head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs lux
changedetection.io has 34,295 GitHub stars, 2,063 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lux has 31,686 stars, 3,312 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 8% (34,295 vs 31,686 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; lux is written in Go under MIT. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, lux 10%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| changedetection.io | lux | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 32K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 lux if
- You want the lux feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and lux 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 lux
Lux is a video download library and command line tool written in Go, released under the MIT license. It ships as a single lux binary that takes one or more URLs and retrieves the underlying media streams, and it also exposes the downloading logic as a Go library that other programs can embed. The project has existed for roughly nine years and lives in the Go ecosystem, distributed through go install alongside the usual operating system package managers.
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 lux more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,295 GitHub stars and lux has 31,686. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and lux free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lux under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and lux?
changedetection.io is written in Python and lux 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 lux?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,295 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lux if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.