head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs crw
changedetection.io has 34,295 GitHub stars, 2,063 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. crw has 1,045 stars, 80 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 3,182% (34,295 vs 1,045 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; crw is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, crw 8%. changedetection.io was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | crw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 80 |
| 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 crw if
- You want the crw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and crw 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 crw
crw (fastCRW) is a Rust based web scraping, crawling, and search engine with an MCP server that turns URLs into clean markdown or structured JSON, aimed at AI agents and the developers who wire them into coding tools.
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Frequently asked questions
Is changedetection.io or crw more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,295 GitHub stars and crw has 1,045. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and crw free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and crw under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and crw?
changedetection.io is written in Python and crw in Rust. 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 crw?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,295 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose crw if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.