WebSite-Watcher is a Windows program that checks web pages, feeds and documents for changes. It shows exactly what is new on each one. It runs locally on the PC without a cloud account. A freeware edition covers a small number of pages, while the paid Personal and Business editions add larger-scale monitoring, automation and export tools.
Bookmarks and what they can track
Every monitored item in WebSite-Watcher is a bookmark. A bookmark can point to a static or dynamic web page or an RSS or Atom feed. It can also point to a PDF, Word or Excel document, an image, an FTP file or directory, or a file on the local disk. WebSite-Watcher converts documents and feeds into page form, so highlighting and keywords work on them too.
WebSite-Watcher turns Facebook, X and Instagram pages into feeds that signal new posts. WebSite-Watcher compares binary files such as ZIP archives by date, size or partial content rather than downloading them fully.
For pages no other method can read, a screenshot mode captures the page in a hidden browser window. It compares PNG images, though keywords and several other features do not work there.
Manual checks and AutoWatch
You can check bookmarks on demand or through AutoWatch, the automatic mode. Each bookmark has its own schedule, from every few minutes to once a day or a fixed weekday and time. Folders can pass default settings to new bookmarks.
A changed bookmark appears in red bold text, and its folder shows the count of changed items. Opening it in the internal Chromium-based browser marks it as read. The browser offers views of the online page, the new version, the old version and the version with highlighted changes.
How changes are highlighted
WebSite-Watcher compares the text of the newly downloaded page with the stored version and marks the differences. Three highlight methods handle different page structures:
- Standard ignores content that has only moved position, which suits news pages.
- Exact performs a finer analysis for pages where single numbers change, such as tables of figures.
- Table based highlights a whole row when one of its cells changes, with an option to exclude purely numeric changes.
Filters and keyword alerts
Many pages change constantly in places that do not matter, such as dates, counters or ads. Ignore filters remove those parts from the comparison. Watch filters do the opposite and limit monitoring to one area, for example only the version number on a download page. Filters accept wildcards and regular expressions. The Filter Assistant builds them interactively. The user selects text in the internal browser and classifies it, for example as fixed text or text with changing numbers. An automatic filter can also learn from highlighted false alerts.
Keyword monitoring narrows alerts further. WebSite-Watcher saves a new version as an update only if at least one listed word, phrase or regular expression appears in the changed content. A separate keyword list controls highlighting, with optional colors per keyword.
Logins and multi-step pages
The program uses Check-Macros to reach content behind a login or a search form. The user records the steps once in the program, such as logging in, entering a search term and opening the result page. WebSite-Watcher replays them before every check.
Actions on update
Each bookmark can run actions when WebSite-Watcher detects a change. Options include a sound, an email containing the full page, a simplified version or only the changes, and a Pushover message. Other options include export of the new version to HTML or text, or archiving to the separate Local Website Archive program. A bookmark can also launch an external program that receives the old, new and highlighted versions.
Free, Personal and Business editions
You may use WebSite-Watcher Free privately and commercially. It is limited to 10 bookmarks, one bookmark file and an AutoWatch interval of at least one hour.
The Personal edition, licensed for non-commercial use, removes those limits and adds Follow Links. This feature monitors a whole site by adding linked pages as child bookmarks under a master bookmark. The Personal edition also adds HTML, CSV, JSON and XML reports, Cloud Sync between computers, and a scripting language and plugins in a built-in Basic dialect. The scripting language and plugins can, for instance, alert only when a price falls within a range.
The Business edition is licensed for professional use. It adds a scraper that extracts structured data to XML or CSV, proxy rotation and password-protected bookmark files.
A companion app for Android and iOS can show bookmarks monitored by the Windows program away from the PC. It synchronizes them through Dropbox.
