Web designers and developers often use screenshot-capturing tools like Stillio, Browshot, etc, to automate the process of taking screenshots of websites. However, if you need to view the homepage of a website that is no longer active, tools like Wayback Machine are a helpful resource to revisit the web pages of old websites. If you have problems accessing the tool, read further to learn the alternatives to the Wayback Machine.
What is a Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a web archive service that was founded by the non-profit organization Internet Archive, based in California, USA.
Since its inception in 1996, it has archived over 800 billion web pages and more than 99 petabytes of data.
Best Wayback Machine Alternative Tools
If you encounter any issues with the Wayback Machine being slow or not working, you can try out the below listed Wayback Machine alternatives to view the archived web pages of a website.
1. Archive.today
The Archive. today is a free web-based tool that captures and stores a copy of a webpage, ensuring its availability even if the original page is no longer accessible. You can use this tool to search for archived pages of a website that changes with time. For example, it might be a price list, job offer, real estate listing, etc. The tool saves both a textual and graphical version of the page to ensure maximum accuracy. It is also available as an Edge extension.
2. Memento Project
The Time Travel tool of the Memento Project is an excellent alternative to the Wayback Machine where you can retrieve archived web pages at specific dates and times. It allows you to view a previous version of a web resource by simply entering the resource’s HTTP address in your browser and selecting the desired date using a browser plug-in. This feature helps you access an older version of a web page, which can be useful for research or historical purposes. The tool is available as a Chrome extension.
3. CachedView
Suppose you are attempting to access a website, but it has been unavailable for an extended period of time. And, it will be definitely frustrating especially if you are in urgent need of that. CachedView can be your saver as it shows the archived versions of the webpages using sources like Google Web Cache, Archive.org cache and more. Since it makes use of multiple sources, you can easily retrieve dead links, outdated URLs or previous versions of websites.
4. HTML to Img App
Our HTML to Image application enables you to take automatic screenshots of webpages and receive alerts through various channels like Email, Slack, and Discord, among others. We use SSL encryption and ensure regular updates to safeguard your data and guarantee its security. In case your website or the competitor’s website is down, you can easily retrieve the saved screenshots of the web page from our server.
5. MirrorWeb
Do you or your organization have a budget for archiving and competitor insights? Then, MirrorWeb might be the best bet as it claims itself as the world’s leading digital archiving solution. Its unified communications surveillance platform allows you to capture and review all sorts of communications, ranging from WhatsApp messages to websites.
The above-listed tools won’t replace the Wayback Machine. However, they are good alternatives for Wayback Machine and most of them are free and can be used to retrieve the archived pages of a website in no time.