changedetection.io - Developer Guide

Learn how to install and configure changedetection.io on AWS with our step-by-step deployment guide. This resource walks you through launching the Meetrix changedetection.io AMI with CloudFormation, pointing your domain at it, securing it with SSL, and keeping it running on your own AWS account. Whether you're tracking competitor pricing, product restocks, release notes or regulatory updates, this guide will help you run your own website change monitoring without a per-watch subscription.

changedetection.io is an open-source web page monitor that checks the pages you choose on a schedule and notifies you when their content changes. Self-hosting it keeps your watch list and history on your own infrastructure, and it sits comfortably alongside the rest of your self-hosted software on AWS. Let's get started deploying changedetection.io on AWS.

Launching the AMI

Step 1: Find and Select the changedetection.io AMI

1. Log in to your AWS Management Console.
2. Navigate to 'changedetection.io' in AWS Marketplace.

Step 2: Initial Setup & Configuration

1. Click the "Continue to Subscribe" button.
2. After subscribing, accept the terms and click "Accept Terms".
3. Wait a few minutes until processing completes, then click "Continue to Configuration".
4. Select "CloudFormation script to deploy changedetection.io" as the fulfillment option and choose your region. Click "Continue to Launch".
5. From the "Choose Action" dropdown, select "Launch CloudFormation" and click "Launch".

Create CloudFormation Stack

Step 1: Create a stack

1. Ensure the "Template is ready" option is selected under "Prepare template".
2. Click "Next".

Step 2: Specify stack options

1. Provide a unique "Stack name".
2. Enter the "AdminEmail" used for SSL certificate generation.
3. Enter an "AdminPassword". This is the password you will use to log in to changedetection.io.
4. Enter a value for "DeploymentName".
5. Provide a public domain for "DomainName". changedetection.io will automatically try to set up SSL if the domain is hosted on Route53. If unsuccessful, you must set up SSL manually.
6. Choose an instance type "InstanceType" (Recommended: t3a.small).
7. Select your preferred "KeyName".
8. Set "SSHLocation" to 0.0.0.0/0.
9. Keep "SubnetCidrBlock" as 10.0.0.0/24.
10. Keep "VpcCidrBlock" as 10.0.0.0/16.
11. Click "Next".

Step 3: Configure stack options

1. Choose "Roll back all stack resources" and "Delete all newly created resources" under "Stack failure options".
2. Click "Next".

Step 4: Review

1. Review and verify the details you've entered.

2. Tick "I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names".
3. Click "Submit".

Afterward, you'll be directed to the CloudFormation stacks page. Please wait for 5-10 minutes until the stack has been successfully created.

Update DNS

Step 1: Copy IP Address

Copy the public IP labeled "PublicIp" in the "Outputs" tab.

Step 2: Update DNS

1. Go to AWS Route 53 and navigate to "Hosted Zones".
2. Click Create record.
3. Add a record name and paste the copied PublicIp into the value textbox.
4. Click "Create records".

Access changedetection.io

Access changedetection.io using the "DashboardUrl" or "DashboardUrlIp" provided in the Outputs tab. The IP address URL serves plain HTTP until SSL is set up.

changedetection.io uses a password-only login. Enter the AdminPassword you provided during stack creation and store it securely for future reference.

To start monitoring a page, paste its address into the Web page URL field and click Watch. From Settings you can set the default check interval and add notification targets. changedetection.io sends alerts through Apprise, so email, Slack, Discord, Telegram and webhooks all work. The changedetection.io wiki covers filters, visual selectors and restock detection in depth.

Generate SSL Manually

changedetection.io will automatically try to set up SSL when a Route53-hosted domain is provided. If it fails, follow these steps to generate SSL manually.

Step 1: Copy IP Address

1. Follow the Update DNS steps above, if not already done.
2. Copy the Public IP indicated as "PublicIp" in the "Outputs" tab.

Step 2: Log in to the server

1. Open the terminal and go to the directory where your private key is located.
2. Run the SSH command below.
3. Type "yes" and press Enter to confirm.

ssh -i <your key name> ubuntu@<Public IP address>

Step 3: Generate SSL

Run the following command and follow the prompts:

sudo /root/certificate_generate_standalone.sh

Check Server Logs

Step 1: Log in to the server

ssh -i <your key name> ubuntu@<Public IP address>

Step 2: Check the logs

changedetection.io runs in Docker on Ubuntu 26.04. List the running containers, then view the logs of the one you need:

sudo docker ps

sudo docker logs <container-id-prefix>

If you want dashboards and alerting for the server itself, not just the pages it watches, our Grafana developer guide shows how to run Grafana on AWS the same way.

Shutting Down changedetection.io

1. In CloudFormation, click the link labeled "Instance" in the "Resources" tab to open the EC2 instance.
2. Stop the changedetection.io instance from the Instance state dropdown. You can restart it later as needed.

Pages are not checked while the instance is stopped. Checks resume when you start it again.

Remove changedetection.io

Delete the CloudFormation stack from the AWS Management Console under "CloudFormation Stacks" by clicking "Delete".

Upgrades

When a new version is available in AWS Marketplace, back up your watch list and data, remove the previous deployment, and relaunch with the new version. You can export your watches from the changedetection.io interface before removing the stack. The changedetection.io GitHub repository lists what changed in each release.

Troubleshoot

1. If you face vCPU quota limits, request an increase: How to increase AWS quota.

2. If you face insufficient capacity errors while creating the stack, try another region or time.

3. If the dashboard is temporarily inaccessible, wait 5-10 minutes and retry.

Check whether the instance storage is full. changedetection.io keeps a snapshot of every change it detects, so a long watch list with frequent checks grows over time.

• Log into the server and run:

df -h

• If the root volume is between 90-100%, resize the EBS volume (per AWS docs), then reboot and restart the service.

Conclusion

The Meetrix changedetection.io Deployment Guide helps you run your own website change monitoring on AWS. Whether you're a developer watching dependency changelogs, a marketer tracking competitor pages, or an operations team following vendor status pages, this guide gives you a secure, self-hosted setup you control. If you're comparing automation tools to act on those alerts, see our Flowise vs Langflow vs n8n comparison.

Technical Support

Reach out to Meetrix Support (aws@meetrix.io) for assistance with changedetection.io issues.