# Competitor Watch (`moving_beacon-owner1/competitor-watch`) Actor

Monitor competitors’ public websites and news to detect evidence-backed changes in pricing, jobs, content, technologies, and news mentions. Compare each run with the previous snapshot and report only what changed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/moving\_beacon-owner1/competitor-watch.md
- **Developed by:** [Jamshaid Arif](https://apify.com/moving_beacon-owner1) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Automation, E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $9.99 / 1,000 results

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## Competitor Radar

Monitor your competitors' **publicly observable** footprint and get a clean,
evidence-backed feed of *what changed between runs* — pricing moves, new
job/careers pages, technology-stack shifts, content/messaging edits, and fresh
news mentions. Every record cites the concrete observation behind it; the Actor
never invents conclusions.

### What does this Actor do?

For each competitor URL it fetches the page and captures a lightweight **state
snapshot**:

- page `title` and `metaDescription`,
- a fingerprint (hash) of the page headings,
- detected `technologies` (CMS / frameworks / analytics),
- `priceHints` — any prices found on the page,
- links to `pricing`, `careers`, `jobs` and `blog` pages.

The snapshot is stored in the Apify **key-value store** and diffed against the
previous run. The **first run establishes a baseline**; later runs emit one
change record per differing field. For a list of `companyNames` + `keywords`
it also tracks public **news mentions** via Google News and emits a record for
each new headline.

### Why use it?

- Sales & product teams get an automatic, auditable competitive-intelligence
  feed instead of manually re-checking competitor sites.
- Because every change ships with `previousValue`, `newValue` and `evidence`,
  you can trust and act on it directly.

### How to use it

1. Add one or more **competitor URLs** (and/or **company names** + **keywords**
   for news).
2. Choose a **monitoring mode** (full, pricing, jobs, content, or news).
3. Run once to capture the baseline, then **schedule** it (hourly/daily) — each
   later run reports only what changed.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `competitorUrls` | array | Public competitor page URLs to monitor. |
| `companyNames` | array | Company names to track in public news. |
| `keywords` | array | Extra keywords added to each news query. |
| `startUrls` | array | Alternative URL input (requestListSources). |
| `monitoringMode` | string | `full`, `pricing`, `jobs`, `content`, `news` (default `full`). |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Proxy settings for page fetches. |

#### Input example

```json
{
  "competitorUrls": ["https://competitor.com", "https://competitor.com/pricing"],
  "companyNames": ["Competitor Inc"],
  "keywords": ["funding", "launch"],
  "monitoringMode": "full"
}
```

### Output

One record per detected change (or baseline). Fields:

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `company` | Competitor domain (page changes) or company name (news). |
| `changeType` | `baseline`, `added`, `removed`, `changed`, or `news_mention`. |
| `field` | Which snapshot field changed (e.g. `priceHints`, `title`). |
| `previousValue` / `newValue` | The before/after values. |
| `importance` | `high` / `medium` / `low`. |
| `evidence` | Human-readable statement of the observation. |
| `sourceUrl` | The URL the change was observed on. |
| `timestamp` | When the change was detected (UTC ISO-8601). |

#### Output example

```json
{
  "company": "competitor.com",
  "changeType": "changed",
  "field": "priceHints",
  "previousValue": ["49 USD"],
  "newValue": ["59 USD"],
  "importance": "high",
  "evidence": "'priceHints' changed on https://competitor.com: '49 USD' -> '59 USD'",
  "sourceUrl": "https://competitor.com",
  "timestamp": "2026-08-12T00:00:00+00:00"
}
```

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

### Monitoring & state

- State snapshots are persisted in the Apify **key-value store** (namespaces
  `competitor` for pages and `competitor-news` for news). The first run is a
  baseline; nothing is reported as "changed" until a later run differs.
- Schedule the Actor to build a change history over time.

# Actor input Schema

## `competitorUrls` (type: `array`):

Public competitor page URLs to monitor for changes (homepage, pricing, careers, blog, ...).

## `companyNames` (type: `array`):

Competitor company names to track in public news via Google News.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Extra keywords added to each company's news query, e.g. 'funding', 'launch', 'acquisition'.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Alternative way to provide competitor URLs (Apify requestListSources format).

## `monitoringMode` (type: `string`):

Which signals to watch. 'full' watches everything; the others narrow the scope.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings used when fetching competitor pages.

## `cookies` (type: `string`):

Optional Cookie header string to replay on every request (for sites behind a challenge).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "competitorUrls": [
    "https://competitor.com"
  ],
  "monitoringMode": "full",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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 = {
    "competitorUrls": [
        "https://competitor.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("moving_beacon-owner1/competitor-watch").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 = { "competitorUrls": ["https://competitor.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("moving_beacon-owner1/competitor-watch").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 '{
  "competitorUrls": [
    "https://competitor.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call moving_beacon-owner1/competitor-watch --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,moving_beacon-owner1/competitor-watch"
        }
    }
}

```

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/f22T3UyF1ZKn2OV7L/builds/3S2Dl1pizvbez0mih/openapi.json