Visual checks for your MainWP updates: before/after screenshots of all child sites in one run, compared automatically.

Mike Miler

repat

henkwhite

WebChange Detector: Visual Regression Testing & Visual Checks After Updates

Visual regression testing for WordPress: catch broken layouts after auto-updates, plugin installs, or deploys before your visitors do.

Yuriy Gerasymov

Diffy Visual Regression Testing

Diffy helps to verify plugin updates by taking screenshots of your site before and after update and comparing them. Ideally you expect zero changes a …

<p>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.</p>
<p>Everything runs from your MainWP Dashboard. Nothing is installed on your child sites.</p>
<h4>What is an on-demand check?</h4>
<p>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 <strong>before</strong> the change, applies the change, takes another screenshot <strong>after</strong>, 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.</p>
<h4>How it works</h4>
<ol>
<li>Create a free WebChange Detector account at <a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com" rel="nofollow ugc">webchangedetector.com</a> if you do not have one yet, then copy your API token from your account and enter it in MainWP.</li>
<li>Enable the child sites you want to check. Each site’s pages are synced automatically when you enable it.</li>
<li>Select the pages to check (desktop and/or mobile).</li>
<li>Click “Run visual check & update” on your MainWP dashboard or Updates page.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Review the results on the Visual Checks page: every page with a visual change is flagged, including an AI summary of what changed.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>One-click safe updates: pre-update screenshots, updates, post-update screenshots, comparison: all in one run across all child sites.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Bulk or single site: run the flow for every enabled child site at once or for one site from its overview.</li>
<li>Page selection per site: choose which URLs are checked, separately for desktop and mobile.</li>
<li>Visual Checks overview: all runs across your sites with filters, change percentages and side-by-side comparisons.</li>
<li>Dashboard widget: your remaining checks, plan usage and latest run at a glance.</li>
<li>Auto-enable new sites: optionally provision every newly added MainWP child site for visual checks automatically.</li>
</ul>
<h4>External service: WebChange Detector</h4>
<p>This plugin relies on the WebChange Detector service (<a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.webchangedetector.com</a>) as a third-party service to capture, store and compare the screenshots. A WebChange Detector account is required (free plan available).</p>
<p>The plugin sends data to <code>api.webchangedetector.com</code> only after you have entered your API token, and only in these circumstances: 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.</p>
<ul>
<li>Service: <a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.webchangedetector.com</a></li>
<li>Terms of use: <a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com/terms-of-use/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.webchangedetector.com/terms-of-use/</a></li>
<li>Privacy policy: <a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com/privacy-statement/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.webchangedetector.com/privacy-statement/</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Requirements</h4>
<ul>
<li>A MainWP Dashboard (the free <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/mainwp/" rel="ugc">MainWP plugin</a>) with at least one connected child site.</li>
<li>A WebChange Detector account and API token. If you do not have an account yet, create a free one at <a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com" rel="nofollow ugc">webchangedetector.com</a>; the free plan includes monthly checks. See <a href="https://www.webchangedetector.com/pricing/" rel="nofollow ugc">plans</a> for paid options.</li>
</ul>


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