Automatic Course Update Alerts - Free Tools to Monitor Udemy, Coursera & Any Platform

Tutorials & Methods
, ,
1

[center][size=5]Stop Refreshing Udemy Like a Psycho — Let Updates Chase YOU Instead :brain::mobile_phone_with_arrow:[/size][/center]

:world_map: One-Line Flow:
Your courses get updated → you get a ping → you stop stalking Udemy like an ex. Life becomes peaceful.

[center]Tired Tom And Jerry GIF[/center]

:bullseye: What This Whole Thing Does (Human Edition)

You pick the courses or pages you care about (Udemy, Coursera, premium dashboards, docs, anything).

This setup:

  • Watches those pages for you 24/7

  • Spots even tiny changes (new lecture, new file, new “Last updated”, new coupon, new freebie)

  • Pings you on Telegram / Discord / Email / Phone

  • Can be:

    • Zero-setup: just browser extensions
    • Semi-nerd: desktop apps
    • Full goblin mode: self-hosted stack that never sleeps

You set it once → it obsesses on your behalf forever.

No more:

  • “Did this course update?”
  • “Let me check again…”
  • “Why am I on Udemy for the 47th time today?”

:brick: Pick Your Poison

  1. Easy Mode: Browser extensions & desktop apps (no servers, no Docker, just click & go).
  2. Power Mode: Self-hosted changedetection.io + ntfy + GitHub Actions + automations.
  3. Overkill Mode: Huginn, RSS-Bridge, Cloudflare Workers, Healthchecks, Monitoror, the whole circus.

You can stop at any level and still have a life upgrade.

:puzzle_piece: Level 0 — Zero-Setup: Browser Extensions & Desktop Apps

Tired Merry Go Round GIF

:globe_with_meridians: Distill Web Monitor (Chrome / Firefox / Edge / Opera)

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/inlikjemeeknofckkjolnjbpehgadgge

What it does:

  • Runs inside your browser, no server needed

  • Lets you click on any part of a page (like “Last updated”) and monitor just that

  • Shows changes with highlights and history

  • Alerts via:

    • Email
    • Sound
    • Pop-up
    • Push
    • Webhooks (Slack/Discord etc.)

Modes:

  • Local monitors: run while your browser is open (25 monitors on free)
  • Cloud monitors: run even when your PC is off (5 monitors on free, every ~6 hours)

Perfect for:
“I just want this course page to scream at me when they update it.”

:puzzle_piece: changedetection.io Browser Extension (Chrome)

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/kefcfmgmlhmankjmnbijimhofdjekbop

What it does:

  • Adds a big “WATCH THIS WEB PAGE” button in your browser
  • Lets you visually select parts of a page and send them straight to your self-hosted changedetection.io server
  • Has a “Restock Detection” mode that only cares about price/availability changes

Note:
This is just the remote control. The actual brain is your changedetection.io server (explained later).

:fox: Update Scanner (Firefox)

Addon: Update Scanner – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)
GitHub: GitHub - sneakypete81/updatescanner: Firefox addon to monitor web pages for updates.

What it does:

  • Old-school but rock solid page monitor, all local, no cloud
  • Can check as often as every 5 minutes
  • Shows side-by-side diffs with changed text highlighted
  • Lets you organize watched pages in folders in a Firefox sidebar

Good for:

  • Monitoring a bunch of course pages
  • Getting “A webpage has been updated” desktop notifications without any account or server

:memo: Check4Change (Firefox)

Addon: Check4Change – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

How it works:

  • Select some text on a page → right-click → set check interval

  • Periodically re-checks that exact text

  • Alerts via:

    • Flashing tab
    • Dancing “C4C” icon in tab
    • Pop-up
    • Sound
    • Optional email

Catches:

  • Only works on open tabs
  • Browser restart = jobs gone

Use it as your “live stalking” mode for:

  • Course launches
  • Flash sales
  • “I’m watching this exact thing for the next 2 hours.”

