Logo Changedetection.io

Monitoring & Observability

Changedetection.io

Never miss a website change — monitor prices, stock and content updates, self-hosted.

About Changedetection.io

Changedetection.io is an open-source website change monitoring tool (Apache 2.0, 24 k+ stars, v0.55.8). It watches any URL for changes — price drops, stock restocks, content updates, government notices, job postings — and sends you an alert the moment something changes.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS, Changedetection.io gives you unlimited URL monitoring without subscription fees. Configure per-page filters (CSS selectors, XPath, visual diff mode) to track only the part of a page you care about and eliminate noise. Alerts reach you via email, Telegram, Slack, Discord, ntfy, webhook or any of the 80+ supported notification channels via Apprise.

The single Docker container runs in under 256 MB RAM with file-based storage — no database required. An optional Playwright/Chromium sidecar enables JavaScript-rendered pages (SPAs, React/Vue apps, checkout pages) to be monitored as faithfully as in a real browser.

What gets installed

Ready when the VPS starts

Compatible OS
Ubuntu 24.04
Application
Changedetection.io
Tech stack
DockerPythonPlaywright (optionnel)
Minimum RAM
1 GB (2 GB with Playwright sidecar)
Minimum CPU
1 vCPU
Default port
5000
Access
root over SSH

Key features

  • Monitor any URL for changes — price drops, stock restocks, government notices, job postings, competitor pricing
  • CSS selector, XPath and visual diff filters — track only the section of the page that matters
  • 80+ notification channels via Apprise: email, Telegram, Slack, Discord, ntfy, webhook and more
  • Optional Playwright/Chromium sidecar for JavaScript-rendered pages (React, Vue, SPAs)
  • Scheduled checks: every minute to every 24 hours, with jitter to avoid bot detection
  • Full diff viewer — see exactly what changed, highlighted, with history of previous versions
  • Single Docker container, under 256 MB RAM, file-based storage — no database needed
  • Apache 2.0 licence — no telemetry, no cloud account, no per-check pricing

When to use this solution?

E-commerce price monitoring

Track competitor product prices, Amazon listings or supplier catalogues automatically. Set a CSS selector to isolate the price element, then get a Telegram alert the moment the price drops. No scraping subscription needed — Changedetection.io runs on your VPS and fires whenever the number changes.

Stock and restock alerts

Watch a product page for the words 'in stock' or a specific element appearing. Changedetection.io supports keyword-based triggers — alert only when the page contains (or no longer contains) a given text, making it ideal for tracking limited-edition releases or back-in-stock moments.

Regulatory and tender monitoring

Government portals, public procurement listings and regulatory pages rarely send email notifications. Point Changedetection.io at the page and receive an alert the moment the content changes — new tenders, updated rules, published decisions. Stop refreshing pages manually.

Guide

Deploy Changedetection.io on your VPS

  1. Order a ServOrbit VPS

    A 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM plan on Ubuntu 24.04 is more than sufficient. Changedetection.io idles under 256 MB and scales to hundreds of monitored URLs on a 1 GB instance. Add a second container (Playwright/Chromium) for JavaScript-rendered pages — that sidecar needs an extra 512 MB.

  2. One-click deploy from the marketplace

    Open your ServOrbit control panel, go to Marketplace → Monitoring & Observability → Changedetection.io, and click Deploy. Docker pulls dgtlmoon/changedetection.io:latest and starts the container. The web UI is available on port 5000 in under 10 seconds.

  3. Add your first URL to watch

    Open the web UI. With a domain attached to the VPS it answers at https://your-domain, served over TLS by an nginx vhost and with no port number in the address. Without a domain the container listens on the VPS loopback only: open an SSH tunnel from your machine — ssh -L 5000:127.0.0.1:5000 root@your-vps-ip, using the port shown on your app's page in the ServOrbit dashboard (5000 by default) — then browse to http://localhost:5000. Click the blue + button, paste the URL you want to monitor (a product page, a job board listing, a government notice page) and click Watch. Changedetection.io fetches the page immediately and stores the current version as the baseline.

  4. Configure a filter and notification

    Open the watch settings (pencil icon). Under Filters, add a CSS selector to isolate the element you care about (e.g. .price, #stock-status). Under Notifications, enter your Telegram bot token or email SMTP settings. Changedetection.io sends an alert with a diff of what changed the next time it detects a difference.

  5. Set the check interval

    In the watch settings, set how often Changedetection.io polls the page — from every minute to every 24 hours. For public pages, 15–60 minutes is polite and avoids rate limiting. Enable the jitter option to randomise the exact check time and reduce bot-detection risk.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about Changedetection.io

← Back to Monitoring & ObservabilityAll applications
Changedetection.io is an open-source website change monitoring tool (Apache 2.0, 24 k+ stars, v0.55.8). It watches any URL for changes and sends you an alert via email, Telegram, Slack, Discord or 80+ other channels. Self-hosted on your VPS, it costs nothing per check and has no cloud dependency.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses Changedetection.io? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Deploy Changedetection.io on ServOrbit
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The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

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