Compare Versions

Help guide

Compare Versions saves snapshots of public pages, checks them on an automatic daily schedule, and shows highlighted diffs when content changes. This guide covers the main screens and the usual customer workflow.

Quick start

  1. Create an account Register with a username, email, and password. Confirm the link we email you, then accept the Terms of Service. Freemium lets you try a small catalogue for about 30 days before you subscribe.
  2. Add webpages Paste up to 50 URLs at once — one per line. Optionally choose a folder so new pages are organized as you add them.
  3. Let daily checks run Active URLs are fetched automatically each day. When content changes, a new version and diff are stored.
  4. Review changes Open Main view, click a change, and use the side-by-side diff viewer. Use folders to filter by department or topic. Turn on email alerts under Settings if you want digests.
  5. Subscribe when ready Open Pricing or Account → Billing, choose how many URLs to pay for, and complete checkout. Your plan follows that quantity.

Most teams rely on the automatic daily check, then work through Main view until every change is reviewed. Turn on email alerts if you want a digest without opening the app first.

Add webpages

Start monitoring new URLs.

  • Paste public page URLs — pricing or policy pages, product terms, help articles, and similar reference content you are authorized to monitor.
  • Submit up to 50 URLs in one batch. Progress is shown while each URL is fetched.
  • Use “Save into folder” to assign new pages to a folder (or leave All / unassigned).
  • Duplicate URLs for your account are skipped automatically.
  • Freemium keeps up to three snapshots per page; paid plans keep more — see Pricing.

Daily checks (automatic)

How monitoring runs without a manual “check now” button.

  • Compare Versions runs a scheduled daily fetch for your active monitored URLs.
  • Each live page is compared to the latest stored snapshot.
  • If nothing changed, no new version is saved.
  • If content changed, a new version and diff are recorded — the change shows up in Main view.
  • Folders organize review only; they do not split your catalogue into separate quotas or separate nightly runs.
  • If monitoring is paused after a paid period ends, regular checks stop until you resubscribe (see Billing below).

Main view

Your inbox of detected changes.

  • Lists pages that changed during daily checks.
  • Group by site or sort by date. Filter to unreviewed only.
  • Each row shows which folder the page belongs to (or — if unassigned).
  • Click a folder chip above the table to show changes from that folder only; All shows everything.
  • Click a row to open the diff viewer.
  • Opening a diff marks it as reviewed.

Diff viewer

See exactly what changed between two snapshots.

  • Open a change from Main view. Orange highlight = previous snapshot; cyan = current snapshot.
  • Tabs: All changes (full page), Text changes (changed lines only), Text in context (surrounding text), and Image (when screenshots exist).
  • Toolbar under the tabs (pane options bar): layout, legend, expand/collapse, jump between changes, change size summary, and width zoom.
  • Single page vs Side-by-side — Side-by-side shows previous and current in two panes; turn on Sync scroll to move both together. Single page merges into one scroll (your choice is remembered).
  • Single page merge depends on the diff: Paired — each orange highlight sits next to its cyan partner on the current page layout. Mixed — pairs appear in the current page; extra new-only highlights stay in place (typical when new text was added below unchanged content). Stacked — full previous page above full current page when the page changed so much that highlights cannot be paired safely. Text changes tab always shows each old line then its new line inline.
  • All changes: Expand all / Collapse all opens or closes accordion sections in the panes (or in the single-page view when applicable).
  • All changes, Text changes, and Text in context: use ⏮ ◀ ▶ ⏭ to jump between highlighted changes; the active highlight is outlined. When previous and current highlight counts match, next/previous jumps in pairs automatically. When counts differ, the colour swatch after ⏭ shows which side you are stepping through (orange = previous only, cyan = current only) — click it to switch sides.
  • Change summary (S/M/L, TWC, DWC, +/−/↔) matches Main view; click i for samples and word-count detail.
  • Width slider zooms the page view (50%–200%) in All changes, Text changes, Text in context, and Image.
  • Best for compliance review — you see changes in context, not just a text dump.

Folder management

Group monitored URLs into departments or topics — like drawers for your catalogue.

  • Each page belongs to at most one folder, or stays unassigned under All. Folders are flat (no nesting).
  • The folder strip appears on Add webpages, Main view, and Monitoring. Each chip shows a name and link count; All is your full catalogue.
  • Create a folder with + New folder. Right-click a folder to rename it, set a background color, or delete it.
  • Deleting a folder does not delete the pages — they become unassigned and still appear under All.
  • On Add webpages, choose Save into folder before Submit so new URLs land in the right place.
  • On Monitoring (open a site), select pages and use Move to folder to assign or clear folders in bulk. Main view is for reviewing changes, not organizing.
  • Click a folder on Main view to filter the change list. Daily checks always cover every active URL — folders are for organization and review only, not separate quotas or logins.

Monitoring

Browse everything you track.

  • Sites overview — all domains you monitor, with status counts.
  • Site detail — every URL under one host, with its folder name.
  • Select pages and Move to folder to organize your catalogue (or clear back to All / unassigned).
  • Page detail — snapshot dates, fetch status, and past diffs for one URL.
  • Delete a single page or an entire site when you no longer need it.

Fetch status & difficult pages

What happens when a page cannot be retrieved normally.

  • Each monitored URL has a fetch status on the Monitoring screens (for example OK, not found, blocked, rate limited, or error).
  • Most public pages are fetched directly from our servers using HTTP or headless browser automation.
  • If a site returns 403 Forbidden, rate limits (429), or a bot-check / challenge page, the URL may stay blocked until access improves or our team enables additional retrieval options on a test basis.
  • Challenge-style responses (for example “Just a moment…”) may be stored so you can see that access was blocked rather than silently missing a change.
  • PDF URLs use a separate download pipeline and are not mixed with the HTML fetch ladder.
  • Enhanced retrieval for difficult pages is operator-managed — there is no customer self-service toggle. Contact us if authorized pages fail to add or stay blocked.

Robots.txt

Respect site crawl rules before fetching.

  • Compare Versions checks robots.txt before fetching a URL.
  • Blocked pages appear on the Robots.txt screen.
  • You can authorize an override after accepting the Terms — only when you have permission to monitor that content.

PDF pages

Monitor PDF documents as well as HTML pages.

  • PDF URLs are downloaded and converted to HTML for diffing.
  • They follow the same add → daily check → review workflow as normal web pages.

Email alerts

Get notified when pages change.

  • Open Settings → Email alerts after you log in.
  • Turn change emails on or off, and optionally require a minimum change size before a digest is sent.
  • Digests are based on changes found during scheduled daily checks.

Billing, cancel & account

Subscribe, manage payment, or leave.

  • Account → Billing: choose URL quantity, see the live quote, and open checkout.
  • Manage billing (when shown) is for card updates, invoices, and cancellation.
  • Cancel stops renewals; monitoring continues until the paid period already billed ends.
  • After the paid period ends, checks pause. Data is kept about 30 days for backup or resubscribe, then monitoring data is deleted. See Terms §5b.
  • Account → Delete account permanently removes your login and data and cancels any active subscription.

What to monitor

Good fit

  • Public pricing, fees, and catalogue pages
  • Policy, terms, and product information pages
  • Help centres and published reference documentation
  • Any public page you are authorized to monitor for changes

Not a fit

  • Login-gated or private pages without proper authorization
  • General website uptime monitoring — Compare Versions tracks content changes, not server health
  • Bypassing access controls you are not entitled to override — you must have permission to monitor each URL