A free Hexowatch alternative should let you start watching a page in a browser tab, without installing an extension, renting a server or entering a card. This post compares the free tiers that work that way and explains what each one lets you do before it asks for money.
Hexowatch has a free plan too: 2 watches, checked daily, with 30 checks for the lifetime of the account. That is enough to see how it works, but not enough to rely on. Here is what else is out there.
The short version
If you want one free account that watches pages and also keeps an eye on news and social media, start with AyeWatch's Free Preview. If you want something that stays free forever for a handful of pages, look at Visualping or PageCrawl.io. If you are happy to install something, Distill and changedetection.io give you more for nothing.
Free plans side by side
| Tool | Free plan | Install needed? | Renews? |
|---|---|---|---|
| AyeWatch | 3 monitoring runs across up to 3 topics, Daily or slower | No, web, iOS and Android apps | No, the runs are a one-time preview |
| Hexowatch | 2 watches, 30 checks, daily | No | No, lifetime checks |
| Visualping | 5 pages, 150 checks a month | No | Yes, monthly |
| PageCrawl.io | 6 pages, 220 checks a month | No | Yes, monthly |
| Distill | 25 monitors, 5 of them in the cloud | Extension or desktop app for local checks | Yes |
| changedetection.io | Unlimited if you host it | Docker or Python on your own machine | Yes, it is open source |
Why start with AyeWatch anyway
The AyeWatch Free Preview is short on purpose. It gives you three runs so you can see what an alert looks like before you pay, rather than a small free tier meant to last forever. What you get in those runs is the full idea:
- You paste a page and write, in plain English, what counts as a change. "Tell me if this game drops below $20 or goes on sale" works as a rule.
- AyeWatch reads the page for meaning and sends a short summary, so a new banner or a reshuffled layout does not count.
- Instead of a URL you can describe a topic, such as "new browser games from indie studios", and it searches news, blogs, forums and more than a billion sources.
- You can watch social accounts and communities on X, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
Alerts arrive as push notifications and in the feed on every plan, including the free one. There is nothing to install on a laptop, and the phone apps carry the same feed.
When the preview runs out, Pro is $9 a month with hourly checks, and you can cancel any time.
What the other free tiers are good for
Visualping keeps 5 pages free each month and compares screenshots, text or a chosen part of the page. It is easy to use if you just want to see what moved.
PageCrawl.io gives you 6 pages and 220 checks a month on its free-forever plan, which is generous for a few slow-moving pages.
Distill is the most generous on paper, with 25 free monitors, but most of them run in your browser or desktop app, so the checks stop when your computer sleeps.
changedetection.io costs nothing if you run it yourself in Docker. That is great for tinkerers and a lot of setup for everyone else.
When Hexowatch's free plan is the better test
If you mainly want to watch uptime, a domain's WHOIS record or the tech stack of a site, Hexowatch's free plan is the better place to try those, because AyeWatch does not do them. Hexowatch's paid plans start at $15 a month, or $10.50 a month billed yearly.
Try it on something you already refresh
Pick the page you keep checking by hand, a sale page, a patch notes page or a ticket page, and set it up as your first monitor. You can start a free AyeWatch preview in a minute, no card required.