:eye: Wachete (Chrome / Firefox)

Extensions: Chrome Web Store + Firefox Addons

What it does:

  • Lets you select part or whole of a page
  • Runs checks on Wachete’s servers, so your PC can be off
  • Handles login-protected pages (stores your session server-side)
  • Sends email alerts + keeps change history & graphs (good for prices, counts, stats)

Trade-off:

  • Super convenient “set and forget”
  • But your data lives on their servers, not just your machine

:repeat_button: Auto Refresh & Page Monitor (Chrome)

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/nagebjgefhenmjbjhjmdifchbnbmjgpa

What it does:

  • Combines two things:

    • Auto refresh: reload page on a schedule
    • Page monitor: detect if content changed

Good for:

  • “Reload this course page every X minutes and tell me if anything changed visually or in source.”

:laptop: WebSite-Watcher Free (Windows)

Link: WebSite-Watcher Free - Monitor websites changes

What it does:

  • Desktop app for Windows (no signup, no ads)

  • Monitors:

    • Websites
    • RSS feeds

  • Highlights changes in text

  • Allows keyword-based alerts

  • Runs fully offline on your PC (no data selling nonsense)

  • Freeware license allows commercial use

Good if you:

  • Don’t want browser-based stuff
  • Like one central app for all your watched pages

:brain: Hidden Extension Mechanics (Still Easy)

  • Local vs Cloud (Distill):
    Local = requires browser open, but lots of checks.
    Cloud = browser can be closed, but limited checks on free.

  • Update Scanner Speed:
    Free, local, checks every 5 minutes = faster than most free cloud tools.

  • Check4Change Limitation:
    Perfect for “I’m watching this right now today”, useless for long-term unattended stuff.

  • Wachete Login Magic:
    Because it runs on their servers, it can watch logged-in pages even if your browser is closed.

  • Visual Selection Everywhere:
    Most of these tools let you hover & click to pick the exact element — no need to know what “XPath” means.

:cyclone: Fun Combos on Easy Mode

  • Distill for daily use + Update Scanner for “serious” pages
  • Check4Change for tonight’s launch + WebSite-Watcher for long-term tracking
  • Wachete for login-only course portals + Distill for public stuff

If you only monitor 5–25 courses/pages and use the browser daily, you can live forever in this level.

:puzzle_piece: Level 1 — Self-Hosted Stack: The Serious “Never Miss an Update” Rig

Now we upgrade from browser-addons-cute to “I run my own tiny infra” energy.

cat stalker GIF

:firecracker: What This Stack Does

  • Watches hundreds of course pages / APIs / feeds

  • Checks as often as every 1–5 minutes

  • Filters out garbage changes

  • Sends alerts to:

    • Telegram
    • Discord
    • Email
    • ntfy / Gotify

  • Keeps history, diffs, logs, dashboards

  • Can be fully self-hosted and under your control

:wrench: Core Tools — The Main Crew

:detective: changedetection.io — The Page Change Sniffer

GitHub: GitHub - dgtlmoon/changedetection.io: Best and simplest tool for website change detection, web page monitoring, and website change alerts. Perfect for tracking content changes, price drops, restock alerts, and website defacement monitoring—all for free or enjoy our SaaS plan!

What it does:

  • Self-hosted web UI where you can:

    • Add any URL
    • Choose full page or specific element
    • Set check interval

  • Supports:

    • Plain HTML pages
    • JSON/API endpoints
    • Feeds (Atom/RSS/JSON)

  • Ignores:

    • Ads
    • Random counters
    • Cookie banners

  • Sends:

    • Clean diffs
    • Minimal “what changed” text
    • Webhooks, email, and more

You point it at Udemy course pages or APIs → it tells you what changed and when.

:megaphone: ntfy — Your Private Push Notification Server

Site: https://ntfy.sh
GitHub: GitHub - binwiederhier/ntfy: Send push notifications to your phone or desktop using PUT/POST

What it does:

  • Lets you subscribe to topics like /udemy-updates on your phone
  • Anything that POSTs a message to that topic → instant push notification
  • Can be self-hosted, or you can use the public instance

Why it’s great:

  • No Firebase
  • No weird SaaS limits
  • Stupid simple HTTP interface (curl -d "message" ntfy.sh/topic)

:open_mailbox_with_raised_flag: Apprise — One Library to Spam All Your Apps

PyPI: pip install apprise

What it does:

  • One command to send messages to:

    • Discord
    • Telegram
    • Slack
    • Email
    • ntfy
    • Gotify
    • & many more

Perfect glue between:

:stopwatch: GitHub Actions — Free Cron & Compute

What it does:

  • Lets you run scripts on a schedule (cron style):
schedule:
  - cron: "*/5 * * * *"   # every 5 minutes

You can use it to:

  • Call Udemy/other platform APIs or JSON endpoints
  • Fetch course data regularly
  • Compare old vs new snapshots
  • Trigger Apprise/ntfy alerts

No server? No problem. GitHub hosts the runner for you.

