Track changes on a website: Chrome extension or cloud monitor
Distill and Visualping checked against their store listings, and why AyeWatch is the better setup for alerts on your phone.
By ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom, Editorial team
3 min read
If you want to track changes on a website, a Chrome extension is the fastest way to try it, but a cloud monitor is the better long-term setup. Our pick is AyeWatch: you describe the change in plain English, it checks from the cloud, and the alert reaches your phone whether or not Chrome is open.
That said, extensions are good tools, and two of the best known are worth a fair look. We checked both store listings before writing this.
The two extensions most people find
Distill Web Monitor (publisher: Neemb Web Services Pvt Ltd). You open a page, choose "Select parts of page" or "Monitor whole page", hover and click the area to watch. Developers can use XPath, CSS or JavaScript to select content instead. The listing says Distill runs in your browser to check pages, and its pricing page adds that monitors can also run in Distill's cloud, including some on the free plan. Alerts can go by email, SMS, sound, pop-up, phone push, and Slack or Discord webhooks.
Visualping: Website change detection, monitoring and alerts (publisher: WEBMONITORING TECHNOLOGIES INC.). You pick a page, choose how often to check, and describe what you are watching for. It emails you when the page changes, with a one-sentence AI summary. Local monitors run in the browser at no cost, and a free account includes cloud monitors that keep checking when the browser is closed.
Extension or cloud monitor
| Question | Chrome extension | AyeWatch (cloud) |
|---|---|---|
| Install needed | Yes, per browser | No, web app plus iOS and Android apps |
| Checks with laptop asleep | Only cloud monitors | Yes |
| How you define the target | Click an element or write a selector | Write the change you want in a sentence |
| What fires an alert | A change in the selected area | A change that matches your sentence |
| Starting cost | Free plans | Free preview, paid from $9 a month |
The extension model is element-first: you tell it where to look, and it tells you when that spot moves. That is precise, and it is also why alerts can get noisy on pages with rotating content. AyeWatch is intent-first: you tell it what you are waiting for, and it reads each change for meaning before deciding whether to alert you.
When an extension is the right call
Choose Distill if you want precise control over one element, like to write your own selector, and spend your day in Chrome anyway.
When AyeWatch is the right call
Choose AyeWatch if you want alerts on your phone, care about a type of change rather than a fixed spot on the page, or do not want to babysit a browser. Push notifications and the in-app feed are on every plan. Email, Slack, Discord, webhooks and the API come with paid plans, which start at $9 a month and are billed in monitoring credits. Try it on one page with the free preview, no card needed.
A quick setup comparison
With an extension: install, open the page, click the extension icon, select the area, save, set the interval.
With AyeWatch: open the app, paste the URL, write "tell me when the release notes mention a new major version", choose a channel.
FAQ
Which Chrome extension tracks website changes? Distill Web Monitor and Visualping both have Chrome Web Store listings for tracking page changes. AyeWatch is a cloud app, so it needs no extension.
Do Chrome extensions check pages when the browser is closed? Local monitors run in the browser. Distill and Visualping also offer cloud monitors that keep checking.
Can I use an extension and AyeWatch together? Yes. You can keep an extension for one exact element on a desktop page and use AyeWatch for everything you want on your phone.