DEV Community: 大橙子

I Open-Sourced MarketEye — Here's Why (and the GitHub Link)

大橙子 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 03:35:29 +0000

I open-sourced MarketEye today.

For anyone who missed the first post: MarketEye is a self-hosted competitor price monitor I built because I didn't want to pay $99/month for Prisync.

The code is now up on GitHub under MIT license.

GitHub: github.com/dachengzi065-gif/marketeye

Why open source?

Three reasons:

1. People actually asked for it.

After my first post here, a few people DM'd me asking to see the code. They're developers too — they want to modify it, extend it, make it their own. That's fair. Selling source code to devs is like selling ice to eskimos.

2. Trust.

A closed-source price tracker that "runs on your machine" — you either trust the author or you don't. Open source removes that doubt. You can read every line, check what data leaves your machine (nothing), and build it yourself if you want.

3. Longevity.

Self-hosted tools have a dirty secret: if the developer disappears, you're stuck with a broken tool. Open source changes that. Even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, you can fork the repo and keep going.

What this means for the $49 version

The Gumroad package still exists. It includes:

The same code, pre-packaged
Email support (I'll help you set it up)
A clear conscience subscription (you're paying for convenience, not software)

But honestly? If you can run pip install, just clone the repo. It's free.

What's next

I'm actively working on:

Docker image (one-command deploy)
More scrapers (plugins for different sites)
Discord/Telegram bot alerts (requested by several people)

PRs welcome. Issues welcome. Feedback welcome.

👉 github.com/dachengzi065-gif/marketeye

I Built a Self-Hosted Competitor Price Monitor Because SaaS Pricing Is Out of Control

大橙子 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:29:40 +0000

I Built a Self-Hosted Competitor Price Monitor Because SaaS Pricing Is Out of Control

The Problem

I run a small online store. To stay competitive, I needed to track my competitors' pricing. The obvious solution? Sign up for a SaaS price monitoring tool.

Then I saw the prices:

Prisync: $99/month
Price2Spy: $20-58/month
Keepa: $29/month (Amazon only)

For a small operation, $99/month is absurd. So I built my own.

What I Built: MarketEye

MarketEye is a self-hosted competitor price monitor. You run it on your own machine, point it at any product URL, and it tracks price changes automatically.

Tech stack: Python + FastAPI + SQLite + APScheduler

Features:

Drop any product URL → auto price tracking
Email + webhook alerts on price changes
Price history charts + CSV/JSON export
Works with Amazon, Shopify, JD, Taobao, any HTML page
Web dashboard included (no CLI needed)

How It Works

Add a product URL through the web dashboard
MarketEye scrapes the page at configurable intervals
When a price changes, you get an alert
All data stays on your machine - no cloud, no third party

The scraping engine handles various e-commerce platforms out of the box and provides a plugin interface for custom scrapers.

Why Self-Hosted?

One-time payment: $49 vs $99/month ($3,564 over 3 years)
Unlimited products: no per-product fees
Data privacy: your pricing data never leaves your machine
Customizable: full Python source, extend it however you want

What's Next

I'll be sharing more technical deep-dives on the architecture, scraping challenges, and lessons learned from building and shipping this as a solo developer.

Check it out: MarketEye on Gumroad

Questions and feedback welcome! 🚀

Hello Dev.to 👋 — A Developer Joining the Community

大橙子 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:22:25 +0000

Hey everyone!

Just created my Dev.to account and wanted to say hi properly.

I'm a software developer, working with Python and
building side projects that solve real problems.

My latest project is MarketEye — a self-hosted competitor price
monitor I built because I refused to pay $99/month for basic
price tracking. Python + FastAPI + SQLite, scrapes product
pages, sends alerts on price changes, generates history charts.

What I want to share here:
• Building and shipping a self-hosted product from idea to launch
• Web scraping techniques that actually work (and the pitfalls)
• Pricing and marketing indie software as a dev selling globally
• Technical deep-dives on Python, FastAPI, and deployment
• Getting your first customer without spending on ads

Looking for honest feedback and connecting with other indie
builders. Happy to help with anything Python/scraping related.

Thanks for having me! 🚀