Meet ChangeDetection - A Self-Hosted Website Change Detector!

Tracking things on the web just got a whole lot easier with ChangeDetection, the free and open source Docker container! Track website changes, price changes of products, and even track out of stock products with notifications all from a container you host yourself!

(Affiliate links may be included in this description. I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.)

00:00 - Intro
02:33 - Requirements
02:59 - Configuring System
03:56 - Docker Compose Explanation
05:24 - Moving Config to Docker Machine
06:40 - Starting the Container
07:24 - Exploring ChangeDetection Dashboard
09:34 - ChangeDetection Job Settings
11:21 - Global Settings
11:58 - Be a Good Bot
12:18 - Global Settings Continued
14:15 - Be a Good Bot Part 2
15:10 - Adding a New Site
16:29 - Headless Browsers and Drivers
17:59 - Enabling Chrome Browser and Playwright
21:17 - Using Chrome to Render Pages
23:47 - Using Chrome and Playwright to Monitor Deeplinked Sites
28:55 - Price Tracking
30:33 - Restock Tracking
33:15 - ChangeDetection Docker Container is Powerful!

[owen]

A big use case for this (at least for me) is scholarship/grant websites. They tend to rarely be updated until they become available for the current scholarship round. For example, there is one scholarship I am looking at that still has the "2023 deadline passed" banner, and I am waiting for it to be updated for 2024. This will be incredibly useful. Thanks for the video!

[fanaticdavid]

I recently read a forum post from someone who was using a Docker tool like this one to track the availability of 3D printing filament, and I meant to ask them which tool they were using or do some research myself. But here you are, delivering exactly what I was looking for, as if you have a sixth sense for these things 😂 Thanks, Tim!

[WamocIsolda]

I plan on using this to monitor the county website for people trying to steal my property with a forged deed so I can fight it and fix it quickly.

[TheOisannNetwork]

I've used this for years. It's an incredible tool and a real must-have.

[DavidDavisL]

This is a great tool and I have used it quite a bit in the past for specific purposes. As mentioned - be sure to avoid an overly aggressive scanning interval, especially if running this from home. Many sites will block suspected bot scanners - and that is a very bad thing when your home IP is what is being blocked! Running from a cloud instance or through a proxy should at least avoid the problem of getting blocked at home, but it is best to avoid the situation altogether.

[fwzmhmd]

This is really cool. I used this when i wanted to buy the new iPhone last year, managed to buy it as soon as it was in stock😅

[theSimonManuel]

I tried to configure Huginn about 2 years when I first started using Linux. Did not understand head or tail. Came across ChangeDetection a little over a month ago. Most practical piece of software I host.

[diegoalejandrosarmientomun]

Dang, this is huge. I was looking for this for a while ago now. Thank!

[sjhowl]

Firstly, thank you Tim for your amazing videos. They have been very helpful to me setting up my homelab. Is anyone else getting this error "Exception: Target page, context or browser has been closed" for some pages? I have 13 sites it's looking at. The error moves around these sites but I usually have 4 or 5 at a time. I've changed the chrome version from latest to 1.54, 1.49, 1.45, 1.44, 1.43, 1.42 and 1.41. Some are better than others. I've also increased the timeout times and the number of concurrent sessions.

[pax]

Might have missed it but "Visual Filter Selector" is a great option too.
Think it shows up after the 1st screenshot grab.

[alexandzors]

The timing of this video and me seeing a comment in an unrelated Discord server about this service.

[kevinhughes]

Wat a great bit of software with so many uses. Thank you for great breakdown

[lloydsshednanigans]

Thanks for the video. Wonderful idea. I'm playing with it. It's quite the touchy little creature isn't it?! It's favourite thing to say is "Exception: Target page, context or browser has been closed". Still trying to track this down but it's an interesting journey.

[ExpressITTechTips]

Now this is a tool I can use great find ❤

[ImARichard]

Good ol XPATH queries. Id be curious how often the elgato recorded steps get broken by Elgato redeploying their site. But it is nice that they give you the option to customize it to be more resilient.

Awesome awesome video! And a fantastic tool that I dont know what Ill use it for, but definitely going to add it to my arsenal.

[AndreaGhensi]

I'm curious to know why you don't use docker volumes for the datastore, since you don't have to access/ edit those files... to me it feels that, in this particular case, bind mounts are just a needless complication (and going with volumes will unlock gitops and remove the need for ssh, but I get that it's an advanced topic). That said, I will definitely try this service!

[TheJohnTyra]

Tim, this is fantastic! Great job on this video! 😍 I love self-hosting services and this is certainly one that's being added to the "stack". 🤓(See what I did there?) 😉

[Saintel]

Love this video. Anyway you can do more software installs for those that use Synology Nas systems?

[kalam]

I've been self hosting this for a few months now to monitor Vanguard 7 day SEC yield on VMFXX. Great piece of software.

[basheerparvez]

Great video. Can I ask what terminal are you using in the video?