A website change alert notifies you when a page no longer matches a previous screenshot or DOM snapshot. Add Screenshots captures the page on a schedule, compares the latest render with the previous version, and sends you a diff summary with supporting evidence.
Why teams rely on website change alerts
- Product owners: Catch unexpected UI regressions before customers do.
- Marketing & SEO: Confirm that campaign copy, CTAs, and schema remain intact after updates.
- Compliance: Maintain evidence for regulated industries with timestamped screenshots stored in S3, Azure, Google Cloud, or Cloudflare R2.
- Security: Detect injected scripts, defacement, or malicious redirects when they happen.
- Competitive intelligence: Track pricing, inventory, and messaging changes on rival sites.
How to create a website change alert in Add Screenshots
- Select the page to monitor: Add a new monitoring job from the Website Change Tracker and paste the URL you want to follow.
- Define the capture scope: Monitor the full page or limit detection to a CSS selector. Use scroll & wait controls for dynamic content.
- Choose frequency and retention: Schedule captures hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly with automated screenshots.
- Configure notifications: Send alerts via email, webhooks/Zapier, or deliver files straight to AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage, or Cloudflare R2.
- Review diffs and act: Compare the latest capture side-by-side using the visual diff viewer and share findings with stakeholders.
Notification and delivery options
When a change is detected you decide how the evidence is shared:
- Email alerts: Receive annotated screenshots and diff summaries in your inbox or shared mailbox.
- Chat & incident tools: Use webhooks to post to Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, or Jira automations.
- Cloud storage archives: Send captures to your preferred bucket for long-term retention or analytics.
- APIs & integrations: Trigger downstream workflows by consuming webhook payloads in your own services.
Best practices to reduce noise
- Exclude volatile elements (ads, rotating banners) with hide elements or custom CSS.
- Align schedules with content release cadences so expected changes are bundled into one review.
- Use image adjustments if you need to highlight color or contrast changes for compliance teams.
- Store captures in the same region as the site you monitor to support data residency requirements.
- Always honour each website's terms of service, robots.txt directives, and relevant local regulations.
Website change alert FAQ
What qualifies as a change?
Add Screenshots compares the latest capture to the previous version at the pixel level and checks DOM snapshots. If sections differ beyond your tolerance, an alert is triggered with before/after evidence.
Can I monitor just part of a page?
Yes. Target a single component by providing a CSS selector or XPath, combine it with focus element, and limit notifications to what matters.
How do I send alerts to Slack or Teams?
Create a webhook monitor and point it to your Slack, Teams, or custom endpoint. The payload contains metadata, diff status, and links to the latest screenshots so you can orchestrate follow-up actions.
Monitoring should always respect the terms of service for the websites you track and comply with local privacy or security regulations.
