# Website Change Detector (`technicaldost/website-change-detector`) Actor

Watches public web pages and returns a structured change report whenever their text changes. The first run stores a baseline snapshot per URL; later runs compare against it. Schedule it to monitor competitors, docs, policies or prices.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/technicaldost/website-change-detector.md
- **Developed by:** [Technical Dost Solutions](https://apify.com/technicaldost) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, News, Automation
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 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/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

Schedule this Actor on Apify (or trigger it from n8n / Make) to **watch public web pages and get a structured change report** whenever the text moves.

The first run stores a baseline snapshot per URL and is labelled `baseline` — later runs compare with sklearn TF-IDF cosine (`changeScore`) plus a human-readable `difflib` diff. Pay per result, not a $15/month rental.

Use it for price pages, terms of service, job boards, and competitor landing pages. HTTP + BeautifulSoup (no Playwright unless a page is JS-only).

### What does Website Change Detector do?

It fetches each URL with HTTP, extracts visible text (or cleaned HTML), hashes it, and compares it to the previous snapshot in a named key-value store. Optional CSS selectors focus on a region; ignore selectors drop cookie banners and timestamps.

It does **not** screenshot pages by default and does not log in to private apps.

### Why monitor website changes?

- Competitor price and packaging pages
- Policy / ToS compliance diffs
- Career-page job-list updates
- News homepage alerts

Apify Schedule plus n8n/Make webhooks turn a diff into a Slack message.

### What data can it extract?

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| url | string | Checked URL |
| changeStatus | string | baseline, unchanged, changed, error |
| changeScore | number | 1 − TF-IDF cosine vs previous text |
| diff | string | Unified diff |
| addedChars / removedChars | number | Size of the edit |
| contentHash | string | SHA-256 of compared content |

### How to detect website changes

1. Try the prefilled `https://apify.com` and `https://github.com` example with `mode: text`.
2. The first run is the baseline. Schedule hourly/daily afterwards.
3. Filter dataset rows where `changeStatus` is `changed`.
4. Pipe `diff` into Slack or a ticket.
5. Call `technicaldost/website-change-detector` from MCP.

### How much does it cost?

Pay per event. **Actor start is $0.00005** (per GB of memory). **Each result row is $0.005**. This is not a monthly rental. Confirm the live Pricing tab before a large URL list.

### Input

See the input tab. Example:

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://apify.com", "https://github.com"],
  "mode": "text"
}
```

### Output

Download JSON, CSV, HTML, or Excel.

```json
{
  "url": "https://apify.com",
  "changeStatus": "baseline",
  "changeScore": 0,
  "title": "Apify: Full-stack web scraping and data extraction platform"
}
```

### MCP

Apify MCP server, actor `technicaldost/website-change-detector`, same JSON.

### FAQ and support

Only public pages. Honour robots.txt and site terms. Open Issues for bugs.

### Use Website Change Detector with AI agents (MCP)

Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client this Actor as a tool through the hosted [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com). The agent sees the input fields with descriptions and example values, runs the Actor, and reads the results.

**MCP server URL (this Actor only):**

```
https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=technicaldost/website-change-detector
```

**Claude Code:**

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=technicaldost/website-change-detector" --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
```

**Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop and other clients** (`mcp.json` or the client's MCP settings):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=technicaldost/website-change-detector",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}
```

Clients that support sign-in (such as Claude.ai connectors) can use the URL without a token and log in to Apify instead. Get your token in [Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations](https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations), or generate a ready config for your client at [mcp.apify.com](https://mcp.apify.com). In the agent the tool is named `technicaldost--website-change-detector`; ask it, for example, to *"run Website Change Detector with {"urls": \["https://apify.com", "https://github.com"], "mode": "text"}"*.

AI agents without an Apify account can also run and pay for this Actor per request with [x402 agentic payments](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/x402).

### Run Website Change Detector via API

Run the Actor and get its results in one call (replace `YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN`):

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/technicaldost~website-change-detector/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://apify.com", "https://github.com"], "mode": "text"}'
```

**Python** (`pip install apify-client`):

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("technicaldost/website-change-detector").call(run_input={"urls": ["https://apify.com", "https://github.com"], "mode": "text"})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)
```

**JavaScript / TypeScript** (`npm install apify-client`):

```js
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('technicaldost/website-change-detector').call({"urls": ["https://apify.com", "https://github.com"], "mode": "text"});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);
```

Long runs: start them with `POST /v2/acts/technicaldost~website-change-detector/runs` and fetch the dataset when the run finishes, or receive a webhook.

### Related Actors

- [Website Tech Detector](https://apify.com/technicaldost/website-tech-detector) — Detect the technology stack behind any website: CMS, frameworks, analytics, ad tech, servers and more. Great f
- [DailyMed Label Change Monitor](https://apify.com/technicaldost/dailymed-label-change-monitor) — Track recently published DailyMed drug labels by drug or sponsor keyword
- [Website Brand & Favicon Extractor](https://apify.com/technicaldost/website-brand-favicon-extractor) — Pull the brand assets a website declares about itself: favicons and apple-touch icons at every size, logo, Ope
- [Website Contact & Email Extractor](https://apify.com/technicaldost/website-contact-extractor) — Extract contact details from websites in bulk: emails, phone numbers and social profiles, plus the contact pag

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Public page URLs to check. First run stores a baseline snapshot and is not treated as a content change.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

text compares visible page text (recommended). html compares cleaned markup.

## `cssSelector` (type: `string`):

Optional CSS selector to watch a region of the page (price, article body, job list). Empty means the whole page.

## `ignoreSelectors` (type: `array`):

CSS selectors to strip before comparison (cookie banners, timestamps, ads).

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store key prefix for page snapshots.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "https://github.com"
  ],
  "mode": "text",
  "stateKey": "snapshots"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing all scraped data

# 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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://apify.com",
        "https://github.com"
    ],
    "mode": "text"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("technicaldost/website-change-detector").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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://apify.com",
        "https://github.com",
    ],
    "mode": "text",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("technicaldost/website-change-detector").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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://apify.com",
    "https://github.com"
  ],
  "mode": "text"
}' |
apify call technicaldost/website-change-detector --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/M4ov3hhOTAJxf7Cd2/builds/17f49HAMr8AJugJ5w/openapi.json