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Wayback Machine

People recommend it as a free library of the web that preserves pages, including dead sites, that would otherwise be lost. Critics say it is slow, rate-limits heavily, and sometimes removes content.

Summarized from 96 comments.

People recommend it as a free library of the web that preserves pages, including dead sites, that would otherwise be lost. Critics say it is slow, rate-limits heavily, and sometimes removes content.

recommend
57
criticize
31
months recommended
11 of 13

Why people love it

  • Preserves dead and deleted websites · 6

    Huge chunks of the Web have been displaced or snuffed by social media and gen AI, making Wayback a unique(ly valuable) source of information and history

    Sep 2026 · comment

    the Internet Archive is one of the few parts of the Internet which do not precisely suck

    Jun 2026 · comment

    it's all thanks to the Internet Archive storing my little gaming review website

    Sep 2026 · comment
  • Free, valuable historical archive · 5

    They provide an incredibly valuable service and I love the benefit that I get from them just for personal side projects.

    Sep 2026 · comment

    there is so much cool stuff in the archive. It really is the library of the internet, and I love it.

    Sep 2026 · comment

    even though those things are incredible and a massive part of its value to humanity

    Jan 2026 · comment
  • Useful for verifying past page versions · 3

    The Wayback Machine has saved me more than once trying to verify what a platform's published API behaviour was supposed to be

    Feb 2026 · comment

    If you view the page on the Internet Archive all the links point to archived copies

    Apr 2026 · comment

    Wayback machine URLs are much more likely to be stable.

    Feb 2026 · comment
  • Stable links to archived content · 5

    consider also pointing towards (or at least creating) an archived version via something like the Wayback Machine

    Oct 2026 · comment

    Please use one of the standard archive.today sites or wayback machine to offer mirrors.

    Jul 2026 · comment

    ask them to make a GET or POST to https://web.archive.org/save whenever a link is added

    Feb 2026 · comment

What people warn about

  • Slow, timeouts and rate limits · 4

    Archive.org is co-operative, it respects robots.txt and allows deletion. It's also very slow.

    Sep 2026 · comment

    wayback has been serving me nothing but some mix of timeouts, 429 errors, and "Temporarily Offline" messages for weeks

    Sep 2026 · comment

    the IA itself has become way less usable as their aggressive anti-bot protection means that actually doing any kind of (manual) explorative research

    May 2026 · comment
  • Removes content on request · 4

    ofc this is a risk with the Wayback Machine, who also has a policy for honoring takedown request.

    Oct 2026 · comment

    removes content they deem 'problematic' even if not illegal or requested by the site owner

    Sep 2026 · comment

    You can just request content be removed from Archive.org and they will honor this

    Feb 2026 · comment
  • Archived pages can run altered scripts · 2

    Archive.org snapshots may load javascript from external sites, where the original page had loaded them. That script can change anything on the page.

    Feb 2026 · comment

    It lets archives be altered by page JS and deleted by the page domain owner.

    Feb 2026 · comment
  • Search and rendering often fail · 3

    The Wayback Machine has a ton of snapshots of the Twitter post but none of them render for me.

    Jan 2026 · comment

    Trying to search the Wayback machine almost always gives me their made-up 498 error

    Feb 2026 · comment

    we can't search through time via WayBack Machine where a lot of these things have gone

    May 2026 · comment

Long-term owners

Will the wayback machine be here 1 year from now? I think much more likely than archive.is

Mar 2026 · comment

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 96 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. Huge chunks of the Web have been displaced or snuffed by social media and gen AI, making Wayback a unique(ly valuable) source of information and history

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Keep Our Servers Running”

  2. the IA itself has become way less usable as their aggressive anti-bot protection means that actually doing any kind of (manual) explorative research

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive's access”

  3. The Wayback Machine has saved me more than once trying to verify what a platform's published API behaviour was supposed to be

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Internet Increasingly Becoming Unarchivable”

  4. They provide an incredibly valuable service and I love the benefit that I get from them just for personal side projects.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “An update on Wayback Machine access”

  5. consider also pointing towards (or at least creating) an archived version via something like the Wayback Machine

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Academics have a duty to defend open knowledge systems like Wikipedia”

  6. there is so much cool stuff in the archive. It really is the library of the internet, and I love it.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “An update on Wayback Machine access”

  7. ofc this is a risk with the Wayback Machine, who also has a policy for honoring takedown request.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Archive.today links going forward”

  8. The Wayback Machine has a ton of snapshots of the Twitter post but none of them render for me.

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Ask HN: Weird Archive.today Behavior?”

