head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs basketball_reference_web_scraper
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars, 2,064 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. basketball_reference_web_scraper has 556 stars, 133 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 6,071% (34,312 vs 556 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; basketball_reference_web_scraper is written in HTML under MIT. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, basketball_reference_web_scraper 24%. changedetection.io was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (web-scraping), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| changedetection.io | basketball_reference_web_scraper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 556 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 133 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick changedetection.io if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick basketball_reference_web_scraper if
- You want the basketball_reference_web_scraper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and basketball_reference_web_scraper fits your workflow better
About changedetection.io
changedetection.io is an open source website change detection and web page monitoring tool written in Python and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It watches URLs, detects when their content changes, and sends alerts through channels such as Discord, Email, Slack, Telegram, and Webhook. The project lives in the Data & Analytics / Data Extraction & Web Scraping ecosystem, carries more than 34,000 stars and 2,000 forks on GitHub, and has been developed for roughly six years. It is designed to be self hosted, and the same codebase also backs a hosted subscription service offered by the maintainers.…
read the full changedetection.io overview →
About basketball_reference_web_scraper
basketball reference web scraper is a Python package distributed on PyPI that provides an API style interface over Basketball Reference's NBA statistics, built for developers and analysts who want NBA numbers available inside their own Python code rather than copied out of web pages by hand.
read the full basketball_reference_web_scraper overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Extraction & Web Scraping projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Extraction & Web Scraping field.
Frequently asked questions
Is changedetection.io or basketball_reference_web_scraper more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars and basketball_reference_web_scraper has 556. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and basketball_reference_web_scraper free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and basketball_reference_web_scraper under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and basketball_reference_web_scraper?
changedetection.io is written in Python and basketball_reference_web_scraper in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, changedetection.io or basketball_reference_web_scraper?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,312 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose basketball_reference_web_scraper if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.