Hawkwatch and Distill solve the same problem from opposite directions: one is source-available software you can own outright for $34, the other is a subscription at $12/mo run entirely on someone else's servers.
Head to head
| Hawkwatch | Distill | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $34 once | $12/mo Starter, $28/mo Pro — forever |
| Watchers | Unlimited | Capped per plan |
| Check quotas | None — your server, your schedule | Metered per month |
| Your data | Your SQLite file, on your machine | Their cloud |
| Screenshots on change | Full-page, stored locally | Higher tiers |
| Alerts | BYO SMTP + any webhook | Plan-dependent |
| Self-hosted | Desktop app or any VPS | No |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
What Hawkwatch does well
- Auto price detection — Parses JSON-LD Product/Offer data with og:price and microdata fallbacks — most modern shops work with zero configuration.
- CSS selector mode — For pages without structured data, paste a selector. Locale-aware parsing: $1,299.00, 1.299,00 €, 1 299,00 kr all parse correctly.
- Stock tracking — From JSON-LD availability, an element selector, or a keyword regex against page text — get pinged the second it flips.
- Two fetch engines — Headless Playwright Chromium for JS-rendered shops, or a fast plain HTTP fetch for static pages.
What Distill still does better
There's a real reason Distill costs what it does: a bigger team, broader integrations and dedicated support behind it. If that ecosystem is genuinely what you need, it's worth paying for.
Which one should you pick
If your workflow depends on Distill's specific integrations or you'd rather not run anything yourself, stay put — that's a legitimate call. If you're comfortable owning the tool and want to stop paying $12/mo for a job your own hardware can do, Hawkwatch pays for itself and then some: distill Starter costs $144/year. Hawkwatch pays for itself in under 3 months — and it never bills you again.
Try Hawkwatch — $34, once
Headless-Chromium price & stock monitoring with screenshot alerts — no quotas, no subscription.