Hexowatch vs changedetection.io: hosted watches or your own container
What each costs in money and upkeep, and why a selector-free hosted monitor may beat both.
By ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom, Editorial team
3 min read
Hexowatch vs changedetection is really a question about who runs the machine. Hexowatch is a hosted service with managed browsers and proxies. changedetection.io is open source software you can run in your own container, or rent hosted. Developers comparing the two usually care about upkeep, how alerts reach their tools, and how much noise they will have to filter. This piece covers both, then makes the case for a third option that skips selectors entirely.
The two tools in one paragraph each
Hexowatch, from Hexact, watches pages, RSS feeds, sitemaps, JSON, APIs field by field, WHOIS and DNS records, tech stacks, source code and uptime. Its newer OR:ON app accepts plain-English rules, shows before and after values, and uses managed browsers with residential proxies when a site blocks automated visits. Plans run from a free tier of 2 watches up to Scale at $190 a month.
changedetection.io is licensed Apache 2.0 and runs with docker compose up -d or from Python. You target parts of a page with CSS, XPath, JSONPath or jq, filter with trigger and ignore text, and use Browser Steps to log in or click before a check. Notifications go through Apprise to more than 85 services. The hosted version is $8.99 a month for up to 5,000 watches.
Comparison table
| Hexowatch | changedetection.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Hosted only | Self-hosted or hosted |
| Price | Free (2 watches), $15, $55, $190 a month | Free to self-host, $8.99 hosted |
| Fastest check | Every 5 minutes on paid plans | About 5 minutes per runner, hosted |
| Targeting | Plain-English rule or click the element | CSS, XPath, JSONPath, jq |
| AI | AI change analysis on Plus and up | Bring your own model key or local model |
| Alerts | Email on all plans; Slack, Discord, Teams, Telegram, webhooks on Plus and up | 85+ services through Apprise |
| Pages behind logins | Managed browsers and proxies | Browser Steps |
| Extra watch types | WHOIS, tech stack, uptime, sitemap | JSON APIs, PDFs, restock and price |
Figures from the Hexowatch pricing catalog and changedetection.io's site and GitHub README, checked October 2026.
Where each one hurts
With changedetection.io the software is free and your time is not. You keep the container up, apply updates, back up the data, and rewrite selectors when a site you watch ships a redesign. For a homelab that is fine. For a team of two shipping a product, it is another service to babysit.
With Hexowatch the upkeep is gone, but the useful parts sit higher up the price list. AI change analysis, Slack, webhooks and MCP are on Plus at $55 a month, or $38.50 billed yearly. The Personal plan at $15 a month has email alerts and no integrations listed. Usage is counted in tokens, with heavier checks costing more.
The third option: AyeWatch
AyeWatch is hosted like Hexowatch, so there is no container, and it does not use selectors at all. You paste a URL and write the change you care about: "Alert me when this repo's releases page shows a new major version or a security fix. Ignore star counts." It reads each change against that sentence and sends a short summary with the source link.
What a developer gets on the $9 Pro plan:
- Auto mode, which adjusts each monitor's pace on paid plans
- a REST API to create, list, update and delete monitors
- HMAC-signed webhook events with an AI summary of the change
- an MCP server at
https://ayewatch.ai/api/mcpso an assistant in your editor can set up monitors for you - Slack, Discord and email alongside push and the in-app feed
It also watches beyond the URL list. A topic monitor can follow "new CVEs or breaking changes affecting Next.js" across more than a billion sources, and social monitors can follow a project's X account, a subreddit or a YouTube channel.
For a developer the appeal is one tool for pages, topics and social accounts, with the judging and the summary done before the event reaches your code.
How to choose
- You need full control and data on your own hardware: changedetection.io. AyeWatch cannot be self-hosted.
- You need WHOIS, tech stack, uptime or proxies for bot-protected sites: Hexowatch.
- You need pages behind a login: changedetection.io's Browser Steps or Hexowatch's managed browsers. AyeWatch watches public pages.
- You want meaningful alerts on pages and the wider web, with an API and webhooks at the entry price: AyeWatch.
Try it next to what you run now
Leave your current setup running and add one AyeWatch monitor for the page that sends the most false alarms. Create a free AyeWatch monitor and compare the two feeds for a week. The AyeWatch vs Hexowatch page has the feature table.