Monitoring changes to your website is one of the most important duties you have as a webmaster.
It’s important to know when things might have changed that are out of your control; let’s say, for instance, that a page suddenly goes down, or that a page is defaced by someone who manages to hack into your site.
If the page is a commonly-accessed one, then it probably won’t be long until you hear about this intrusion, but if it’s a page that’s a little more hidden away, it could be days or even weeks before you notice it.
During that time, your site’s traffic might be suffering because of website changes you’re not aware of, and we’re not just talking about defacement; we’re also talking about broken links, out-of-date job postings, and more.
Whatever your reason might be for needing to monitor changes on your site, here are the 13 best website change detection and monitoring tools to use in 2024!
Visualping
For many, Visualping is essentially the first and last word in website monitoring. If you’re looking for a comprehensive tool that does just about everything you’d need when it comes to change detection, this is the app for you.
It’s a very simple tool: all you need to do is input a website’s URL and Visualping will display a screenshot of that website, prompting you to input an email address so that the tool knows where to send any potential changes.
You can compare visuals, text, and site elements, and set a number of other parameters to ensure that you don’t miss a single change that happens on your website.
Visualping is free if you just want to check five pages a day, but if you want to add more pages to that workload, then you’re going to need to upgrade to the Starter tier, which lets you track up to 25 pages a day and gives hourly alerts as well.
Distill
Distill’s Web Monitor app is available in a number of different formats. You can get it as a standard Windows or macOS desktop app, and you can also download browser extensions and smartphone apps if you prefer.
Using Distill, you can track entire pages or individual elements of pages for changes, and you can set parameters so that you exclude content you don’t want to track, which is ideal for pages with lots of different complex elements.
Workflows can be automated using JavaScript, and you can use protocols like CSS or XPATH to refine selections as well, giving you a greater degree of control over your website monitoring procedures.
Distill offers a number of individual pricing tiers if you want to upgrade its functionality, and you’ll also find an enterprise-based version with more features available if you need it.
Fluxguard
The big selling point when it comes to Fluxguard is that the app uses artificial intelligence to accelerate and escalate its web change detection systems.
In practice, this means that AI can tell you various things about a website’s changes, like a date change, minute wording changes, or alterations to facts and figures that could cause your site to rank lower on Google.
Fluxguard also offers a number of additional features like false positive filters, restricting alerts to particular keywords or elements, and creating personalised reports for team members to help them do their jobs more efficiently.
If you want an AI-powered web detection tool that isn’t going to let you down, then you’d definitely do well to look into using Fluxguard for all of your change monitoring and detection needs.
Crayon
Crayon is specifically focused on ensuring you know everything that’s going on in the world of your competition so that you can respond to it quickly and efficiently.
This means that the tool primarily revolves around tracking changes your competitors make to their websites and data, as well as their organisational structures and more.
Crayon will automatically send insights on your competitors to your inbox each morning so that you can make “battle plans”, and it also uses AI to sort insights in terms of importance, allowing you to focus on what matters.
This might not be the traditional web monitoring and change detection tool you need, but if you’re looking for something a little more competitive, Crayon is the app for you.
Versionista
Another excellent website monitoring and change tool, Versionista offers “regulatory and data intelligence at scale”, as the website itself proudly proclaims.
What does this mean in real terms? Well, like many other apps of its kind, Versionista will scan websites for changes and then alert you when any kind of change is detected. It boasts that it can even detect “subtle” changes using its advanced algorithms.
As well as the change detection itself, you’ll also receive detailed summaries that tell you exactly what’s been altered, as well as the chance to view the page’s history and a side-by-side comparison so you can see what’s new.
There’s a 7-day free trial available no matter which pricing tier you aim for, so you can decide whether or not Versionista is for you by using it for a little while before you commit.
Hexowatch
Like Fluxguard, Hexowatch is powered by AI, so its monitoring and change detection are enhanced by the capabilities that “your AI sidekick”, as the site describes it, will bring to the party.
Lots of different monitoring options are available with Hexowatch, including element, keyword, and visual-based monitoring, as well as tech, source code, and content-based options.
You can set how frequently you want to be alerted of changes to a website, and several different locations are available, meaning you don’t just need to monitor US-based websites. Change sensitivity is also a parameter you can control, so you don’t need to be alerted to every little change if you don’t want to.
Hexowatch is also refreshingly honest about its pricing scheme, offering 4500 checks per month as part of its $29-a-month Pro tier, with that number significantly increasing as you rise through the pricing ranks.
