Need to track competitor website changes? This tutorial shows how to build a website version comparison workflow in Needle that detects and analyzes page updates.

Overview

The workflow compares current website versions against stored snapshots, identifies changes, and alerts you to significant updates—automatically monitoring competitor moves and market shifts.

Key Actions

1. Scheduled Check – Runs daily/weekly to check target websites
2. Content Retrieval – Fetches current page content
3. Version Comparison – Compares against previous snapshot
4. Change Detection – Identifies additions, deletions, and modifications
5. Alert & Analysis – Notifies team of significant changes with AI analysis

What You'll Need

• Target URLs – List of competitor pages or pages to monitor Tip: Track pricing pages, feature pages, job postings, about pages
• Storage – Database or Google Sheets to store historical snapshots
• Slack Channel – For change alerts (e.g., #competitor-intel)

How It Works

The workflow runs on your schedule (e.g., daily at 9 AM):

1. For each monitored URL:
   • Fetches current page content
   • Retrieves last stored snapshot from database
2. AI compares the two versions to detect:
   • Pricing Changes: New plans, price increases/decreases
   • Feature Updates: New features added or removed
   • Content Changes: Major rewrites, new sections
   • Design Updates: Layout or branding changes
   • Job Postings: New roles added (indicates growth/expansion)
3. Changes are categorized by significance:
   • 🚨 Critical: Pricing changes, major feature launches
   • ⚠️ Important: Significant content updates
   • ℹ️ Minor: Small text edits, formatting changes
4. For each change:
   • Before/After: Side-by-side comparison
   • Summary: AI-generated description of what changed
   • Analysis: Potential implications for your business
5. Alerts sent to Slack:
   • "Competitor X launched new Enterprise plan at $499/mo"
   • "Competitor Y added AI features to their product page"
6. Historical data stored for trend analysis

Wrap-up

With this Needle workflow, you stay ahead of competitor moves without manual website monitoring—catching pricing changes, feature launches, and strategic shifts the moment they happen. Perfect for product managers, competitive intelligence teams, and strategic planners.