WebChange Detector for MainWP
Visual checks for your MainWP updates: before/after screenshots of all child sites in one run, compared automatically.
Solid choice
WebChange Detector for MainWP is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 30+ sites and was last updated 4 weeks ago, and scores 67/100 on our health check.
- Actively developed — last update 4 weeks ago
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Small user base (30+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where WebChange Detector for Main… stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| MainWP | #23 |
| monitoring | >100 |
| screenshots | >100 |
| updates | >100 |
| visual regression testing | #5 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About WebChange Detector for MainWP
From the official readme · v1.1.1Description
WebChange Detector for MainWP adds a visual safety net to the updates you already run from your MainWP Dashboard. Before the updates, it captures screenshots of the pages you selected on every child site. It then installs the updates and captures the same pages again. The screenshots are compared automatically, and you instantly see which pages changed, with the visual difference highlighted.
Everything runs from your MainWP Dashboard. Nothing is installed on your child sites.
What is an on-demand check?
An on-demand check is a visual diff you run around a change you make yourself, like installing updates. WebChange Detector takes a screenshot of each selected page before the change, applies the change, takes another screenshot after, and compares the two automatically. The comparison runs on desktop and mobile, and the AI ignores moving parts like sliders, carousels, ads and animations, so you only get flagged on changes that actually matter. In MainWP, this on-demand check is wrapped directly around the updates you run from your dashboard: pre-update screenshots, the updates, post-update screenshots, and the comparison all happen in one run across all your child sites.
How it works
- Create a free WebChange Detector account at webchangedetector.com if you do not have one yet, then copy your API token from your account and enter it in MainWP.
- Enable the child sites you want to check.
- Sync each enabled child site’s pages with “Sync WP URLs” so its pages become available, then select the pages to check (desktop and/or mobile).
- Click “Run visual checks & updates” on your MainWP dashboard or Updates page.
- The plugin captures pre-update screenshots, installs all pending updates, captures post-update screenshots and compares them. Before the pre-update screenshots and after the updates, the cache on each child site is cleared automatically, so the screenshots always show the real, freshly generated state of the site.
- Review the results on the Checks tab: every page with a visual change is flagged, including an AI summary of what changed.
Features
- One-click WCD Updates: pre-update screenshots, updates, post-update screenshots, comparison: all in one run across all child sites.
- Start a run where you already work: “Update Selected with Checks” and “Update All with Checks” on MainWP’s own Updates page (WordPress, Plugins, Themes and Translations) with MainWP’s row selection, on each child site’s Updates subpage, from the WCD Updates widget on your Operations dashboard and every site overview, or for the whole fleet from the Run tab.
- Automatic cache clearing: the child site’s cache is cleared before the pre-update screenshots and after the updates, so screenshots never show a stale cached page. Works with 20+ caching plugins (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and more) through the MainWP Child plugin, with nothing extra to install.
- Page selection per site: choose which URLs are checked, separately for desktop and mobile.
- Check settings per site: screenshot region, difference threshold, alert emails, which devices new URLs are activated for, Basic Auth, static IP proxy, screenshot delay, and CSS or JS injection.
- Checks overview: all runs across your sites with filters, change percentages and side-by-side comparisons.
- Live run popup: a Pre-update, Updates, Post-update and Done timeline with per-site progress, and automatic resume if you navigate away mid-run.
- Your account in the dashboard: sign up on the Account tab or connect an existing account with your API token, and see your plan, remaining checks and active sites.
- Auto-enable new sites: optionally provision every newly added MainWP child site for visual checks automatically.
External service: WebChange Detector
This plugin relies on the WebChange Detector service (https://www.webchangedetector.com) as a third-party service to capture, store and compare the screenshots. A WebChange Detector account is required (free plan available).
The plugin sends data to api.webchangedetector.com only after you have entered your API token or submitted the account signup form, and only in these circumstances: when you create your free trial account from the Account tab (your first and last name, email address, a hashed version of your chosen password (never the plain text password), your dashboard site’s domain and server IP address are transmitted to create the account), when you connect or verify your account, when you enable a child site or sync its page URLs (the public URLs and page titles of that site are transmitted), when you start a visual check (screenshots are taken of the selected public URLs), and when you review or update results. Your API token is sent with each request to authenticate your account. No data about your WordPress users or any non-selected content is transmitted.
- Service: https://www.webchangedetector.com
- Terms of use: https://www.webchangedetector.com/terms-of-use/
- Privacy policy: https://www.webchangedetector.com/privacy-statement/
Requirements
- A MainWP Dashboard (the free MainWP plugin) with at least one connected child site.
- A WebChange Detector account and API token. If you do not have an account yet, create a free one at webchangedetector.com; the free plan includes monthly checks. See plans for paid options.
Installation
- Install and activate the plugin on the WordPress site running your MainWP Dashboard (not on the child sites).
- Create a free WebChange Detector account at www.webchangedetector.com if you do not have one yet.
- Copy your API token from your WebChange Detector account.
- Go to MainWP > Extensions > WebChange Detector and paste the API token into the “WebChange Detector API Token” field.
- Enable the child sites you want to check.
- Sync each enabled child site’s pages with “Sync WP URLs” so its pages become available.
- Select the pages to check for desktop and/or mobile.
- Run your next update from the MainWP dashboard with “Run visual checks & updates”.
Frequently asked questions
What is an on-demand check?
