head to head · open source
changedetection.io vs stagehand
changedetection.io has 34,295 GitHub stars, 2,063 forks, 385 open issues and last shipped yesterday. stagehand has 24,322 stars, 1,685 forks, 376 open issues and last shipped yesterday. changedetection.io leads on adoption by 41% (34,295 vs 24,322 stars). changedetection.io is written in Python under Apache-2.0; stagehand is written in TypeScript under MIT. changedetection.io has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, stagehand 7%. 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 | stagehand | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 stagehand if
- You want the stagehand feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and stagehand 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 stagehand
Stagehand is the MIT licensed SDK for extracting data and interacting with any site on the web, available in TypeScript, Python, and Go, and aimed at developers building AI agents that need to drive a browser the way a person does rather than at engineers writing test suites.
read the full stagehand overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is changedetection.io or stagehand more popular?
changedetection.io has 34,295 GitHub stars and stagehand has 24,322. changedetection.io has the larger community by that measure.
Are changedetection.io and stagehand free?
Both are open source. changedetection.io is licensed under Apache-2.0 and stagehand under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between changedetection.io and stagehand?
changedetection.io is written in Python and stagehand in TypeScript. 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 stagehand?
Choose changedetection.io if you want the larger community (34,295 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose stagehand if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.