10 Best Wayback Machine Alternatives in 2023
The Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive is undeniably the king of all web archive viewer on the internet. From 2001 and up to the present, it has amassed billions of screenshots of webpages in its database.
Many organizations and individuals use it for various purposes, like accessing the content of a website that is down or unavailable. Also, many people use the Wayback Machine to retrieve screenshots of deleted information. Furthermore, businesses use it to understand competitor development or to create business strategies.
But why the need for a Wayback machine alternative?
The Wayback Machine has its limitations. Some people even noticed that the website is slow and, at times, unresponsive. Moreover, no one can guarantee that the site will never be down.
We have collected ten Wayback machine alternative sites that you can use whenever the Wayback Machine is down. None of these websites can equal what the Wayback Machine can do.
Nonetheless, these sites have unique features that you might find useful.
10 Best Wayback Machine Alternatives
1. Archive.today
Formerly known as Archive.is, Archive.today is considered the best web archive extractor next to the Wayback Machine. In fact, Archive.today functions in a much similar way.
You can use Archive.today to directly search for archived websites instead of searching per date using a link.
Or you can add a date to the link if you want to search for the saved version (of a webpage) from a specific time in the past.
Also, Archive.today can save a submitted webpage, and the user-submitted link can have multiple screenshots that can be used for future reference.
But unlike the Wayback Machine, Archive.today can only save the screenshot and the HTML version of deleted or unavailable webpages. Moreover, it does not offer free access to movies, music, and digital copies of books.
The Archive.today’s home page has two rectangular boxes, which actually search bars.
The red one allows you to access a specific web page’s content, its HTML code, and screenshots. The blue one, on the other hand, is for searching specific screenshots of archived websites from their database.
2. Screenshots.com
Competing against Archive.today for the top alternative Wayback machine website position, Screenshots.com lets you see how a particular webpage looks like in the past through their user-friendly interface.
This Internet Wayback machine alternative specializes in providing only screenshots of archived websites from their database. Screenshot.com’s database contains around 250 million snapshots and counting.
Screenshot.com only captures website Home Pages, which include images and ads. You can also zoom the screenshot if you wish. However, Screenshot.com can not provide you with the source code or the HTML version of a webpage.
Unfortunately, Screenshot.com is no longer a free service to let you see how domains were used in the past.
If you visit other blogs about the best Wayback machine alternatives, you will notice that when you click on the link, it will forward you instead to Domain Tools.
Consequently, you need to register as a paying Domain Tools user to access Screenshot.com.
3. WebCite
WebCite is an internet Wayback machine alternative specially created for journalists, blogger, academic writers, editors, publishers, and libraries. It provides internet archive services for cited webpages, news sources, and scientific journals.
As a section of the International Internet Preservation Consortium, WebCite was designed to preserve screenshots of author-cited references. In other words, internet users can still access the content of citations even if it was unavailable or removed from the original webpage.
WebCite lets you discover HTML codes, documents, cited webpages, and images on demand in spite of its inept user interface. Moreover, you can use WebCite to archive live URLs instantly.
4. Fagan Finder
Fagan Finder, just like WebCite, has a primitive-looking homepage. Nevertheless, it is one of the most useful Wayback machine alternative sites. It is an internet archive search engine with over 100 valuable tools.
Some of Fagan Finder’s useful tools include Track Engine, Change Notes, Change Detection, and Watch That Page. This Wayback machine alternative has tools that can even track an IP address that visits a specific URL.
Fagan Finder remains an entirely free archive search engine to view the history of a website and archive new web pages. It lets you see data stored on websites such as Global Whois and Amazon Alexa Internet.
Likewise, you can use Fagan Finder to seek cached information from open-source internet directories such as GigaBlast, Open Search, and Wayback Machine.
5. Google Web Cache – CachedView.com
It may not seem obvious, but Google Web Cache is a free internet Wayback machine alternative that lets you view the previous version of a webpage before it was offline due to several reasons.
Google regularly saves a previous version of a webpage and call it the “cached version.” Cached versions of a webpage are also used for processing the answers to an internet user’s request.
Using Google Web Cache can be helpful when:
- You want to access information that requires you to register
- You don’t like using the Wayback Machine
- A webpage has been deleted
- You encounter a Page Not Found error
- The webpage loads slow
- The content of a webpage is blocked in your area
6. Domain Tools
Domain Tools is a Wayback machine alternative that specializes in the research and monitoring of domain names. It has a vast snapshot directory of domain name registration and records of ownership from the past to the present.
Domain Tools continually checks and archives a thousand web pages per day to capture ads, images, and other critical resources. In addition, its WhoIs web service helps to provide internet users with complete website information such as the domain name’s owner identity and contact information.
Brand agents, trademark attorneys, and domain investors rely on Domain Tools in the investigation and defense against potential trademark and domain name scams.
7. iTools
iTools is more than just an alternative Wayback machine website. It’s also a website analyzer courtesy of the popular Alexa tools. Aside from allowing you to access screenshots and the coding structure of a site, iTools can be used to analyze a specific website’s data such as:
- Domain traffic
- Popularity
- Ranking
- Contact information
- Statistics
- Alexa rank
- Mailing address
- and so on.
iTools has a different way to access archived websites. On the homepage, you have to tap the “Internet” section and then click on the “Websites” option.
In conclusion, you can use iTools as a web archive viewer and analyze not just your site but your competitor’s website as well.
8. Stillio
Stillio is an archive search engine, and an automated screenshot service rolled into one. You can use Stillio for website archiving, website compliance, SEO tracking, competition tracking, and trend tracking.
Unlike the other Wayback machine alternative sites already mentioned earlier, Stillio comes with a freemium business model.
There is a free trial option with limited functionality that lasts up to 14 days. Other Stillio subscription plans are:
- $29 per month for 5 separate webpages
- $79 per month for 25 separate webpages
- $199 per month for 100 separate webpages
- $299 per month for any number of webpages
9. PageFreezer
PageFreezer is probably one of the best Wayback machine alternatives because of its high range of features. It has characteristics similar to iTools and Stillio and a ton of unique features you won’t find anywhere else.
PageFreezer uses the Saas model and web-spidering technology similar to Google. Some of its best features are:
- Social media, blog, and text messages (SMS) archiving
- Real-time collection of dynamic web content
- Corporate chat conversations archiving
- Corporate activity monitoring for potential risks
- Collection and management of online content
10. Memento Time Travel
As the name suggests, Time Travel allows you to see how old versions of web pages looked like in the past.
The Time Travel project is a collaboration of mementoweb.org and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The project’s primary purpose is to make web pages from the internet archive readily accessible.
Time Travel works as an archive search engine. It accesses a wide range of servers and extracts archived websites to serve search queries. It provides real-time and accurate results based on the URL, date, and time entered in the search bar.
Final Thoughts
There are actually two types of Wayback machine alternative sites on the internet. The first group consists of websites that function much as the Wayback Machine does, which is a free service that lets you see older versions of web pages.
Stillio and PageFreezer belong to the second group that can not be considered as real alternatives to the Wayback Machine. They are not free to use, and you can only configure them to track and archive your website once you have registered from the site.