An on-demand check is a visual diff you run around a change you make yourself. WebChange Detector takes a screenshot of each selected page before the change, you apply the change, it takes another screenshot after, and the two are compared automatically on desktop and mobile. In MainWP this is wrapped around the updates you run: the plugin captures the pre-update screenshots, installs the updates, captures the post-update screenshots, and shows you every page that changed, with an AI summary. The AI ignores moving parts like sliders, carousels and ads, so you only get flagged on real changes.
Do I need to install anything on my child sites?
No. The plugin runs entirely on your MainWP Dashboard and talks to the WebChange Detector service. Child sites are captured through their public URLs.
Do I need a WebChange Detector account?
Yes. The screenshots are captured and compared by the WebChange Detector service, so you need an account and API token. A free plan is available.
Which pages are checked?
You choose. After enabling a child site, its published pages and posts are synced and you select which URLs are checked, separately for desktop and mobile. Every selected URL and device counts as one check per capture.
Why do I need to sync the child site’s pages?
Before it can check a site, the plugin needs the list of public URLs on that site. Syncing fetches the published pages and posts from the child and makes them available for selection. It runs automatically when you enable a site and again after MainWP syncs the child. Until a site is synced, there are no pages to select and no checks can run.
What happens if a site is offline during an update run?
The run tolerates it: the offline site is skipped for updates and the other sites continue. The post-update screenshots still run for the sites that were updated.
Do I need to clear the cache on my child sites after updates?
No, the plugin does that for you. It clears each child site’s cache before the pre-update screenshots and again after the updates, using the cache clearing built into the MainWP Child plugin (supports 20+ caching plugins, detected automatically). This makes sure the comparison shows the actual state of the site after the updates instead of a cached old version. If no supported caching plugin is active, this step is simply skipped.
Does this work with MainWP updates started elsewhere (e.g. scheduled)?
No. Only updates you start with one of the plugin’s own “with Checks” buttons are checked. Updates started with MainWP’s own update buttons, and scheduled or automatic updates, run without any screenshots or comparisons, so they never use check credits.
Changelog
Update with visual checks straight from MainWP's Updates page and Updates Overview widget, sign up without leaving the dashboard, and configure checks per site. Note: updates started outside WebChange Detector no longer produce screenshots.
1.1.1
- New: Sign up for a WebChange Detector account right on the Account tab.
- New: “Update Selected with Checks” and “Update All with Checks” on MainWP’s own Updates page.
- New: The same two buttons on each child site’s Updates subpage.
- New: A “WCD Updates” card with an “Update with Checks” button inside MainWP’s Updates Overview widget.
- New: Per-site check settings: screenshot region, threshold, alert emails, Basic Auth, proxy, delay, CSS and JS.
- Improvement: On MainWP’s Updates page, selected sites without visual checks are updated too, badged in the pre-run overview, and use no checks.
- Improvement: The safe-update flow is now called “WCD Updates”.
- Fix: Updates started outside WebChange Detector no longer produce screenshots. They used to trigger a post-update screenshot compared against an outdated baseline, using up checks for nothing.
1.0.2
- New: One unified extension page with Run, Checks, Settings and Account tabs.
- New: Safe Update dashboard widget.
- New: The update run moved to a live popup.
- New: “Reset connection” button on the Account tab disconnects this dashboard from your WebChange Detector account locally.
- Improvement: A run now covers only the sites that actually have updates.
- Improvement: The pre-flight summary now shows credit coverage and the exact pages each site will check.
- Fix: Long page titles in the Checks list now wrap to a new line instead of pushing the “View” button out of sight.
1.0.1
- Improvement: “Select all” pages is now instant, even on sites with thousands of URLs.
- Improvement: new “Activate checks for all websites” button activates every managed site at once
- Improvement: the dashboard now shows a short setup hint when no API token is connected yet.
- Fix: switching your API token now re-links your existing websites under the new account instead of creating duplicates, and repairs stale links automatically.
1.0.0
- Initial release: safe-update flow (pre/post screenshots around MainWP updates), Visual Checks overview, dashboard widget, per-site URL selection, auto-enable for new sites, automatic cache clearing on child sites before pre-update screenshots and after updates.
Screenshots
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FAQ
WebChange Detector for MainWP: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 5, 2026
Is WebChange Detector for MainWP free?
Yes. WebChange Detector for MainWP is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is WebChange Detector for MainWP safe to use in 2026?
WebChange Detector for MainWP is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 30+ sites and was last updated 4 weeks ago, and scores 67/100 on our health check.
How many websites use WebChange Detector for MainWP?
WebChange Detector for MainWP is active on 30+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 335 times since it launched in June 2026. It was downloaded 148 times in the last 30 days.
Does WebChange Detector for MainWP work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested WebChange Detector for MainWP up to WordPress 7.1.2, the latest release. It requires WordPress 6.0 or newer.
What PHP version does WebChange Detector for MainWP need?
WebChange Detector for MainWP requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was WebChange Detector for MainWP last updated?
The latest version, 1.1.1, was released on September 10, 2026 (4 weeks ago).
Who makes WebChange Detector for MainWP?
WebChange Detector for MainWP is developed and maintained by Mike Miler.
What are the best alternatives to WebChange Detector for MainWP?
The most popular alternatives to WebChange Detector for MainWP are MainWP Child Reports (100K+ installs), MainWP Key Maker (3K+ installs) and SEOPress for MainWP (800+ installs).
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