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Wayback Machine VS Archive-It

Compare Wayback Machine VS Archive-It and see what are their differences

Wayback Machine logo Wayback Machine

Browse through over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.

Archive-It logo Archive-It

Archive-It is a free to use web archiving service designed for the libraries and archives.
  • Wayback Machine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-24
  • Archive-It Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-03-29

Wayback Machine features and specs

  • Historical Access
    The Wayback Machine allows users to view archived versions of web pages, providing access to information that may no longer be available on the live web.
  • Research Utility
    It serves as an invaluable resource for researchers, journalists, and historians who need to reference past web content for their studies or articles.
  • Crisis Mitigation
    The Wayback Machine can help recover lost content, such as when websites go offline or when changes are made without backups.
  • Legal Evidence
    Archived pages can be used as legal proof in disputes involving online content, providing a timestamped snapshot of how a website appeared at a given point in time.
  • Learning Resource
    It offers educational value by allowing users to see the evolution of web design, online marketing strategies, and the digital landscape over time.

Possible disadvantages of Wayback Machine

  • Incomplete Archives
    Not all web pages are captured, and even if a page is archived, it might not have all its content (e.g., images, videos, dynamic content) fully intact.
  • Time Delay
    There is often a delay between when a web page is live and when it is archived, which means the most recent changes might not be available.
  • Legal and Ethical Issues
    There are potential legal and ethical concerns around privacy and copyright, as some content may be archived without the permission of the content owner.
  • Load and Performance Issues
    Accessing the archives can sometimes be slow, and the performance might be limited compared to the original, live website.
  • Inaccuracies
    Certain interactions and dynamic functionalities (e.g., forms, interactive scripts) may not work as expected in archived pages, leading to potential inaccuracies in representation.

Archive-It features and specs

  • Comprehensive Web Archiving
    Archive-It provides a robust platform designed for institutions to capture and archive web content, preserving important digital information for future research and reference.
  • Customizable Archiving
    Users can customize their archiving settings to target specific web pages, websites, or even entire domains, ensuring that the unique needs of various organizations are met.
  • User Support and Training
    Archive-It offers support and training resources, facilitating ease of use for institutions that may not have specialized staff for digital archiving.
  • Integration with Wayback Machine
    Content archived using Archive-It is accessible via the Wayback Machine, making it easier for the public to access preserved information and increasing its visibility.
  • Collaboration Opportunities
    The platform enables collaboration among member institutions, allowing them to share best practices and resources, and to undertake joint projects in web archiving.

Possible disadvantages of Archive-It

  • Cost
    Archive-It can be costly, particularly for smaller institutions or organizations with limited budgets, potentially limiting access to its services.
  • Complexity
    Setting up and managing web archiving using Archive-It can be complex, requiring a certain level of technical expertise or training, which could be a barrier for some users.
  • Data Volume Limitations
    There may be limits on the amount of data that can be archived, which could restrict the ability to comprehensively capture all desired content.
  • Dependency on Internet Archive
    As Archive-It is a service provided by the Internet Archive, there is a dependency on the overarching organization's longevity and stability, which might concern some users regarding long-term accessibility.

Wayback Machine videos

The Wayback Machine - View Old Websites in Your Web Browser! (Overview & Demo)

More videos:

  • Review - The Wayback Machine: Preserving the History of Web Pages
  • Review - The Wayback Machine: Review

Archive-It videos

No Archive-It videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Wayback Machine and Archive-It)
Bookmark Manager
92 92%
8% 8
Productivity
91 91%
9% 9
Web App
88 88%
12% 12
Bookmarks
82 82%
18% 18

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Wayback Machine and Archive-It

Wayback Machine Reviews

Alternative search engines
The Wayback Machine is the search engine of the Internet Archive, a digital archive that aims to preserve as much content from the public web as possible. So, it is not a search engine in a traditional sense as much as a time machine for the Internet

Archive-It Reviews

We have no reviews of Archive-It yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Wayback Machine seems to be a lot more popular than Archive-It. While we know about 1008 links to Wayback Machine, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Archive-It. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Wayback Machine mentions (1008)

  • S.F. leaders share action plan for youth violence in wake of stabbings, brawls and weapons at schools
    I also use the Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • is it possible to raise my gpa to at least 3.8?
    For your course idk, but if rly dh, go to https://web.archive.org/ this is called way back machine which is used to find older version of websites. Just enter nyp.edu.sg into the search bar and select the date. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Palace is 'keeping close eye on French riots' ahead of King's State visit to Paris this week
    Rule #5 - #5: Don't link to bad websites. Use archived versions: Avoid linking directly to tabloids or hateful websites. Please use the Wayback Machine or Archive.is. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Is there a sub for bypassing the requirement to have an account for websites?
    For those sites that have blocked the service, there's also the Wayback Machine at Archive.org. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Bill Maher slams San Francisco's 'crazy' reparations plan
    In a pinch you can get access to gated Chron articles thru the Wayback machine. https://web.archive.org/. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

Archive-It mentions (3)

  • Not able to access old website, getting this message instead
    Other projects include Open Library & archive-it.org. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How great of a blow to historians is the migration of letters and journals to the digital realm, where most of them are inaccessible to historians (locked email accounts, hard drives, etc)?
    The biggest hurdle in DH of the early internet and manipulating the data at scale is creating collections from archived material that fit your needs. The internet archive has a subscription-based archival tool Archive-It but the collection starts when you (or some other person) creates it. There isn't a collection for anti-vaccine material from 1996-. With Covid, many collections have been started but these will... Source: almost 3 years ago
  • How to archive an entire website?
    Archive-It is a subscription web archiving service from the Internet Archive that helps organizations to harvest, build, and preserve collections of digital content. Through our user friendly web application Archive-It partners can collect, catalog, and manage their collections of archived content with 24/7 access and full text search available for their use as well as their patrons. Source: almost 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Wayback Machine and Archive-It, you can also consider the following products

Archive.md - archive.is allows you to create a copy of a webpage that will always be up even if the original link is down

Archive.org - Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies...

Cached View - CachedView claimed to be the provider of Google caches pages of any website at the moment listed in the index of the Google search engine.

12 Foot Ladder - Prepend 12ft.io/ to the URL of any paywalled page, and we'll try our best to remove the paywall and get you access to the article.

Perma.cc - Perma.

oldweb.today - Time travel across the world wide web using old browsers