head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs browser-search
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars, 2,064 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. browser-search has 524 stars, 39 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 6,448% (34,312 vs 524 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; browser-search is written in JavaScript under MIT. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, browser-search 7%. changedetection.io was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (self-hosted, 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.
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Side by side
| changedetection.io | browser-search | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 524 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 39 |
| 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 browser-search if
- You want the browser-search feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and browser-search 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 browser-search
browser search is an MIT licensed JavaScript skill for AI agents — OpenCode, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw and others — that gives an agent a self hosted search, browse and anti bot bypass pipeline built on SearXNG, Camofox and CloakBrowser, aimed at developers who want live web answers without buying API keys or paying per query.
read the full browser-search overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is changedetection.io or browser-search more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars and browser-search has 524. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and browser-search free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and browser-search under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and browser-search?
changedetection.io is written in Python and browser-search in JavaScript. 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 browser-search?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,312 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose browser-search if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.