  9. Archive.org is co-operative, it respects robots.txt and allows deletion. It's also very slow.

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “An update on Wayback Machine access”

  10. removes content they deem 'problematic' even if not illegal or requested by the site owner

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “An update on Wayback Machine access”

  11. the Internet Archive is one of the few parts of the Internet which do not precisely suck

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet”

  12. Please use one of the standard archive.today sites or wayback machine to offer mirrors.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “DeKalb deputy charged with Flock camera misuse; more Georgia officers fired”

  13. ask them to make a GET or POST to https://web.archive.org/save whenever a link is added

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures”

  14. we can't search through time via WayBack Machine where a lot of these things have gone

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links”

  15. even though those things are incredible and a massive part of its value to humanity

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Internet Archive's Storage”

  16. If you view the page on the Internet Archive all the links point to archived copies

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Electrostatics and High Voltage Links”

  17. it's all thanks to the Internet Archive storing my little gaming review website

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “An update on Wayback Machine access”

  18. The Internet Archive has a version from a few years before the deletion here

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Google Cache used to have a copy of this page at”

  19. the wayback machine is incredibly helpful for unearthing these dead sites

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive's access”

  20. Reliving that is one of my favorite things about the wayback machine

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “A collection of links that existed about Anguilla as of 2003”

  21. Works without Javascript, no CAPTCHA, no DDoS, no geoblocking, etc.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent”

  22. Get it archived in Wayback machine and other web archive sites

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Ask HN: How to make my website exist for 100 years?”

  23. Internet archives waybackmachine works as alternative to it

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures”

  24. Wayback machine URLs are much more likely to be stable.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Internet Increasingly Becoming Unarchivable”

  25. which serves to preserve the content for years to come

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “An update on Wayback Machine access”

  26. one of the best websites on the whole world wide web

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – More Things Have Happened”

  27. Archive.org snapshots may load javascript from external sites, where the original page had loaded them. That script can change anything on the page.

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures”

  28. wayback has been serving me nothing but some mix of timeouts, 429 errors, and "Temporarily Offline" messages for weeks

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Keep Our Servers Running”

  29. Trying to search the Wayback machine almost always gives me their made-up 498 error

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures”

  30. You can just request content be removed from Archive.org and they will honor this

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures”

  31. archive.org outright removes large numbers of pages, including political content

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Good Bad ISPs”

  32. It lets archives be altered by page JS and deleted by the page domain owner.

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures”

  33. it appears that archive.org has a javascript based flash emulator built in to run old flash websites, which is pretty amazing

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “NASA Force”

  34. People donate because they believe in the mission, and most of the money probably goes to the actual storage

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Keep Our Servers Running”

  35. if anything the library of congress should be operating a system similar to the way back machine

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Climate.gov was destroyed. Open data saved it”

  36. Will the wayback machine be here 1 year from now? I think much more likely than archive.is

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Uber reported to the state that I was fired for "annoying a coworker."”

  37. a lot of the changes and updates to articles since Sheldon Brown died are controversial

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info”

  38. Wayback Machine seems better but I am thinking of something that is less clunky

    Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Archive.today CAPTCHA page executes DDoS; Wikipedia considers banning site”

  39. You could also do wayback machine but during the "folk art" era of the web

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “GBC Boot Animation 88×31 Web Button”

  40. You can't have the Wayback Machine without the National Emergency Library

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Internet Archive's legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost”

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