> SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. This is the Markdown copy of https://specstream.ai/blog/visualping-vs-distill-vs-hexowatch. Every page, with what SpecStream does and costs: https://specstream.ai/llms.txt

# SpecStream vs Visualping vs Distill vs Hexowatch: web monitoring tools compared (2026)

SpecStream

[Monitoring](https://specstream.ai/blog.md) · Nov 12, 2026 · 7 min read

We make SpecStream. The prices and limits of Visualping, Distill and Hexowatch below are copied from their own pages on November 12, 2026, with a link to each.

Visualping, Distill and Hexowatch watch pages you choose and alert you when a page changes. You pay by pages or monitors and by checks: Visualping's Personal plan starts at $14 a month for 1,000 checks across 10 pages, and Distill's Starter plan is $15 a month. SpecStream watches facts. You describe the records and the facts you track in plain words, SpecStream finds the pages, reruns the request on your schedule and delivers only the rows that are new or changed, each value with the page it was read on. Building the table costs 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row. Each recheck costs half the row rate for a new or changed row and 1¢ for a row that comes back unchanged. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card.

## The four side by side

|  | SpecStream | Visualping | Distill | Hexowatch |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you set up | A request in plain words: the records, the conditions each must meet, the facts on each row | A page to watch, up to the plan's page count | A monitor per page, up to the plan's monitor count | A page, with what matters said in plain words |
| Who finds the pages | SpecStream, and new matches arrive as new rows | You | You | You |
| What a change holds | Each changed fact, its value before and now, and the page it was read on | A change on the page | A change on the page | An alert that explains what changed on the page |
| How often | Hourly to yearly | Every 60 min on Free, every 2 min on Personal 10K and Business | Every 6 hours in the cloud on Free, every 2 minutes on Flexi | See its pricing page |
| What you pay for | Delivered rows: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 each; on a recheck, half the rate for a new or changed row and 1¢ for an unchanged one | Checks and pages: $14 a month for 1,000 checks across 10 pages, up to $350 a month for 50,000 checks across 500 pages | Monitors and cloud checks: $15, $35 or from $80 a month | Plans by users: Plus includes 3, Scale includes 10 |
| Free start | $10 of credit, no card, and one list kept up to date | 150 checks a month across 5 pages, no credit card | 25 monitors, 5 of them in the cloud, with 1,000 cloud checks a month | Starts free with no card |

## Visualping

Visualping watches a page and sends you what changed on it. [Its pricing page](https://visualping.io/pricing) counts checks: "A check happens every time Visualping visits a page to check it for changes," and "one page, monitored daily, would use up to 31 checks per month." Checks do not roll over, and "If you run out of checks, monitoring pauses until your monthly allowance resets or you move to a larger plan."

| Plan | Price | Checks a month | Pages | Most frequent check |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 150 | 5 | Every 60 min |
| Personal 1K | $14 a month | 1,000 | 10 | Every 15 min |
| Personal 5K | $35 a month | 5,000 | 20 | Every 5 min |
| Personal 10K | $70 a month | 10,000 | 40 | Every 2 min |
| Business 20K | $140 a month | 20,000 | 200 | Every 2 min |
| Business 50K | $350 a month | 50,000 | 500 | Every 2 min |

Structured data from the pages you monitor is in Visualping's Solutions tier, sold by custom quote through its sales team.

## Distill

Distill watches pages from its cloud or from your own browser and desktop. [Its pricing page](https://distill.io/pricing) says "Monitors either run using a browser extension, desktop app (locally) or in cloud using Distill's servers," and browser checks are unlimited while cloud checks are counted: "In cloud, checks are counted in units of 10 seconds."

| Plan | Price | Monitors | Most frequent cloud check | Cloud checks a month |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 25, 5 in the cloud | Every 6 hours | 1,000 |
| Starter | $15 a month | 50 | Every 10 minutes | 30,000 |
| Professional | $35 a month | 150 | Every 5 minutes | 100,000 |
| Flexi | From $80 a month | 500 and more | Every 2 minutes | 200,000 and more |

## Hexowatch

[Hexowatch](https://hexowatch.com/) lists 13 monitoring types. [Hexowatch OR:ON](https://orion.hexowatch.com/pricing) describes itself this way: "Paste a page, say what matters in plain words, and get alerts that explain what changed." It starts free with no card, its Plus plan includes 3 users and Scale includes 10.

