head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs httpcloak
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars, 2,064 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. httpcloak has 1,306 stars, 94 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 2,527% (34,312 vs 1,306 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; httpcloak is written in Go under MIT. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, httpcloak 7%. 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.
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Side by side
| changedetection.io | httpcloak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 94 |
| 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 httpcloak if
- You want the httpcloak feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and httpcloak 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 httpcloak
httpcloak is an MIT licensed Go HTTP client that makes outgoing requests identical to Chrome, Firefox, or Safari at the TLS, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, and header layers, and it is aimed at Go, Python, Node.js, and C developers who scrape or integrate with sites that block clients on transport fingerprint rather than on User Agent.
read the full httpcloak overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is changedetection.io or httpcloak more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars and httpcloak has 1,306. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and httpcloak free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and httpcloak under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and httpcloak?
changedetection.io is written in Python and httpcloak in Go. 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 httpcloak?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,312 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose httpcloak if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.