# Competitive Intelligence Tracker (`lulzasaur/competitive-intel-scraper`) Actor

Track competitor websites for pricing changes, job postings, and product updates. Monitor any URL for content changes over time.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/competitive-intel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 results

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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

## Competitive Intelligence Tracker

Monitor competitor websites for pricing changes, job postings, and content updates. Track any URL over time and detect when something changes.

### Features

- **Change detection**: MD5 hash comparison detects any content change between runs
- **Price extraction**: Automatically finds all dollar amounts on pricing pages
- **Job tracking**: Extracts career/job links from any page
- **Metadata capture**: Titles, descriptions, headings, word counts
- **Multi-URL**: Monitor multiple competitor pages in one run

### Output Fields

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `url` | Monitored URL |
| `pageTitle` | Page title |
| `contentHash` | MD5 hash for change detection |
| `changed` | true/false/null (null = first run) |
| `prices` | Extracted dollar amounts with values |
| `pricesFound` | Number of prices found |
| `jobs` | Extracted job posting links |
| `jobsFound` | Number of job links found |
| `headings` | H1-H3 headings on the page |
| `wordCount` | Total word count |
| `metadata` | SEO metadata (title, description, OG tags) |

### Use Cases

- **Pricing intelligence**: Monitor competitor pricing pages weekly
- **Hiring signals**: Track when competitors post new jobs (growth indicator)
- **Product launches**: Detect new product pages or feature announcements
- **SEO monitoring**: Track competitor meta descriptions and titles
- **Market research**: Build datasets of pricing across an industry

***

### Run on Apify

This scraper runs on the [Apify platform](https://apify.com/?fpr=lulzasaur) — a full-stack web scraping and automation cloud. Sign up for a free account to get started with 30-day trial of all features.

[Try Apify free →](https://apify.com/?fpr=lulzasaur)

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

URLs of competitor pages to track (pricing pages, careers pages, product pages, etc.).

## `extractPricing` (type: `boolean`):

Try to extract pricing information from pages.

## `extractJobs` (type: `boolean`):

Try to extract job posting links from career pages.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional proxy.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.notion.so/pricing"
  ],
  "extractPricing": true,
  "extractJobs": true
}
```

# 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("lulzasaur/competitive-intel-scraper").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("lulzasaur/competitive-intel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).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 lulzasaur/competitive-intel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/competitive-intel-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/z05QhPEdkyokhLCsR/builds/rH04sxMgolrwcMN1g/openapi.json