Simplescraper

Monitor a website for changes ​

Simplescraper Website Monitoring detects changes to the text or appearance of any web page and alerts you whenever something changes. You can be notified by email, webhook, or by sending the change to an AI agent. Creating and managing monitors is done via the dashboard.

Use cases for web page monitoring:

  • Competitor price changes and plans
  • New job postings on a careers page
  • Products coming back in stock, for restock alerts
  • Financial and stock information
  • News and announcements

Scrape or monitor?

Use a monitor to know when a page changes and see what changed. If you need to extract data, use a scrape recipe instead.

How it works ​

You decide what to watch: the words on the page, how the page looks, or both, across the whole page or just one part of it.

Then, on the schedule you choose, Simplescraper checks the page again, compares it with the previous version and sends you a change alert if the section you care about has changed.

Set up a monitor ​

Step 1: Choose the page ​

  1. In the Simplescraper dashboard, click 'Monitor' under the 'Create' section of the sidebar.
  2. Enter the URL of the page to watch. The name field will fill in from the address. We recommend changing it to something you will recognise in an alert.
  3. Choose 'How often to check', from every 5 minutes to once a day.
  4. Click 'Check page'. Simplescraper loads the page, which usually takes a few seconds, and shows it beside the settings.

Step 2: Choose what to watch ​

  1. Under 'Changes to monitor for', choose what counts as a change:
    • Text changes: the words on the page.
    • Appearance changes: how the page looks. This catches visual changes, such as a swapped image or a restyled button, even when the words stay the same.
    • Text and appearance changes: both.
  2. Under 'What part of the page to monitor', choose how much of the page to watch:
    • Whole page: everything on the page.
    • An area: draw a box on the page, then click 'Confirm'.
    • An element: click one part of the page, such as a price or a heading, then click 'Confirm'.

Watching one part of the page keeps changes elsewhere, such as ads or recommendations, from sending alerts.

Step 3: Choose when to be alerted ​

  1. Under 'Alert me when', choose when to get an alert:
    • Anything changes: any change to the part of the page you watch.
    • Keyword added: one of your keywords appears on the page. For a restock, 'in stock' alerts you when those words appear.
    • Keyword removed: one of your keywords disappears from the page.
  2. For keyword monitoring, enter the words in 'Keywords', separated by commas.

Step 4: Choose where alerts go and save ​

  1. Under 'Where to send alerts', switch 'Email alerts' to On. Alerts go to your account email address.
  2. To send changes to another app or an AI agent, paste a URL into 'Webhook URL'.
  3. Check the 'Monitor summary', then click 'Save monitor'.

The monitor starts watching when you click 'Save monitor'. If you leave the page before saving, the setup is discarded.

FAQ ​

How much does website monitoring cost? ​

Each check uses 2 credits.

How do I check a page outside the schedule? ​

Click 'Check now' on the monitor's page.

For questions or help, reach out via chat.