Product comparison
OnChange vs changedetection.io
changedetection.io offers both an open-source application and a hosted subscription. OnChange offers cloud monitoring with accessibility workflows, team review, and paid AI features.
Choose self-hosted changedetection.io when infrastructure control matters, or evaluate its hosted service alongside OnChange when you want a managed option. Compare supported workflows, check capacity, accessibility evidence, and team review as well as the monthly price.
Feature comparison
Scroll horizontally to compare both products.
| Feature | OnChange | changedetection.io |
|---|---|---|
Free plan available changedetection.io is open source and free to self-host; OnChange free includes 5 cloud monitors. | ||
No server or Docker required changedetection.io offers a hosted subscription as well as a free self-hosted application. | ||
Hosted monitoring available Both offer hosted monitoring; self-hosted changedetection.io requires your own infrastructure. | ||
Sub-minute check intervals The hosted service describes rechecks from approximately 5 minutes per runner. Self-hosted frequency depends on available resources and configuration. | ||
Visual (screenshot) diffs | ||
Text / content diff detection | ||
CSS selector + XPath targeting | ||
API / JSON endpoint monitoring changedetection.io supports JSON via JSONPath; OnChange has a dedicated JSON diff UI for developers. | ||
AI change summaries (paid plans) | ||
Git commit correlation | ||
WCAG accessibility scans | ||
Slack / Discord alerts | ||
Custom webhooks | ||
REST API | ||
Team collaboration and roles The OSS project is single-user; team features (RBAC, audit log) are part of paid managed offerings. | ||
Source available / open core changedetection.io is fully open source under Apache 2.0. |
OnChange plan availability: visual comparisons, JavaScript rendering, and AI summaries start on Pro; multi-region monitoring and automations start on Business. AI features have daily usage budgets. Git correlation requires a linked repository and supports investigation by a reviewer. Compare current OnChange plan limits.
Comparison based on publicly available information. changedetection.io's feature set may have changed since publication. Verify the current details on their website.
Choose the product that fits the work
Pick OnChange if
- You don't want to run a server, watch a queue, or update Docker images on a schedule
- You need sub-minute checks without provisioning a chrome pool yourself
- Your team needs RBAC, audit logs, and team workspaces out of the box
- You want WCAG scans, Git-aware attribution, and AI change summaries (paid plans) included
- You're an agency billing clients and need a stable SLA you didn't have to build
- You'd rather pay for outcomes than spend engineering hours on monitoring infra
Pick changedetection.io if
- You strongly prefer open-source tooling and self-hosting on your own infrastructure
- You have spare ops capacity and are happy maintaining Docker, Playwright, and queue health
- Data residency or air-gapped requirements rule out any SaaS provider
- Your monitor count is small enough that one server is overkill yet still cheap to run
Pricing
changedetection.io is free to self-host with your own infrastructure. Its hosted offer is $8.99/month for up to 5,000 URLs and describes rechecks from approximately 5 minutes per runner; the URL limit does not imply that every URL is checked simultaneously at that interval. OnChange Free includes 5 cloud monitors; Pro is $12/month for 50 monitors at 60-second intervals; Business is $39/month for 300 monitors at 30-second intervals.
Pricing and check intervals reviewed September 24, 2026. This review covers the stated prices, quotas, and intervals.
Check changedetection.io's official pricing and availabilityMigration plan
Collect the URLs and monitoring rules you use in changedetection.io, then recreate a small representative set in OnChange. Verify selectors, captured evidence, baseline behavior, and notification delivery before moving the remaining watches. Keep any required historical records available and check your OnChange plan capacity before expanding the watchlist.
Try OnChange free
5 monitors, all alert channels and full API access, no credit card required. Start with one monitor and migrate at your own pace.