# Update Scanner

> Monitors web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don't provide Atom or RSS feeds.

Canonical page: [https://chrome-stats.com/d/update-scanner](https://chrome-stats.com/d/update-scanner)

## Overview

- **ID:** `update-scanner`
- **Platform:** Firefox
- **Type:** Firefox add-on
- **Status:** Available
- **Publisher:** sneakypete81
- **Category:** feeds-news-blogging,bookmarks
- **Daily users:** 4,128
- **Weekly downloads:** 20
- **Rating:** 3.99 / 5 (195 ratings)
- **Version:** 4.4.0
- **Last updated:** 2020-02-07
- **First published:** 2006-09-11
- **Size:** 198 KB
- **Data as of:** 2026-09-11
- **Store listing:** [Firefox Add-ons Store](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/update-scanner/)
- **Website:** [https://github.com/sneakypete81/updatescanner/issues](https://github.com/sneakypete81/updatescanner/issues)

## Description

Update Scanner is a powerful Chrome extension designed to monitor your favorite web pages for any changes. Perfect for websites that lack Atom or RSS feeds, it lets you specify how frequently each page should be scanned. The extension automatically highlights changes on the pages, ensuring you never miss an update. Users can also configure it to ignore minor modifications and benefit from full international support, making it adaptable to various languages and regions. Stay informed effortlessly with Update Scanner's intelligent page monitoring features.

## Rankings

- #1,343 — Overall
- #39 — Bookmarks
- #63 — Feeds, News & Blogging
- #1 — update
- #16 — scan
- #31 — x data

## Permissions and access

### Permissions

- `<all_urls>`
- `alarms`
- `notifications`
- `storage`
- `tabs`
- `unlimitedStorage`
- `*://twitter.com/*`
- `*://www.facebook.com/*`

## Safety

- **Risk impact:** High risk impact
- **Risk likelihood:** Low risk likelihood

### Analysis details

- Allows access to all websites, posing a significant security risk as it can monitor and modify data from any visited site.
- This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.

> Some risk analysis details are omitted from this free response. [Upgrade to view the full analysis](https://chrome-stats.com/pricing).

## Review summary

Update Scanner is highly useful for monitoring page updates and is praised for being simple and free. However, many reviews note that it is no longer maintained, leading to reliability issues (blank pages, missing changes, deleted alerts) on many sites. It remains usable for some pages and for long-time Firefox users who rely on it, but compatibility with newer Firefox versions and OS setups is a concern.

### Pros

- Extremely useful for monitoring pages for updates and changes.
- Simple, lightweight, and free to use.
- Still works for some sites and remains valued by long-time Firefox users despite lack of updates.
- Popular among Firefox users and considered essential by some.
- Easy to use and quick to set up.

### Cons

- Maintenance has been abandoned; development stopped years ago.
- Reliability issues across sites, with many pages loading blank or not showing changes; alerts can disappear.
- Compatibility with newer Firefox versions/OS can cause UI problems (e.g., panel issues on Win11/FF117).

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Source: [Chrome-Stats](https://chrome-stats.com/d/update-scanner)