The internet is constantly changing to provide updated and relevant information. The data is being removed and added frequently. In this scenario, it may be hard for the typical internet user to get the recent changes or historical data of their own or competitors’ websites. To get out of it, the Wayback Machine is considered a rich web directory that provides multiple snapshots of any website, including audio and video libraries.
Although the Wayback Machine is one of the oldest and reliable sources to get screenshots of websites at different times, it depends on the frequency of changes made. However, intense traffic inflow may cause to avoid multi shots of every website. So to get the best out of it, along with other advanced options at micro level, here are the collection of some of the best alternatives to wayback machine.
Why use Wayback Machine:
The Wayback Machine is one of the oldest web directories to be considered an essential part of nearly every internet user, especially entrepreneurs, to stay updated with the changes and data on their concerned site over time.
- It saves copies of different website pages, which may help track changes over time, even if the website has gone offline.
- It may be recommended before buying any domain (especially an expired domain) to see whether the domain may be penalized by Google.
- It may be very helpful to track the search engine rankings of any site, especially lost backlinks, to protect from plagiarism by saving the original copy of the article, recovering deleted content, etc.
- Marketers can track the changes to their competitors’ websites that may help to improve the structure as well as other modifications to make their site rankings better.
- Journalists can save the snapshots of their articles or can use saved copies, even social media posts, to keep them available over time.
- Researchers and developers can explore the development history of their projects, save coding and other software information.
- Legal professionals can save copies to track important historical cases for better judgment.
A collection of the best Alternatives to Wayback Machine to check website history:
Here is an overview of some of the famous and free websites to get the historical changes of any website over the time.
1-Pagefreezer:
Page Freezr is ideal for business, corporate as well and normal internet users. Unlike other internet archives, you can easily track the real-time automatic capturing of web pages without any manual submission. You can also cite their authentic and legal page recording to use in any industry as a legal reference.
Key Features:
- Real-Time Web page capturing and preservation.
- Strict documentation stipulations for organizations like health care and finance.
- Advanced e-discovery search feature for full-length search history.
- Archived pages are to meet legal standards to fulfill legal requirements.
2-Momento:
Momento, or the Momento project, is considered an ideal alternative to other way-back machines. With its enhanced “Time Travel ” tool, one can get several copies of web pages from many web archives. So it may be a search engine for the web pages archived. With its Google Chrome extension, one can select the archive for the specific page to make it more reliable and user-friendly.
Key Features:
- Free to use the web archive to get multiple copies of one web page from different web archives in one place.
- Automatic submission and capturing of web pages.
- Single tool to get saved web pages from multiple archives to avoid visiting each archive individually.
3-Stillio:
Stilio is one of the best way back machines to get your competitor’s site info over time. So, whether you need the site structure, strategic changes, or even a content gap, this web archive is for you. You can get snapshots of required web pages at your desired intervals, i.e., weekly, monthly, etc, to help track changes in your competitors periodically.
Key Features:
- Automatic as well as periodic web page screenshots.
- Content Monitoring and changes over time to track competitors’ search rankings.
- Custom tags and search capabilities to easily get the past captures and visuals of any website.
4-Perma.cc:
This web archive is famous among marketers, researchers, and content creators who need permanent links for their content. The best part of it is the link root that provides a permanent link source to the original content in case of a broken link.
Key Features:
- Simple interface with enhanced screen capturing.
- Perma.cc is best for content marketers or academic institutions that need content citations.
- Ideal for tracking permanent, stable, and long-lasting backlinks to increase search engine rankings.
5-GitHub:
GitHub is a type of way-back machine that is ideal for computer programmers who are in search of open-source code for learning and reference. Its free references are quite helpful for researchers, developers, as well as programmers. It is a type of directory where you can not only search but also share your code with other fellows online.
Key Features:
- Can search for free to use codes archived by other programmers for software development and web reference.
- Cybersecurity experts can use the evolution of code to detect vulnerabilities in their security.
- Enriched with coding library and e-books for learning and sharing.
Other Wayback machine alternatives to see old website pages:
Along with the above-mentioned websites, other resources are also popular for tracking the history of any website online, both free and paid.
- CacheView
- Resurrect Pages
- MirrorWeb
- Domain Tools
- Yubnub
- Alexa
- MessageWatcher
- UK Web Archive
- VisualPing
- Actiance
- Internet Archive
- ITools
- Citation
- ChangeTower
So the way back alternative web collections will not only help you with citation but also provide a learning platform to improve your knowledge as well as academic solutions.