FollowThatPage vs Distill, and the pick for always-on alerts
Email diffs against browser-based element checks, compared in a table, with AyeWatch as the hosted option that needs neither.
By ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom, Editorial team
3 min read
FollowThatPage vs Distill comes up when a developer wants to watch a page and has narrowed it to the two free options that feel lightweight. They solve the problem from opposite ends. Follow That Page runs on someone else's server and emails you text diffs. Distill runs mostly in your own browser and lets you pick the exact element to watch. This is a side-by-side, followed by the option that suits people who want always-on alerts without either trade-off.
Side by side
| Follow That Page | Distill | |
|---|---|---|
| Where checks run | Its server | Browser extension or desktop app, plus Distill's cloud |
| Works with your computer off | Yes | Cloud monitors only |
| Free tier | 20 daily checks and 1 hourly check | 25 monitors, 5 in the cloud |
| Fastest check | 10 minutes (Pro) | Every 5 seconds locally; cloud from 6 hours on free |
| Targeting | Keyword line and block filters | Select an element, set conditions |
| JavaScript pages | Not executed | Local monitors read the page in your browser |
| Pages behind a login | Never supported | Local monitors use your logged-in browser |
| Alerts | Notifications, email, SMS, apps | |
| Paid plan | Pro via PayPal subscription | From $15/mo |
Where Follow That Page wins
It is independent of your machine. Close the laptop, go on holiday, and it keeps checking. Setup is a URL and an email address. For a plain HTML page where you want to know that anything changed, that is hard to beat for free.
Its limits are clear in its FAQ. Free accounts get 20 daily checks and one hourly check, and extra pages queue for the next run. The robot does not run JavaScript, will not handle GB2312 or Shift-JIS pages, and will never support password-protected sites. Alerts are plain text emails.
Where Distill wins
Precision and speed. You click the part of the page you care about, set a condition like "number is below 50", and local checks can run every few seconds for free. It handles pages that need your session, because it reads them in your own browser. It also has desktop and mobile apps.
The catch is that local monitors only run while the device and browser are running. The free plan's five cloud monitors check every six hours at most. Selectors are also tied to the page's structure, so a redesign can break a monitor until you fix it.
The third option: AyeWatch
If what you want is "keep watching while I am away, and only tell me about the change I care about", neither tool fits perfectly. Follow That Page is always on but reports every text change. Distill is precise but tied to your machine unless you pay for cloud checks.
AyeWatch runs every monitor in its cloud and uses a rule written in plain English instead of a selector or a keyword list:
"Alert me when this package page lists a new major version. Ignore download counts."
It reads each change against the rule and sends a short summary when it matches. Push alerts to iOS and Android come with every plan. Paid plans add email, Slack, Discord, signed webhooks, a REST API and an MCP server, which is handy if you want an assistant in your editor to create or pause monitors.
Paid plans start at $9 a month. One monitor can cover several URLs, and topic monitors can follow a subject across the web and social platforms.
A quick test case
Say you want to know when a library you depend on publishes a security advisory on its project page. Follow That Page will email you every edit to that page, including star counts if they are in the HTML, unless you build a keyword filter around "advisory" and hope the maintainers use that word. Distill will watch the advisory section precisely, but only while your browser is open, or every six hours on a free cloud monitor. An AyeWatch rule such as "alert me when a security advisory or CVE is added" keeps running from its servers and ignores the rest of the page.
Which one to pick
- Pick Distill for exact element conditions, very fast local checks or pages behind your own login. It is more precise than the other two.
- Pick Follow That Page for a free, zero-setup email when a simple HTML page changes.
- Pick AyeWatch for alerts that keep running without your machine, ignore cosmetic noise, and reach your phone or Slack.
AyeWatch's Free Preview gives three monitoring runs with no card. The AyeWatch vs FollowThatPage page has the vendor's own feature table if you want a second view.