How to Archive a Website for Free: 8 Tools Compared (2026)

Web archiving means capturing the content of a web page at a specific point in time so it can be referenced later — even if the original page changes or disappears. The tools available fall into three broad categories.

Kiroku is a free web archiving service designed for simplicity and evidence-grade preservation. Paste any URL and Kiroku automatically captures a full-page screenshot, generates a self-contained HTML copy, creates an AI-powered content summary, and calculates a SHA-256 hash for integrity verification.

No account is required for basic use. The interface is mobile-friendly, and you can mark archives as private. For legal or dispute contexts, the combination of screenshot, HTML, hash, and timestamp provides stronger evidence than a screenshot alone.

The Wayback Machine, run by the Internet Archive, is the largest web archive in existence — with over 800 billion pages saved since 1996. Its "Save Page Now" feature lets anyone archive a public page instantly, and its timeline interface lets you browse how any website looked at different points in history.

The Wayback Machine excels at historical research and verifying how content has changed over time. However, it does not capture screenshots, struggles with JavaScript-heavy single-page applications, and its archives are always public.

archive.today (also accessible via archive.ph and archive.is) provides fast, reliable page snapshots. It renders pages server-side and stores both a visual snapshot and the HTML content. The service is particularly good at bypassing paywalls for archiving purposes.

All archives on archive.today are public and searchable. The service has a simple interface but limited documentation, and it does not offer AI summaries or hash verification.

Conifer (formerly Webrecorder) takes a different approach: instead of fetching a page server-side, it records your actual browsing session, capturing every network request as you interact with the page. This makes it uniquely suited for archiving JavaScript-heavy sites, interactive applications, and content that only appears after user interaction.

Archives are stored in the WARC format (the standard used by national libraries), and you get 5GB of free storage. Conifer is backed by Rhizome, a non-profit digital arts organization.

SingleFile is a browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge) that saves the current page as a single, self-contained HTML file on your local machine. It inlines all CSS, images, and fonts into one file — no cloud upload, no account, complete privacy.

SingleFile is ideal for users who want to keep their archives entirely local. However, it has no cloud backup, no sharing features, and no evidence-grade metadata like timestamps or hashes.

ArchiveBox is an open-source, self-hosted archiving solution for power users. It takes a list of URLs (from bookmarks, RSS feeds, browser history, or plain text) and archives them in multiple formats simultaneously — HTML, screenshots, PDFs, WARC files, and more.

Running on Docker, ArchiveBox gives you full control over your archive data. It supports scheduled archiving via cron jobs and can monitor RSS feeds automatically. The trade-off is that it requires technical knowledge to set up and maintain.

Perma.cc was created by the Harvard Law School Library to solve the problem of link rot in legal and academic citations. When you cite a web source in a paper or legal brief, the original page might change or disappear — Perma.cc creates a permanent, unchangeable archive that your citation can point to.

Free accounts get 10 archives per month. Organizations (universities, courts, law firms) can apply for higher quotas. Perma.cc is trusted by courts and academic institutions worldwide.

HTTrack is a desktop application that downloads an entire website — following links recursively to capture all pages, images, and files. The result is a complete local copy that you can browse offline in any web browser.

HTTrack has been around since 1998 and, while its interface looks dated, it remains one of the best tools for creating full offline mirrors of websites. It is open source, free, and available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

No single tool covers every archiving need. The comparison table below shows how each tool handles key features, followed by a use-case guide to help you pick the right one.

Still not sure which tool to pick? Find your scenario in the table below.