Home Alternatives Distill
A Distill Web Monitor alternative without the setup
Distill is powerful and configurable, and it has a generous free tier. If you'd rather describe what you're waiting for than set up selectors and conditions, and you want cloud checks without a monthly plan, here's how we differ.
At a glance
| Distill Web Monitor | Auto Refresh & Page Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, then subscriptions from about $15 a month | Pay per monitor with prepaid credits. No subscription |
| Free tier | 25 monitors, 5 of them in the cloud. Cloud checks no more often than every 6 hours | Free auto refresh timer and AI chat. Monitors are paid from the first one |
| Runs when your browser is closed | Cloud monitors do. Local monitors run in your browser | Yes, every monitor runs on our servers |
| Fastest cloud check | 10 minutes on the first paid plan; 5 minutes on the next tier up | Every 5 minutes |
| Setting up | Pick an element and set conditions | Describe it in plain English and the AI confirms what it found |
Competitor details are from their public pricing and store pages as of October 2026 and can change, so check their sites before you decide. Distill Web Monitor is a trademark of its owner. We are not affiliated with it.
Where Auto Refresh & Page Monitor fits
It's built for the person who just wants an answer to “tell me when this changes.” There are no selectors to learn. You describe the condition in a chat, review a preview that shows the current value, and choose how often and how long to check. A monitor checking every 30 minutes for a week with email alerts costs about 126 credits ($1.26).
Our free auto refresh timer, with hard refresh and auto-start, comes in the same extension.
When Distill is the better choice
- You want fine control over what is tracked and how changes are detected.
- You have many monitors and want them on a flat monthly plan.
- You're happy running checks locally in your own browser at very short intervals.
Ours are simple by design: one page per monitor, 1 to 30 days, and no login-protected pages.
Questions
Do I need to know how to select elements on a page?
No. You describe what you want in a chat and the AI finds the right part of the page.
Do the checks run when my computer is off?
Yes. Monitors run on our servers, so they keep checking when your browser is closed.
Is there a free monitor?
No. Monitors are paid from the first one, but the auto refresh timer and chatting with the AI are free.