page-monitoring

SKILL.md

Track web page changes, detect availability issues, and preserve content with multiple monitoring strategies.

Supports four major monitoring services (Visualping, ChangeTower, Distill.io, UptimeRobot) with different strengths: visual change detection, compliance archiving, element-level tracking, and uptime monitoring

Includes ready-to-use Python implementations for local page monitoring with hash-based change detection, element selectors, and automatic archiving

Covers RSS feed generation for pages without feeds, Twitter/X archiving with Twarc, and webhook-based alerts (Slack, Discord, email)

Provides cron scheduling templates and best practices for rate limiting, monitoring frequency by use case, and legal considerations for competitive intelligence

Page monitoring methodology

Patterns for tracking web page changes, detecting content removal, and preserving important pages before they disappear.

Monitoring service comparison

Free-tier limits and retention windows shift annually — verify at the
service's pricing page before relying on a specific number. The
columns below reflect a 2026 snapshot.

Service
Free Tier
Best For
History
Alert Speed

Visualping
A few daily checks (free plan tightened in recent years)
Visual changes
Standard
Minutes

ChangeTower
Yes (verify current limits)
Compliance, archiving
Multi-year on paid plans
Minutes

Distill.io
~5 monitors with 7-day history
Element-level tracking
Limited on free tier
Seconds

Wachete
Limited
Login-protected pages
12 months
Minutes

UptimeRobot
50 monitors at 5-minute intervals (free SMS removed)
Uptime only
60 days
5-min checks

changedetection.io
Self-hosted; free
Privacy / DIY
Disk space
Configurable

urlwatch
Self-hosted; free
Cron-driven CLI
Configurable
Configurable