head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs PHPScraper
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars, 2,064 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PHPScraper has 588 stars, 75 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 5,735% (34,312 vs 588 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; PHPScraper is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, PHPScraper 13%. 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 | PHPScraper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 588 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 75 |
| 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 PHPScraper if
- You want the PHPScraper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and PHPScraper 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 PHPScraper
PHPScraper is a GPL 3.0 PHP web utility for developers who need to extract structured information such as titles, metadata, social tags, headings, lists, images, links, keywords, and downloadable assets from websites without writing selectors or manually preparing the extracted data.
read the full PHPScraper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is changedetection.io or PHPScraper more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,312 GitHub stars and PHPScraper has 588. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and PHPScraper free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PHPScraper under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and PHPScraper?
changedetection.io is written in Python and PHPScraper in PHP. 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 PHPScraper?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,312 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose PHPScraper if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.