Distill Web Monitor vs WebSite-Watcher
Distill Web Monitor
distill.ioWebSite-Watcher
aignes.comSide by side
| Figure | Distill Web Monitor | WebSite-Watcher |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $15/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 9 | 3 |
| Spec score · Website Monitoring Software | 9.3 (#1) | 7.8 (#33) |
| Platforms | The product is offered as a web app, browser extensions, desktop apps, and iOS and Android apps; desktop apps and the Android app are identified as public beta. | The desktop version supports Windows 10/11 64-bit and Windows Server 2016 or later; the maker says it can run on Mac and Linux via a virtual machine. |
| Purpose | Distill monitors websites on a schedule, compares page content, and alerts users when it changes. | WebSite-Watcher monitors web pages, documents, and feeds for changes and highlights what is new. |
| Security and privacy | Neemb says it uses technical, organizational, and administrative safeguards, but also states that no service can guarantee complete security. | The maker says the Freeware edition has no account and collects no user data; its privacy policy notes that internet transmissions may have security gaps and cannot be guaranteed absolutely protected. |
Plans
Distill Web Monitor
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Starter$15 a month
- Starter$15 a month
- Professional$35 a month
- Professional$35 a month
- Flexi$80 a month
- Flexi$80 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Distill Web Monitor
Distill Web Monitor tracks selected website or document content on a schedule, compares it for changes, and sends alerts. Local monitors run in a browser or on the user's computer; cloud monitors run on Distill's servers without requiring the device to stay on. Users can select a whole page or a portion visually, then refine the selection with XPath, CSS, regular expressions, or JavaScript. Monitor types include webpages, PDFs, JSON, Word, XML, feeds, uptime, and sitemaps. Alert rules can use text matches, numeric ranges, and regular expressions. Notifications include email, SMS, phone push, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and webhooks. Macros can fill forms and click, and API access is available on request. Local checks can run at intervals as short as five seconds; Free cloud checks start at six-hour intervals. The free plan costs nothing and includes 25 monitors, five cloud monitors, 1,000 cloud checks per month, two devices, and 30 email alerts per month. Starter begins at $15 a month. Unused resources expire at the billing period's end, and cloud checks count in ten-second units.
WebSite-Watcher
WebSite-Watcher monitors web pages, feeds, documents, local files, and forums, then highlights changed content. It supports RSS and Atom, PDFs, Word and Excel files, social-media pages, and other listed sources. Users can filter unwanted material and create keyword alerts for words appearing in updates. Check-Macros can record and replay logins, search forms, and multi-step workflows before checking a page. Changes can generate email alerts, reports in HTML, CSV, JSON, or XML, or trigger AI workflows and custom tools. The Windows client stores bookmarks and settings locally and can check pages without accessing the maker’s servers; optional sync uses cloud, local, or network folders. The Free edition costs nothing, with 10 bookmarks, one database, and a one-hour shortest interval. Personal costs €49, paid once per user for private, non-commercial use; Business costs €299, paid once per user for business and professional use. A 30-day evaluation is free, and Android and iOS apps store data on the phone without an account.