Renovate alternative for breaking changes

What Renovate does well

Renovate opens pull requests for your dependencies and lock files, on your schedule, and finds package files on its own, monorepos included (Renovate docs). Its stated goal is to detect and maintain every third-party dependency in a repository (managers).

• More managers. Beyond package manifests, it updates Dockerfiles, GitHub Actions, Helm charts, Terraform, and version files such as .ruby-version and rust-toolchain. For a file it doesn't parse, you write a custom manager with a regex (Renovate docs).
• More platforms. It runs on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Gitea, Forgejo, AWS CodeCommit and, experimentally, Gerrit (Renovate docs).
• More configuration. Settings live in a file such as renovate.json (options), and presets let you share one setup across repositories. Automerge is off unless you turn it on, and then it waits for passing checks (automerge).
• Deprecated packages. The Dependency Dashboard warns near the top about packages flagged deprecated on their registry (dashboard), and Renovate opens replacement pull requests that move you to the community's suggested replacement (Renovate docs).
• Self-hosted or hosted. Renovate is open source under the AGPL (Renovate docs). You can run it yourself from the npm package, a container image, a GitHub Action or a GitLab runner (running Renovate), or use Mend's hosted app on GitHub, Bitbucket Cloud or Azure DevOps. Its free tier covers unlimited public and private repositories and checks active ones every 4 hours (Mend-hosted docs).

If you outgrew Dependabot because you needed another Git host, another package manager or finer control, Renovate is a good answer. We don't compete with it on any of that.

Does Renovate catch breaking changes?

It goes further than a plain version bump, and it still doesn't look at your code. Merge Confidence adds Age, Adoption, Passing and Confidence badges to a pull request, and its docs say it finds and flags undeclared breaking releases, using test results and adoption data from Mend Renovate App users. It covers Go, npm, Maven, PyPI, NuGet, Packagist and RubyGems (Merge Confidence).

That tells you how an update went for other people. Your CI tells you whether your tests pass. Neither reads your code to say which file and line a new version breaks, and a breaking change in a code path your tests skip still goes green.

What Renovate doesn't cover

Renovate's managers find dependencies and their versions. Some changes that break production have no version to bump.

AI models and APIs

A model ID such as claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929 is a string in your code. It retires on the Claude API on November 30, 2026 (Claude deprecations page), and no package changes version when it does. The same goes for an API endpoint with a sunset date. Our guide to tracking AI model retirements shows where those dates live.

Runtimes

Renovate can keep a version file current, and its docs show an endoflife-date datasource wired up through a regex custom manager (Renovate docs). That moves a version forward once you write the rule. The docs don't describe a warning before a runtime or a CI runner image reaches end of life.

How to use Renovate and Since.dev together

Keep Renovate on. We don't open routine version bumps, so your Renovate setup stays as it is.

1. Let Renovate open its updates, grouped and scheduled the way you configured them.
2. Before you merge a major update, have your coding agent call check_code with the package and the new version to see what the release breaks.
3. For a repository you connect, code that would break on the next major version shows up before anyone upgrades. If you use automerge, keep it to patch updates (our suggestion).
4. Model retirements, API removals and runtime end of life show up with the file, the line, the days left and the replacement.
5. On Team and up, we open a fix pull request for those changes, built and checked before it opens. People review it like any Renovate pull request.

When Renovate alone is enough

Often. If these are true, Renovate plus reading release notes covers you:

• Your code calls no hosted AI models, and few third-party APIs with announced sunset dates.
• Your tests cover the code paths your dependencies touch.
• You upgrade runtimes and CI images on a schedule anyway.

And if your code isn't on GitHub, Renovate covers you better than we can. We connect GitHub repositories, and for code elsewhere we only check what you send to the API, such as a manifest, a lockfile or a snippet.

If you only need the dates, our free retirement calendar has iCal and RSS feeds and needs no account.

Where Since.dev fits

Since.dev tracks changes in packages, APIs, AI models and runtimes: breaking releases, deprecations, model retirements and end of life, each recorded from its source. When you scan a public repository (free, no sign-in) or connect one, it finds the exact files and lines a change hits, with the days left and the replacement.

• On Free you get those impacts only. On Team and up, we open fix pull requests that are built and checked before they open (plans).
• Coding agents use it through the MCP server: whats_changed, check_code and fix_code.
• Retirement and end of life dates are free on the calendar, with a keyless API and iCal and RSS feeds.

Unlike Renovate's optional automerge, we never merge. Fix pull requests open ready for review, your CI runs, and people decide. Nothing merges or deploys.

Questions

Is Renovate free?

Yes. Renovate is open source under the AGPL and you can host it yourself. Mend also hosts it, with a free tier for unlimited public and private repositories and a paid Enterprise Cloud plan (Mend-hosted docs).

Should I use Renovate or Dependabot?

Use Renovate if you need a Git host other than GitHub, a package manager Dependabot doesn't support, shared presets, automerge rules or deprecation warnings. Use Dependabot if you're on GitHub and want nothing to run or configure beyond one file. Either one keeps versions current.

Does Renovate detect breaking changes?

Merge Confidence flags updates likely to break, from other users' test results and adoption, and your CI runs on each branch. Neither reads your code to say which lines a new version breaks.

Does Renovate track AI model retirements?

No. A model ID is a string in your code, not a dependency version, so there is nothing for a manager to update. Each provider, and each cloud platform that serves the model, publishes its own dates.

Can Since.dev automerge like Renovate?

No. Since.dev opens fix pull requests on Team and up, ready for review, and can't merge or deploy them. People decide whether to merge.

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