ChangeTower web content monitoring

For businesses that want to keep a keen eye on the competition, website change monitoring software is an efficient way of tracking any changes made to a chosen site. Simply set up alerts, also known as monitors, and keep updated—spot changes to marketing campaigns, discounted pricing, new products, or enhanced features, for example.

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The best webpage change monitoring software enables you to create alerts quickly and easily, flagging any page changes automatically, directly to your mobile phone or inbox. In our ChangeTower review, we look at how this solution’s pricing plans and features compare to the other software on the market so you can decide if it’s right for you.  

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ChangeTower’s paid plans are fully customizable for the best value (Image credit: ChangeTower)

Plans and pricing

ChangeTower’s plans are very customizable, which makes it a great choice for businesses with varying demands. There’s a choice of three different price plans, one of which is free. All plans include HTML monitoring, content monitoring, a specified number of daily checks on each URL, keyword monitoring, and version histories.

The free plan only includes the option to monitor up to three URLS, making it more useful for personal use than business use. It’s so limited that it may not even be sufficient for personal users if you want to do more than monitor a couple of shops for sale prices, for example. 

If you’re in it for the freebies, it’s clear there are better options, but if your business needs to track a large number of URLs, the paid plans are affordable and very competitive. For paid plans, choose between Power User and Enterprise. 

Power User pricing starts at $9 per month, which includes monitoring of up to 500 dynamic URLs and up to 50 checks per day. It also includes the additional ability to monitor URLs which are hidden behind login pages, and it supports Zapier integration. You can customize the number of checks per day, the number of users that receive alerts, and the number of months you can store archived data, all for an additional monthly fee.

The Enterprise plan starts from $299 per month and includes unlimited URLs, up to 12 years of archived data, the option to monitor PDFs and text-based files, Zapier integration, and data exports. Multiple users with the power to create their own alerts can be added for an additional charge. 

ChangeTower’s extensive features make it work for a range of businesses (Image credit: ChangeTower)

Features

Monitor changes to technical page data

What’s great about ChangeTower is it makes it easy to track changes to web pages that may not be seen by the everyday user—things like meta descriptions, HTML code, and keywords used for search engine optimization (SEO). 

When you set up a new monitor, you’ll be given a list of options for which data you want to track. Simply mix and match to create the most relevant alerts and watch those changes roll into your inbox.

Although you can find this feature on many website change monitoring platforms, we like that it’s available on all of ChangeTower’s pricing plans as standard, including the free version. In today’s digital world, advanced personalization settings enable businesses to target different users with different content. 

Including dynamic web pages is a nice touch and helps to keep ChangeTower affordable, where competitors charge a premium for this option.

A clear interface makes ChangeTower easy to use (Image credit: ChangeTower)

Interface and in use

For a feature-rich product, ChangeTower is surprisingly easy to set up and use. To get started, simply click the Create My Free Monitor link and input your name, email address, and a password. You’ll then be taken to the web-based app where you can start creating alerts. The process is the same on desktop and mobile.

Once you’re logged in, the interface is clear and makes the next steps obvious to the user. As you create a new monitor, it walks you through the process step by step, making it as easy as possible to customize your alerts and track the most relevant information. 

Troubleshooting guides are available to all users but live support is a little slow (Image credit: ChangeTower)

Support

ChangeTower’s website is equipped with an extensive knowledge base that’s available to all users. Here you’ll find setup guides, common troubleshooting advice, and educational articles on the best ways to use the software. 

Additional support is available to all users via a ticket system, whether on the free or paid plans. They have live chat functionality on their website, too, where response times claim to be a couple of hours—however, we tried it and were waiting over 24 hours, which was disappointing.  

The competition

ChangeTower has some strong competition, but for businesses that need to check a significant number of URLs it’s one of the most affordable options.

Distill.io is the one to watch out for, as its free plan includes checks on up to 25 URLs every six hours, whereas ChangeTower only includes checks on up to three URLs every four hours. For personal users, it makes more sense to use Distill.io’s free plan. 

For small- to medium-sized businesses that need to check more than 25 URLs, ChangeTower’s pricing plans offer better value, including checks on up to 500 URLs for $9 per month—compared to $80 per month from Distill.io. 

On the other hand, if you need more than one user with the power to create alerts, Distill.io’s pricing is more favorable—their most expensive plan is $80 per month as opposed to $299.

In terms of features, you can’t go wrong with either. It’s really a case of weighing up how many URLs you need to monitor, how many users will need to access the software, and which price plan best covers those specific needs.

Final verdict

ChangeTower’s website change monitoring software is a strong option for small- to medium-sized businesses that need to monitor a large number of URLs. Its paid plans include more URLs than other competitors, and for a lower price.

The main thing that lets ChangeTower down is its free plan, which only includes enough to trial the software. Only personal users would be better off using Distill.io’s free plan.

However, for businesses that want to keep an eye on a large volume of competitors or have a large website with lots of users contributing to the content, the customizable paid plans ensure that ChangeTower remains one of the better-value options on the market. Its extensive features and usability make it a great choice. 

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