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To monitor just a price, status, or announcement with Distill.io, add a webpage monitor, choose Monitor Parts of Page, select the relevant region in the visual selector, and save. Then set where checks run, how often they run, and how Distill should notify you.

Set up a partial-page monitor in the Distill web app

  1. Open the Distill web app and choose Add monitor, then Web Page. Enter the page URL.

  2. Choose Monitor Parts of Page, not Full Page. The visual selector opens. Hover over the content you want to track and select it. While the selector is active, clicks select page elements rather than operating the page normally.

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  3. Review the selection preview. Save the selection, or refine it before continuing if it includes neighboring content or misses part of the target.

    #1 Best Overall
    Web Alert (Website Change Monitor)
    • Notification when a website of your choice changes
    • Visual difference of all modifications to a website detected (diff)
    • Choose exactly which part or parts of a page to watch
    • Check pages even behind logins, HTTP Authentications, form posts or long navigational sequences
  4. On the options page, configure the device for checks, schedule, and notification actions, then save the monitor. Available notification actions depend on your subscription plan.

  5. To inspect detected changes later, open the monitor preview in your Watchlist and review its change history.

Use the browser extension instead

On the target page, open the Distill extension menu and choose Monitor parts of page (also shown as Monitor Parts of Page in its Chrome guide). Select the region, inspect the preview, and save. Set the device, schedule, and notification action on the options page.

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The web app and extension offer similar partial-page workflows, but labels can vary slightly by client. A monitor added through the web app defaults to a cloud device; one added through an extension or desktop app defaults to a local device.

Make the selection precise

Distill’s visual selector saves a selector for the content you choose. Visual selections use CSS by default in the web app and XPath in browser extensions. Distill also supports manually configured JavaScript selectors.

Include or exclude the right content

Track matching text or an element property

A regular-expression text filter can extract only text that matches a pattern, such as numbers. You can also configure a monitor to track an element’s attribute or property rather than its text.

Fix a selection after saving

Open the monitor’s options and reopen the webpage selector to change an existing selection. The configuration view exposes selected and deselected elements and allows manual configuration changes. This is the place to adjust the target if the monitor later captures too much or too little.

Choose whether checks run locally or in the cloud

Mode What it means Consider it when
Cloud Checks run on Distill’s servers and can continue while your computer is off. You want checks to continue when your own device is unavailable.
Local Checks run through your browser or computer, which must be running for checks to take place. You can keep the relevant device available and local execution suits your setup.

Check intervals, plan accounting, proxy support, and supported page types can differ between local and cloud monitoring and may depend on the plan and client. Consult Distill’s current Local Monitor vs. Cloud Monitor documentation for the details that apply to your setup rather than assuming one interval or capability is universal.

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Troubleshoot an inaccurate or unreliable monitor

  • The preview contains unrelated changes: Reopen the selector and narrow the area, remove extra selections, or exclude nested elements that are not part of the target.

  • The selection misses part of the information: Expand the selection or add another region. Review the preview before saving.

  • You need to track a number inside a larger block: Use a regular-expression text filter to isolate matching text, or target an element attribute or property when that is the value that matters.

  • Checks stop when you close your browser or turn off your computer: The monitor is running locally. Choose a cloud device if the checks need to continue while your device is unavailable; check the plan-specific limits for the cloud setup.

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  • The option names do not match these steps exactly: Distill’s labels differ slightly across the web app and browser extension. Follow the equivalent partial-page selection flow for the client you are using.

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Or skip the browser setup

For a one-off screenshot rather than ongoing change monitoring, ScreenshotNeo provides a screenshot API. It is not a replacement for Distill’s scheduled monitoring: use it when you need an image or PDF capture of a page.

For example, this cURL request saves a WebP screenshot of the target URL:

Quick Recap

Bestseller No. 1
Web Alert (Website Change Monitor)
Web Alert (Website Change Monitor)
Notification when a website of your choice changes; Visual difference of all modifications to a website detected (diff)
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webp

See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for setup and options. ScreenshotNeo removes cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets before capture; bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads are not billed. Its MCP server lets AI agents take screenshots. The Free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month with no card, and paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. Learn about ScreenshotNeo or sign up for 1,000 free screenshots a month with no card.

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Sources

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