Best Free Web Archiving Services
The best free web archiving services for preserving pages
Powerful archiving at no cost
You shouldn't have to pay to preserve the web. We evaluated the top free web archiving tools based on reliability, capture quality, and long-term preservation guarantees. Here are the best options that won't cost you a dime.
What to look for
Our picks
Backdrop
A generous free tier that includes 100 full-page archives with all four formats (HTML, PDF, screenshot, readable text). Full-text search and basic organization included at no cost.
Pros
- Four capture formats on free tier
- Full-text search included
- Browser extension included
- No credit card required
Cons
- Limited to 100 archives
- Team features require paid plan
- No self-hosted option
Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive's free, massive web archive. Over 800 billion pages preserved. No account needed for basic access, and the Save Page Now feature lets you archive any URL on demand.
Pros
- Completely free with no limits
- Massive existing archive
- No account required to view
- API access for developers
Cons
- No guarantee your save persists
- No organization tools
- No annotations or highlighting
- Can be slow to capture
Archive.today
A free, no-frills web archiving tool. Enter a URL and get a permanent screenshot and text snapshot. Extremely fast and works behind many paywalls.
Pros
- Fastest capture of any tool
- No account needed
- Works behind many paywalls
- Simple sharing links
Cons
- Single format per capture
- No search functionality
- No organization features
- Reliability concerns
SingleFile
A free, open-source browser extension that saves a complete web page as a single HTML file. Works offline. Great for local archiving without any server dependency.
Pros
- Completely free and open source
- Works offline
- Saves complete pages with resources
- Lightweight and fast
Cons
- Manual process for each page
- No cloud storage or sync
- No search across archives
- Large files for complex pages
ArchiveBox
A free, self-hosted web archiving solution. Collects pages in multiple formats. Powerful but requires technical knowledge to set up and maintain.
Pros
- Free and open source
- Multiple output formats
- Full control over your data
- Active development community
Cons
- Requires server setup
- Technical knowledge needed
- No hosted version available
- Ongoing maintenance required
Start archiving for free
Backdrop's free tier includes 100 archives with full-text search, annotations, and a browser extension. No credit card required.
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