:robot: n8n Udemy Workflow — No-Code-ish Automation

Workflow: Track Free Udemy Courses Automatically with RapidAPI and Google Sheets | n8n workflow template

What it does:

  • Pulls free Udemy courses via RapidAPI
  • Filters them
  • Writes into Google Sheets
  • Sends alerts if something fails

Use it as:

  • A ready-made blueprint for your own automations (with or without Udemy).

:mouse_trap: Udemy_bot — Auto-Enroller

GitHub: GitHub - dimakiss/Udemy_bot: An automation bot for free Udemy courses

What it does:

  • Watches udemyfreebies.com

  • Auto-enrolls in courses that meet your criteria:

    • Min rating
    • Min reviews

  • Uses Chrome WebDriver to do the heavy lifting

Combine it with your monitoring stack to:

  • Discover the course
  • Auto-enroll
  • Get notified it’s done

:brain: Hidden Mechanics — Early-Detection Tricks

:satellite_antenna: Feed & Atom Hijacking

  • Many platforms still expose hidden feeds (/releases.atom, /feed, etc.)
  • changedetection.io can watch those instead of full HTML
  • You filter to just the <title>/version string

Result:
Incredibly clean “something changed” without layout noise.

:bell: Browser Push & Service Worker Signals

  • Modern sites use Service Workers + Push APIs
  • They push update info to the browser in the background
  • You can inspect this in DevTools (navigator.serviceWorker, PushManager)

Idea:
Understand when the site is synchronized → combine with your monitoring to know when major syncs finished.

:world_map: Sitemap “Last-Modified” Spying

  • Check /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml
  • Watch <lastmod> tags or Last-Modified headers

Platforms often update these before the page itself.
So you get a 12–48 hour head start by watching the sitemap.

:high_voltage: WebSub / PubSubHubbub

  • Protocol where feeds push update events to subscribers
  • Used heavily in blog platforms & WordPress

You:

  • Subscribe to their hub
  • Receive webhooks when feed changes

No constant polling. Just pings when there’s actual news.

:sunglasses: Playwright / Puppeteer For JS-Heavy Pages

Some course platforms render key info via JavaScript. Normal scrapers see nothing.
Playwright / Puppeteer:

  • Load page like a real user
  • Wait for content
  • Grab final HTML or screenshot
  • You then compare over time

Great for dashboards, SPA-based course platforms, anything “too modern” for basic scraping.

:package: udemyscraper

PyPI: udemyscraper · PyPI

What it can fetch:

  • Course title, tagline, description
  • Requirements, audience
  • Banners
  • Pricing info

Run it on a schedule → save snapshots → diff → alert on changes.

:thread: Unofficial Udemy APIs

DevTools → Network tab while browsing Udemy reveals endpoints like:

  • /api-2.0/courses/{pk}/
  • /completion/v1/subsection-completion/{username}/{course_key}

These can show:

  • Updated timestamps
  • Section count
  • Completion info

You’re not hacking anything; you’re just reading the same data your browser already reads.

:bust_in_silhouette: Instructor Social Monitoring

Track instructors on:

  • X / Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Blogs / Medium

Use:

  • Hootsuite / Tailwind / Metricool / any social monitor

They often announce “Big update shipped” earlier than the platform’s own UI or emails.
Your stack can then double-check the course and alert you.

:broom: Killing False Positives

Use tools like Visualping / Distill / changedetection.io selector filters to:

  • Ignore cookie banners
  • Ignore random counters
  • Watch only the real content area (like course curriculum, last updated, price, etc.)

Result:
Notifications that actually matter.

:warning: Real-World Truths

  • Course platforms / LMS integrations often sync only a few times per day

  • Free SaaS monitoring tools have:

    • Low check frequency
    • Tiny limits
    • “Upgrade to Pro” nagging

But:

  • Self-hosted = your rules, your frequency
  • GitHub Actions / Cloudflare Workers = free compute and cron
  • Extensions & desktop apps = instant “no setup” wins

You get to mix all three worlds however you like.

