# Competitor Watchdog — Intelligence Pipeline (`reflective_plagioclase/competitor-watchdog`) Actor

Monitors competitor websites — detects pricing changes, tech stack shifts, content updates, and hiring trends.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/reflective\_plagioclase/competitor-watchdog.md
- **Developed by:** [Matt](https://apify.com/reflective_plagioclase) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Automation, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $900.00 / 1,000 competitor snapshots

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Competitor Watchdog — Intelligence Pipeline

**Know when your competitors change.** This actor continuously monitors competitor websites and alerts you when it detects changes in pricing, tech stack, content strategy, or hiring patterns.

Set it up once on a recurring schedule and get notified when something important changes — no more manual check-ins.

### How It Works

Each run profiles your competitors across four dimensions:

#### 📄 Homepage Analysis

- Title, meta description, H1 tags
- **Tech stack detection** — 60+ technologies (React, Shopify, Stripe, Cloudflare, etc.)
- Internal vs. external link count
- Body text fingerprinting for content change detection

#### 💰 Pricing Intelligence

- Scrapes the `/pricing` page (or custom URL)
- Extracts plan names, prices, and feature lists
- Detects: new plans, removed plans, price changes, free tier changes
- Flags pricing changes as HIGH / MEDIUM / CRITICAL severity

#### 💼 Hiring Signals

- Scrapes `/careers` page (or custom URL)
- Counts open positions, tracks departments hiring
- Detects: headcount increases/decreases, new departments, department closures
- Headcount spikes >50% flagged as HIGH severity

#### 🏢 Company Changes

- Scrapes `/about` and `/team` pages
- Tracks employee count
- Extracts leadership names
- Detects team growth or shrinkage

### Input Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------|
| `competitors` | array | ✅ | — | List of competitors: `[{name, url, pricingPage?, jobsPage?}]` |
| `monitorPricing` | boolean | — | true | Scrape and compare pricing pages |
| `monitorJobs` | boolean | — | true | Scrape and compare careers pages |
| `monitorContent` | boolean | — | true | Scrape about and team pages |
| `maxPagesPerCompetitor` | integer | — | 10 | Limit pages scraped per competitor |

### Output

The actor outputs three types of events to the dataset:

1. **`COMPETITOR_SNAPSHOT`** — Full profile of each competitor (homepage, pricing, jobs, about)
2. **`CHANGE_LOG`** — Detected changes with severity levels (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW)
3. **`MARKDOWN_REPORT`** — Human-readable summary of the entire run

Change log example:

```json
{
  "event": "CHANGE_LOG",
  "competitor": "Acme Corp",
  "comparison": {
    "changes": [
      {"type": "PRICING", "change": "PRICE_CHANGE", "severity": "HIGH",
       "detail": "Price changed for 'Pro Plan': $99/mo → $129/mo"},
      {"type": "TECH_STACK", "change": "ADDED", "severity": "HIGH",
       "detail": "New technology detected: OpenAI"},
      {"type": "HIRING", "change": "HEADCOUNT_CHANGE", "severity": "HIGH",
       "detail": "Open positions increased: 5 → 12"}
    ],
    "threats": ["⚠ Competitor adopted OpenAI — may indicate new AI capabilities",
                 "📈 Competitor expanding headcount significantly"]
  }
}
```

### Use Cases

- **Pricing alerts** — Get notified the moment a competitor changes prices
- **Tech stack tracking** — See when competitors adopt new tools (especially payment, AI, or CRM platforms)
- **Hiring intelligence** — Spot growth signals before they hit the market
- **Market positioning** — Track how competitors' messaging evolves over time
- **Investment research** — Monitor portfolio companies without quarterly updates

### Pricing

Pay-per-event:

- **$0.90 per competitor snapshot** — Full profile scrape
- Additional charges for change-detected events when comparisons find changes

The total per-run cost depends on the number of competitors and pages scraped. A typical run monitoring 5 competitors costs **~$4.50 + change-event charges**.

### Tips

- Set up a recurring schedule (daily or weekly) for continuous monitoring
- Snapshots are stored in the actor's key-value store — comparisons only work after at least two runs
- Use custom pricing and jobs URLs if your competitors use non-standard paths
- The first run on each competitor establishes the baseline — no comparison is generated

## Actor input object example

```json
{}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("reflective_plagioclase/competitor-watchdog").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("reflective_plagioclase/competitor-watchdog").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call reflective_plagioclase/competitor-watchdog --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=reflective_plagioclase/competitor-watchdog",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/JNbIBnNaf8NYE5YaS/builds/ob2K707GltghZ43Aw/openapi.json