | First check of this vendor; its plans are saved |

Changes detected:

- **Price increases and decreases**, monthly and annual billing separately, with old price, new price and percent
- **Plans removed**, flagged when it was the free plan
- **New plans** or tiers
- **Plan limits changed** (storage, seats, credits), optional

### How it works

1. Fetches each pricing page. No browser and no proxy for most vendors, a proxy only when a site blocks the request.
2. Keeps only the lines that carry prices and plan terms. If they are identical to last time, the vendor is **UNCHANGED** and no AI is called at all.
3. Otherwise an AI model reads the page into plans, prices, billing unit and limits, and the result is compared with the saved snapshot.

Any vendor works, as long as its pricing page shows prices in the page itself. A few sites (for example HubSpot and Canva) load prices with JavaScript; the run log names them, and they are not charged.

### How to use it

1. Add the pricing pages of your tools, one per line. A bare domain such as `notion.com` is checked at `notion.com/pricing`.
2. Run once to save the baselines.
3. Add a weekly or daily **Schedule**. Connect an Apify integration (email, Slack, webhook) to get the CHANGED rows sent to you.

Use **Watchlist name** to keep separate memories for different teams or clients.

### Output example

```json
{
  "vendor": "Notion",
  "status": "CHANGED",
  "changeSummary": "Plus monthly price: $8 -> $10 (+25.0%)",
  "maxIncreasePercent": 25.0,
  "planSummary": "Free: $0 per member/month | Plus: $10 per member/month | Business: $20 per member/month | Enterprise: custom",
  "changes": [{"type": "price_increase", "plan": "Plus", "field": "priceMonthly", "old": 8, "new": 10, "changePercent": 25.0}],
  "url": "https://www.notion.com/pricing",
  "checkedAt": "2026-11-12T07:00:00+00:00",
  "previousCheckAt": "2026-11-05T07:00:00+00:00"
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per vendor checked: one result per pricing page per run. Pages that cannot be read are not charged. The current rate is shown on this Actor's Store page, with a small discount on bigger Apify plans.

**AI usage is billed separately.** The AI runs through Apify's built-in OpenRouter access and Apify bills the model usage, which is a fraction of a cent per changed page on the default model. Unchanged pages make no AI call. To have model usage billed by OpenRouter instead, add your own OpenRouter key under "Bring your own API access".

- **Free plan:** up to 3 vendors per run. A [paid Apify plan](https://apify.com/pricing?fpr=youssef) watches as many as you need. The built-in AI access may be unavailable on the Apify free plan; your own OpenRouter key works there.

### Memory

Snapshots live in the key-value store `saas-price-monitor` in your account, one record per watchlist name.

**Found a bug?** Open an Issue on this Actor's page and I'll fix it.

# Actor input Schema

## `pricingPages` (type: `array`):

One per line: the pricing page of each tool you pay for. A bare domain like notion.com is checked at notion.com/pricing.

## `alertOn` (type: `array`):

Which differences from the last check are reported. Limit changes (storage, seats, credits) are off by default because page wording shifts often.

## `watchlistName` (type: `string`):

Optional label for this watchlist's memory. Use a different name for each team or client you monitor.

## `model` (type: `string`):

The model that reads each pricing page. A model is only called when a page's prices changed since the last check. Model usage is billed separately (see the README).

## `openrouterApiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional. Bring your own OpenRouter key and calls go straight to OpenRouter, billed by them on your own OpenRouter account instead of through Apify. Leave empty to use the built-in access, which needs no key at all.

## `apifyToken` (type: `string`):

Optional. Only needed when running this Actor outside the Apify platform. On Apify the run's own token is used automatically.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "pricingPages": [
    "https://www.notion.com/pricing",
    "https://slack.com/pricing",
    "https://zapier.com/pricing"
  ],
  "alertOn": [
    "price_increase",
    "plan_removed",
    "plan_added",
    "price_decrease"
  ],
  "model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `vendors` (type: `string`):

Status (CHANGED, UNCHANGED or BASELINE), what changed from what to what, the biggest increase, and the current plans and prices of every pricing page watched.

# 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 = {
    "pricingPages": [
        "https://www.notion.com/pricing",
        "https://slack.com/pricing",
        "https://zapier.com/pricing"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("fayoussef/saas-price-hike-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 = { "pricingPages": [
        "https://www.notion.com/pricing",
        "https://slack.com/pricing",
        "https://zapier.com/pricing",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("fayoussef/saas-price-hike-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 '{
  "pricingPages": [
    "https://www.notion.com/pricing",
    "https://slack.com/pricing",
    "https://zapier.com/pricing"
  ]
}' |
apify call fayoussef/saas-price-hike-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,fayoussef/saas-price-hike-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/iUS8U8yvknTDNtDlg/builds/GAmwQCNBz97JGbW0a/openapi.json