Disclosure: PricePing makes this guide, and PricePing is one of the tools in it. Distill, Visualping and changedetection.io are not affiliated with PricePing. Facts about them come from their own pricing pages and documentation, checked on October 21, 2026 (see Sources).
The short answer
Use a web page monitor such as Distill or Visualping: select just the price on the product page, add a condition such as “less than 70”, and it emails you when the price meets it. Both have free tiers. If you are watching a shopping list rather than a page or two, a price tracker app is simpler: with PricePing, the price tracker app for iPhone and Android, you share the product link, pick an alert, and get a push notification when the price drops, with a price chart for each product.
How to watch a price with a page monitor
- Open the product page in the monitor. Add the product page's address in Distill's web app or browser extension (or in Visualping). Use the page for the exact size or colour you want, if the store gives each one its own link.
- Select only the price. Use the visual selector to click the price and nothing else. Watching the whole page sends an alert for every banner, review or 'people are viewing this' line that changes.
- Add a condition for the price you want. Distill can alert only when a number meets a condition, such as 'less than 70' for an item that costs 80. Set the number format if the store writes prices as 1.000,00 rather than 1,000.00.
- Pick how often it checks. On Distill's free plan, cloud monitors check at most every 6 hours; local monitors in the browser extension can check more often, but only while your computer and browser are on. Visualping's free plan is 150 checks a month across 5 pages.
- Test it once. Run a check by hand and make sure the monitor shows the price you expect. If the store changes its page layout later, the selection can break and the monitor goes quiet, so look at it now and then.
The page monitors, briefly
- Distill
- Opens the page on a schedule, reads its HTML and tells you what changed. The free plan has 25 monitors, 5 of them in its cloud with a 6-hour minimum interval and 1,000 cloud checks a month, plus 30 email alerts a month. Its visual selector picks parts of a page, and numeric conditions alert only below or above a number.
- Visualping
- The free plan covers 5 pages with 150 checks a month, with email alerts. Paid plans add pages and checks.
- changedetection.io
- Open source (Apache-2.0), free to run yourself with Docker, or $8.99 a month for its hosted service. Its “Re-stock & Price detection” option reads the price data on a single product page and alerts when the price changes or the item comes back in stock.
A page monitor or a price tracker?
| Page monitor | PricePing | |
|---|---|---|
| What it watches | Any part of any page you select: price, stock text, anything | The product's price and stock status, read from the page for you |
| Setup | Pick the element and set conditions yourself | Share the link; choose Any drop, Below a price or % drop |
| How often | Free plans: Distill cloud every 6 hours at best; Visualping 150 checks a month | At least once a day; servers every 12 to 24 hours, and your phone can check more often |
| Alerts | Email on free plans; Distill also has browser push | Push notification on your phone, plus email when your account has one |
| Price history | A log of the changes it saw | A price chart per product, from the day you add it |
| Cost | Free tiers; paid plans for more pages or faster checks | Subscription; 7-day free trial on monthly plans |
Pick a page monitor for one or two pages, for pages that are not shop product pages, or when you want to watch something other than the price. Pick a price tracker when you keep a list of things to buy across several stores and want to set an alert per product from your phone. PricePing reads the price from almost any online store’s product page, and has read prices from Amazon, Nike, Zara, Uniqlo, Lululemon, Allbirds, Gymshark, Gorman, Noon and Namshi. Its Stock alerts, on by default, also ping you when a product sells out and when it is back in stock.
Each store link counts as one product toward your plan. PricePing’s US prices: Personal (20 products) $4.99/month or $39.99/year; Power (50) $7.99/month or $59.99/year. 7-day free trial on monthly plans. US prices. The App Store shows your local price. For more ways to track a price by link, see a price tracker for any website.
PricePing’s limits, honestly
- It is a subscription with no free tier. Monthly plans start with a 7-day free trial; yearly plans don’t have one.
- Price history starts when you add a product. It can’t show what the price was last year.
- Prices are checked at least once a day, not every second, so alerts are not instant.
Questions
How do I track price changes on a website?
Two ways. A web page monitor such as Distill or Visualping watches the part of a page you select, so you select the price and get an email when it changes. A price tracker app such as PricePing, the price tracker app for iPhone and Android, reads the price from the product link you share and sends a push notification when it drops the way you asked.
What is a free alternative to Visualping for prices?
Distill has a free plan with 25 monitors, 5 of them in its cloud checking at most every 6 hours, and a condition that alerts only below a number. changedetection.io is open source and free to run on your own computer or server, and has a re-stock and price detection mode for product pages. Visualping's own free plan is 150 checks a month across 5 pages.
How do I stop a page monitor alerting on every small change?
Select only the price, not the whole page, and add a condition. In Distill, a numeric condition such as 'less than 70' sends an alert only when the price you selected falls below 70.
Is a page monitor or a price tracker better for prices?
A page monitor is more flexible and has free tiers, so it suits a few pages on a computer, or pages that are not product pages. A price tracker is simpler for a shopping list: it finds the price for you, keeps a chart per product, and on your phone pings you with a push notification. PricePing is a subscription, so try the free monitors first if you only watch one or two items.
Can a page monitor see prices that only show after I sign in?
Sometimes. Visualping's plans, including the free one, can perform actions such as logging in before a check, and Distill's paid plans have macros, but it depends on the site. PricePing doesn't sign in to stores, so it reads the price a signed-out shopper sees.
More from this batch: how to check the price history of an item, the Capital One Shopping price tracker and an alternative, the Namshi price tracker and does Gymshark do price adjustments?. Related: back-in-stock alerts, how to get notified when a price drops, how to get notified when something goes on sale, Google price tracking and an alternative, the Keepa alternative, the camelcamelcamel alternative, the Amazon price tracker app guide and the best price tracker apps for iPhone. All guides are in PricePing guides.
Sources
All checked on October 21, 2026.
- Distill docs: What is Distill? (how checks work)
- Distill docs: What is Visual Selector?
- Distill docs: Using conditions (numeric conditions, price alert example, number format)
- Distill pricing (free plan: monitors, cloud interval, checks and alerts)
- Visualping pricing (free plan: 150 checks a month across 5 pages; actions; email alerts)
- changedetection.io on GitHub (Apache-2.0, Docker, re-stock and price detection)
- changedetection.io (hosted subscription price)
- PricePing: Price Tracker, App Store listing
Try PricePing on iPhone or Android. Share a product link from almost any store and get a ping when the price drops. Monthly plans start with a 7-day free trial.
