If you care about what tech your competitors (or prospects) are using—think Shopify, React, or random ad trackers—manual checks are a waste of time. You want a heads-up the minute something changes, not after a quarterly “audit.” This guide is for marketers, sales folks, and anyone who wants to know when a site starts using a new tool, and doesn’t want to overcomplicate it.
We’ll walk through how to set up real alerts using Wappalyzer, a tool that spots tech stacks on websites. I’ll show you what works, what to skip, and a few honest gotchas. No fluff.
Why bother tracking tech adoption?
You probably already know why, but just so we’re on the same page:
- Sales teams: Know when a lead upgrades to a paid platform or competitor.
- Marketers: Spot trends or target users of specific tools.
- Competitors: Keep tabs on who’s jumping ship to a new CMS or analytics tool.
- Developers: Monitor dependencies or security risks.
Manually checking is tedious. Alerts let you focus on your actual job.
Step 1: Get Wappalyzer (and know what it's good at)
There are a few ways to use Wappalyzer: - Browser extension: Good for quick checks, but not for ongoing alerts. - Web app: Can track domains and set up alerts. - APIs: Best for automation and bulk monitoring, but costs more and takes setup.
For alerts, you’ll need the web app or API. The extension is fine for one-off checks, but it won’t send you notifications.
Honest take: Wappalyzer is pretty accurate for most mainstream tech, but it’s not magic. If a site hides its stack, or uses custom setups, Wappalyzer might miss it. Don’t expect perfection.
Step 2: Sign up and pick your plan
Head to Wappalyzer’s site and create an account. You’ll need a paid plan for monitoring (as of this writing, they don’t offer free alerts).
Plans:
- Their basic paid tier usually covers monitoring up to 50 websites and a few types of tech.
- If you want to track hundreds or thousands of domains (or need API access), you’ll pay more.
Pro tip: Don’t overbuy. Start with their lowest tier, see what you actually use, and upgrade if you hit limits.
Step 3: Add websites to monitor
Once you’re logged in:
- Go to your dashboard.
- Find “Monitors” or “Website Monitoring” in the menu.
- Add the domains you want to track. You can paste them one by one, or upload a CSV if you have a list.
- Double-check for typos; Wappalyzer won’t catch a bad URL.
- For subdomains, add each one you care about. “example.com” and “shop.example.com” are treated as separate sites.
What to skip:
Don’t bother adding dead sites or rarely updated ones unless you have a good reason. Every monitored site counts against your quota.
Step 4: Set up specific technology alerts
This is the meat of it. You can set up Wappalyzer to ping you when:
- A new technology appears (e.g., someone just added HubSpot to their site)
- An existing technology disappears (e.g., they drop Google Analytics)
- A version changes (handy for security folks)
Here’s how to do it:
- In your monitoring dashboard, look for “Alerts” or “Notifications.”
- Set your preferences. Typically, you can choose:
- Which technologies to track: You can pick from a list (e.g., Shopify, React, Cloudflare). Don’t try to track everything—pick what matters.
- Types of events: Added, removed, version change.
- Notification method: Email is standard; some plans offer Slack or webhook alerts.
- Save your settings.
What works:
- Tracking specific tools (like “alert me if they add Hotjar”) is reliable.
- You’ll usually get an email within a day of a change.
What doesn’t:
- “Alert me for any change” can get noisy, especially if a site uses lots of third-party scripts that come and go.
- Wappalyzer can’t see behind login screens or spot every single backend service. Expect some blind spots.
Step 5: Tune your alerts (or you’ll drown in emails)
This part gets skipped, but it matters.
- Start narrow: Pick a handful of high-value technologies. Add more only if you’re not getting swamped.
- Set digest frequency: If you’re tracking dozens of sites, opt for daily or weekly digests instead of instant emails. Your sanity will thank you.
- Test it: Add a new tech to a test site and see if Wappalyzer picks it up. This gives you a sense of how fast and accurate the alerts are.
Pro tip:
Wappalyzer sometimes misses changes for sites using lots of caching or aggressive CDNs. If it’s critical, double-check manually or use it alongside another tool.
Step 6: (Optional) Use the API for bulk monitoring or integration
If you want to get fancy—say, send alerts into a Slack channel or update a CRM—you’ll need Wappalyzer’s API.
- API setup:
- Get an API key from your account settings.
- Use their docs to set up queries for the domains and tech you care about.
- You can write scripts to poll the API and trigger your own alerts, or use automation tools like Zapier.
Honest take:
- The API isn’t cheap, and you’ll need some scripting chops.
- For most folks, the built-in web alerts are enough. Only go API if you already have a workflow that needs it.
What to ignore (and what to watch out for)
- Don’t expect instant alerts: Wappalyzer checks sites on a schedule (every few hours or daily), not in real time.
- Ignore vague “technology detected” emails: Focus on specifics—what changed, and why does it matter to you?
- Don’t rely on it for security alerts: It’s not a security scanner. Use other tools for vulnerability or malware alerts.
Quick troubleshooting
- Not getting alerts? Double-check your notification settings and email spam folder.
- Missed a change? Some tech is harder to detect. If it matters, try another tool for backup (like BuiltWith).
- Getting too many emails? Tighten your alert rules, or switch to digests.
Summary: Keep it simple, iterate as you go
Don’t overcomplicate this. Start by tracking a small batch of sites for a couple of key technologies. See what actually moves the needle for you. If you need more, add as you go. Set up alerts that help you work smarter, not just add more noise to your inbox.
Tech moves fast, but you don’t need to chase every change. Focus on what matters, keep your alerts tight, and revisit your setup every few months. That’s how you actually stay ahead—without losing your mind to a flood of notifications.