Distill.io is probably the better fit if
- You follow one part of a page: a price, stock status, a table.
- You want to watch password-protected pages or PDFs from your own browser.
- You want to set your own conditions for when an alert fires.
Distill.io alternative
Distill.io tells you it changed. Crawlens keeps the record.
Distill watches the part of a page you select, in a browser extension or in the cloud, and tells you when it changes. Crawlens watches the pages of the client sites you manage as a whole and, when something changes, produces a dated record you can show the client.
Which one fits
The right tool depends on what you watch.
This is not a verdict on Distill.io; it follows who each product says it is for.
Crawlens is probably the better fit if
- You manage and maintain your clients' websites.
- You want to hear about technical breakage (noindex, robots.txt, a removed measurement tag, a missing form, SSL and domain expiry) before your client does.
- You need a dated change record to show a client, and a report under your own brand.
How it works
Not the same job.
Both products look at whether a page changed. What they look at, what they call important and what they hand you are different. The Distill.io side is as described on its own site.
CrawlensDistill.io
What it watches
The pages of the client sites you manage, as a whole, in the same mobile browser and viewport on every scan. The image, the visible text and technical signals (noindex, robots.txt, canonical, forms, tracking tags, SSL and domain expiry) together.
The parts of a page you select, including password-protected pages and PDFs. It runs locally in a browser extension or in the cloud.
How it decides what matters
It aligns the image for content that shifted, sets aside regions that change all the time such as rotating banners and ads, and scores what is left by visual impact, technical signal and where it sits on the page. You do not have to write rules to start.
With notification conditions you set up (Smart Conditions).
What you get
A dated change record: the last good state, the new scan, the difference and its severity. Slack and email alerts; on agency plans, a report under your own brand that you can send to the client.
Browser notification, email, SMS or app alerts; a version history of changes.
What it is used for most
Agencies seeing breakage on client sites after a deploy, an update or a plugin change before the client does, and explaining it to the client with evidence.
Stock and price tracking, legislative tracking, competitor monitoring.
Evidence
Shown, not described.
Rather than a table row about what Crawlens produces, here are two things you can open yourself.
Price and scope
Side by side, from their own pages.
Competitor prices read from their own pages on 2026-09-29. Our pricing page
| Product | Crawlens | Distill.io |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Agencies that manage client sites: visual and technical change detection, a dated evidence record and a client-ready report. | A tool that monitors any website for changes and sends instant notifications; its plans are described as for individual and advanced individual use. |
| Price |
|
Capacity from their own pricing pages; plan names are not translated. |
| Source | Our own price catalogue, the same source as the pricing page. | Read from the competitor's own pricing page. Read from Distill's own pricing page. Annual billing takes 20% off every plan; Flexi grows with usage. |
Competitor information here is summarised from their own public pages, not measured by us. Prices change; check the link before you decide. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
The long version: read the Distill.io alternative article
Start monitoring your sites.
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