Current state erases context
A corrected price or restored policy clause does not show how long the wrong version was live, what wording users saw or which alert started the response.
Ninety-day operational evidence timeline
Return to the page state that triggered the decision.
Move through retained website versions, reopen the exact before and after evidence, and keep the diff, timestamp, visual state and alert outcome together for incident review or client follow-up.
- Retention
- 90 days
- Replay
- HTML + archived CSS
- Visual evidence
- Before + after
Time Travel
acme.com/pricing · 3 retained events
- 14:05
Baseline
Captured
- 14:32
Price changed
Alerted
- 14:41
Reviewed
Approved
Selected version
Jul 20 · 14:32 UTC
Acme Cloud
Simple pricing
The Pro plan is $15 per month and includes 50 monitors.
- Previous
- $12 / month
- Delivery
- Email + Slack
The live page cannot explain what it used to say.
By the time a stakeholder opens the source URL, the page may have changed again, rolled back or rendered differently. A useful history keeps each decision attached to the captured state that caused it.
Screenshots alone lose meaning
An image proves appearance, but reviewers may still need selectable text, section context, changed metadata and the delivery record connected to that moment.
Evidence fragments across tools
Copied HTML, chat messages and ticket attachments quickly separate from their timestamps and source, making a later postmortem harder to reconstruct.
Keep the state, the delta and the response in one timeline.
Version history is organized around detected changes rather than arbitrary screenshots, so each retained state explains why it exists.
Timestamped change sequence
Move through detected versions in order and see when each state was recorded, classified, reviewed and delivered to a notification channel.
HTML and text replay
Reopen the captured document or text state without depending on the live page to reproduce an older version that may no longer exist.
Corresponding stylesheet archive
New HTML snapshots keep a bounded CSS bundle for their own state, preventing the Before pane from silently borrowing a later page design.
Visual-monitor screenshots
Before, after and difference images preserve the rendered appearance when pixels and responsive layout matter more than the underlying markup.
Side-by-side historical comparison
Open two relevant states together, resize the evidence panes and review text, visual or structural movement with the original timestamps visible.
Shareable change evidence
Create a revocable evidence link for a specific change when a client or stakeholder needs the result without access to the wider workspace.
Build history automatically as the page changes.
No one has to remember to take a screenshot before a release. The scheduled monitor establishes and extends the evidence sequence.
- 01
Capture the known state
The first successful check becomes the baseline for the chosen page, element, API response or visual surface.
- 02
Record a qualified delta
When the next state differs, preserve the relevant old and new artifacts before rules decide whether to notify.
- 03
Review through Time Travel
Move between retained events, inspect highlighted HTML or screenshots and reopen the surrounding change explanation.
- 04
Share or export context
Link a stakeholder to one restricted evidence record or retrieve monitoring history through the REST API for another workflow.
Operational history has a deliberate boundary.
The timeline is designed to answer recent production, client and monitoring questions. It does not claim the permanence or completeness of a regulated archive.
- History is retained for 90 days today. Export important operational records before they leave the retention window when another policy requires longer access.
- A text monitor preserves document evidence, while a visual monitor is required when pixel-level appearance must be proven rather than inferred from HTML and CSS.
- Legacy snapshots created before stylesheet archiving may use a clearly labelled CSS approximation. Do not treat those replays as pixel-identical historical renderings.
- For a complete public-site inventory at one defined capture window, generate a website scoping report instead of treating independent monitor histories as full-site scope.
Continue with the related workflow.
Questions about webpage version history
Before you add the first monitor
- How long does OnChange retain webpage version history?
- OnChange currently retains operational change history for 90 days on every published plan. Enterprise customers can discuss longer retention requirements. The product is designed for incident review, client evidence and operational postmortems rather than indefinite records storage.
- What is preserved for each historical webpage change?
- A change record can include its detection time, old and new hashes, text or structured diff, summary, classification, notification outcomes and the corresponding HTML or text snapshot keys. Visual monitors also preserve before, after and generated difference images.
- Will an old HTML snapshot keep its original styling?
- New HTML captures archive the corresponding bounded stylesheet bundle so the before and after replay can inject the CSS associated with each state. Older legacy history may use current known CSS as a labelled approximation. A captured visual-monitor screenshot remains the strongest pixel-level evidence for those older versions.
- Is webpage version history a legal or permanent web archive?
- No. OnChange provides operational evidence with a defined retention window. It is not WORM storage, a legal hold, WACZ export or a substitute for records-management controls required by counsel, regulators or an archival policy.
Let the next change create its own evidence trail.
Start with five free monitors and a 90-day timeline. Add visual monitoring on Pro when rendered appearance must be preserved too.