# Website Change Notification API (`gr_59017/website-change-notification-api`) Actor

Monitors websites for content changes using Cheerio. Compares current and previous page versions and notifies when changes are detected. Ideal for tracking notices, updates, pricing changes, and announcements.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gr_59017/website-change-notification-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Gautam Rana](https://apify.com/gr_59017) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 70 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## 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

## Website Change Notification API

Automatically monitor websites for content changes. This Actor uses a fast Cheerio crawler to compare page content across runs and notifies when changes are detected. Ideal for tracking notices, updates, pricing changes, and announcements.

***

### What This Actor Does

- Monitors any website for content changes
- Supports full-page or CSS selector–based monitoring
- Compares current content with previous runs
- Outputs a simple changed / not changed status
- Designed as a reusable API and automation

***

### How It Works

1. Fetches the website using a Cheerio crawler
2. Extracts text or HTML from the full page or a selected section
3. Generates a hash of the extracted content
4. Compares the hash with the previous run
5. Reports whether a change was detected

***

### Input

This Actor accepts the following input parameters:

- **url** (required):\
  The website URL that should be monitored for changes.

- **selector** (optional):\
  A CSS selector to monitor only a specific part of the webpage, such as a notice section or content container.

- **checkType** (optional):\
  Defines whether text content or raw HTML should be monitored.\
  Possible values are `text` (default) and `html`.

#### Example Input

````json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/notice",
  "selector": ".announcements",
  "checkType": "text"
}

### Output

Each run produces a dataset entry with the result of the change check:

- **url**:  
  The monitored website URL.

- **changed**:  
  A boolean value indicating whether the content has changed since the previous run.

- **checkedAt**:  
  An ISO timestamp indicating when the website was checked.

#### Example Output

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/notice",
  "changed": true,
  "checkedAt": "2025-01-01T12:30:00.000Z"
}



# Actor input Schema

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

List of websites to analyze title and heading structure.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/Gautamrana14"
    }
  ]
}
````

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://github.com/Gautamrana14"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gr_59017/website-change-notification-api").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 = { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://github.com/Gautamrana14" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gr_59017/website-change-notification-api").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/Gautamrana14"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call gr_59017/website-change-notification-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gr_59017/website-change-notification-api"
        }
    }
}
```

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/FA58Wg6DrbsbNEcKe/builds/dcOuu2YrJ0t1VYhav/openapi.json