:puzzle_piece: Combos in the Self-Hosted World

:brick: Combo 1: Fully Self-Hosted Radar

  • changedetection.io in Docker

  • ntfy self-hosted for notifications

  • GitHub Actions or a local cron script to orchestrate checks & comparisons

  • Optional:

    • Watchtower to auto-update containers
    • Healthchecks.io to alert if any script or job dies

Result:
A “course & content update radar” that keeps itself alive and up-to-date.

:knot: Combo 2: Hybrid Lazy Mode

  • Distill / Update Scanner for “stuff I’m currently actively watching”

  • changedetection.io for “big list of things I want monitored forever”

  • Notifications via:

    • ntfy
    • Apprise → Telegram / Discord / Email

You get instant local feedback + deep background coverage.

:satellite: Combo 3: Proxies & Scrapers

  • Use Apify, Cloudflare Workers, or rotating IPs from CI
  • Scrape APIs/pages politely but without constant rate-limit headaches
  • Plug into changedetection.io or custom scripts to detect deltas

:scissors: Combo 4: Delta-Only Notifications

Configure changedetection.io to send:

  • Only the diff (what changed)
  • Not full HTML

This keeps your Discord/Telegram/ntfy messages short and readable.

:firecracker: Level 2 — Overkill Mode: Full Goblin Automation

Once you’re comfortable with basic monitoring, here’s where it gets fun and mildly ridiculous.

Office Rubbing GIF by Azeron

:dna: Huginn — Your Automation Brain

GitHub: GitHub - huginn/huginn: Create agents that monitor and act on your behalf. Your agents are standing by!

What it does:

  • Self-hosted “build your own IFTTT / Zapier”

  • You create agents that:

    • Watch sites, feeds, APIs
    • Transform data
    • Trigger notifications or other agents

Example:

If Udemy course X updates AND
change size > 500 characters AND
instructor also tweeted about it →
send high-priority Gotify notification + log to Notion + tag in Discord.

:satellite_antenna: RSS-Bridge — Giving Dead Sites an RSS Soul

GitHub: GitHub - RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge: The RSS feed for websites missing it
Public instance: RSS-Bridge

What it does:

  • Turns social networks & normal sites into RSS/Atom feeds:

    • YouTube
    • TikTok
    • X / Twitter
    • Reddit
    • Instagram
    • etc.

Also has XPathBridge to build a feed from any HTML page using basic selectors.

Once it’s a feed → all your existing monitoring tools can consume it.

:mobile_phone_with_arrow: Gotify — Another Push Server Option

GitHub: Gotify · GitHub

What it offers:

  • App tokens
  • Priorities
  • Markdown messages
  • Attachments

Good if you want more structured, multi-app push handling than ntfy.

:scroll: Dozzle — Live Logs in a Browser

GitHub: GitHub - amir20/dozzle: Realtime log viewer for containers. Supports Docker, Swarm and K8s.

Use it to:

  • Watch logs from changedetection.io, Huginn, ntfy, scrapers in real-time
  • See instantly when something breaks or misbehaves
  • Filter/search logs from all containers

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: Diffsitter — “What Actually Changed in This Code?”

GitHub: GitHub - afnanenayet/diffsitter: A tree-sitter based AST difftool to get meaningful semantic diffs

Use it for:

  • Course repos or code samples
  • Viewing semantic diffs, not just “line changed”
  • Filtering out nonsense (whitespace, small style tweaks)

Perfect if you follow programming courses and want to know what logic changed between version 1 and version 2.

:television: Monitoror — Big Wall of Status

Site: https://monitoror.com

Use it as:

  • A single-screen dashboard with tiles like:

    • “Github Actions OK?”
    • “Healthchecks OK?”
    • “Course API reachable?”
    • “Scraper jobs failing?”

Hang it on a TV and pretend you run a tiny mission control.

:heart: Healthchecks.io — Is Your Monitoring Alive?

Site: https://healthchecks.io

Use it to:

  • Get notified when:

    • Your cron stops running
    • GitHub Actions silently fails
    • A scraper or worker dies

Everything pings Healthchecks on success.
If Healthchecks doesn’t hear from it → it screams.

