If you spend your days tracking what tech stacks your competitors use—or just want to know when a site you care about picks up a new CMS or plugin—manual checks get old fast. This guide is for anyone who wants to cut out the busywork and set up automated alerts for new tech adoption using Whatcms. No fluff, just the steps, real-world advice, and a little skepticism about what’s worth your time.
Why Automated Alerts Matter (and When They Don't)
Let's be honest: not everyone needs to monitor tech adoption 24/7. But if you work in digital marketing, competitive analysis, web development, or even sales, knowing when a site switches CMS, adds a payment widget, or jumps to a new analytics tool can give you a real edge.
Here’s when setting up alerts actually makes sense: - You want to track competitors’ technology choices. - You monitor your own network for unauthorized tech changes. - You’re scouting prospects for tools or services you sell. - You just geek out over web tech trends.
But don’t overdo it. Alerts are only useful if you act on them. If you’re setting up notifications for 500 random sites, you’ll drown in noise and start ignoring them. Start small; build from there.
Step 1: Get Set Up with Whatcms
First things first: you’ll need a Whatcms account. Whatcms is a tool that identifies the technologies used by websites—CMSs, frameworks, e-commerce platforms, and more. There’s a free tier, but the good stuff (like automation and API access) usually sits behind a paywall.
The basics: - Sign up for an account. - If you’re just testing, the free plan is fine. For automated monitoring at scale, you’ll likely need a paid plan. - Familiarize yourself with the dashboard. It’s not intimidating, but it’s not the slickest thing you’ve ever used, either.
Pro tip: If you only care about a handful of sites, stick with the free tier for now. You can always upgrade if this turns out to be useful.
Step 2: Identify the Websites and Technologies You Want to Track
Before you set up any alerts, get clear on what you actually care about. This is where most people trip up—they try to track everything and end up with a mess.
Decide: - Which websites do you want to monitor? - Are you interested in all technology changes, or just specific ones (like CMS, e-commerce, analytics, etc.)?
Don’t overthink it: Start with your competitors’ main sites, your own domains, or a few high-value prospects. You can always add more later.
What to ignore: Don’t bother tracking every obscure widget or ad network—most of them change all the time and don’t really matter unless you have a specific reason.
Step 3: Use Whatcms to Set Up Monitoring
Option A: Manual Monitoring (Good for a Few Sites)
If you’re only watching a handful of sites, you can use Whatcms’s “Monitor” feature, if available (they sometimes change terminology):
- Search for your target website in Whatcms.
- Look for a “Monitor” or “Track” button on the site’s profile page.
- Set up notifications (email is the default; SMS and webhooks may be available on higher plans).
- Choose what types of changes you want to be notified about—some plans let you filter by technology type.
Limitations:
- Most free tiers have low limits (5-10 sites).
- You’ll get email alerts—handy, but easy to miss in a busy inbox.
Option B: Automated, Bulk Monitoring (Good for Many Sites or Custom Workflows)
For more than a handful of sites, or if you want alerts piped into Slack, your CRM, or elsewhere, you’ll want to use the Whatcms API.
Steps:
1. Get API access:
- Upgrade to a plan that includes the API (usually not free).
- Generate your API key from your account dashboard.
- Write a script or use a no-code tool:
- Schedule regular checks (daily, weekly, whatever makes sense).
- Compare current technology detections to previous results (save responses to a file or database).
- When a new tech appears (or something is removed), trigger an alert—send an email, post to Slack, update a spreadsheet, etc.
Tools you can use: - Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat): Good for basic workflows without code. Some prebuilt integrations exist; otherwise, use the HTTP module to call the API. - Python scripts: Best for full control. There are plenty of “diff” libraries to compare old and new results. - Google Sheets: For very simple setups, you can use Apps Script to call the API and send alerts.
Heads-up:
- API rate limits are real. Don’t check every site every minute.
- You’ll need some technical chops for scripts, but it’s not rocket science.
Step 4: Filter Out the Noise
This is where most people screw up. If you get an alert every time a site adds a new tracking pixel or swaps out a minor plugin, you’ll start ignoring all alerts. Don’t be that person.
How to keep alerts useful:
- Focus on major changes: CMS switches, new e-commerce platforms, additions/removals of big analytics tools.
- Ignore:
- Frequent, low-impact changes (ad scripts, social buttons, cookie banners).
- Tech you don’t care about (set up filters in your script or workflow if possible).
- Batch notifications: Instead of an alert for every tiny change, send a daily or weekly summary.
Pro tip: If you’re building your own solution, create a “watched technologies” list. Only send alerts if something from that list appears or disappears.
Step 5: Test Your Alerts (and Don’t Trust Them Blindly)
Don’t just set it and forget it. Automated alerts are only as good as the system behind them. Technology detection is fuzzy—Whatcms does a good job, but no tool is perfect.
Things to check: - Trigger a manual tech change (if possible) on a test site and see if you get alerted. - Watch for false positives and negatives. Sometimes Whatcms will miss a new tool, or flag something that isn’t really new. - Make sure your alerts actually reach you (not just your spam folder).
A little skepticism:
Automation is a helper, not a replacement for common sense. If an alert looks weird, double-check it manually. And don’t blindly forward these alerts to your boss or clients—verify first.
Step 6: Integrate Alerts into Your Workflow
Getting an email is fine, but you’ll get more value if alerts fit into your actual workflow.
Ideas: - Pipe alerts into Slack (via Zapier, Make, or a custom webhook). - Add high-priority changes to a Trello board or project management tool. - Keep a shared log so your team can see what’s changed and when.
Don’t bother:
- Spamming yourself with every tiny update.
- Overengineering—if you only need one weekly summary, keep it that way.
What to Watch Out For
- API limits: Most plans restrict how often you can check. If you’re tracking lots of sites, plan accordingly.
- Detection lag: Whatcms doesn’t always catch changes instantly. There’s often a delay (hours or even a day).
- False alarms: No tech detection tool is perfect. Always confirm major changes before acting on them.
Quick Recap: Keep It Simple, Iterate
Start with a few sites and a simple alert (email, Slack, whatever works for you). Tweak as you go. Don’t chase every shiny object—focus on the tech changes that actually matter. Over time, you’ll find the right balance between staying informed and drowning in noise.
If you’re not sure where to start, pick your top three competitors, set up a weekly summary, and see what comes in. You can always scale up once you know what’s actually useful.