ContentKing
ContentKing describes itself as “the only SEO auditing solution that can monitor your web properties 24/7”, so if you’re looking to build an SEO-focused approach to web monitoring, this is the one to go for.
ContentKing will monitor your site exhaustively for changes, including broken links, removed headers, and missing page titles, as well as changes to content that could have serious effects on your site’s position in the Google rankings.
What’s more, ContentKing is entirely cloud-based, which means you don’t need to install an app if you don’t want to. All you need to do is access the service and you’re ready to check out the insights it provides.
Although its suite of tools is extensive, it’s fair to say that ContentKing is more geared towards agencies and small businesses than individuals, although it can still provide excellent services for lone rangers.
ChangeTower
ChangeTower’s extensive list of high-profile clients includes Disney, SiriusXM, IBM, and Accenture, just in case you needed an idea of what kind of level the company is operating on.
Features include the ability to monitor any URL you like, with source code, text, and visual snapshots all available for your perusal. ChangeTower will then track changes to that site based on the snapshots it provides.
You can decide what alert criteria you want to use, so if you don’t want ChangeTower to alert you to everything that changes about a website, you have options at your disposal.
A free version of ChangeTower is available, but it restricts you to just 6 checks a day. Upgrading to the Power User tier, which, at time of writing, costs just $9 per month (with a $90-per-year option also available), grants access to vastly more checks, so it’s worth considering if you’re into what ChangeTower is doing.
Wachete
Wachete, like many of its competitors, is a great web change detection and monitoring tool that will allow you to check for things like price changes, competition practices, and defacement.
It allows you to monitor not only single websites, but also entire portals and their sub-pages, so you can be notified of changes to pages within a hierarchy if you like.
Wachete will also work on password-protected pages, which is another service that most web change detection services offer, so you can still monitor those sites.
This app features a custom pricing slider that effectively acts as a tier choice, with the lowest tier allowing free access to the tool forever but restricting your usage to just 5 pages and 24-hour checks.
Site24x7
Site24x7 offers website monitoring, cloud and network solutions, and many more extra features, so it’s not just about tracking changes to websites.
Not only can you detect when websites are changed and defaced, but you can also detect changes to the performance of your site, so if it’s being particularly slow to load or if it’s down, you can be alerted to that fact quickly and efficiently.
This is a more technically-minded solution, so it also offers the chance to stay informed about SSL certificate expiration, as well as running queries against blocklists to ensure IPs and domains marked with the spam tag are kept at bay.
While Site24x7 is a tool more geared towards those who want to monitor website performance rather than content changes, it will still perform that task admirably, so check it out if you need something that’s more multi-faceted.
Sken.io
Monitoring website changes really couldn’t be simpler using Sken.io. All you need to do is input the site’s URL, choose a part of the page to monitor, and decide how often you want to check. It’s that simple!
You’ll then receive notifications whenever a part of that website changes, and you can choose whether you want to receive those notifications via email or mobile phone.
If you’re refreshing a page to check whether job offers are being uploaded, for instance, or making sure that you’re buying products at the lowest price available, then Sken.io is an essential tool.
It’s a little simpler than many of its competitors, but Sken.io’s pricing reflects that, with a basic pricing tier that costs just 3 euros per month and gives you access to 500 checks, which is perfect for smaller enterprises.
ManageEngine
The Applications Manager app, which is available as one of ManageEngine’s extensive suite of tools, allows you to monitor your website’s performance, as well as any content changes that might have happened.
It’ll also allow you to track changes to protocols like HTTPS, SOAP, and SMTP servers, so if you’re a webmaster and you need to make sure your site’s technical aspects are running smoothly, this is the tool for you.
ManageEngine also offers a massive suite of other tools that might be helpful for various other elements of your business, so keep it in mind if you’re looking for a more comprehensive solution to your operation’s day-to-day running challenges.
There are a lot of different apps and solutions available via ManageEngine, so pricing is often available on an individual basis depending on which software you want to use.
Kompyte
Much like Crayon, Kompyte’s biggest selling point is the ability to keep tabs on your competitors and find out what they’re doing, so it’s all about making sure you’re competitive in your industry.
Kompyte says it uses AI algorithms to “filter out the noise”, ensuring that you only get alerts for actionable updates and insights that could change your business in a meaningful way.
You’ll also receive so-called “battlecards” that contain pertinent information showing what your competitors have altered, and you can alter these battlecard templates so that they’re specific to your organisation.
Kompyte also offers in-depth analysis tools to show you important information regarding how you can use the software’s insights to make changes to your strategy and (hopefully!) close more sales.