## SpecStream: a scheduled table feed

A page watcher tells you a page moved. Your team still opens the page to find out which fact moved with it, and a competitor's new page, a new store or a new filing never reaches you until someone adds it. SpecStream starts from the facts:

1.  **Describe the table.** In the workspace or from an agent connected over MCP, write what you track: "the paid plans of these 12 project management tools, with plan name, monthly price per seat and seat limit." SpecStream reads it back as conditions and facts you can edit.
2.  **Approve the price.** The quote shows the most the first run can cost. Nothing runs before you approve it.
3.  **Get the rows.** Each value comes with the URL of the page it was read on and the time it was read.
4.  **Schedule it.** Choose **Watch for new ones** on the list, or ask your agent, and set the cadence (hourly to yearly), your timezone, a maximum per run and a maximum per month. A run that would go past a limit or the balance is blocked: nothing runs and nothing is charged. Missed runs are never bought later.
5.  **Choose where changes go.** New and changed rows go to a Slack channel, email, Google Sheets, HubSpot and the other connected tools, or a signed webhook (`monitor.found`).

Each run labels every row new, changed, no longer a match, or not readable this time. A changed value shows its earlier value and the page where the new one was seen. Values that did not change keep the date they were first read, and a page that could not be read leaves its row as it was, so a failed fetch never shows up as a price cut. See [keeping data up to date](https://specstream.ai/docs/schedules.md) and [monitoring](https://specstream.ai/monitoring.md).

## What it costs to watch 40 competitor plans every day

Say you track 40 paid plans across your competitors, each on its own pricing page, checked once a day.

-   **Visualping:** 40 pages checked daily use up to 1,240 checks a month. Personal 1K holds 10 pages and Personal 5K holds 20, so the plan that fits is Personal 10K at $70 a month.
-   **Distill:** 40 cloud monitors are past the Free plan's 5, so the plan that fits is Starter at $15 a month, with 30,000 cloud checks.
-   **SpecStream:** the first run delivers 40 rows. At the 5¢ rate that is $2, and at the 15¢ rate it is $6, once. Each daily recheck that finds nothing new costs 40¢, so a quiet 30 day month costs $12. A plan that changes costs half its row rate on the day it changes, and arrives as the fact that changed, before and now. A weekly recheck of the same table costs 40¢ a week when nothing moves.

With SpecStream you also don't find or maintain the 40 pages: a competitor's new plan arrives as a new row on the next run.

## Data SpecStream already holds

For some records you don't need a schedule of your own. [Lists](https://specstream.ai/data/lists) of records SpecStream already holds come with a monthly feed of the rows the source adds each week, from $19 a month. [Signals](https://specstream.ai/signals.md) such as US funding rounds, new executives and layoffs are each a request you can watch.

## Try it

Sign up at [specstream.ai](https://specstream.ai/signup), with $10 of credit and no card, describe the table you check by hand today, and turn it into a schedule. For agents, the MCP server is `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`, and [competitor monitoring with MCP](https://specstream.ai/blog/competitor-monitoring-with-mcp.md) has the prompts to paste. The full comparison with one page watcher is at [SpecStream vs Visualping](https://specstream.ai/alternatives/visualping.md).

## More from the blog

[Every post](https://specstream.ai/blog.md)

[### Competitor monitoring with MCP: a table your agent rechecks on a schedule Connect your agent to SpecStream's MCP server, describe the facts you track for each competitor, and turn the table into a monitor that rechecks every row and sends only what changed Nov 12, 2026 · SpecStream · 7 min read](https://specstream.ai/blog/competitor-monitoring-with-mcp.md)[### Ask Claude for a lead list: connect an MCP server that returns rows with their sources Connect Claude, Claude Code or Cursor to SpecStream's MCP server, describe the companies you want in plain words, approve the most the list can cost, and get every match as rows with the page behind each value Nov 12, 2026 · SpecStream · 7 min read](https://specstream.ai/blog/ask-claude-for-a-lead-list.md)[### dzhng/deep-research without a Firecrawl key: set FIRECRAWL\_BASE\_URL dzhng's deep-research makes every web search through Firecrawl's v1 search Nov 12, 2026 · SpecStream · 4 min read](https://specstream.ai/blog/dzhng-deep-research-firecrawl-base-url.md)