The best web archives, according to Hacker News commenters
5 web archives were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and October 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 1 earns the Hacker Approved badge.
On Hacker News, the most recommended web archive that earns the badge is Internet Archive: 112 people recommended it, 13 had mixed feelings and 49 criticized it between November 2025 and October 2026.
Top pick
The most recommended web archive with the badge. Each figure is 10 people. RecommendsMixed feelingsCriticizes One comment
Huge free library of books
“Public domain catalogs are huge now. Standard Ebooks, Internet Archive, Gutenberg - tens of thousands of well-formatted free EPUBs.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “I'm never buying another Kindle, and neither should you” A nonprofit archive of web pages and books preserving history found nowhere else; critics fault its risky lending stunt and snapshots site owners can alter or delete.
All 5 web archives, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Mixed counts the people with mixed feelings, who count toward neither side. Approval share is recommenders out of recommenders and critics; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 12, in which someone recommended it. Had for is the median time people say they have had or used it, shown when 10 or more said.
| Rank | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Internet Archive | 112 | 13 | 49 | 70% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 2 | archive.today | 100 | 25 | 213 | 32% | 11 | — | — |
| 3 | Wayback Machine | 44 | 9 | 30 | 59% | 11 | — | — |
| 4 | Archive.org | 33 | 10 | 21 | 61% | 12 | — | — |
| 5 | Unwall | 11 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment between November 2025 and October 2026. Someone who praises the same web archive in five threads counts once, in the column of their latest opinion.
A web archive earns the badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.
Counts come from Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How it works