:cloud: Cloudflare Workers + Cron Triggers

Intro blog: Introducing Cron Triggers for Cloudflare Workers

Use them to:

  • Run scheduled scraping/comparison code on the edge
  • Store state in KV / Durable Objects
  • Trigger ntfy / Gotify / Discord webhooks on change

All serverless. All free-ish.

:thread: Extra Nerdy Mechanics (Still Useful)

  • Teachable / Thinkific / Wagtail:

    • Webhooks, APIs, and hooks let you get instant JSON events when courses/lessons update.

  • Service Worker stalking:

    • Watching cache/version changes to guess when new lecturer assets drop.

  • Cloudflare Workers as proxy:

    • Hide your real IP, spread load, and cache responses.

  • RSS-Bridge + JSON feeds:

    • Convert /feed.json style endpoints back into RSS so your whole ecosystem can monitor them.

:cyclone: Ridiculous But Beautiful Architectures

:brick: Multi-Layer Monitoring Pyramid

  1. Base:

  2. Middle:

    • Diffsitter watches instructor repos for real logic changes

  3. Top:

    • Huginn fuses:

      • Feeds
      • Code diffs
      • Sitemaps
      • Social signals

  4. Safety Net:

    • Healthchecks watches all jobs
    • Monitoror shows the entire health at a glance

You get alerts only when actual meaningful changes happen.

:globe_showing_europe_africa: Edge Scraper with Cloudflare Workers

  • Worker fetches course JSON

  • Compares new vs old in KV storage

  • If changed:

    • Fires Gotify / ntfy / Discord

  • Runs in multiple regions, low latency, no box to maintain

:dna: Self-Healing Stack

  • Everything in Docker Compose:

  • Watchtower auto-updates containers

  • Healthchecks monitors cron/GitHub jobs

  • Docker restart policies keep stuff alive

Result:
Monitoring that refuses to die.

Ugh… Great. Now Even Udemy Deals Want To Pay My Bills — What’s Next?! [size=5] (ಠ෴ಠ)[/size]

Cute Girl Omg GIF

  1. The “Deal Hunter Middleman” Flip

    • Track coupons, freebies, price drops, and hidden discounts across Udemy + other platforms.
    • Drop the best ones first in your Telegram/WhatsApp/Discord channel.
    • Monetize with VIP tiers, affiliate links, or “early-bird access” for limited coupons.

:light_bulb:Example: A student runs a “Best Udemy Deals Daily” WhatsApp group with 2,000 members.
Makes ₹15k–₹30k/month from affiliate commissions alone.

  1. The “Update Recap Newsletter” Flip

    • Watch 50–100 top courses in a niche.
    • Convert weekly updates into a simple email: “Here’s what changed + who should care.”
    • Make money from sponsors, affiliates, or premium newsletter tiers.

:light_bulb:Example: A niche AI newsletter charges $5/month for “course update intelligence.”
600 subscribers = ₹2.5 lakh/month.

  1. The “Free Courses Farming Machine” Flip

    • Combine monitoring + Udemy_bot + freebie feeds.
    • Auto-enroll into freebies instantly → curate the best ones.
    • Sell monthly lists, premium curated bundles, or “top 20 free courses” digest.

:light_bulb:Example: One Telegram channel earns $400/month just selling “Premium Free Course Packs.”

  1. The “Silent SaaS Template Seller” Flip

    • Package the whole system as:
      • A Notion dashboard
      • A few scripts
      • A beginner-friendly setup guide
    • Sell it as a micro-SaaS starter kit on Gumroad / Lemon Squeezy.

:light_bulb:Example: Templates like this easily sell 200–500 copies at ₹499 each.
People love “simple automation kits” they can drag-and-drop.

Sooo…?

It’s basically turning “course stalking” into a money-printing side-quest where your bots do the watching, and you do the cashing.

:thread: Final Reality Check

You’re not “just scraping Udemy”.

You’re building:

  • A course-update radar
  • A coupon & freebie radar
  • A content-change radar for literally any website you care about

You can:

  • Stay at Extension Level and already stop refreshing pages like a maniac
  • Move to Self-Hosted Level and watch dozens or hundreds of things at once
  • Go to Overkill Level and basically run your own mini intelligence system

Set it up once.
Let the system obsess.
Your only job: act when your phone buzzes and says,

“Hey, your course just got an update. Go eat.”

6 Likes