Website Change Monitor

Monitor company web pages for content changes — content hash, changed flag, and a short diff summary.

Standalone Apify actor for pricing, careers, impresszum/privacy, and homepage watch lists. Pairs well with the Google Maps CEE Supplier Shortlist Builder and Website Intelligence + Contact Extractor when you already have company URLs.

Optional next step after Website Intel: schedule this actor on key pages (pricing, careers, legal) to catch updates.

What it does

• Fetches each watch URL (HTTP first, Playwright + residential proxy fallback).
• Normalizes HTML (strips scripts/styles/noise) and computes a SHA-256 content hash.
• Compares against the previous snapshot in a named Apify Key-Value store (persists across scheduled runs).
• Returns changed yes/no, isBaseline on first check, and a short diff summary.
• Built for n8n, Make, Zapier, and vibe-coder agent workflows.

Who it's for

1. Sales / ops teams watching competitor pricing or careers pages.
2. Procurement teams monitoring supplier impresszum / compliance pages.
3. Agencies running client watch lists on a schedule.
4. Vibe coders wiring change alerts into Slack / Telegram / CRM.
5. Market researchers tracking public page churn across SME lists.

What this actor is — and is not

This actor helps you detect public page content changes. It does not interpret legal meaning, prove intent, or replace a full visual regression suite.

Use the output for:

• change alerts
• watch-list scheduling
• evidence that a page moved

Do not treat a hash change as automatic proof of a price or policy change without reading the page.

What data you get

Field	Description
url, finalUrl, statusCode	Request identity
contentHash, previousHash	SHA-256 of normalized text
changed, isBaseline	Change flags (baseline = first snapshot)
diffSummary	Short human-readable change hint
contentLength, previousContentLength	Normalized text lengths
checkedAt, previousCheckedAt	Timestamps
error	Set when the page could not be fetched

How to use it

1. Configure input — URL list, snapshot store name, proxy.
2. Run on Apify cloud (recommended on a schedule) or locally with apify run.
3. Download dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the run page.

Input presets

Wise terms & privacy (Store example)

{
  "urls": [
    "https://wise.com/terms-and-conditions",
    "https://wise.com/privacy-policy"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 2,
  "snapshotStoreName": "website-change-monitor-snapshots",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Published Store example: Wise terms & privacy — change monitor demo.

SME homepage, about & privacy (QA / prefill)

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.vibecoderslife.com/",
    "https://www.vibecoderslife.com/about",
    "https://www.projectisconsulting.com/adatvedelem"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 3,
  "snapshotStoreName": "website-change-monitor-snapshots",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Store input prefill uses this small SME set so Apify automated QA finishes within 5 minutes. First run saves baselines (isBaseline: true); later scheduled runs report changed.

Competitor pricing watch

{
  "urls": [
    "https://example-competitor.com/pricing",
    "https://example-competitor.com/careers"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 20,
  "snapshotStoreName": "website-change-monitor-snapshots",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

After Google Maps / Website Intel

{
  "urls": [
    "https://example-clinic.hu/",
    "https://example-clinic.hu/impresszum",
    "https://example-clinic.hu/arak"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 50,
  "snapshotStoreName": "website-change-monitor-snapshots",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Output example

{
  "url": "https://www.vibecoderslife.com/",
  "finalUrl": "https://www.vibecoderslife.com/",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "contentHash": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb924…",
  "previousHash": null,
  "changed": false,
  "isBaseline": true,
  "diffSummary": "Baseline snapshot saved — no previous hash to compare.",
  "contentLength": 18422,
  "previousContentLength": null,
  "checkedAt": "2026-07-20T10:20:00.000Z",
  "previousCheckedAt": null,
  "error": null
}

Snapshots, scheduling, and noise

Feature	Support
Named KV store	Default website-change-monitor-snapshots persists hashes across runs
Normalization	Scripts/styles/comments stripped; whitespace collapsed
First run	Always isBaseline: true (expected for Store demos)
Schedule tip	Apify Schedule daily/hourly — only later runs show real changed: true

Tips to avoid Store QA timeouts

• Keep prefill / public-task demos at maxUrls: 3.
• Prefer fast SME pages over heavy enterprise SPAs.
• Raise maxUrls only for paid production watch lists.

Secrets and local development

• Never commit apify/website-change-monitor/.env — it is listed in .gitignore.
• apify push excludes .env via .gitignore and .actorignore.
• Docker builds exclude .env via .dockerignore.
• On Apify cloud, customers configure Proxy via input — not from your local .env.
• For local runs only, copy .env.example → .env and add APIFY_TOKEN if you call the platform.
• Only .env.example (placeholders, no real keys) is in git.

FAQ

Why is everything unchanged / baseline on the first run?
There is no previous hash yet. Schedule the actor or run it again — the second run compares against the saved snapshot.

Will cookie banners flip changed every day?
Normalization removes scripts/styles and collapses whitespace, which reduces noise. Highly dynamic personalization can still cause flips — watch stable pages (pricing, impresszum) when possible.

Do I need an LLM key?
No. Diff summaries are deterministic. No Apify AI event fee.

How many URLs can I check per run?
Up to 200 (maxUrls). Prefill/demo stays at 3.

Local development

cd apify/website-change-monitor
npm install
npm test
npm run build
npm run dry-run
apify run --input-file=INPUT.smoke.json

Dry run fetches the SME hero URLs twice (baseline → unchanged). Install Playwright Chromium once: npx playwright install chromium.

Pricing

Pay-per-event: $2.50 per 1,000 page checks (page-check event @ $0.0025), minimum charge $0.10 per run.

Enable Pay per event + usage in Apify Console so platform compute/proxy costs are passed through to users.

Related actors (suite)

Actor	Role
Google Maps CEE Supplier Shortlist	Discover local suppliers
Website Intelligence + Contact	Enrich websites (contacts, tech, compliance)
Dealer / Distributor Locator	Expand brand locator pages
PDF Procurement Document Extractor	Find certs / reports / datasheets
Website Change Monitor (this Actor)	Watch pages for changes

Each Actor runs standalone; use them as an optional suite when chaining discovery → enrichment → monitoring.

Feedback

Open an issue on the actor’s Apify page or contact Vibe Coder's Life.